- Sidebar Trivia: The Palgrave Handbook of Global Slavery throughout History , Chapter 3 “Ancient Egyptian Slavery” [Page 41].
- Maʽat
- Maat or Maʽat (Egyptian comprised the ancient Egyptian concepts of truth, balance, order, harmony, law, morality, and justice. Ma’at was also the goddess who personified these concepts, and regulated the stars, seasons, and the actions of mortals and the deities who had brought order from chaos at the moment of creation. Her ideological opposite was Egyptian jzf, meaning injustice, chaos, violence or to do evil.
- 42 Negative Confessions (Papyrus of Ani)
- I have not committed sin.
I have not committed robbery with violence.
I have not stolen.
I have not slain men and women.
I have not stolen grain.
I have not purloined offerings.
I have not stolen the property of God.
I have not uttered lies.
I have not carried away food.
I have not uttered curses.
I have not committed adultery.
I have made none to weep.
I have not eaten the heart.
I have not attacked any man.
I am not a man of deceit.
I have not stolen cultivated land.
I have not been an eavesdropper.
I have not slandered anyone.
I have not been angry without just cause.
I have not debauched the wife of any man.
I have not debauched the wives of other men.
I have not polluted myself.
I have terrorized none.
I have not transgressed the law.
I have not been angry.
I have not shut my ears to the words of truth.
I have not blasphemed.
I am not a man of violence.
I have not been a stirrer up of strife.
I have not acted with undue haste.
I have not pried into other’s matters.
I have not multiplied my words in speaking.
I have wronged none, I have done no evil.
I have not worked witchcraft against the king.
I have never stopped the flow of water of a neighbor.
I have never raised my voice.
I have not cursed God.
I have not acted with arrogance.
I have not stolen the bread of the gods.
I have not carried away the khenfu cakes from the spirits of the dead.
I have not snatched away the bread of the child, nor treated with contempt the god of my city.
I have not slain the cattle belonging to the god.
- I have not committed sin.
- 42 Negative Confessions (Papyrus of Ani)
- Maat or Maʽat (Egyptian comprised the ancient Egyptian concepts of truth, balance, order, harmony, law, morality, and justice. Ma’at was also the goddess who personified these concepts, and regulated the stars, seasons, and the actions of mortals and the deities who had brought order from chaos at the moment of creation. Her ideological opposite was Egyptian jzf, meaning injustice, chaos, violence or to do evil.
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That’s an interesting and potent point that material on the Exodus cannot all be read literally because as they stand there are things that cannot be made to fit, such as the date.
I’d love to hear more about the statement that the book of Exodus infers a thirteenth-century context!
Interesting illustration with the rifle; he’s using a technical definition of error that may be easily misunderstood, though. Then to contrast it with doubt – nice. Also the explanation of different kinds of evidence is superb.
I think I fell asleep in the middle . . . gonna have to watch it again!
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You really think the Jewish leaders thought it was important enough to record? All they might have noted that they had averted a rebellion and subsequent Roman retribution by getting a crazy blasphemer put to death in a way that should discourage other would-be Messiahs.
What would they record? As far as Pilate was concerned, he’d had a strange encounter in what was a strange land in the first place, and hopefully averted the need for military action. As for Rome, they didn’t care; executing people for sedition was part of the job. If they recorded every execution for sedition they would have needed a structure as large as a major temple.
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You tend to only get monuments from societies that can support a large ruling class (and indeed need one) and which have an abundance of labor. Monumental buildings do tend to indicate “important” societies, but their lack does not indicate a society should not be regarded as important; there are also exceptions where societies we might not consider important nevertheless had enough people to build some monumental structures and leave almost no other traces.
That seems backwards – waterskins are more practical if you’re traveling; if you stay in one place, even stone ‘jars’ that hold many liters become useful.
Interesting. Is there enough evidence to say if those were a village of permanent residents, or transient housing for visitors?
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you are playing both sides of the same argument Bill. On the one hand you say, “stop there…no physcial edvidence for excodus”, then on the other hand you say “we have historical evidence for the resurrection”.
surely you understand the logical problem there?
Let me expand a little…
The problem from a TEist point of view is that:
- They claim we are saved by faith, yet they deny and doubt the historicity of the Creation, The Flood, and The Exodus (citing faith isnt good enough) because theres no evidence…
However,
- TEists also take the literal view of Christ’s resurrection (faith is good enough) despite there being no physical evidence outside of the historical writings of the bible!
The logical problem is that the standard on the one hand also rejects the standard on the other, thus the two attempt to falsify each other. This is irreconcilable except to conclude that the entire Christian world view is false!
Atheists are easily able to explain morality outside of the use of God and the writings of the Bible…it evolved through trial and error!
Not really. The first group would be expected to leave physical evidence that can be examined by the scientific method. Think CSI.
Historical evidence, to make myself clear, doesn’t require physical evidence just a written record of the eyewitnesses. A eyewitness story is not subject to a scientific examination usually (excluding tests for portions of their story for example).
Because a literal creation, global flood, and the Exodus isn’t required for salvation. We are saved because we have believed Jesus, not Ken Ham or George McCready Price.
What physical evidence for the resurrection can you provide? Eyewitness testimony isn’t physical. You are comparing apples and oranges and saying if you don’t like the apples you have to throw out the oranges. My faith in Christ isn’t based on the Bible, but on a personal experience with the risen Savior. That is what allows me to read and understand the Bible.
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Not quite. In astronomy I remember encountering things that had been deemed possible, and thus people were actively looking for them. Black holes were in that category for a long time.
The more that a science is field science (“field” defined broadly) the less likely it is that there are things that are repeatable. With a large enough sample size it may be possible to find additional examples, of course – one reason the JWST is so awesome; it is able to actually hunt for things astronomers previously could only hope to trip over (I wish we had half a dozen Hubbles and three JWSTs!).
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Faith in the Bible should flow from faith in Christ.
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You’re right, my bad. I mixed up these terms.
This is from Dr. Davis’ article:
Tell el Borg
“A fire pit and nonstructural fence lines mark the first, more temporary occupation. These features suggest animal enclosures, not domestic dwellings. These were probably sporadically used by the local Shasu or by travelers passing through on the coastal route before the Egyptian garrison occupied the site.
"The main domestic occupation dates to the 15th century BC. The huts and associated features appear organized on a familial level, with animals quartered among the huts. The presence of ceramic materials, albeit in sherd form and not restorable pots, suggests more-permanent use of the site. … The large fire pit … evidences repeated use. The groundstone artifacts are portable but could also have been deliberately left on site in a cycle of repeated occupation. …
“Trade with the garrison may not have been the only motivation for temporary occupation at the site. The huts could have been occupied by a family group that was passing through the frontier posts. Traffic could have been seasonal. With various groups settling down for a short time near the garrison during the summer to be close to a water source, or gain the protection of the garrison in unsettled times.” p. 237-238
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I think you may like these two articles:
What We Know About Slavery in Egypt
What Kind of Construction Did the Israelites Do in Egypt?
In Egyptian thinking, when you died your heart was weighed. You could only enter the afterlife if your heart was lighter than the feather of Ma’at.
So this shows another Egyptian theme within Exodus:
Then [Yahweh] said to Moses, “Pharaoh’s heart is unyielding [Hebrew: “heavy”]; he refuses to let the people go.
(Exodus 7:14, NIV)
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They must have gotten assimilated. 
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- And. contrary to N.T. Wright’s claim otherwise, some ancient Egyptians believed in Life after death and a resurrection.
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Good point. I would counter it with saying that there are three key differences between the primeval history (Genesis 1-11) and the Exodus-Conquest account.
- Kind of evidence:
There is no evidence outside of the Bible to support the historicity of the Exodus-Conquest (although the Merneptah stele may support a sojourn in Egypt). Yet the accounts fit within the context of the period. On the other hand, science contradicts the primeval history.
- Kind of genre:
The primeval history looks the same as the other non-historical mythic accounts of the ancient Near East. But the Exodus-Conquest has much in common with historical accounts of the Late Bronze and Early Iron Age.
- Reception within the Hebrew Bible.
Events of the primeval history are almost never repeated again in the other books of the Hebrew Bible. (To give one example, as far as I know Adam is only mentioned again in 1 Chronicles 1:1. He may be mentioned in Hosea 6:7.)
The Exodus-Conquest, on the other hand, is mentioned in laws, prophetic oracles, and songs.
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A few of the points that I am aware of (Compiled in Kitchen, 2003 On the Reliability of the Old Testament) are the political situation in the region (no outside powers thoroughly controlled Canaan from about 1250 BC on); assuming that the Raamses referenced in Exodus refers to Pi-Ramesses, it was built in the c. 1290 BC range, and abandoned c. 1070 BC; the form of the covenants in Exodus, Leviticus, Deuteronomy, and Joshua matches others from c. 1400 BC to c. 1200 BC, and not other periods; and the command not to take the northern possible route through Sinai would fit with the known distribution of the Egyptian military in the region.
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No doubt. The various burial practices and tombs were built around that idea. I suspect Moses and crew assimilated some of that belief as well.
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Oh ok I misunderstood then, sorry.
This is true, I was only trying to say that it is possible scientists might find a naturalistic explanation for the resurrection which wouldn’t surprise me.
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Maybe you’ll enjoy to join at he’s Discord Server
- Some have taken their research and study of the Shroud of Turin as far as they can using technology.
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Could someone work backwards from David and Saul? That historical record seems good.
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Like I said, Wyatt was a charlatan.
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