I would add to Margreet Steiner's article the research by Burton MacDonald in his 2000 Book titled _East of The Jordan_, published by the American Schools of Oriental Research in Boston. He presents the archaeological findings for every site mentioned in the Exodus narratives for Edom, Moab and Ammon. He concluded that the Exodus best fits or aligns with the Late Iron Age II Period (the 8th-6th centuries BC). My own research has concluded that the Exodus narratives were composed in the Babylonian Exile to explain why Israel and Judah were in Exile, for having offended their God. I further understand that two historical events have been collapsed and fused together into the Exodus, (1) The Hyksos Expulsion from Egypt by Pharaoh Ahmose I of circa 1530 BC and (2) The Iron Age I settlements that suddenly appear in Canaan and Trans-Jordan. I understand Abraham is a quasi-fictional character of the Iron Age I period, based on his interactions with Philistines at Gerar and Beersheba (the Philistines arriving in Canaan circa 1175 BC in the days of Pharaoh Rameses III). Beersheba's well was excavated and in its depths were found Philistine sherds, dated circa 1140 BC by the Israeli archaeologists, for me, the proof of this well being contended by Abraham and Philistines. Beersheba as a settlement is no earlier than Iron Age I, and the Bible has Joshua distributing Beersheba "as a city," (Joshua 15:21, 28) to a victorious Israel. The evidence for the Hyksos Expulsion being recast as the Exodus is the archaeological findings at Jericho by Dame Kathleen Kenyon. She noted the city's last defensive wall collapsed due to an earthquake and the city was thereupon burned by its beseigers, which she proposed were the Egyptians, in pursuit of the Hyksos, and out to make Canaan a part of the Egyptian Empire for the next 400 years (1530-1130 BC). Based on the stories about Abraham interacting with Philistines at Beersheba's well, I understand the Iron Age I settlers in Trans-Jordan and Canaan are coming from Harran, Syria, as this is presented as Abraham's home. To prove this, clay cooking pots in Early Iron I sites need to be spectographically analyzed and compared to Syrian clays (Harran). If a match, then Iron I Canaan is being hit by two migrations, Israel from Syria and Philistines from the Aegean. Because there were no Philistines in Canaan before 1175 BC to oppose an Exodus from Egypt, the biblical story is fiction. That is to say there was no reason fro Israel to take a detour to the Red Sea (Gulf of Suez) and the southern Sinai's Mt. Sinai. Israel would have taken the fastest route, the way to the land of Zthe Philistines which ends at Gaza.
Not realizing there were no Philistines to oppose an Exodus from Egypt, the biblical narrator had Israel take a southern detour via the southern Sinai. Regards, Walter R. Mattfeld
I would add to Margreet Steiner's article the research by Burton MacDonald in his 2000 Book titled _East of The Jordan_, published by the American Schools of Oriental Research in Boston. He presents the archaeological findings for every site mentioned in the Exodus narratives for Edom, Moab and Ammon. He concluded that the Exodus best fits or aligns with the Late Iron Age II Period (the 8th-6th centuries BC). My own research has concluded that the Exodus narratives were composed in the Babylonian Exile to explain why Israel and Judah were in Exile, for having offended their God. I further understand that two historical events have been collapsed and fused together into the Exodus, (1) The Hyksos Expulsion from Egypt by Pharaoh Ahmose I of circa 1530 BC and (2) The Iron Age I settlements that suddenly appear in Canaan and Trans-Jordan. I understand Abraham is a quasi-fictional character of the Iron Age I period, based on his interactions with Philistines at Gerar and Beersheba (the Philistines arriving in Canaan circa 1175 BC in the days of Pharaoh Rameses III). Beersheba's well was excavated and in its depths were found Philistine sherds, dated circa 1140 BC by the Israeli archaeologists, for me, the proof of this well being contended by Abraham and Philistines. Beersheba as a settlement is no earlier than Iron Age I, and the Bible has Joshua distributing Beersheba "as a city," (Joshua 15:21, 28) to a victorious Israel. The evidence for the Hyksos Expulsion being recast as the Exodus is the archaeological findings at Jericho by Dame Kathleen Kenyon. She noted the city's last defensive wall collapsed due to an earthquake and the city was thereupon burned by its beseigers, which she proposed were the Egyptians, in pursuit of the Hyksos, and out to make Canaan a part of the Egyptian Empire for the next 400 years (1530-1130 BC). Based on the stories about Abraham interacting with Philistines at Beersheba's well, I understand the Iron Age I settlers in Trans-Jordan and Canaan are coming from Harran, Syria, as this is presented as Abraham's home. To prove this, clay cooking pots in Early Iron I sites need to be spectographically analyzed and compared to Syrian clays (Harran). If a match, then Iron I Canaan is being hit by two migrations, Israel from Syria and Philistines from the Aegean. Because there were no Philistines in Canaan before 1175 BC to oppose an Exodus from Egypt, the biblical story is fiction. That is to say there was no reason fro Israel to take a detour to the Red Sea (Gulf of Suez) and the southern Sinai's Mt. Sinai. Israel would have taken the fastest route, the way to the land of Zthe Philistines which ends at Gaza.
Not realizing there were no Philistines to oppose an Exodus from Egypt, the biblical narrator had Israel take a southern detour via the southern Sinai. Regards, Walter R. Mattfeld