- Introduction
- When Did the First Passover Observance Occur?
- Is There Evidence That a Large Group of People Wandered in the Desert?
- Are There Extra-Biblical Reports of the Sinai Event?
Having just described what counts as evidence and the differences between sufficient evidence and absolute truth, we can apply it to the Sinai event. Because my goal is only to define what counts as evidence, I am not actually presenting research done on this particular topic, which the reader may do on his own time.
If you find yourself wondering if there is any evidence for the Sinai event, you would have to first determine what consists as evidence. What counts as evidence given the nature of this event? This depends on how can we categorize the Sinai event. Because the Jews make supernatural claims about the Sinai event, and do not claim the same about anything else, can we really put it any existing category? Even though the Sinai event possesses clear differences from any natural event, it nevertheless shares some things in common with other historical events. After all, Jews do consider the Sinai event to be historical, i.e., having actually occurred. If it was historical then there are certain historical elements left behind by the Sinai event.
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When Did the First Passover Observance Occur?
Of course religious Jews will tell you that the first Passover observance was none other than the exodus from Egypt with Moshe as the leader at the Hand of God. But the critic would argue that you cannot use your assumption to prove your point, and in this case he would be right. So we can ask the critic to provide us another date or historical point for the observance of the first Passover. The critic has to provide us with this information because the majority of Jews, across the religious spectrum, observe Passover. Because it has become common practice, it has to have some origin. Our question to the critic is, "What is Passover's point of origin if not the Sinai event, as we claim?" Was it during the Sinai event or did the Jews observe the first Passover at a later point in history? It is certainly plausible that the Jews started keeping Passover, for example, in the 13th century and linked it to a theoretical exodus. However, there is no evidence supporting the conclusion that the first Passover was observed, in this example, in the 13th century. We are left with two categories of possibilities. The first category is that the first Passover occurred at the Sinai event. The second category is that it occurred at any point in time after the claimed Sinai event under different circumstances and for any set of reasons.
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Is There Evidence That a Large Group of People Wandered in the Desert?
What kind of evidence would substantiate our claim that a large group of people spent a significant period of time in the desert of Sinai? The first place to look would be the actual locations where they camped. Rashi counts that the Jews made 37 total encampments over the 40 years between the exodus and the settlement of Canaan. This means that the Jews spent slightly over a year in each place (on average 1 year and 12 days). That would be a good starting point. If you succeed in matching the current sites with their original locations, you could look for evidence and other remains of a presence in those areas. For example, what kind of things do people leave in a location that they've camped in for a year? Clothing? Clay cooking vessels? Religious articles? Animal remains (camels, donkeys)? Burial plots? What can we find according to the description given to us in the Torah? It is important to develop an idea of what type of evidence you are looking for before looking for it. You must also consider whether the aforementioned articles have deteriorated by now.
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Are There extra-Biblical Reports of the Sinai Event?
Before attempting to find extra-Biblical reports of the Sinai event, we should ask whether it is common for nations to produce reports about events that occurred to other nations. This in part depends on three things:
- It would be unlikely for another nation to report on an insignificant event, even if the event occurred to their own nation. But the revelation of the Torah was a great event, so we could assume that another nation or nations kept some written record of it. For example, if we entertain the notion that Jewish hands, and not God wrote the Torah, we should note that there is no reference to birth or death dates or what type of food people ate. From its absence we can conclude that this information was irrelevant.
- Even if the Sinai event was great, according to their own understanding, it might not have made a great impact on other nations. Why would neighboring nations put the effort in creating a written record of an event that in their estimation did not affect them? To contrast, the only other people we can expect to have kept their own records of the Sinai event are the Egyptians. Although disagreement exists among Egyptologists, the Ipuwer Papryus records "some suggested parallels with the Book of Exodus." The Huffington Post ran an article titled Passover in Egypt: Did the Exodus Really Happen? - that addresses the following points:
- The Ipuwer Papyrus
- The Israelites' Travel Itinerary and the Egyptian Maps
- Aper-el's Tomb
- The Shiphra Papyrus
- Not yet written
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Related Posts
- Does God Exist? (Part 1 - Definition of Proof)
- Does God Exist? (Part 2 - Evidence for God's Existence)
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