Hebrew slaves or military wing?

[okamido]

When the Hebrews left Egypt, they did so with a military wing that won some good victories all the way to Jericho and then beyond. Is it possible that when Joseph settled his brothers in Egypt he did it not only to help them, as the Bible says, but to allow them to bring their clans in to form a buffer "zone" between Egypt proper and whomever was troubling them at the time in Canaan, be it Assyria, Hittite, whomever? Could they later, after having become to strong, been put to labor in order to keep a scenario from forming, such as the Mexica and the Tapanecs in what is now Mexico...a subordinate mercenary force suddenly overthrowing the kingdom?

[Ursus]

Is there any solid archaeological evidence that large numbers of Hebrews were in Egypt and then escaped? As far as we know native Egyptians built the pyramids, not foreign slaves.

 

The story of Exodus seems to be little more than a fanciful origin myth, having no more basis in reality than Romans being descended from Trojans.

[Bryaxis Hecatee]

If I remember well evidence has been found in the Delta, especially around Pi-Ramses, that may lead one to believe that some thruth did indeed lead to the biblical story, but nothing in the scale of the movies

[Northern Neil]

If I remember well evidence has been found in the Delta, especially around Pi-Ramses, that may lead one to believe that some thruth did indeed lead to the biblical story, but nothing in the scale of the movies

The exodus story is inconsistant in one major respect - during the reign of the pharaoh referred to in the Bible, Egypt was in its Empire phase, and had sovereignty over all the lands of Palestine including what would later become Judaea. So how could the Hebrews 'escape' at all? This however gives credence to the idea that the Hebrews were quite a willing, functional part of the Egyptian state (as hinted at in the 'Joseph' tale). Maybe they were re-settled in Palestine, in much the way that Romans settled citizens in newly conquered territory? Wouldn't it be a devestating revelation if the 'god' who gave this land to the Hebrews was actually the Pharaoh - a living god? Perhaps they merely duffed up the locals and occupied their land, a story retold by successive generations as a major military victory over the Canaanites?

[Bryaxis Hecatee]

Well the fact is that the link with the "false religion" of Akhenaton, the first recorded form of monotheism, has often been touted as a possible explaination for the rise of the hebraic faith : exiled practitionners of the forbidden cult intermixing with the peoples of a land on the border of the empire, mixing their beliefs with those of the locals (cult of a thunder god and his wife) and leading to what would become the basis of the hebraic faith, a faith that would be simplified and radicalized during the Exode in Babylon, the place where the sacred book(s) would be written.

[caldrail]

Even though I take a dim view of the Bible's supposed authority as a historical record, I would like to point it that it was entirely feasible for the hebrew slaves to 'escape' even if technically within Egypt's empire. The reason is that although Egypt may have claimed swathes of territory as part of its realm, much of that was wilderness, probably patrolled half heartedly if at all, and often remote enough to establish communities out of contact with Egypts heirarchy.

 

There are of course practical concerns about providing enough food and water for the escapees at short notice, but then we do see migrations of peoples mentioned in ancient times who faced exactly the same problems and coped.