Was the Exodus natural or supernatural, fact or fiction?

[Confused Ape]

I think it's likely that stories about the Santorini eruption got mixed in with other stories about the Hyksos leaving Egypt.

Who Were The Hyksos

The Hyksos were basically a Semitic people who were able to wrestle control of Egypt from the early Second Intermediate rulers of the 13th Dynasty, inaugurating the 15th Dynasty. Their names mostly come from the West Semitic languages, and earlier suggestions that some of these people were Hurrian or even Hittite have not been confirmed.

Contemporary Egyptians during the Hyksos invasion designated them as hikau khausut, which meant "rulers of foreign countries", a term that originally only referred to the ruling caste of the invaders. However, today the term Hyksos has come to refer to the whole of these people who ruled Egypt during the Second Intermediate Period of Egypt's ancient history, and had to be driven out of the land by the last ruler of the 17th Dynasty and the earliest ruler of Egypt's New Kingdom.

The effects of something like the Santorini eruption would be terrifying for people who knew the science behind it all. It's hardly surprising that stories about Santorini got handed down and interpreted as being a deity punishing people.