The nation of Israel

 The people of Israel are described as the chosen people of God, and they play a fundamental role in the formation of Christianity.  In this article, we will look at various stages of this nation throughout its history.  The focus will be the reconciliation of what the Bible describes with what academic study has uncovered about history and events.

A tremendous reference throughout this portion has been Evidence That Demands a Verdict.  It gathers together in one place many criticisms and objections to the Bible of which I was not aware, along with rebuttals to those criticisms.  A decent portion of this article is simply looking at both sides of the arguments they present and judging which is more reasonable from an objective view.

Abraham

Abraham is a key figure for the Jewish people, and by extension Christians, regarded as the father of faith.  So this will be where we start.  The problem that arises right away is that there are no records outside of the Bible for Abraham (nor the other patriarchs).  Obviously, the further one goes back in history, the harder it becomes to find records at all, let alone of any given individual.  But Abraham is a very famous individual, and we do have other records from that time, so it is not an implausible hope.  At any rate, there are no such records for Abraham, and this is not disputed in Evidence.

The authors do make an issue of that fact that historians used to accept that the Bible records were accurate history, but now most don’t.  As is common with Must Be True thinking, there is in that observation an implication that modern scholarship is biased against the Bible.  For one, the historicity of the Bible has long been contested.  But more importantly, in what other field do we believe we know less now than we did before?  Doctors used to believe leeches were an effective medical treatment for many conditions, but now most, if not all, don’t.  As in pretty much every other field of study, we have better technology and a larger body of knowledge than we did in decades past, so it is telling that the idea of the Bible containing accurate history is an increasingly minority view.  The only reason to suggest that the newest thinking is not the best thinking is the belief that modern scholarship has been corrupted in some way.

Besides having no external corroboration, the majority view is that the accounts were written centuries, even a millennium or more, after the time period they purport to document.  Scholars have looked at many factors in reaching this conclusion, including marriage customs, references to places and nations, characteristics of nomadic life, and on and on.  This appears to be a settled debate except for the most conservative scholars.  This page on Abraham covers a lot of ground, but includes this summarization:

With the great increase in knowledge about the ancient Near East during the past century, scholars have attempted to fit Abraham and his family into the background of Near Eastern culture in the second millennium BCE. Comparisons are made with the personal names of the ancestors; the names of peoples and places; social customs having to do with marriage, childbearing, and inheritance rights; and types of nomadism in the various stories in order to establish the background and social milieu out of which the ancestors came. The effort to place the patriarchs in the second millennium bce has been unsuccessful, however, because all of the features in the stories can be attested to in sources of the first millennium BCE, and some of the items in the stories, such as the domestication of the camel or reference to Philistines, Arameans, and Arabs, belong to a much later time. The special effort to fit the war between Abraham and the kings of the east (Gn. 14) into the history of the second millennium by trying to identify the various kings and nations involved has failed to yield plausible proposals. The four eastern kingdoms, Elam, Babylonia, Assyria, and that of the Hittites, referred to cryptically in this text, never formed an alliance, nor did they ever control Palestine either collectively or individually during the second millennium BCE. The whole account is historically impossible, and the story is very likely a late addition to Genesis.

The next passage (copied from here) describes a little more specifically some of the problems:

The early books of the Old Testament show clear evidence of being written much later.

Abraham is portrayed as having camels, yet camels were not domesticated until a thousand years later. He is said to come from “Ur of the Chaldees”, yet the city of Ur was in southern Mesopotamia and the Chaldeans did not occupy the region until about 1000 BC. At the time of Abraham, their ancestors were most likely living in mountain villages in northern Iraq.

Arameans are mentioned frequently in Genesis, but they are not mentioned in any ancient texts as a distinct ethnic group until about 1100 BC.

Similarly, Edom is mentioned in Genesis, and there is even a genealogy and “king list” in Genesis 36. Yet archaeological evidence shows the area to have been sparsely populated before the 8th century BC, and it only appears in ancient texts after the Assyrian invasion.

The anachronisms are understandable if Genesis was a tale written around 600 BC, describing the mythical history of Israel, but it cannot be taken seriously as narrative history.

(It is worth noting that the last passage comes from someone who wrote books and gave lectures on archeology and prophecy as part of a Christian sect which I had not heard of, Christadelphians, until he reached a point where he concluded the facts no longer added up and he left it behind.)

Evidence does indeed tackle a number of these issues.  However, their defenses are things like the Bible doesn’t say Abraham had that many camels, as if only having a few (presumably being a very early adopter) addresses the problem.  I can’t say I found their defenses compelling, and apparently neither has most scholars.

Exodus

We can divide this topic into two broad categories: evidence for the ten plagues inflicted on Egypt and evidence for the flight from Egypt and subsequent journey.

Ten plagues

This portion of the Bible has some of the most dramatic acts of God out of all it contains, especially in terms of how much happens in a relatively short span.  For a number of reasons, one would expect there to be some record of this in Egyptian records, but it is not so.  Let’s consider some perspectives.

Spectacle

As noted, many dramatic and spectacular events took place.  As a reminder, the ten plagues inflicted upon Egypt are listed here.  Instead of simply listing the topics, I’ve included the actual verses, to capture how extensive the plagues were.

“Then the LORD said to Moses, “Say to Aaron, ‘Take your staff and stretch out your hand over the waters of Egypt, over their rivers, over their streams, and over their pools, and over all their reservoirs of water, that they may become blood; and there will be blood throughout all the land of Egypt, both in vessels of wood and in vessels of stone.’ ” ...all the water that was in the Nile was turned to blood. The fish that were in the Nile died, and the Nile became foul, so that the Egyptians could not drink water from the Nile. And the blood was through all the land of Egypt.” (Exodus 7:19–21, NASB95)

““The Nile will swarm with frogs, which will come up and go into your house and into your bedroom and on your bed, and into the houses of your servants and on your people, and into your ovens and into your kneading bowls. “So the frogs will come up on you and your people and all your servants.” ’ ”” (Exodus 8:3–4, NASB95)

“...Aaron stretched out his hand with his staff, and struck the dust of the earth, and there were gnats on man and beast. All the dust of the earth became gnats through all the land of Egypt.” (Exodus 8:17, NASB95)

“...And there came great swarms of flies into the house of Pharaoh and the houses of his servants and the land was laid waste because of the swarms of flies in all the land of Egypt.” (Exodus 8:24, NASB95)

“...behold, the hand of the LORD will come with a very severe pestilence on your livestock which are in the field, on the horses, on the donkeys, on the camels, on the herds, and on the flocks. “...and all the livestock of Egypt died; but of the livestock of the sons of Israel, not one died.” (Exodus 9:3, 6, NASB95)

““It will become fine dust over all the land of Egypt, and will become boils breaking out with sores on man and beast through all the land of Egypt.”” (Exodus 9:9, NASB95)

“Moses stretched out his staff toward the sky, and the LORD sent thunder and hail, and fire ran down to the earth. And the LORD rained hail on the land of Egypt. So there was hail, and fire flashing continually in the midst of the hail, very severe, such as had not been in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation. The hail struck all that was in the field through all the land of Egypt, both man and beast; the hail also struck every plant of the field and shattered every tree of the field.” (Exodus 9:23–25, NASB95)

“The locusts came up over all the land of Egypt and settled in all the territory of Egypt; they were very numerous. There had never been so many locusts, nor would there be so many again. For they covered the surface of the whole land, so that the land was darkened; and they ate every plant of the land and all the fruit of the trees that the hail had left. Thus nothing green was left on tree or plant of the field through all the land of Egypt.” (Exodus 10:14–15, NASB95)

“So Moses stretched out his hand toward the sky, and there was thick darkness in all the land of Egypt for three days. They did not see one another, nor did anyone rise from his place for three days, but all the sons of Israel had light in their dwellings.” (Exodus 10:22–23, NASB95)

“Now it came about at midnight that the LORD struck all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the captive who was in the dungeon, and all the firstborn of cattle. Pharaoh arose in the night, he and all his servants and all the Egyptians, and there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was no home where there was not someone dead.” (Exodus 12:29–30, NASB95)

The idea that this wouldn’t be extensively documented is ludicrous.  One anemic defense offered is that the Egyptians would be reluctant to record anything that made them look bad.  But this is nothing so mundane as a military defeat.  This is the most widespread, varied, and sustained display of divine might recorded in the Bible, all within a matter of weeks.

Economics

For a number of reasons, this would have been the most devastating economic episode in Egyptian history:

• The land was laid waste by the flies.

• All of their livestock was killed.

• The hail struck all of their crops and trees.

• Anything that somehow got through that was consumed by locusts.

• The Israelite slaves would have been a significant part of the nation’s workforce.  Exodus 12:35 says it was 600,000 men.  If you consider the families they would have, it could be over 1 million people, or even 2 or 3.

• Then the Egyptians lost all their firstborn, further decimating their workforce.

• On their way out, the Israelites “plundered” the Egyptians, taking articles of silver and gold. (Exodus 12:35–36)

• Their entire army was destroyed chasing down the Israelites.  (Note that it says the army consisted of horses and chariots, even though all their horses and other livestock were destroyed a few weeks ago at most.)

By all rights, this sequence of events should have been the end of Egypt.  Even if we grant that, against all odds, they kept their society running, it would have taken years to rebuild.  But there is no record of any of this.  Another weak defense offered is that there aren’t many ancient records.  There may not be as many as for more recent times, granted, but you can right now buy a five volume series of Egyptian records.  In fact, records from around that region indicate the opposite, that Egypt continued to be a regional powerhouse for  a while.

Trauma

Nations tend to memorialize events of shared suffering and trauma, especially when they occur in a national context.  As horrible as 9/11 was, “only” 3000 people died, but it left a mark upon the national conscience, particularly since it was directed at America as a whole.  If all the firstborn of Egypt had died in one night, that would have been a collective tragedy unlike nearly anything else.  Yet there is no written record, no tradition of remembrance, and no physical memorial structure of this event.

In terms of trying to find external evidence for the Bible, the lack of evidence for the ten plagues speaks for itself.  But given the three perspectives I’ve raised here, that lack cannot simply be waved away as reasonable or plausible.

Flight and wandering

There are various aspects of the narrative describing the flight from Egypt and the subsequent wandering in the desert that could have plausibly left some evidence that would serve as external corroboration.

Pharaoh’s army drowned

Given that an entire army of chariots, horses, and horsemen were drowned, one might hope to find some remains of chariots or armor, but none has been found, despite the occasional claim.

A wandering city

As said above, starting from the 600,000 men stated in the Bible, people have estimated that, including the families of those men, millions of people left Egypt.  All these people wandering the desert for forty years could reasonably be expected to leave some trace, especially since there were locations at which they remained for a time, but none has been found.

Stations of the Exodus

There are various locations the Israelites are described as encountering in their travels, but the descriptions are so broad that they really can’t be connected with any certainty with modern day locations.

Logistics

This one isn’t so much a matter of finding physical evidence outside the Bible as it is calculating the physical ramifications of what it says.  Start again with the 600,000 men.

• If each man had a wife and 1.5 kids, that is 600,000 x 3.5 = 2,100,000 people.  (Though 1.5 kids is likely conservative.)  We will round to 2,000,000 people.

• Given they were in open land, they could have traveled many people abreast.  Let’s pick 50 people across.  The length of a 2,000,000 person caravan traveling 50 people across is the same as 40,000 people single file.

• How close do we think each person was to the person ahead of them?  They each had belongings, livestock perhaps, besides personal boundaries.  6 feet seems pretty tight.  If they turned sideways and put out their arms, they would touch.  10 feet seems more plausible.  Let’s see where that leads.  40,000 x 10 ft = 400,000 ft, which is roughly 76 miles.

Without any modern technology, how exactly was Moses handling the logistics of a group 76 miles long?  You can adjust the numbers, but the essential idea remains the same.  At various points, the story depicts the whole congregation encountering something and Moses speaking to them.  But there is no way the entire congregation would be seeing the same things at once, nor would they be communicating with or hearing Moses.  They would be playing the telephone game across 76 miles.

Also, being physical laborers, we could assume they were in good enough shape, but that is not the same as day after day hiking.  This site estimates long distance walkers covering about 20 miles a day.  When the head of the caravan encountered something like the bitter waters, the rear was still three days away.  Again, you can adjust the numbers, but ultimately, 2 million people do not just pack up and start and stop as a unit.

In case the magnitude of these numbers isn’t clear yet, the city of San Diego, eighth biggest city in the US, has about 1.5 million people.  Imagine all the people of San Diego (and then another half-million visitors) on the same night leaving their homes and beginning a 40 year hike, with no technology to help coordinate any of it.  I cannot conceive of how everyone would follow a single leader.

Tabernacle tent

There are some indications that a small group of Israelites may have been in Egypt and decided to leave, forming a grain of truth around which these stories are built.  One of these indications is that the design of the tabernacle tent happens to match the design of the military tent of Rameses II, along with symbolism of items inside the tent that line up with Egyptian themes.

So someone may well point to this as evidence of the Exodus.  But note that this does answer any of the points I’ve already raised here.  It does support the idea of some connection, but it also raises other questions.  Given that God had an infinite number of options for designs and symbolisms to give His people, why choose that of a culture that had oppressed His people, a culture they just left behind?  Why devote so much detail in the Scripture to all those details?  It may well be that there is some good reason for God to do all of this.  But an alternative explanation that equally fits the available facts is that the Israelites simply appropriated Egyptian culture to incorporate into their own.

Moses

It should be no surprise, given the lack of evidence for the Exodus as a whole, that there is no evidence for Moses either.  Now he is quite a pivotal figure in Judaic history, serving in many capacities, with his most critical significance bringing God’s Law to His people.  Jesus and Paul both talk about the importance of the Law.  I won’t dwell on this, but if Moses didn’t actually receive the Law from God, that becomes a domino that knocks into Judaism, that then knocks into Christianity.

It also happens to be convenient that there is no known final resting place for the single greatest leader the Jewish nation has known.

The Promised Land

The Exodus sets off a chain of events where the Israelites fought numerous battles to claim the land that they were promised by God.  You might guess what I’m going to say: there is no evidence for any of this either.  Details for what I am saying in this section and others can be found here and here.  One point is that if Israel had to fight as described, there would be evidence of cities and towns that were destroyed that they had to build on top of, but there is none.  Another is that at the time the battle of Jericho supposedly happened, Jericho was a long abandoned city.

What most scholars conclude is that there were indeed Israelites in Canaan, but they simply moved into an area and settled down, or perhaps they were an offshoot of the Canaanites.  They didn’t conquer anything, instead slowly building up their cities over time.  But none of that makes for a good origin story, so they fashioned legendary exploits instead.

At any rate, none of this provides the evidence I am looking for, so I’ll move on.

The United Kingdom

While there is some evidence that there were kings named David and Solomon, there is little evidence the kingdom was as magnificent as described.  As for Solomon, there is no evidence of the temple he built or his massive army of chariots.  Though there has been forged evidence.  Again, in terms of finding reasons to believe the claims of the Bible, especially the more extravagant ones, this time period provides little help.

Modern day Israel

Many people believe that the formation of modern day Israel is the fulfilment of Biblical prophecy.  I won’t get into the arguments for this here.  But I will note that if people themselves make a prediction come true, it undercuts any notion of divine foreknowledge or intervention.

Let me fabricate an example. Suppose a pastor tells his congregation that God has given him a prophecy that one year from now the walls of the church will all turn purple as a sign of God’s royalty and authority.  Over the next year, the members of the church buy purple paint and paint the walls.  Indeed, a year from now the walls are all purple.  But this does not demonstrate foreknowledge or intervention.  The problem is that the people themselves wanted the prophecy to come true and made it happen.

There is the same dynamic at play with the restoration of the nation of Israel.  For centuries, there has been this fascination among Christians with the idea of Jews returning to the Holy Land.  When circumstances finally allowed for this possibility, after many centuries, this Christian thinking influenced the outcome.  Arthur Balfour played a critical role with his declaration, and his reasoning behind it, while incorporating benefits to Britain, was greatly informed by his religious beliefs.  Much like the purple walls, the event that Christians believed was prophesied and wanted to happen they themselves brought about.

I should also note that for years Chuck Smith (and others, I’m sure) taught that this was a significant milestone, based on this passage:

““Now learn the parable from the fig tree: when its branch has already become tender and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near; so, you too, when you see all these things, recognize that He is near, right at the door. “Truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place.” (Matthew 24:32–34, NASB95)

Based on estimates of how long a generation was and whatnot, the conclusion was that no later than 1988 Jesus would return.  I certainly remember hearing this idea of being in the last generation in the sermons of Mike Macintosh, one of Chuck Smith’s disciples.  But now that the year 1988 has come and gone, and the older generation of evangelicals is dying off, including Chuck Smith, we now have people instead giving rationalizations of where that viewpoint went wrong.

The Holocaust

There is one last point I’d like to look at here.  Part of the general fascination evangelicals have with Israel is the idea that how we treat that nation has tremendous repercussions, presumably based on this verse:

“May peoples serve you, And nations bow down to you; Be master of your brothers, And may your mother’s sons bow down to you. Cursed be those who curse you, And blessed be those who bless you.”” (Genesis 27:29, NASB95)

The thinking is that when our government does something to aid Israel, it will bring about blessings for our nation.  Likewise, neglecting or harming Israel will bring the opposite.  It is important to note that these blessings will not be limited to the leaders or their political party, but will benefit the whole nation.

So now consider the Holocaust.  The nation of Germany committed unthinkable atrocities upon the people of God, 6 million killed (or more by some thinking), and yet Germany is going strong, with the 4th largest economy in the world.  There was no repercussion, no divine retribution.  There is no evidence here for this idea of blessings and curses.

Obviously the elephant in the room is that such a thing could happen at all.  After all the miraculous interventions in the Bible and all the promises, God apparently stood by and watched 6 million of His chosen people die, many in horrific ways.  Any theological justification for this gets you in trouble real fast.  Theology allows for trials and tests, but that was no trial.  Trials are supposed to be a test of faith, that God will actually follow through on His promises, but clearly the faith of 6 million people was not answered.  And anyone who wants to argue that somehow the Jewish people deserved this is on incredibly thin ice.  Ultimately, this tragic episode of human history is a counterexample to all the claims of divine providence made through the Biblical history of the Jewish people.

Closing thoughts

The history of the Jewish people spans centuries and, according to the Bible, is filled with remarkable demonstrations of God’s power and providence.  The problem is that these Biblical episodes have little to no external corroboration, and in fact have external evidence that argues against them.  For some episodes, like the Egyptian plagues, it is highly unlikely that there would be no external evidence, and therefore its lack is a significant problem.

Nonetheless, with sufficient mental gymnastics, it is possible to construct explanations for all of these things, such as is found in Evidence.  It all comes back to the flawed premise that these Bible stories are to be accepted as true unless otherwise proven false (notwithstanding that there is evidence suggesting just that), and that all an apologist needs to do is construct any possible explanation for what we see and don’t see.  Apologists continue to think they are playing defense when their role is to play offense.  Again with the plagues: it is possible that these things happened but no records survived or were recorded in the first place, but it is certainly not plausible.  And even if that is the case, we are then left with a stalemate, with that being one explanation, and the other being that the stories are a fabrication of a people trying to build a compelling narrative for themselves.  The end result looks the same.

Next article: Jesus and the disciples