(July 30, 2011 at 9:12 am)Hannah Wrote: By the way, two thirds of the Habiru names were Semitic. Have you read up about them? It's very interesting reading.
Hannah you are committing the common mistake of using the bible to inform archaeology, rather than other way around. In recent decades archaeologists have repented of that habit and as a result our whole view of history of Canaan during the Bronze and Iron ages has radically changed. The most excellent book The Bible Unearthed is a introduction to contemporary biblical archaeology.
The archaeological evidence (including Egyptian records which are extremely detailed) so far have so no evidence for the events portrayed in Exodus. Moses could be very probably a mythological character, hell scholars are unsure whether or there was a united Israelite kingdom under David and Solomon.
The ancestors of the Israelites were very likely pastoral nomads living on the edges of Canaanite society. After the end of the Bronze Age they started to settle down in the highlands of Canaan. In periods in drought it is very likely they would have gone down to Egypt in order to find pasture for their flocks and herds. The stories told in both Genesis and Exodus reflect in part the folk memory of that experience. Likewise the book of Judges can tell us a lot about the social organisation of the early Israelites and maybe how they interacted with their neighbours. However these books are mythology rather than history as we know it.
undefined
