For those who want proof of the exodus

[Minimalist]

The exodus story is about the Israelites/Hebrews/Jews giving up their pagan ways and adopting Moses' system of rigid laws and structured religious rituals.  If you notice one of the notable things that they gave up was their nose rings, which were associated with paganism.  The fairy tale uses Egypt as a metaphor for the "sinful life".  The exodus story is about them leaving the sinful life behind.  Moses had to kill thousands to get them to follow his delusion.

In his book, "David and Solomon" Finkelstein deals with the anachronism of the David and Goliath tale.  What does the buy-bull say about Goliath?

4 And there came out from the camp of the Philistines a champion named Goliath of Gath, whose height was six[a] cubits[b] and a span. 5 He had a helmet of bronze on his head, and he was armed with a coat of mail, and the weight of the coat was five thousand shekels[c] of bronze. 6 And he had bronze armor on his legs, and a javelin of bronze slung between his shoulders. 7 The shaft of his spear was like a weaver's beam, and his spear's head weighed six hundred shekels of iron. And his shield-bearer went before him.    
1 Sam 17

The description of arms and armor is quite accurate in terms of a Greek warrior style known as a hoplite.



The problem for the buy-bull bullshit is that the hoplite:

A hoplite (from ta hopla meaning tool or equipment) was the most common type of heavily armed foot-soldier in ancient Greece from the 7th to 4th centuries BCE, and most ordinary citizens of Greek city-states with sufficient means were expected to equip and make themselves available for the role when necessary.

http://www.ancient.eu/hoplite/

So, it seems that whatever bullshit artist wrote this passage in 1 Sam 17 knew what a hoplite wore and wielded.  He is describing a 7th century and later style of warfare but trying, (a la Rohl) to move it back 300 years!  Probably not so coincidentally a major contingent of the 26th Dynasty army of the Pharaoh Necho were Greek mercenaries which were becoming quite popular throughout the ANE at this time.  I have no doubt that they scared the shit out of the lightly armed Judahites and history tells us that Necho had no trouble subduing Judah and dashing its dreams for expansion.  It does seem that Necho effected a 'regime change' to use the modern parlance and put in someone who was more favorable to the Egyptian-Assyrian alliance as ruler of Judah.  So much so that when the Egyptians and Assyrians were defeated and the Babylonians set about consolidating their rule they sacked and burned Jerusalem and moved their administrative center to Mizpah, just up the road a bit.

Again, everything points to a minor political power squabble at the end of the 7th century BC as the backdrop for the writing of these stories of poor little israel defeating the Egyptians (with god's help) and history tells us it is about as real as Snow White and the Seven Fucking Dwarfs.