Exodus Catastrophes Have Been Present

Exodus

Catastrophes have been present in the history of the world from time immemorial and there have been catastrophes both in the solar system as well as in the Earth and ancient history is replete with the various catastrophes caused by maybe dragons or Gods wielding thunderbolts or any other such weapons; the most popular themes for such works being that of destruction and creation which is full of cosmic imagery and magical happenings.

Over the past few hundreds of years, the subject of the Exodus has generated a great amount of literature on the subject and many do understand the fact that the Exodus is in fact a Late Bronze Age event, dated probably the ca.1560 to 1200, although there are others who state that the Exodus occurred during the late thirteenth to twelfth centuries BC, and the basis for such an assumption was the fact that the store city that was built by Israel named Ramesses, also understood as Pi Ramesses was built by Pharaoh Ramesses II. However, according to the Bible there is no real Late Bronze Age evidence for the Sinai and the Negev and the Arabah, which are the various places that Israel walked in. The Exodus is supposed to have therefore occurred at the end of the thirteenth or the beginning of the twelfth centuries and it had occurred when Ramesses II was the ruler of the place.

What exactly is the real and true story behind the Exodus? Has the historical evidence been sufficient in providing all the facts that happened, and was something left out? For a great number of years today, most scholars and researchers have been debating the question of whether or not Biblical scholars as well as Egyptologists have succeeded in unearthing all the facts and details of the Exodus that took place a thousand years ago and also whether they are authentic or not in all ways because there are some who do indeed feel that it was nothing but a fabricated story, and that it had no relation to actual events in Egyptian history of the time. According to the 'Double Exodus Theory', the Bible actually recorded two different episodes of the Exodus and subsequently several authors documented the event in a way that managed to blend both together into one single event; and it is because of this merging and blending that the very authenticity of the Exodus has become lost and contradictions as well as misconceptions abound in the recounting of the Exodus.

In a sermon given by Rabbi Barry H. Block in June 2001, the Rabbi stated that there is very little undisputed evidence of the Exodus and if the Biblical version were to be taken into consideration, it is difficult to ascertain its veracity. In addition, there has been some recent research into the subject, wherein it has been discovered that there is indeed an alternative theory behind the Exodus account, and this is the story that the Exodus was in fact written as a parable and the real and true villain of the Exodus may have been after all, King Solomon and even though he was known for being extremely wise, he may have at the same time been an oppressive tyrant as well, and maybe most critics would not have been able to mention this fact, fearing their own death. This may have been the reason for these people writing a story in which the villain of the piece to the Jewish people was an Egyptian pharaoh and not their own King.

The final liberator of course would be God, who can and will free all the people from all types of oppression and the innate message may have been that God will free the Children of Israel form tyranny, and also from a tyrannical Israelite King, in the same way as God would liberate the Israelites form the pharaoh in the story of the exodus. The Exodus is therefore one of the mot basic and fundamental foundation upon which Judaism is based and it is through the Exodus that one can learn about the real and true saving powers of God and whether one is shackled by alcoholism or by tyranny or by a Pharaoh, or by poverty or by diseases, God will be there to liberate one from this. In addition, the Exodus performs the function of reminding one that God can be our Parent as well as our Teacher and if one were to be blessed, then one would have loving and caring parents who would be able to instruct the person in the ways of life, and the nurturing and the disciplining actions that the parents perform in day-to-day life would go a long way towards making sure of the path to take in earthly life.

In a similar manner, in the Exodus, God is the guide and Parent who sustains and protects all the children of Israel in the desert, and also offers them the Torah, and an individual's performance in his Earthly life would indicate the acceptance of God's loving rule and His authority, and also our acknowledgement of God's authority that He can govern us as He sees fit. However, even though one may accept that God is our own Savior, it dose not prove that the story of the Exodus is actually true. For example, if the story of Creation were to be taken into consideration, then it must be acknowledged that it id not happen that way, according to scientific tenets, even if one does accept the fact that God was our creator. Even as scientists describe the Big Bang theory and the theory of Evolution, one can ask whether or not God created 'Matter', and also where the natural laws of the world come from. However, this does not mean that the Bible must be treated as a History book, full of scientific facts, and if a Jew happened to believe that all the stories mentioned in the Bible were true, then there would be a lot of less faithful people to the religion. Therefore, the Exodus must be taken as an event that may or may not have happened, but is full of meaning at the same time, and so, must be followed and revelation found in each and every word.

Ian Wilson in his book entitled "Exodus, the True Story behind the Biblical Account' has put together a wide range of speculations and modern investigations into the subject of the Exodus, in which he makes attempts to identify, among various other things, the ruling Pharaoh at the time of the Exodus, the various different locations of the Biblical terrain in which the Exodus is supposed to have taken place, and also the exact date when Hebrews are supposed to have arrived in Egypt. The evidence that Ian Wilson uses is modern and contemporary, like for example, the Mount St. Helens explosion, and such examples, form which he merges the historical details gathered by him with the various geological details available, to create an end product which is not only fascinating but is also captivating because it not only tries to capture how the Exodus took place all those years ago, but also captures why it did take place at all.

Ian Wilson, the prolific author of a large number of scientific and religious books, often mixes the two topics when he writes his books, and this holds true whether he writes on the mystery of Life after Death, or about the Shroud of Turin. This author had lived in Bristol in England for the large part of his life, after which he moved on to Brisbane in Australia. The very First book of the Bible, the Genesis, does not limit itself to merely the creation story, and therefore, Adam and Eve go on to reproduce their children, and among their children are Cain and Abel, who actually exemplify the two sides of human nature, that is, the good, and the evil. As these individuals go on to multiply further and further, God in fact becomes saddened by this fact, and this is further reasonable because they are all more evil than good, and finally, when God can take no more, He decides to destroy His own creation, Mankind, in a flood of His own making.

However, all is not lost, because God finds that Noah is not as corrupt as the others. This results in God instructing Noah to build an ark, in which he would be able to load his family and thus save them, and also save all the animals of the Earth. After the flood is over, life in fact begins again, and thereafter begins the description of all Noah's descendants. The so-called Patriarchs become important at this stage, and it is now that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob enter the picture. Each enjoys their own unique relationship with God, and the story continues with various scenes of the unfolding drama. The saga ends with the people of Israel moving over to Egypt, so that they may be able to escape the famine that was killing them in large numbers in their own land. Fortunately for them, Joseph, who is Jacob's son, invites them into that land and he was a man who had been sold off earlier to an Egyptian person by his jealous brothers earlier. Joseph, being possessed of the extremely uncanny ability to read and interpret dreams, is recognized for that very fact, and is soon promoted into being a prestigious member of the Egyptian Courts. However, one thing must be kept in mind before starting the Exodus, and this is the presence of the three important themes of Abraham being God's alliance and His Promise, Isaac, who is the spared sacrifice, and Jacob, who is doomed to struggle with God, or in other words, Israel. It is at this point that the description of the Exodus begins.

The Exodus is in fact a unique and exceptional account of the Birth of a Religion, and everything that is described within the Exodus alludes to the life of the people who lived in those rough terrains of Israel at that particular time in the History of the World. In fact, it is often noted that the Genesis is in itself a mere introduction to this most important excursion carried out by the people of Israel, in their exodus out of Egypt. This flight or exodus of the people out of Egypt in fact reveals the very origins and the identity of Israel, and the manner in which this journey took place divulges the very essence of the Fathers of the land, and the isolation of the people in the Desert and their journey towards their Promised Land did not, in fact, lead to the development of a stable culture, and maybe it was this very exclusiveness that gave rise to the jealousy and rivalry that Yahweh exhibited. Moses, Yahweh, and Israel thus happened to come together, and this had a great impact on the very nature of Israel.

It has been said that several generations of Hebrews had been living in Egypt from time immemorial, and now, these people were feeling that they were not at all welcome in this, their adoptive land, and, on top of this, the Pharaoh was keen on imposing all types of oppressive conditions on these people. The Hebrew community was a people without a real leader, and Moses was an individual who, despite being a Prince, was without a real Kingdom. God reveals his destiny that was yet to come, on top of the Mount Sinai, and this fact linked him more to these people, and, Israel's very identity as a nation, and as a people and as a religion happened to be shaped and molded by that one single revelation by God to Moses, and the Exodus of the people further into the desert confirms this idea.

Since all the people were isolated and were therefore away from the influences of other Gods and other peoples, and the various other cultures of Egypt, it became possible for Yahweh to start on a new bond, and the desert became an ideal and perfect place for this jealous God to make up and forge his own plan and ideas upon the various alliances that he could possibly bring about. Moses in introduced by God Himself, with a description of his birth, and soon, hierophany comes into the picture, and God reveals His presence by the sound of His voice, and also by the burning of the bush. It is at Mount Sinai, or the Mount Horeb, or the Mountain of the Gods, that the revelation takes place, and it is often stated that this setting was in fact representative of the geographical and the historical context that actually led to the Exodus, and in fact, this is the basis for much of the plot of the Exodus, wherein the spatio-temporal circumstances of the Exodus had to rely on the departure out of Egypt and the quest for the so-called Promised Land by the people.

Now, the parents of Moses belonged, in fact, to the Tribe of Levi, and Levis, interestingly, were also known as Hebrews. Since the Israelites had been domiciled in Egypt for a great many years previously, they had been ever growing in numbers, and this was beginning to scare the Pharaoh. Apart from the Hebrews, there were also a great number of slaves from several different countries within Egypt, who had actually been either prisoners of war, or some other types of slaves, and these people too were living their lives in several different parts of Egypt, and as time went by, they became free people, who even had high ranking positions in the Egyptian Court of Law. Some of the others who lived in Egypt were in fact immigrants who had migrated to that country for some reason, maybe a famine, or a drought, and had stayed on there.

All this led to an overwhelming ethnic diversity, and this led to more problems, like for example, the quote that states, "Robbery is everywhere...Barbarians from outside have come to Egypt," and it was these barbarians who managed to bring in different cultures and even different religions into Egypt. Egyptians had traditionally been extremely tolerant of different Gods and also different cults, and cultures, and this has been a historical fact. However, archaeological sources do not accurately describe the facts as described in the Exodus, and one example of this fact is that the pharaoh is never identified, and no one can be sure who, exactly, he was. History reveals the fact that Hebrews had suffered greatly at the hands of the Egyptians, and most of these people were forced into slave labor into constructing the various fortresses and other buildings at the borders of the country.

History also reveals the date in which the Exodus did take place as being the thirteenth century, and the Hebrews, who had basically been a semi-nomadic tribe of people, because of the changes in the various policies of the land, as far as monarchy was concerned, were transformed into a strong and aggressive military power, and it was this type of people who populated Egypt at the time of the Exodus. In a similar manner, there is no archaeological evidence of the existence of Moses, but, however, his very authenticity and faith cannot be ignored. The narrative begins with the Pharaoh's command to cats out all the newborn Hebrew boy children into the River Nile to die, because, supposedly, Hebrew women had become so very fertile that their numbers were increasing alarmingly.