Significant Find by the Israel Antiquities Authority

[Brian37]

Wait, so finding evidence of polytheism of both Egypt and the Canaanites, should prove that the Hebrew cult was a spinoff. But somehow Jews will spin this to mean they got it right despite the fact the other two were around prior. Still doesn't make their Lilith story or an other fantastic claim in their texts true.

They simply found a man who believed in the superstitions of his time.

The only thing we can say is true is that the people who became the Israelites were once ruled by Pharaohs. They didn't have to be in Egypt for that, however, because they lived in an area which was part of the Egyptian empire.

There's a thread somewhere in these forums where Minimalist and I were discussing the Hyksos who took over Lower Egypt. They were finally driven out by Ahmose 1. (Avaris in the following quote was the Hyksos capital in their part of Egypt).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyksos#Under_Ahmose

After the fall of Avaris, the fleeing Hyksos were pursued by the Egyptian army across northern Sinai and into southern Canaan.

Then there's the idea that the plagues of Egypt were the result of the Santorini eruption.

http://www.nytimes.com/1985/12/24/scienc...xodus.html

Egypt didn't have to suffer all the effects because the rest could have been heard about from travellers' tales.

If you want a good myth for religious and political purposes you could take bits and pieces from various sources and cobble them together into the story of Moses and the Exodus. It wouldn't matter that the different sources were events which happened hundreds of years apart.

Yea Egypt had a spread, and for the proximity reasons I stated. But no matter the polytheism was clearly there BEFORE the Hebrews so they got their stories from prior polytheism. And yes the eruption would explain the myth of the plagues.