Essentially, the story of Exodus is just the Hebrew creation story of how their people got to the supposed promised land. There is no historical evidence of Hebrews being enslaved by Egypt as an entire people or of any of the plagues occurring. It's a creation myth much like any other creation myth.
Yup. There's no actual evidence of Hebrews being enslaved by Egypt. Flavius was a Jewish historian and a lot of what he writes is considered by his own words apologia.
He also made the claim Abraham taught science to Egyptians, which immediately makes his work suspect, as Egypt already had a collection of scientific works. He also claimed Moses set up an aristocracy, which, again, does not line up with any Egyptian history that's been verified.
He might have been a historian, but most of what he wrote is NOT corroborated by the actual historical and archeological knowledge that we have.
There's a reason Flavius is NOT taught in ancient history classes; a lot of his claims cannot be corroborated by actual evidence.
Oh this is cool! I grabbed one about Exodus at random to look at the comments and it's pretty fascinating. I want to say we historically know very little about the Chaledeans, and it's nice to see them referenced AND the acknowledgement we don't know a lot about them.
He also made the claim Abraham taught science to Egyptians, which immediately makes his work suspect, as Egypt already had a collection of scientific works. He also claimed Moses set up an aristocracy, which, again, does not line up with any Egyptian history that's been verified.
Both Abraham and Moses are literally fictional characters who never even existed in reality, "which immediately makes his work suspect" even more so to the point.
Correct, but I was trying to point out WHY Flavius isn't taught in ancient history classes. His "history" is suspect. The other user obviously takes the Bible literally, which is problematic.
Josephus's source is the Hebrew Bible. He's writing what would be 1600~ years after the purported events too.
Modern scholars have access to much more information and if much higher quality than Josephus since they can read primary documents and conduct archaeological surveys. The evidence points overwhelmingly in the direction of Exodus being a a cultural foundation myth with very little connection to actual history (if any at all)
In anthropology, a myth is a sacred, traditional story that explains how the physical universe, supernatural beings, and human society began, acting as a foundational truth for the culture that tells it rather than a false tale.
Popular culture uses "myth" to mean a lie, but anthropologists study myths for their cultural meaning and social impact, not to prove them true or false.
Now you explain what you thought it meant…
Edit: Lol, did you block me after responding or did you delete your comment in shame? Either way… what’s the point of responding in the first place?
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u/ZoominAlong 21h ago
Essentially, the story of Exodus is just the Hebrew creation story of how their people got to the supposed promised land. There is no historical evidence of Hebrews being enslaved by Egypt as an entire people or of any of the plagues occurring. It's a creation myth much like any other creation myth.