Interesting data concerning the Sojourn of Israel in Egypt has been made known by Dr. A. Yahuda, delivering a series of lectures here on this subject.
Dr. Yahuda said that the recent excavations at Jericho had provided a valuable confirmation of the Biblical statement that the building of the temple under Solomon has been completed 480 years after the Exodus.
Professor Garstang had shown that the earthquake which destroyed the walls at Jericho must have taken place about the year 1410 B.C.E. which exactly accorded with the Biblical date that would place the Exodus at 1450 B.C.E. allowing 40 years for the wandering in the wilderness, stated Dr. Yahuda.
The name “Rameses” in the Exodus story did not necessarily refer to Rameses II, who lived some 150 years later, but even if it did, the reference might be a gloss by a copyist who wished to identify places then known by that name, just as “New York” would be substituted for “New Amsterdam” by a modern writer referring to the settlement in the early 17th century.
Dr. Yahuda emphasized the enormous importance of the excavations at Jericho which gave a key for further investigations into Israel’s history.
The Biblical saying “truth will grow out of the earth” was being literally fulfilled, he said, by the excavations.
Dealing with the story of the ten plagues, he said that it could only have been written in Egypt by one who lived in that country and was familiar with local conditions. Thus the plague of hail which so impressed Pharaoh did so because rain and hail were practically unknown in Egypt. In Palestine, on the other hand, torrential rains were usual and hail storms did not cause so much damage as in Egypt.
Dr. Yahuda said that Pharoah’s reproach when Moses demanded that the Children of Israel should be allowed to journey into the wilderness to sacrifice to their God assumed a special interest when seen in the light of Egyptian conditions. On a limestone in the British Museum were the entries of an Egyptian labor overseer recording the number of absent workmen and the reasons for their abstention. In many cases the excuse was that they wanted to sacrifice to the gods. Thus when Moses came with his request to the Pharoah the monarch regarded it as the familiar pretext.
There was a record, Dr. Yahuda said, of an Egyptian strike, and Pharoah, when ordering Moses and Aaron not to
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
