Out of Egypt: Israel’s Exodus Between Text and Memory, History and Imagination

Watch full-length lecture videos as dozens of top scholars discuss new Exodus research at a recent UCSD conference

Noah Wiener March 11, 2014 25 Comments 10117 views Share

“The closest parallel to the Book of Exodus in the ancient West is Homer’s Odyssey. Both are stories of migration—of identity suspended until the protagonist—Odysseus or Israel—reaches a home. Neither account records events of the sort that are likely to have left marks in the archaeological record, or even in contemporaneous monuments… But the Exodus is not the story of an individual; it is the story of a nation. It is the historical myth of an entire people, a focal point for national identity.”

–Baruch Halpern, “The Exodus from Egypt: Myth or Reality?” The Rise of Ancient Israel, 1991.

The Exodus sits at the heart of Israelite religion, literature and identity, and aspects of the narrative helped shape traditions in Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Yet challenging textual and archaeological evidence has led some scholars to question whether the Biblical narrative reflects a single historical event or if it should be read, as Ronald Hendel wrote in Bible Review, as “conflation of history and memory—a mixture of historical truth and fiction, composed of ‘authentic’ historical details, folklore motifs, ethnic self-fashioning, ideological claims and narrative imagination.”

A recent international conference hosted by Calit2’s Qualcomm Institute at UC San Diego addressed some of the most challenging issues in Exodus scholarship. According to the Out of Egypt: Israel’s Exodus Between Text and Memory, History and Imagination website, the conference “brought together more than 40 of the world’s leading archaeologists, Biblical scholars, Egyptologists, historians and geo-scientists. In tandem, the Qualcomm Institute staged an exhibition, EX3: Exodus, Cyber-Archaeology and the Future … as an experiment in trans-disciplinary research, team science, and scholarly communication using technologies developed for the museum of the future.”

Watch the conference’s full-length lectures online for free on Bible History Daily, courtesy of conference host Thomas E. Levy, distinguished professor and Norma Kershaw Chair in the Archaeology of Ancient Israel and Neighboring Lands at UCSD. For more on research at UCSD, visit the Levantine and Cyber-Archaeology Lab.

Lectures

Watch the opening remarks at the bottom of this page, and click on lecture titles in the list below to watch.

*Keynote Lecture* On the Historicity of the Exodus: What Egyptology Can Contribute Today in Assessing the Sojourn in Egypt. Manfred Bietak, director emeritus, Institute of Egyptology, University of Vienna. Keynote introduction: Thomas Schneider.

Out of Egypt: Did Israel’s Exodus Include Tales? Susan Hollis, State University of New York.

The Ark of the Covenant and Egyptian Sacred Barks: A Comparative Study. Scott Noegel, University of Washington (video unavailable).

Traditions Regarding a Great Going Forth from North-East Africa: Date and Reliability. Antoine Hirsch, Canadian Institute in Egypt on behalf of Donald Redford, Pennsylvania State University.

The ‘Image’ of the Pharaoh in Judahite and Israelite Society According to the Glyptic Evidence, Stefan Münger, University of Bern.

In the Ancient Israel in Egypt and the Exodus , top scholars discuss the historical Israelites in Egypt and archaeological evidence for and against the historicity of the Exodus.

*Keynote Lecture* The Wilderness Itineraries: Who, How and When Did Biblical Authors Know About the Southern Deserts? Israel Finkelstein, Tel Aviv University.

Dates for the Exodus I Have Known, Lawrence T. Geraty, La Sierra University.

Egyptian Text Parallels to the Exodus: The Egyptology Literature, Brad C. Sparks, Archaeological Research Group.

Can Archaeological Correlates for the Mnemo-Narratives of Exodus Be Found? Aren Maeir, Bar-Ilan University.

The Emergence of Israel in Retrospect, Robert Mullins, Azusa Pacific University.

The Emergence of Iron Age Israel: The Question of “Origins,” Avraham Faust, Bar-Ilan University and Harvard University.



Har Karkom: Archaeological Discoveries on a Holy Mountain in the Desert of Exodus, Emmanuel Anati, University of Lecce.

Which Way Out of Egypt? Physical Geography Constraints on the Exodus Itinerary, Stephen Moshier, Wheaton College.

Egyptology, Egyptologists and the Exodus, James Hoffmeier, Trinity International University.



*Keynote Lecture* Exodus and Memory: Remembering the Origin of Israel and Monotheism, Jan Assmann, University of Konstanz.

The Exodus and the Bible: What Was Known, What Was Remembered, What Was Forgotten, William Dever, University of Arizona and Lycoming College.

The Exodus Based on the Sources Themselves, Richard Friedman, University of Georgia.

The Omerta on the Exodus, Baruch Halpern, University of Georgia.

The Exodus Account in Recent Pentateuchal Interpretation, Konrad Schmid, University of Zurich.

Sources of Judicial Power in the Moses Story, Stephen Russell, Princeton Theological Seminary.



Hero and Villain: Outline of the Exodus Pharaoh in Artapanus, Caterina Moro, University of Rome Sapienza.

Leaving Home: Jewish-Hellenistic Authors on the Exodus, Rene Bloch, University of Bern.

Exodus in the Quran, Babak Rahimi, University of California, San Diego.

From Liberation to Expulsion: The Exodus in the Earliest Jewish-Pagan Polemic, Pieter van der Horst, University of Utrecht (delivered in his absence by Kathleen Bennallack).

The Despoliation of Egypt: From Stealing Treasures to Saving Texts, Joel Allen, Dakota Wesleyan University.

In Search of Israel’s Insider Status: A Re-Evaluation of Israel’s Origins, Brendon Benz, William Jewell College.

What Was the Exodus? William Propp, University of California, San Diego.

In the Ancient Israel in Egypt and the Exodus , top scholars discuss the historical Israelites in Egypt and archaeological evidence for and against the historicity of the Exodus.

*Keynote Lecture* The Exodus as Cultural Memory: Poetics, Politics, and the Past, Ronald Hendel, UC Berkeley.

Outside of Egypt: Joseph, Moses, and the Idea of Pastoralism Across Distance, Daniel Fleming, New York University (video unavailable).

Moses the Magician, Gary Rendsburg, Rutgers University.

The Revelation of the Divine Name to Moses, Thomas Römer, University of Lausanne.

The Exodus Narrative Between History and Literary Fiction, Christoph Berner, Universität Göttingen.

Mythic Dimensions of the Exodus Tradition, Bernard Batto, DePauw University.

Exodus and Exodus Traditions After the Linguistic Turn in History, Garrett Galvin, Fransciscan School of Theology and Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, and University of San Diego.



“The First Memory of Things”: Isaac Newton on Exodus and the Chronology of the Egyptian Empire, Mordechai Feingold, California Institute of Technology.

How Calculations Invaded the Deep Past, Jed Buchwald, California Institute of Technology.

Times of Darkness: Extreme Events, Long-Term Environmental Change, Mythology and History, John Grattan, Aberystwyth University.

Radiocarbon-Based Chronology for Egypt Over the Periods Relevant to the Exodus Tradition, Michael Dee, University of Oxford (co-authors C. Bronk Ramsey, T. Higham).

The Thera Theories: Science and the Modern Reception History of the Exodus, Mark Harris, University of Edinburgh.

Exodus: A Geophysical Perspective, Steven Ward, University of California, Santa Cruz.

Inspired by a Tsunami? Computer Simulations of Potential (Tsunamigenic) Scenarios Related to the Exodus Narrative, Amos Salamon, Geological Survey of Israel (with co-authors S. Ward, F. McCoy, T. Levy).



EX3: Exodus, Cyber-Archaeology and the Future. Thomas E. Levy, UCSD.







Opening Remarks Video



Exodus Welcome and Introductions, Thomas Levy, Conference Chair; Jeff Elman, Dean, Division of Social Sciences, UCSD; Ramesh Rao, Director, Qualcomm Institute; Pradeep K. Khosla, Chancellor, UC San Diego

Welcome, Seth Lerer, Dean, Division of Arts + Humanities, UCSD

Closing Remarks

Out of Egypt Conference: Summation, Thomas Schneider, University of British Columbia.

Closing, Thomas Levy, University of California, San Diego.



Lecture videos courtesy of conference host Thomas E. Levy, distinguished professor and Norma Kershaw Chair in the Archaeology of Ancient Israel and Neighboring Lands at UCSD. All videos originally published on the Out of Egypt: Israel’s Exodus Between Text and Memory, History and Imagination website, which features additional Exodus research and more information on the UCSD conference. For more on research at UCSD, visit the Levantine and Cyber-Archaeology Lab.