by Matt Giwer© 2000 [October 13]
You can also put this in the archeology column and perhaps the atheism column. The quick summary is prior to the time of the Book of Ezra archeology has either failed to confirm or flatly contradicted just about every critical issue in the Old Testament.
The itemized version is that there is no evidence of the existence of not only Adam and Eve which most people generally accept but none of Abraham, Moses, David, Solomon or any of the other people mentioned. Nor is there any evidence of any of the events or situations described. Not only no evidence of a Solomon or his temple but also no evidence the Jerusalem even existed at the time.
From what has been learned by archaeologists, what few particulars there are about Egypt in Exodus are flat out wrong. The kingdom of Solomon simply did not exist. Despite digging by Israel there is no sign of any Temple of Solomon. Not only that the description of Solomon is nearly identical to that a one of the Pharaohs who is well known, making Solomon the copy.
And the Wailing Wall that is supposed to be a remaining wall of the second temple was identified as the wall of a 17th century cemetery some three seconds before the researcher's archaeological research permit was pulled. That leads to the rather clear conclusion the entire confrontation over East Jerusalem and the so called temple mount by the Jews is no more than a superstition which has ignited the hostilities in the Mideast.
The Tomb of Joseph is the tomb of a 17th century Caliph. There was a mosque there before the recent destruction of the jewish building on the site.
What is known about the countries that form the eastern shore of the Mediterranean is that they were always under the control of some other nation, Egypt, Babylon, Assyria, Greece, Rome or whichever was the power in the region at the time.
In Egyptian, the word for throne is "Is." Ra was the chief god of Egypt. El was the chief god of the region. The region that was known as the Throne of Ra and El, Israel.
Despite a massive archaeological search of the Sinai Peninsula when Israel controlled it, not one sign of the millions of people and animals which supposedly wandered there for forty years was ever found. Should anyone ever consider the actual distances involved between Egypt and Jerusalem it is noted it is a leisurely five days walk away.
Just the two million Hebrews in the Exodus would form a line three abreast with the ranks five feet apart from the Nile to Jerusalem. That is not counting their slaves and animals, carts of possessions or anything else. They could have moved their possessions simply by passing them from person to person in a bucket brigade fire chain from Egypt to Israel.
With the collapse of the Moses story the entire foundation of Judaism, Christianity and Islam collapses. There simply no basis for them absent Moses. Even Abraham collapses as since there was no leaving Egypt there was no going there in the first place. But that has been obvious to anyone who ever bothered to critically consider the story.
The story goes that seventy-seven of Joseph's relatives went to Egypt from what is now Iraq. In a miracle of procreation they grew to 2 million in a bit over four hundred years. Yet they speak a language native to the region of Palestine rather than Egyptian or the language of ancient Iraq. And that language was never their native language. That is like expecting Blacks in America to speak their native Africa languages.
In addition to not speaking Egyptian there is no evidence of any borrowed words from Egyptian which is truly remarkable. Nor is there any indication of any talent, skill, or knowledge from Egypt. In fact was archaeologists do find in the region is a quite primitive culture with some indication the people were originally nomads, Bedouins, who attacked and defeated the cities and settled down.
Where they came from and where they got their religion we don't know yet. Genetic research has found those who claim to be the priests and those who do not make that claim came from different places as the priests have a distinctive genetic marker that could only have developed in reproductive isolation. The book of Ezra does include importing the religion to the region.
It is also about that time of Ezra that archaeologists find signs of images being defaced which indicates the destruction of the old polytheist religion. And that coincides with the time of the rise of monotheist cults such as Zoroaster and Mithra.
Archaeologists have confirmed the people were polytheists as the Bible says in no uncertain terms. The first commandment says clearly, no other gods and not false gods or any other terms which would indicate he was the only god. The term 'lord god' in the Old Testament is a false translation of 'Yahweh Elohim.' A more correct translation is Yahweh (personal name) of the Gods. Note the Elohim related to israEL.
Sacrificial altars are found all over the region. As inscription referring to Astarte as the consort of Yahweh has been found. Solid evidence that Astarte was worshiped by the women exists in the form of idols of Astarte and her worship continuing at least into the middle of the second century, about 150AD. What we find then is separate cults for men and women. Comparing that to what the Old Testament is constantly ranting about and we see it bears no relationship to the facts.
In other words the religion we know as Judaism was not created until sometime around or after the time of Ezra save the Astarte cult continued well into the second century AD and not in secret but was widespread and many places in Jerusalem. This is known by the idols of Astarte which have been found frequently and commonly "in the shadow of" the Temple Mount.
From carefully comparing what is written in the Old Testament to the facts as they are know suggests they were also written around the time of Ezra which was just after the Babylonian captivity. That explains why Pharaoh's court and priests behave like the Babylonian court and priests instead of like those in Egypt. There is reference in Exodus to a city in Egypt that was not built until hundreds of years after Exodus is supposed to have taken place.
None of this is a secret. In fact it is well known to biblical archaeologists. Unfortunately funding for research is largely raised from people and organizations with an interest in confirming the Bible. Therefore the researchers have one well hedged story for their contributors and another one for professional publications.
For example where a professional paper will open with a paragraph hinting at a biblical connection, perhaps naming a city or landmark. The next paragraph will rather clearly cite the discrepancies which will clearly indicate the first paragraph has no foundation. The rest of the paper will report real archeology. But to contributors the first paragraph gets expanded into an entire talk.
That is to be expected. This year there have been two examples of it. The first was a sonar return of the bottom of the Dead Sea that found two mounds that are shaped something like what buried cities look like on the ground. Nothing more was found. The press hype was that it was Sodom and Gomorrah. There is absolutely no evidence of that or any connection to anything named in the Old Testament.
The other example was confirming that there are remains of buildings at the bottom of the Black Sea. The hype for that was calling it proof of the flood of Noah in Genesis. Even if some day that should be found to be correct, it demonstrates there is no truth in the story in Genesis.
But it is the kind of hype people want to hear and it is the kind of hype which raises public funding. And even more, the researchers do not have to exaggerate or deceive as with all the hype they need only say "thought to be" or "as heard in the news" and believers will fill in the rest. Most people are like agent Moulder of The X-Files, they want to believe.
Reactions to the above are quite interesting. The first reaction of many people is to accuse the teller, to attack the messenger. Atheist, anti-Christian, anti-semitic are not uncommon usually laced with dire warnings of hell in the afterlife. I presume if there were more Muslims around it would also be called anti-Islamic.
Yet all I have pointed out including recent hype this year can be easily read by anyone who cares to do so. Anyone who simply remembers the two articles in the news would note there was no support for the claims in the headline and lead paragraph. But they will carry with them a memory of the hype not of the facts.
The supposed location of Solomon's Temple has been repeated so many times and has been featured in context of the current fighting in the illegally occupied territories that it is quite reasonable for people to believe it is true. It is so ingrained the reporters don't even bother saying it is the believed or supposed location.
And as to the Wailing Wall being the remains of the second temple that flies in the face of another commonly held belief, that the Romans leveled the temple when the rebuilt the city. Ridiculously inefficient to have left part of one of the walls standing. Roman completely rebuilt the city and brought it things like running water and sanitation. Under what conceivable circumstances would they leave just one wall?
In another article I point out that the entire Diaspora consists solely of the Romans prohibiting the Judeans (not all Jews just Judeans) from living inside the rebuilt city. Yet the common belief, which is solely pious legend, is that they were forced to leave all of Israel. That flat out never happened.
So Israel got started on a myth that Jews were forced to leave and had wandered the earth without a home. Fact, they left voluntarily. And now the current round of fighting over the mythical temple of the mythical Solomon.
The issue can not be the second temple as by their own beliefs there was never anything sacred in it. The Ark, judgment seat and the rest of sacred paraphernalia had long vanished. And in light of the above, that Moses is a total myth, so also the Exodus and the idea the sacred paraphernalia ever existed.
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