Exodus-introduction

Sometime prior to 1550 BCE Abraham left Ur on his journey of faith through Canaan.
His descendants (Isaac and Jacob) continued their nomadic existence until Joseph joined the Egyptian court and Jacob and all related families joined him.
According to the Old Testament, they remained their until about 1250 BCE when Moses led the tribes out of Egypt (‘The Exodus’) back to Canaan.
After settling in the ‘Promised Land’ the ‘Judges’ were appointed and governed for about 200 years until Saul, David and Solomon were anointed as kings.
About 922 BCE the land was split into two kingdoms: Israel in the North and Judah in the south.
1. Around 721 BCE the northern kingdom was destroyed by the Assyrians and the kingdom dispersed.
2. The southern kingdom survived alone until about 587 BCE when the Babylonians invaded, destroyed the Temple and took many of the inhabitants into exile as slaves.
The Persians conquered the Babylonian Empire and the Persian king (Cyrus) allowed the Jews to return to Judah and the Temple was rebuilt.

Exodus (together with Genesis, Deuteronomy, Numbers and Leviticus) appears to have been compiled around 500 BCE after the return from exile.
There is no archaeological evidence to back up the account.
At the time of the Exodus, Canaan was under Egyptian rule.
Many of the place names used in Exodus did not exist until 200/300 years later.
There is no evidence of a large-scale exodus from Egypt at that time.
There is some doubt as to whether the Hebrews (Joseph, Jacob etc) ever settled in Egypt as described in Genesis (no historical mention in Egyptian documents).
If Moses wrote Exodus (as was maintained), how did he describe his own birth and death?
Exodus appears to have been compiled from at least two sources and contains stories that appear in histories of other contemporary civilisations.
At the beginning of Exodus, God is referred to as ‘El’ (eg ‘El-Shaddai’: ‘God Most High’), later as ‘Yahweh’ (‘God Revealed’), similar to a term used by a contemporary nomadic tribe. Did the two groups merge during the migration.

Moses and Aaron and Joshua do appear to be Egyptian names.
There are contemporary accounts of rebellions by administrative groups under Egyptian rule – but not by slaves, possibly in Canaan rather than Egypt.

If the Exodus did take place it may have been in waves of migration on a smaller scale.
Many scholars think that the Israelites emerged largely from tribal groups resident in Canaan, possibly reinforced by exiles from Egypt.
However, Exodus does have some historical content.
Exodus (and the Torah) was probably written to provide a basis for national identity after the return from exile
There may have been an intention to compare the escape from of slavery in Egypt to the redemption from slavery and exile under Nebuchadnezzar.