Is There Evidence of the Hebrews in Egypt?

By R. J. Gunter 

Every book I have ever read on the subject of Biblical Archeology seems to leave a big gap for the 400 years that the Hebrews were enslaved in Egypt.  Most time periods after that seem to be well documented with photos of pottery, tools, and remains of dwellings. However, if the book includes a chapter on Egypt, there will usually be a lot of color photos of the pyramids, mummies, and paintings found on Egyptian tomb walls. There will never be any evidence of the Hebrew culture discussed or pictured. Why is this? Archeology always proves the Bible, doesn’t it?

At the present time, the vast majority of Archeologists claim that there is absolutely no evidence of the Jews in Egypt. They claim that the history found in Genesis through Judges was simply made up by Jewish scholars attempting to explain their people’s origins.  Some of the so called, “Biblical Minimalists,” don’t believe that Abraham, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, King Saul, King David, or even Solomon ever existed. They put them into the same category of mythological heroes as King Arthur, or Robin Hood.
    
One of the most respected archeologists of the Palestine region is Dr. William Dever, who has more than 30 years experience and is a professor at the University of Arizona. In a recent interview for the PBS series NOVA, he was directly asked if there is any evidence for Moses and the exodus. His answer was, “We have no direct archeological evidence. …No one has ever found a text or artifact in Egypt itself or even the Sinai that has any direct connection.”
    
So what is going on here?  I believe that the problem with archeology in Egypt is a time-chronology problem. The origin of this problem comes from the Bible itself. The Bible isn’t wrong, it was simply a misinterpretation by Bible scholars of the last century.  The verse I am referring to is:
“Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with burdens. And they built for Pharaoh the supply cities of, Pithom and Raamses.” (Exodus 1:11 NKJV).
    
The problem is that scholars jumped to a conclusion.  They assumed that the city of Raamses must have gotten its name from the great Egyptian ruler, Ramesses II.  Assuming that Ramesses II was the Pharaoh of the Exodus, it was dated to about 1200 BC.  Ramesses ruled Egypt from about 1279 BC to 1213 BC. This was going against other verses in the Bible which, by counted back the number of years from the founding of the first Temple, placed the Exodus around 1450 BC.

So the real problem was that no matter where the archeologists looked for evidence of the Hebrews, they certainly would NOT find it. They were looking in the wrong time period.  It would be as if some future archeologists decided to look for evidence of the American Revolution and they were looking at layers of evidence from the twenty-first century. They certainly would not find any evidence of the American Revolution that occurred in the 1770s if they were off by more than 200 years from the supposed date.

Until recently, the cities mentioned in Exodus 1:11 were lost cities and many from archeology circles believed that they never existed.  Then in the later twentieth century, it was discovered that the city of Raamses had an older name.  Although it may have had the name changed under the rule of Ramesses the Great, the original Egyptian name was that of Avaris.   

The city of Avaris has recently been associated with a site in Nile delta known as Tel el-Dab’a and it is being excavated by Manfred Bietak, who is the head of the Austrian Institute of Archeology. Very little news has leaked out to the press about what they are finding there, but it is obvious that the inhabitants of Tel el-Dab’a were not Egyptian. What they are finding is the foundations of houses built in the failure U-shaped floor plans, which are exactly like the houses of the early Israelites found throughout Palestine. The site is so large that the population could easily be estimated at nearly 30,000 in this one settlement alone. Some of the finds are rumored to be fantastic. One of the finds was an elaborate, destroyed tomb of a high ranking official who was clearly not an Egyptian. Some have speculated that this may be the tomb of Joseph.

So far, there has been no official publication of what is being uncovered there. The official explanation is that they are excavating the dwelling of a group of people known as the “Hyksos,” who were rulers of the northern Kingdom of Egypt during the 18th Dynasty.  The Egyptian authorities have closely monitored the dig.  They escort the archeologists to the site every day and watch what they uncover. They are only allowed to excavate in one small area at a time. When they are finished with an area, they are forced to re-cover it with dirt.

So, the evidence being collected in the Nile delta region could eventually prove the events of the Exodus actually happened just like the Bible says it did. The ultimate answer that will be released to the world press depends upon how the evidence is interpreted, and the official interpretation is in the hands of Manfred Bietak. Regardless of what that interpretation turns out to be, what really happened cannot be changed. Science is always changing its mind, while the truth of the Bible stands firm.