Did the Exodus really happen? Scholar Wes Huff points to ancient Egyptian document

Was the Exodus from Egypt a real historical event? Or are Jews simply retelling a fabricated story like one of Aesop’s Fables each Passover? 

There have been several instances where scholars declared the Bible to be in error, only to be ultimately proven wrong by archaeological discoveries. It was once widely assumed, for example, that there was never a great kingdom of Israel under King David – until Tel Dan Stele was unearthed, revealing that the house of David extended as far north as Mount Hermon. Likewise, there are many naysayers when it comes to Israel’s dramatic deliverance from Egypt, however, there is concrete evidence to suggest that the Bible is, yet again, telling the truth.

“The case against the historicity of the exodus is straightforward, and its essence can be stated in five words: a sustained lack of evidence,” states Joshua Berman, professor of Bible at Bar-Ilan University.

Berman believes that the Torah’s heavy reliance on Egyptian ideas and culture serves as a clue that there is some truth to the Exodus story, though he acknowledges that this may be the only evidence we have.

And it’s not only historians and academics who doubt the biblical event. Many Jewish scholars and rabbis openly admit they don’t believe it either.

“The truth is [that] the way the Bible describes the exodus [from Egypt] is not the way it happened, if it happened at all,” Rabbi Wolpe told his congregation on the morning of Passover in 2001. 

“There is no archaeological or other evidence of an ancient encampment that size anywhere in the Sinai desert. Nor is there any evidence of so great a subsequent influx into the land of Israel, at any time,” Berman insists. “No competent scholar or archaeologist will deny these facts.”

But what if, as author Joel Richardson and others assert, people have been looking in the wrong place? The exact location where the Israelites crossed through a parted sea and then met with God at Mount Sinai is still a matter of debate. Richardson points to plenty of signs that there really was a huge encampment of Israelites around a mountain, but that the mountain in question is in a largely unexplored corner of the Arabian desert. His book, "Mount Sinai in Saudi Arabia" lays out plenty of reasons why the lack of evidence may simply be a matter of mistaken location.

More than that, Wesley Huff, a renowned academic specializing in the area of ancient manuscripts, has discovered solid proof that there were Israelite slaves in Egypt around the time of the Exodus. 

“Nowhere in the written record of ancient Egypt is there any explicit mention of Hebrew or Israelite slaves,” declares Bernan. But Huff takes us systematically through a manuscript known as the Papyrus Brooklyn 35.1446, which clearly shows evidence of Hebrew slaves in Egypt some 200 years before the exodus.

The documentary papyri dates from the Middle Kingdom of Ancient Egypt and is written in hieratic, the form of cursive script used in ancient Egyptian and most commonly written on papyrus.

The Papyrus Brooklyn 35.1446 was written during the reign of Amenemhat III, somewhere between 1809-1743 B.C. Huff explains, “It has 80 lines of text recording 95 names of slaves and labourers who failed to complete their assigned jobs. 30 of those 80 names are Semitic Hebrew names.” Examples of names in the manuscript include Shiphrah, Issachar, Asher and Jacob.

Huss recently shot to fame after wiping the floor in a debate about the Bible with sceptic Billy Carson, which has been seen well over three million times. As a result, he appeared on the world’s most popular podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience, where he presented the host with a replica of Papyrus 52 – a fragment of the Gospel of John dating back to the time of the Apostles. During the episode, Huff provided substantial evidence supporting the Bible’s historical reliability, and also presented the message of the gospel to Rogan’s 11 million listeners.

Finding evidence for ancient events is fraught with complications and it’s common to hear hyperbolic statements from every direction. Bold assertions are often made either for or against the veracity of the scriptures. However, Huff’s expertise and knowledge of the ancient manuscripts quietly demonstrate that there is good historical evidence we can rely on.