Exodus Part One: Hebrews/Israelites in Egypt

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It is likely the Israelites were nomadic people transitioning to urban-farmers. The period following the Santorini explosion would have been one of turmoil and change.

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I was under the impression that Thera was late 17th century BCE while Finkelstein dates the highland settlements to the 13th century.I guess one might argue that Thera was one of many events that conspired to undermine Hyksos rule, thereby laying the preconditions to the accretion/creation of Israel, it seems to me that the Santori hand is being somewhat over-played.

I've been fine, working slowly through an impossible reading list while wasting money on a plethora of grandkids. Thanks for asking. I see that the quest for the elusive Exodus remains alive and well. Do we have a consensus as to century?This message has been edited by ConsequentAtheist, 05-31-2005 01:14 PM

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Regarding the date, we are divided between the two commonly propoed dates. The mid 15th for the literalists and the mid 13th for those who know what they are talking about.

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My heart stands with the literalists. After all, the prescience required of 15th century Israelites avoiding the Philistines is near Biblical. Not only that, it's hard to blame the 13th century on Thera.More seriously, I think "A Day Without A Mexican" should be required viewing for all who would discuss the matter!

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We even had Velikovsky's date ...

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Oy vey!

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Maybe we can have some good quality discussion now that you hopefully have some spare time.

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That's very kind of you, but I'm the amateur here ...

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There were a people called "Habiru", ... who were runaway slaves ... There is a considerable bit of evidence that could show us that the Conquest legend mentioned in the OT, was based on the Habiru slaves attacking these canaanite strongholds ...
  —"John Williams"

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Would you please substantiate your identification of Habiru as "runaway slaves" and give examples of this "considerable bit of evidence"?

Perhaps Hurrian initially?

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Really, the evidence certainly exists for a possible link of the Habiru with the Hebrew.
  —"John Williams"

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I'm unclear what is meant by suggesting evidence of a possibility. Has anyone in fact argued againt the impossibility of such a link? And what, specifically, is this evidence?

My point, though poorly articulated, was merely that statements such as ... ... seem more than a little underwhelming: remove the word "possible" and the claim is nonsense; leave it in and it becomes, as far as I can tell, cognitively meaningless.This message has been edited by ConsequentAtheist, 08-08-2005 03:18 PM