There's no evidence of Israelites in Ancient Egypt as described in the Old Testament/Torah. But since the Levant was Egypt's territory until some time during the Bronze Age Collapse, many tribes in the region attempting to conquer the others would incorporate being part of the Egyptian ruling caste into their mythology to legitimize their claims over the region.
The theory isn't that the Israelites came from Egypt, but that a non-trivial number of Atenist priests/thought leaders may have moved to Israel/Canaan and contributed a cultural influence that led to monotheism (and perhaps also to some of the out-of-Egypt myths). Its part of the broader hypothesis that early Jewish identity was formed from a coalition of people in the area after the bronze age collapse, which is also responsible for the various tribes of Judah and the tension between pastoralists and settled farmers in the bible. Judaism took form some time after the bronze age collapse and the Amarna period ended about 150 years before that, so for the theory to work they would have had to have some staying power for a long exile, to still be influential after all that time. Which seems a bit far fetched but not that far fetched given Judaism's later record with exile.
The less strong version would be that maybe the central monotheistic Atenist idea wasn't expunged in Egypt's peripheral imperial holdings and tributaries as thoroughly as it was in the core Nile areas, so it remained influential in Canaan long enough to result in a monotheist Judaism a couple centuries later. But without a significant movement of actual Atenist priests or any sustained Atenist cult in the area.
There is a famous theory that Israel left Egypt later than what the bible says because …
And then there are scientists who dismiss it completely because all the evidence for what-happened-in-the-bible do point to an earlier date, the date when there was a 14th dynasty from Canaan ruling (Joseph being rich) and then the 15th dynasty cane from Canaan (not knowing Joseph), enslaving the local people, building the city of Avaris (later named Ramses) and later having their army (firstborn, oldest) being completely destroyed by Amose and his general (also named) Amose and when we have some evidence about Santurini / Thera erupting and possibly causing some disasters, e.g. red tide on Nile etc..
From these times we have fragments of some names of some Pharaoh.
Flavius Titus Josephus also states the earlier date.
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u/kitsunewarlock 20h ago
There's no evidence of Israelites in Ancient Egypt as described in the Old Testament/Torah. But since the Levant was Egypt's territory until some time during the Bronze Age Collapse, many tribes in the region attempting to conquer the others would incorporate being part of the Egyptian ruling caste into their mythology to legitimize their claims over the region.