Tucson, Arizona Tuesday, 26 March 2002
Biblical archaeologist at UA doubts some Exodus events
Story told at Passover can't be exactly true, professor's book says
By Stephanie Innes
ARIZONA DAILY STAR
Benjie Sanders / Staff
William Dever, author and biblical archaeologist, with a jug dating from 1600 B.C.
A University of Arizona professor renowned for his work in biblical archaeology has written a book that casts doubt on some events of the Exodus - the story that will be told as members of the Jewish faith begin to observe Passover on Wednesday at sundown.
"We now know that the biblical story of the Exodus cannot have happened exactly as it's told," said William G. Dever, professor of Near Eastern anthropology and archaeology, whose book, "Who Were the Israelites and Where Did They Come From?" is due out this fall.
The Exodus story of Jewish liberation from enslavement in Egypt forms the foundation of the Jewish faith. The story, found in the Old Testament and the Hebrew Bible, tells of how Moses led enslaved Israelites to freedom after God sent down 10 plagues against Egypt, including slaying the first-born sons of the ancient Egyptians.
The story says God parted the Red Sea, allowing the Jews to escape to the desert where they wandered for 40 years before conquering the Land of Canaan in Israel, their promised land.
Among other things, Dever says, there's no external evidence that Moses existed, that the Red Sea parted, or that the Jewish people annihilated the Canaanites in battle.
He says the land the Israelites are said to have wandered for 40 years could not possibly have included as many as 3 million people, the number he says Exodus suggests. Dever also says there's no way to prove that God slew first-born babies.
"I suggest the biblical stories are largely mythologic,'' he said. "There is a kernel of truth in the biblical stories, but they have been greatly exaggerated by the writers of the Bible, and archaeology has shown that to be true."
Modern archaeologists have spent the last 100 years excavating ancient sites, trying to find proof of events in the Bible. Evidence has been uncovered that indicates what probably did happen, and that evidence doesn't support everything that's contained in the Bible.
Critics, including some local rabbis, dismiss Dever's assertions, saying that the events of the Exodus were miracles that can't be scientifically supported.
"Deeply religious people don't need his interpretation. Jews have a tradition that's 3,400 years old, and from the time of Abraham 3,800 years. Thank you for your help, but we don't need it,'' said Rabbi Israel Becker of the Orthodox Congregation Chofetz Chayim and director of Southwest Torah Institute in Tucson.
"When you look at the world with an open mind, the case for God is so powerful. I encourage people with an open mind to look at the beauty of the world, the beauty of creation. What a beautiful gift God has given us in a Tucson sunset, for example. Archaeology will never disprove that."
Rabbi Robert Eisen of the conservative Congregation Anshei Israel, Tucson's largest synagogue, with about 2,500 members, said the questions Dever raises are irrelevant to worship in Judaism.
"I don't know if anyone can go back to the accuracy of archaeology and say it's always right," Eisen said. "Is the Bible history or is it a story? To me it teaches certain truths which are undeniable and need to be remembered and made part of our lives. It is true in terms of our tradition and the truths it teaches and the future we are supposed to build.''
Last Passover, Rabbi David Wolpe, leader of the conservative Los Angeles Congregation Sinai Temple and author of several books on Judaism, made headlines when he told his congregation that "virtually every modern archaeologist who has investigated the story of the Exodus, with very few exceptions, agrees that the way the Bible describes the Exodus is not the way it happened, if it happened at all."
The issue was pushed into the popular press with an article in the Los Angeles Times, even though, Dever said, it's not big news for scholars that the Exodus and conquest stories are not very factual. He was angered by a cover story in this month's Harper's Magazine titled "False Testament,'' which says archaeology refutes the Bible as history.
"Either the scholars are fools for saying the Exodus never happened or the press hasn't listened," Dever said of the Harper's piece. "An Exodus of some sort probably did take place, but involving a very small number of people.
"I think there was a Moses-like figure who was the leader of this group, but he would not fit the biblical description exactly. Finally, there would have been some armed conflict between the early Israelites and the Canaanites, but most scholars feel the settlement was largely peaceful. It was a cultural struggle, not a military combat."
Dever's new book is the second in a trilogy that began with, "What Did the Biblical Writers Know and When Did They Know it?" The third book will focus on the real religions of ancient Israel.
In the book due out in the fall, Dever said he tries to sort out what archaeology can and cannot do. And he tries to interpret the findings for religious people.
"I point out how it does contribute to biblical studies. The truth lies in the middle, you know,'' he said. "It will show that the Exodus story, all of it, cannot be literally true. That will be shocking news to some."
Still, many Jewish people are not offended or even surprised by the findings.
"What (Dever) says only presents a problem if you are a fundamentalist,'' said Rabbi David Freelund, assistant rabbi at the reform Temple Emanu-El in Midtown. "Religious faith is determined more by our relationship to the sacred literature than the events themselves. It's telling and retelling that embodies culture, and religion is culture."
A former Protestant clergyman who converted to Judaism 13 years ago, Dever lived in Israel for 12 years. He said a lot of people appear to be confused about the findings of archaeology and whether it undermines the Bible.
"These are larger-than-life stories. I think the important thing is - and this is so hard for people to grasp - that the Bible doesn't have to be literally true in every detail to be true in a religious sense,'' he said. "So when people ask me, 'Did the Exodus happen?' I say the Exodus is a metaphor for liberation. It's a story about the mystery of history. In all those senses I think it's profoundly meaningful."
But the story as it's told does have some surface flaws from an archaeological perspective, Dever said. The Exodus story refers to 600,000 men fleeing Egypt. Factor in women and children and it could total several million people. Dever and other scholars say the ancient desert never could have supported so many people.
Dever stresses that his research does not disprove the Exodus. If the story were entirely fiction, then the faith of both ancient Israel and modern Judaism would be without foundation, and that's not what the research shows.
"Something happened that gave rise to the story of the Exodus," he said. "But I'm suggesting the event itself was rather small and perhaps even insignificant. Later it becomes the great watershed of Israelite history. I try to ask, how did it arise, why was it preserved, why did it become so central?"
The Exodus story forms the core of the liturgy that's read during Passover.
Said Rabbi Thomas Louchheim of the Reform Congregation Or Chadash on the North Side: "I'd like to believe it happened the way it's described. It wouldn't surprise me if it didn't.
"All religious faiths have their stories, which bolster their understanding of their relationship with God. To me it's not germane whether these stories can be proven or not.''
Louchheim and other rabbis emphasize that the Exodus still could have occurred exactly the way it's told.
Anyone who knows for sure has been dead a very long time,'' Louchheim said.
* Contact Stephanie Innes at 573-4134 or at sinnes@azstarnet.com. |
