Exodus - an Authentic Record of Events

The Bible is the inspired word of God. This page is a continuation in a series of articles about the Bible as God’s word.

Part 28  Exodus - an Authentic Record of Events

Last time we asked whether Bible readers should meekly accept the opinions of the majority of scholars who reject evidence that the Bible is the word of God. Anti-Bible scholars were successful for a long time in raising serious doubts about the amazing accuracy of the Seventy Weeks prophecy in Daniel 9, because of discrepancies in dates, but the latest dating information has demonstrated a perfect long-range match between prediction and fulfilment of several historical events.

This should demonstrate to Bible believers that they ought not to be put off by the denials of scholars, some of whom seem to be making every effort to escape the fact of a Creator who makes demands on how mankind, including themselves, should behave. We need to ask what their rejection of the evidence is based on. If their entire career is a rejection of the Bible, we need to question the validity of their opinion, that is, that they can never accept any evidence in support of the Bible.

So in the case of the Ipuwer papyrus, rather than a Bible believer throwing up his hands at the denial of many scholars (not all), why not spend some time to conduct a fresh and independent investigation of the evidence? In a nation as old as ancient Egypt it cannot be claimed that there were never any, or even only one, disaster in such a long time. The collection of various elements in this story cannot fit every sort of disaster. On the other hand, the disaster for Egypt that was the Exodus contains a unique combination of elements.

Since the Ipuwer papyrus has lost some of its original content, we cannot expect that every element of the destruction at the exodus could be found there, but sufficient ought to be seen to indicate if Ipuwer’s work corresponds with the biblical narrative of the Exodus. This approach, rather than depending on the opinions of scholars, is instead to treat this question as in a court of law, where, for example, the question is whether two individuals were collaborating in a conspiracy. The jury hears the evidence and gives a verdict which is based on that evidence. In this case the question for the jury to decide is whether the writings of Ipuwer and the book of Exodus contain references to the same events.

The Admonitions of Ipuwer does not come across as a piece of literary art - of good taste and beauty or aesthetic design. It is a story of deficiencies, suffering and death, a story not of smiles and laughter but of moaning. As Miriam Lichtheim commented in her book, The Admonitions of Ipuwer, “From the text of the poem we get the impression that this document talks about real events.”

And so we ask what is the reader’s impression of the evidence, presented not as the jumble of statements as they flowed from the author’s pen, but organized, as best as this investigator can, of an English translation into relevant categories. The categories are presented in chronological order of events from the book of Exodus.

The Section numbers, in Roman numerals, are Lichtheim’s divisions of the Ipuwer papyrus. This will help to decide how much connection there is between what we have on this ancient papyrus of what Ipuwer wrote, and the events described and connected with the book of Exodus.

Next time, God willing, we will begin with Category 1, turning of the Nile waters to blood.