Biblical Egyptology from the Universal Life Church

This is a review of the Biblical Egyptology class made available from the Universal Life Church Seminary. This course delves into the Exodus from Egypt by Moses.

The debate regarding the likely existence of empirical proof in support of the Biblical Exodus was covered in excruciating detail within this class.  When I underwent theological training thirty yrs. previously, I had been taught that there was positively no evidence outside in the Bible that supports the Exodus.  That was the accepted view among intellectuals of the time, but Dr. Federspiel has done a very good job of updating my know-how on your subject, and I would have to be in agreement with him that there is certainly indeed substantial evidence lending support to aspects of the Biblical version.  He did not provide unquestionable proof about the Exodus, but there's certainly a preponderance of proof that something approximating the Biblical story happened nearly three thousand five hundred years ago.

Although I had been taught that there was no extra Biblical empirical proof that supports the Exodus, I accepted the existence of it as both an issue of faith and while using information the Bible had not been written as a fictional story but was attempting to be factual and was accepted as very seriously by Jews, Muslims, and Christians.  Though I was told the initial eleven chapters of Genesis had been in essence tribal myth and wasn't to taken literally, from Abraham on, there has been extra support for the Biblical accounts along with archeological finds, has lent support to the facts very well.  Numbers may perhaps have been exaggerated, but there was evidence in favor of the existence of the folks as well as the locations talked about inside the text.

Because the Exodus was included inside part with the Bible referring to the historical records and was believed by the Hebrew folks as true, I have at all times been accepted that the basic facts in the story were.  That doesn't mean that I accepted all of the events as literally real, as they ended up being recollections of individuals passed down throughout the centuries, describing a heroic history.  We from the modern world frequently exaggerate the exploits of our ancestors, so I had expected no less from the Children of Israel, nonetheless in the simple facts, I always thought there has got to be a general fact, that would include their arrival in Egypt centuries before the Exodus, as well as the leadership of the individual by the name of Moses to take a group of Semitic folks out of that land.  It didn't have to be like the Hollywood version from the story to seem generally true genuine.  There may possibly have been a relatively small number of Jews leaving Egypt as well as settling contained in Palestine for the story to have gotten true contained in my brain.  Dr. Federspiel has convinced me that what I had assumed was indeed right as well as something indeed happened.  Furthermore, although it appears that a a lot of Egyptian history was lost because of internal squabbling, fighting, wars, as well as natural disasters, enough circumstantial empirical proof is there to lend support to the existence of quite a large number of Semites in Egypt who appeared in Jerusalem.

I became interested to learn that a staff was discovered in Jordan of Tuthmoses IV -Moses II, with writing of Egyptian hieroglyphic symbols and, at the time, Graham Phillips presumed it belonged to Moses.   Though it really is not absolute proof, it truly is an interesting hypothesis that I feel needs further research.  Certainly, it lends proof that Egyptian as well as Semitic men and women had contact with each other in the region of current day Israel .

1 issue that gives the appearance sure was that Moses had been a true individual.  He is referenced by both the name 'Manetho’ as well as the name 'Artapanus’.  Manetho had said the Egyptians were "troubled by calamities, in order that the divine wrath might be averted, expelled the foreigners...their leader said to have been Moses."  If a pagan Egyptian priest living three hundred yrs. prior to the Common Era had a record of a particular person named Moses who was expelled from Egypt to appease the gods, Moses likely had existed.   Moses is actually a popular Egyptian first name, not a Hebrew one.  It is not likely the Hebrew authors of the events would have invented the name from thin air.  Just the fact that they have been able to use an Egyptian name for their hero implies at least a little understanding about Egypt.  To make an Egyptian pagan priest agree with the simple facts of that story is a lot more than an 'interesting’ coincidence.  It hints that the basic events from the story actually happened along with acquired a tremendous impact on Egypt.

Bear in mind that Manetho was re-telling about an event that took place a lot more than a thousand yrs. before his birth.  We don't recall unimportant things that occurred long ago.  Something significant must have happened.  As a matter of fact, together with the evidence of an Egyptian priest, I am convinced the Exodus was far more significant an event than I had first thought.  My expectations for that Exodus were small.  I figured that a limited number of men and women left Egypt then settled themselves in Palestine.  I really thought little of it in my mind, the onset of the plagues, having been the receiver of a liberal theological education.  After looking at the proof presented by Dr. Federspiel, I have been nudged into becing accepting of the chance that even the plagues (as reported along with the proclaimed miracles might have have happened.   That the plagues were recorded as well as remembered for a thousand yrs. in Egypt, they had to have happened, and Moses must be credited for them.

Additionally, it seems very likely that the triumph over the soldiers in the "Red Sea" may have happened too, as that could well be an important reason the people remembered Moses.

It really is a shame that a fire decimated the Alexandria Library and that the anti-pagan movement throughout the Christian era caused the decimation of so many historical and important documents contained in Egypt.   It truly is also a tragic thing that early European Archeologists who were collecting artifacts from ancient Egypt had been so sloppy that they ruined irreplaceable papyri codices as well as fragments.  Because so much material has been forever lost, we will never understand the full picture of Moses and the Exodus. Even so, to say there's no evidence that has survived today appears to be far from reality.  We have a great deal of circumstantial empirical proof preserved by Josephus and Eusebius.  Additionally, there is certainly possible archeological empirical proof being unearthed to this day, though our knowledge of the hieroglyphs will make it extremely hard to interpret.  Together with time as well as further practice on deciphering of Egyptian Hieroglyphs, it appears a certainty the existence of Moses is going to be proven without question.

Rev Nick Federspiel has written an outstanding program on Biblical Egyptology. It is made available through the Universal Life Church Seminary..