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Profile:
Name: Exodus (Hebrew: twmv hlaw, "these are the names")
Author: various, but attributed to Moses
Dates: between 1400 and 1200 BCE
Exodus:
The second book of the Pentateuch, Exodus is primarily concerned with recounting how
the Jews escaped slavery in Egypt and, with Moses' leadership, traveled to Canaan.
Later, under the leadership of Joshua, Canaan was conquered and Israelite rule
established. If the flight actually occurred, it probably happened around the
mid-thirteenth century BCE, during the reign of Ramses II. The book itself was
probably written by the late 6th century BCE.
However, no evidence of an actual exodus as described has been found. There are no signs of either dwellings of migration anywhere in Sinai - not even a single piece of broken pottery. Modern scholars believe that the "conquest" of Canaan more likely took place over a very long period of time as semitic peoples migrated to the area, and that other semitic peoples closely related already lived there.
Also Known As: none
Alternate Spellings: none
Common Misspellings: none
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