There is no evidence for large-scale "slavery" in Egypt before the Hellenistic period. The Egyptian word for slave ( Hm ) pronounced "Hem?" can also be used for "servant." Egyptian building projects were done using a corvee labor system
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corv%C3%A9e
in which the commons was kept busy outside of the growing season.
There is a theory known to scholars - if not fundies - that ancient writings tell us more about the times in which the authors lived as opposed to the times they claim to be discussing. It would be consistent with this theory that these so-called holy books were actually written well into the Persian/Hellenistic period when slavery was common.
In the 16th century BC an Egyptian ruler named Ahmose (look closely at that name) defeated the Hyksos and chased them back to Canaan. He thus set the stage for 4 centuries of Egyptian domination of Canaan...a dominion they lost to the Phoenicians and Philistines, not the Israelites. Ahmose. Moses? Too close to be a coincidence.
The whole thing seems like a garbled bit of folklore which was redone by later writers to make a point.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corv%C3%A9e
in which the commons was kept busy outside of the growing season.
There is a theory known to scholars - if not fundies - that ancient writings tell us more about the times in which the authors lived as opposed to the times they claim to be discussing. It would be consistent with this theory that these so-called holy books were actually written well into the Persian/Hellenistic period when slavery was common.
In the 16th century BC an Egyptian ruler named Ahmose (look closely at that name) defeated the Hyksos and chased them back to Canaan. He thus set the stage for 4 centuries of Egyptian domination of Canaan...a dominion they lost to the Phoenicians and Philistines, not the Israelites. Ahmose. Moses? Too close to be a coincidence.
The whole thing seems like a garbled bit of folklore which was redone by later writers to make a point.
