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Faith in Exodus
If the Exodus did not occur, there is no Judaism.
By Dennis Prager
According to the article, most archaeologists and even
some Jewish clergy do not believe the biblical Exodus
occurred. That most archaeologists conclude from the
alleged lack of archaeological evidence that Jews were
never slaves in Egypt and the exodus to Canaan never
took place tells us something about these individuals,
but nothing about the Bible or the Exodus.
What does it tell us? That most of these archaeologists
have the same bias against traditional religious beliefs
that most of their academic colleagues have. Ten years
ago, Dr. Robert Jastrow, an agnostic and one of America’s
leading astrophysicists — founder of NASA’s
Goddard Institute for Space Studies and now director
of the Mount Wilson Observatory — wrote about this
in his book "God and the Astronomers." Jastrow
described a disturbing reaction among his colleagues
to the big-bang theory — irritation and anger.
Why, he asked, would scientists, who are supposed to
pursue truth and not have an emotional investment in
any evidence, be angered by the big-bang theory? The
answer, he concluded, is very disturbing: many scientists
do not want to acknowledge anything that may even suggest
the existence of God. The big-bang theory, by positing
a beginning to the universe, suggests a creator and therefore
annoys many astronomers.
This anti-religious bias is hardly confined to astronomers.
It pervades academia, home to nearly all archaeologists.
Take one of the archaeologists’ major conclusions:
Because they have found no evidence of Israelites in
the Sinai desert, no Israelites made the trip from Egypt
to Canaan. That conclusion strikes many of us as so unwarranted — even
arrogant — as to demand explanation. According
to the book of Exodus, the Israelites spent only 40 years
in the desert over 3,000 years ago. What could possibly
remain from a mere 40 years in a desert 3,000 years later?
And since when does the alleged lack of physical proof
mean something never happened or doesn’t exist?
I have no doubt that many of the archaeologists who are
so certain that the Jews never wandered out of Egypt
are quite sure that there is intelligent life somewhere
in the universe. But on what basis? Despite decades of
highly sophisticated probing, we do not have a shred
of evidence to support the belief that intelligent life
exists anywhere else. They choose to believe it because
logic suggests to them that intelligent life exists out
there.
Well, logic suggests to many of us that Jews were slaves
in Egypt and that there was an exodus. For thousands
of years Jews have been retelling this story. It is possible
that it is all a 3,000-year-old fairy tale, but do logic
and common sense suggest this? Why would a people make
up such an ignoble history? Why would a people fabricate
a myth of its origins in which it is depicted so negatively?
There is no parallel in human history to the Hebrew Bible’s
negative depiction of the Jews’ national origins.
The Torah’s depiction of the Jews’ exodus
from Egypt to Canaan portrays the Jews as ingrates, rebels
and chronic complainers, undeserving of the freedom God
and Moses brought them. Moreover, aside from Moses, the
heroes of the story are nearly all non-Jews. It is the
daughter of Pharaoh who saves and rears Moses (later
Jewish tradition actually holds her to be his mother);
it is a Midianite priest, Jethro, who tells Moses how
to govern the Jewish people; and the two midwives who
refuse the pharaoh’s order to kill all male Jewish
babies are almost certainly Egyptians. As for Moses himself,
he is depicted as being raised an Egyptian.
That is one of the three reasons I am certain of the
Jews’ slavery and exodus. Any people that makes
up a history for itself makes sure to depict itself as
heroic and other peoples as villains. That the Torah’s
story does the very opposite is for me an unassailable
argument on behalf of its honesty.
Second, I do not believe that a nation tells a story
for 3,000 years that has no experiential basis. Moreover,
the text has allusions to Egypt that only contemporaries
could know. Even the name Moses is Egyptian (compare
the pharaohs’ names Thutmose, Ahmose and Ahmosis).
Third, I choose to believe the story despite the archaeologists’ (subjective)
claim of no evidence just as, despite the powerful arguments
of history and of archaeologists of the past generation,
some archaeologists — and those who trust archaeologists
more than the biblical narrative — choose to believe
the exodus never happened.
As for the argument of some Jews that they do not depend
on the veracity of the Exodus for their faith, from a
Jewish standpoint this is destructive nonsense. If the
Exodus did not occur, there is no Judaism. Judaism stands
on two pillars — creation and exodus. Judaism no
more survives the denial of the Exodus than it does the
denial of the Creator. Creation and Exodus are coequal
Jewish claims. A creator God who never intervened in
human affairs is Aristotle’s unmoved mover, not
the God the Jews introduced to the world. Moreover, any
Jews who believe the Exodus did not occur should have
the intellectual honesty to stop observing Passover.
They should spend the week studying the truths of archaeology — that
is their haggadah — rather than what they regard
as the fairy tales of the haggadah and Torah.
Fifty years ago, when anti-religious dogma was less suffocating,
archaeologists showed time and again how archaeology
confirmed essentials of the biblical narratives. Today,
most archaeologists argue the opposite. In a couple of
decades, they will probably change their minds again.
I didn’t rely on archaeologists for my faith when
they confirmed it, and they have no effect on my faith
when they deny it. They will continue to find meaning
in their lives from excavating ancient ruins and deconstructing
the Bible. And I will continue to find meaning in life
telling my children, and hopefully one day my grandchildren,
what Jews have told their children and grandchildren
for 3,000 years. "We were slaves in the land of
Egypt and with a mighty hand, God brought us out." |
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