Hemant took on Exodus 1

Everything Wrong With Exodus 1 in the Bible
Jan. 17, 2021 | Friendly Atheist
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4X_wBQiOQE

I

0:51 This is not a novel, this is history.

At the very least supposed to be such.

Genealogies are prime proof the Thora was not written for entertainment purposes and only later mistaken for a historic account. You either have history or fake history, you do not have a novel. I suppose this genealogy should have finally proven that point to you?

I suppose ...

II

1:58 75 or 70?

Acts 7:14 And Joseph sending, called thither Jacob, his father, and all his kindred, seventy-five souls.
http://drbo.org/chapter/51007.htm

Exodus 1:1-5 1 These are the names of the sons of Israel that came into Egypt together with Jacob their father; they came in each with their whole family. 2 Ruben, Simeon, Levi, Judas, 3 Issachar, Zabulon, Benjamin, 4 Dan and Nephthalim, Gad and Aser. 5 But Joseph was in Egypt. And all the souls [born] of Jacob were seventy-five.
https://www.ellopos.net/elpenor/greek-texts/septuagint/chapter.asp?book=2&page=1

St. Stephen quoted a text agreeing with the Septuagint, which I just quoted.

III

2:56 "to a countless number of people"

We are talking c. 1590 BC, 80 years before the actual Exodus (the event).

They would still not be quite as numerous as at the event. In Numbers we come to how numerous they were in terms of full grown men in 1510 BC:

Ruben : forty-six thousand five hundred
Simeon : Fifty-nine thousand three hundred
Gad : Forty-five thousand six hundred and fifty

Judah : seventy-four thousand six hundred
Issachar : fifty-four thousand four hundred
Zabulon : Fifty-seven thousand four hundred

Jo-Ephraim : Forty thousand five hundred
Jo-Manasses : Thirty-two thousand two hundred
Benjamin : Thirty-five thousand four hundred

Dan : Sixty-two thousand seven hundred
Aser : Forty-one thousand and five hundred
Nephthali : Fifty-three thousand four hundred

Levites, not counted.

46 500 040 06 0500 59 300 090 15 0800 45 650 130 20 1400 50 74 600 200 24 2000 54 400 250 28 2400 57 400 300 35 2800 40 500 340 35 3300 32 200 370 37 3500 35 400 400 42 3900 550 000 62 700 460 44 4600 048 000 41 500 500 45 5100 005 550 53 400 550 48 5500 603 550

http://drbo.org/chapter/04001.htm

603 550 - multiply by five for family of each 3 017 750.

In how many years? Joseph took his family to Egypt c. 1725 BC, Exodus occurred in 1510 BC. Makes 215 years.

3 017 750 / 70 - I suppose that would be not counting Levites from first batch - equals 43 112. If we get to how many generations, this would be about 6 generations. 6th root of 43112 = 5.92 per generation. Sounds reasonable. Or if you think 35 years is long for a generation (though it wasn't between Levi and Moses, one generation before the ones in Numbers 1), you get even more generations, and even less multiplication per generation.

No reproductive issues for anyone ever ... well, sounds like a fulfilment of God's promise to Abraham.

IV

4:44 In reference to Exodus 1:11 Therefore he set over them masters of the works, to afflict them with burdens, and they built for Pharao cities of tabernacles, Phithom and Ramesses.

It doesn't say each Israelite became individually a slave under a separate master, it's more like collective slavery, like drafted labour ... (probably reminiscent of what Nimrod did at Göbekli Tepe, a k a Babel).

V

5:32 Maybe stop with the slavery!

Yeah! If you had only been around while people like - presumably - Sesostris III were running amuck, you might have made a difference!

Three cheers for the wisdom of Hemant Mehta! It's 20/20 (like I suppose is not quite unusual for hindsight).

Did no one consider this?

People who are plotting to oppress other people are often somewhat ... blind? ... as to consequences.

Did the Israelites just go along with this plan?

Have you heard of how Egyptians dealt with rebels from elsewhere? Have you seen Aida, where Radamès is introduced counting hands of enemies?

While Israelites were already many, they were not outnumbering Egyptians. And they were not in the army.

Perhaps general passivity of Jews under Hitler power was partly meant to show - yes, this could happen. A bit like general passivity of Russians under Commie party too.

5:54 but now they are giving up

We would probably have to give the Pharao some credit for capacity, if not accuracy, of foresight and of projecting tendencies already in the go ...

5:57 The battle will come, God will battle for Israel ...

VI

7:04 "How are there only two midwives"

More troubling still, why are Israelites accepting Egyptian midwives.

I say the latter problem shows how Israelites, while numerous, were not in a mood for opposing Egyptian administration.

The "only two" could either be the names are symbols (I haven't checked what they mean) or these particular two ones are the ones from whom Moses finally got this report, while many others were doing the same thing without being named, perhaps even without answering ... or it could be as simple as these two were ministers of midwifery and acted as first Pharao's officers to the others, then as their delegates to him.

"and yet only two people had the job"

Doesn't say in the text. Obviously, you cannot even in a "big house" (the Pharao is actually so named for his palace, literally "big house") assemble all the active midwives of a whole country.

He and they were like WHO officers these days ... you don't have all medical practitioners assembled in the buildings of WHO.

VII

8:27 Hebrew resistance at its pre-Moses peak - delivering at home without going to a midwife.

"Sturdy" means the Hebrew women were not afraid of dying in childbirth, not that their uteri are magical. They preferred giving birth with no professional midwife and taking risks over risking the lives of boy children.

Probably before the midwife arrives refers to an official duty of calling midwives. Here is the translation in Douay Rheims, clearly supporting of my conjecture:

They answered: The Hebrew women are not as the Egyptian women: for they themselves are skillful in the office of a midwife; and they are delivered before we come to them.

The really troubling thing is, Pharao relied on socialised medicine for committing child murder, does that ring any kind of bell to anyone ....?

starofjustice1

"The really troubling thing is, Pharao relied on socialised medicine for committing child murder, does that ring any kind of bell to anyone ....?"

No.

Hans-Georg Lundahl

@starofjustice1 well, obviously yes.

The project is described as murder, the details make sense if anyone in Egypt was supposed to call official midwives (aka socialised medicine).

And it probably rings a bell to someone else ...

VIII

10:19 And thankfully, Sesostris III (if it was him) died before the new version of the child killing policy had much effect. See next chapter.