Paganism Fourteen

(NOTE: Some of the themes of these articles may not be appropriate for young readers. Please keep that in mind when sharing this information).

It is written:

“They made life hard for the Israelites. They forced the Israelites to work hard at making bricks and mortar and to work hard in the fields. The Egyptians showed no mercy in all the hard work they made the Israelites do!” (Exodus 1:14)

Were the Hebrews slaves in Egypt as the Bible teaches?

Many critics of the Bible say this is something which later editors invented, and that there were no Hebrew slaves in Egypt when the Bible says that they were there.

However, the science of archeology has confirmed the truthfulness of the Bible.

“There is no doubt that there was a significant Semitic population throughout Egypt during the New Kingdom (see chap. 3).Because of the preponderance of epigraphic evidence for a Syro-Palestinian presence in Egypt from the mid to late second millennium B.C., even the most skeptical historian cannot dismiss the fact that both the Bible and Egyptian sources agree on this situation.42 Even as far south as Thebes there was a significant number of Semitic-speaking people during the Empire period.43 The names of Semites have even turned up among the workers of Deir el-Medineh in western Thebes.44” (James K. Hoffmeier, Israel In Egypt: The Evidence For The Authenticity Of The Exodus Tradition, 3689-3697 (Kindle Edition); New York, New York; Oxford University Press)

Cooper speaks of an interesting fact which often goes unmentioned by those who criticize the Bible: the existence of an Egyptian list of Hebrew slaves dating back to the time of the Exodus!

“If the children of Jacob were never slaves in Egypt in the first place, then how comes it that there lies in the Brooklyn Museum a papyrus, conventionally dated to around 1700 BC, which lists a number of Hebrew slaves, slaves who possessed such familiar names as Shiphrah and Menahem? 12 Shiphrah is of considerable interest to us, for that is the name of one of the Hebrew midwives mentioned in Exodus 1:15. Is it one and the same person? Who knows? However, not only the slaves’ names, but their offices and duties are also listed – ‘chief over the house’ (the very same office, that of ‘mer- per’, which Joseph held under Potiphar), ‘house servant’ and so on. Out of 95 slaves listed for this particular household, 37 no less are Hebrew. 13” (Bill Cooper, The Authenticity Of The Book Of Genesis, 2035-2040 (Kindle Edition)).

The Hebrews were slaves in Egypt, just as the Bible teaches.