Thread: Jews enslaved by Egyptians? Fact or Fiction?

So anyone who knows the Bible or any Judeo-Xian teachings, knows that the Jews were enslaved by the Egyptians and were forced to serve them until Moses asked the Pharaoh to let them go so he did, and after they crossed a damp mash during low tide, they wandered the desert for 40 years or some such nonsense.

However, I can find no proof outside of the bible to back up this outrageous claim. There's no proof the Jews were slaves for any amount of time to anyone let alone Egyptians for that long. And there's no proof in the deserts of a huge group of people wandering for 40 years, you'd think that many people would leave a footprint or something. Anyone got any evidence to help me out?
Please don't use the Bible, the Torah or any other religious book, to back it up. I'd like historical books, published journals or something of the sort.

The Jews were never in Egypt. Where's the proof.

Also, slaves did not build the pyramids.

You want to find millenia year old foot prints in the desert?

Originally Posted by Kushna Mufeed

You want to find millenia year old foot prints in the desert?

Maybe not footprints... but records of some kind surely would still exist if that were true.

Perhaps this is yet another claim from the bible that merely needs to be interpreted differently. Perhaps by "Jews", god really meant "Egyptians."

Originally Posted by Mes Tarrant

Maybe not footprints... but records of some kind surely would still exist if that were true.

Perhaps this is yet another claim from the bible that merely needs to be interpreted differently. Perhaps by "Jews", god really meant "Egyptians."

lulz

Originally Posted by Mes Tarrant

Perhaps by "Jews", god really meant "Egyptians."

God made a typo? He's culturally ignorant? It's all just 'the Middle East...Africa...you know...terrorists...' to him?

Probably.

Maybe it's lost history. Or maybe you haven't looked far enough into the issue. I mean, they were just one tribe, no? It's not like they were some giant civilization to leave behind tons of evidence.

Originally Posted by Mes Tarrant

Perhaps by "Jews", god really meant "Egyptians."

And by "Egyptians", he meant "space aliens".

Originally Posted by Xaqaria

Also, I can find no mention of the word slave at all in exodus.

That is because your version uses the word "servant" instead of "slave". It makes the Bible look more tame to say it's okay to beat your servant to death than to say it is okay to beat your slave to death.

I remember seeing something on this on Discovery once. There were in face Jews in Egypt, there was writing on walls that specifically mentioned *whatever the Jews called god at that time* found in Egypt.

They never found evidence that they were slaves though.

Originally Posted by Universal Mind

That is because your version uses the word "servant" instead of "slave". It makes the Bible look more tame to say it's okay to beat your servant to death than to say it is okay to beat your slave to death.

Um no, if you kill your slave you are liable for death, if you knock out his tooth you are obligated to free him.

Originally Posted by Jonathan

Um no, if you kill your slave you are liable for death, if you knock out his tooth you are obligated to free him.

You can't kill a slave on the spot, but it is okay to beat him and leave him for dead if he dies like two days later. That is because he is "your property".


Exodus 21:20-21
When a man strikes his male or female slave with a rod so hard that the slave dies under his hand, he shall be punished. If, however, the slave survives for a day or two, he is not to be punished, since the slave is his own property.