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ZAKHORIUM
PTEN

Date

1700BCE

1700–1600 BCE to c. 1550 BCEapproximate date

Rulers from Asia controlled part of Egypt and were expelled in the sixteenth century BCE, an episode sometimes linked to the Exodus without direct proof.

Political historyMigration and demography
1200 BCE
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Ancient Israel and Other Ancestors: each bar is an event of the period; this one is in coral.

Sourced narrative

Each block is a verifiable statement. The number opens the cited page; amber or coral blocks flag tradition or contested interpretation.

4 statements

Statements for this event

03

Egypt was real and had been in contact with Canaan since before writing: Egyptians went to Canaan as travelers, soldiers, traders and, when Canaan was under their rule, administrators; Canaanites went to Egypt as migrants, slaves and traders (the name Canaan itself may derive from 'trader'). Hieroglyphic writing and kingship arose there around the fourth millennium BCE.

01

The Hyksos (from the Egyptian for 'rulers of foreign lands') were a line of Asiatic rulers, possibly from Canaan itself, who held part of Egypt in the seventeenth century BCE and were driven out by native Egyptians in the sixteenth century BCE.

02

Contested interpretation

The Hyksos expulsion calls the Exodus to mind (a new king who does not remember Joseph and fears the Israelites, followed by Israel's flight), and some see Hyksos rule as the backdrop for Joseph's rise. The Egyptian historian Manetho, over 2,000 years ago, already blended the two stories. The authors, however, hesitate to tie the Exodus to any specific event, since traffic between Canaan and Egypt was constant.

Context

The Bible's picture of Israelites moving back and forth between Canaan and Egypt, as agents of the Egyptian government or as slaves, is plausible in a general sense. But showing something is possible does not prove the Exodus happened, and the silence of sources outside the Bible leads some to conclude it did not.

§ 03Historiography

What scholars debate

Positions shown side by side, unranked, as the source reports them. The source’s own assessment appears separately.

Scholarly debate · 01

Did the Exodus occur as a historical event?

2 positions · no single answer · take a seat →

  1. A

    A historical core

    Scholars who connect the account with movement between Egypt and Canaan

    Movement by workers, enslaved people and fugitives makes it possible that a memory of departure from Egypt lies behind the tradition.

  2. B

    Not demonstrated

    Skeptical scholars

    The absence of Egyptian confirmation and the Merneptah Stele's silence about foreign origins prevent verification of the episode.

The source’s assessmentContextual plausibility does not amount to proof, and the chapter leaves the matter open.

§ 04Network

Connections

§ 05Bibliography

Further reading

  • James B. Pritchard, Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1969).

    Translations of ancient Near Eastern sources · recommended in Efron, Lehmann and Weitzman, p. 32

§ 06Apparatus

Sources on this page

  1. 01Efron, Lehmann and Weitzman, p. 10; Efron, Lehmann and Weitzman, p. 10inspect
  2. 02Efron, Lehmann and Weitzman, p. 10; Efron, Lehmann and Weitzman, p. 10; Efron, Lehmann and Weitzman, p. 10inspect
  3. 03Efron, Lehmann and Weitzman, p. 8; Efron, Lehmann and Weitzman, p. 8inspect
  4. 04Efron, Lehmann and Weitzman, p. 9; Efron, Lehmann and Weitzman, p. 9inspect
  • Documented evidenceAttested by contemporary evidence: texts, inscriptions, coins, papyri or archaeology.
  • Scholarly reconstructionHistorians' inference from indirect evidence.
  • Tradition or narrativeA literary, traditional or religious account; significant in itself, but not independently verified.
  • Contested interpretationScholars explicitly disagree; see the positions in the debate.
  • Illustrative reconstructionA hypothesis or visual scheme to guide reading; not a historical claim.