How can we trust the Bible if it's not inerrant?

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How can we trust the Bible if it's not inerrant?

Post #1

Post by otseng »

From the On the Bible being inerrant thread:
nobspeople wrote: Wed Sep 22, 2021 9:42 amHow can you trust something that's written about god that contradictory, contains errors and just plain wrong at times? Is there a logical way to do so, or do you just want it to be god's word so much that you overlook these things like happens so often through the history of christianity?
otseng wrote: Wed Sep 22, 2021 7:08 am The Bible can still be God's word, inspired, authoritative, and trustworthy without the need to believe in inerrancy.
For debate:
How can the Bible be considered authoritative and inspired without the need to believe in the doctrine of inerrancy?

While debating, do not simply state verses to say the Bible is inspired or trustworthy.

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Re: How can we trust the Bible if it's not inerrant?

Post #1051

Post by otseng »

One reason I went into such detail about the plagues is to show whoever wrote the Exodus account had an intimate knowledge of the Egyptian religion. It was not just a simple story of 10 bad things happening as children's Sunday school lessons typically portray. Readers that lived in the Egyptian New Kingdom period would've understood the deeper religious meaning for the plagues. As mentioned in post 1005, "hardening of Pharaoh’s heart" is mentioned at least 20 times in the account. Obviously the writer is emphasizing this point. Readers that are not familiar with Egyptian religion and the Hebrew language will overlook the deeper meaning of this. The better translation should be "Pharaoh's heart was made heavier". This was in reference to people who died will be judged by weighing their heart against maat.
Maat or Maʽat (Egyptian: mꜣꜥt /ˈmuʀʕat/, Coptic: ⲙⲉⲓ)[1] refers to the ancient Egyptian concepts of truth, balance, order, harmony, law, morality, and justice.

Maat represents the ethical and moral principle that all Egyptian citizens were expected to follow throughout their daily lives. They were expected to act with honor and truth in matters that involve family, the community, the nation, the environment, and the god.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maat

And it was the responsibility of the Pharaoh to uphold maat.

"Pharaohs are often depicted with the emblems of Maat to emphasise their roles in upholding the laws and righteousness."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maat

Through each successive plague, there was less order and Pharaoh was powerless to maintain harmony. In addition, he would be judged in the afterlife that he failed to live up to maat. Each plague was against a major god of the Egyptians with many of them having a role in the weighing of the heart.

How could anyone writing in the time of the post-Babylonian captivity would've had such knowledge of the Egyptian religion? And even if someone did, why would he write it when practically nobody else would've understood the deeper meaning? It makes more sense that it was written in the New Kingdom period where everyone fully understood the deeper religious meaning.

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Re: How can we trust the Bible if it's not inerrant?

Post #1052

Post by TRANSPONDER »

No, and I don't propose to waste any more time on this preaching (in that it is no argument but a string of propping up the Bible text by relating it to what doesn't really relate.), whatever you or the rules determine what they consider to be preaching. Just as with pointing to brickmaking in ancient Egypt and saying that supports the Exodus story, pointing to Maat or Pharonic authority and pretending that one of the plagues or Moses' demands or anything in the Exodus story is related to that is making bricks without straw, a case without evidence (like an early 18th dyn exodus after the ejection of the Hyksos failed even to be unlikely evidence) and a fairy -tale without anything as a basis.

I'll engage if I see anything of interest, but I have to trust that people know that Spiderman is not proven to be credibly real by showing that spiders swing about by their threads.

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Re: How can we trust the Bible if it's not inerrant?

Post #1053

Post by otseng »

Another point that the early date aligns better than the late date of the Exodus is the death of the firstborn son of Pharaoh. As with all events that were embarassing to the Egyptians, they commonly erased them from their records.

For the early date, Amenhotep II would be the Pharaoh of the Exodus. Thutmose IV succeeded Amenhotep II as Pharaoh, but he was not the firstborn son. We have no idea what happened to the firstborn son.

"Thutmose IV was born to Amenhotep II and Tiaa, but was not actually the crown prince and Amenhotep II's chosen successor to the throne. Some scholars speculate that Thutmose ousted his older brother in order to usurp power and then commissioned the Dream Stele in order to justify his unexpected kingship."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thutmose_IV

"Traditionally, Amenhotep II’s eldest son should have been named Thutmose. A wall painting at Thebes displays a young Thutmose, likely Amenhotep II’s eldest son. Thutmose must have died in childhood since there are no later records of him."
https://newcreation.blog/who-was-the-ph ... he-exodus/

"The son who succeeded Amenhotep II was Thutmose IV (ca. 1418-1408 BC), whose Dream Stele-located between the paws of the Great Sphinx-reveals that he was not the original heir to the throne. Moreover, inscriptional and papyritious evidence confirms that Thutmose IV was not the eldest son of Amenhotep II."
https://biblearchaeology.org/research/e ... us-pharaoh

Thutmose IV had erected the Dream Stele in front of the Sphinx as a propoganda piece to legitimize his rule.
The Sphinx's promise to make Thutmose ruler of Egypt if he clears the sand has led to speculation that Thutmose IV was not the crown prince (if he was, he would have ascended the throne on his father's death anyway), and that he may instead have seized the throne from his older brothers, with the erection of the stele serving solely to legitimize his rule.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dream_Stele

For the late date, the Pharaoh of the Exodus would be Ramesses II and his firstborn son was Amun-her-khepeshef.

"Amun-her-khepeshef (died c. 1254 BC; also Amonhirkhopshef, Amun-her-wenemef and Amun-her-khepeshef A to distinguish him from later people of the same name) was the firstborn son of Pharaoh Ramesses II and Queen Nefertari."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amun-her-khepeshef

"He died in year 40 of his father's reign. Amun-her-shepeshef was probably between the age of 40 and 45."
http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/amunher.htm

If Ramesses II was the Pharaoh of the Exodus, his eldest son Amun-her-khepeshef would've died at age 40. Though this might be possible, it would be less impactful than if the firstborn was a baby or a child. Ramesses II had over 48 sons and 40 daughters, so losing a son among many is not really a big deal. His firstborn not being a Pharaoh was not a big deal either since eventually he outlived his first 12 sons and only his 13th son succeeded him as Pharaoh.

"The Ancient Egyptian Pharaoh Ramesses II had a large number of children: between 48 to 50 sons, and 40 to 53 daughters"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_c ... amesses_II
Merneptah or Merenptah (reigned July or August 1213 BC – May 2, 1203 BC) was the fourth pharaoh of the Nineteenth Dynasty of Ancient Egypt. He ruled Egypt for almost ten years, from late July or early August 1213 BC until his death on May 2, 1203 BC, according to contemporary historical records. He was the thirteenth son of Ramesses II,[3] only coming to power because all his older brothers had died, including his full brother Khaemwaset or Khaemwase.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merneptah

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Re: How can we trust the Bible if it's not inerrant?

Post #1054

Post by otseng »

Similarities of the plagues in the Exodus account was written by the Egyptians in 19th Dynasty, the Admonitions of Ipuwer (Ipuwer Papyrus).

"The Ipuwer Papyrus has been dated no earlier than the Nineteenth Dynasty, around 1250 BCE."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ipuwer_Papyrus
The Ipuwer Papyrus was written by a royal Egyptian scribe of the same name. He tells a lengthy story of absolute calamity befalling Egypt. Many references throughout the papyrus are strikingly similar to the biblical account of the 10 plagues—possible allusion can be found to at least six of the biblical plagues—as well as other elements of the Exodus account.
https://armstronginstitute.org/159-plag ... ypt-proved

Of course, scholars reject the parallelism of the Exodus account and the Admonitions of Ipuwer since they don't believe in the Exodus in the first place.

"Ipuwer has often been put forward in popular literature as confirmation of the biblical account of the Exodus, most notably because of its statement that "the river is blood" and its frequent references to servants running away. This assertion has not gained acceptance among scholars."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ipuwer_Papyrus

But, if the Exodus event actually happened and it occurred in the 18th Dynasty, then it's reasonable it influenced the Admonitions of Ipuwer.

A list of the similarities:
Indeed, the river is blood, yet men drink of it. Men shrink from human beings and thirst after water .... (Exodus 7:20, 18: "[A]nd all the waters that were in the river were turned to blood. ... [T]he Egyptians shall lothe to drink of the water ....")

Indeed, [hearts] are violent, pestilence is throughout the land, blood is everywhere, death is not lacking .... (Exodus 9:15: "[T]hat I may smite thee and thy people with pestilence ...." Exodus 7:19: "[T]hat there may be blood throughout all the land of Egypt ....")

Indeed, all animals, their hearts weep; cattle moan because of the state of the land .... (Exodus 9:3, 6: "Behold, the hand of the Lord is upon thy cattle which is in the field, upon the horses, upon the asses, upon the camels, upon the oxen, and upon the sheep: there shall be a very grievous murrain. ... [A]nd all the cattle of Egypt died.")

Behold, the fire has gone up on high, and its burning goes forth against the enemies of the land .... Indeed, gates, columns and walls are burnt up .... (Exodus 9:23-24: "[A]nd the fire ran along upon the ground .... So there was hail, and fire mingled with the hail, very grievous ....")

Indeed, everywhere barley has perished .... (Exodus 9:31: "And the flax and the barley was smitten ....")

The land is without light .... (Exodus 10:22: "[A]nd there was a thick darkness in all the land of Egypt three days.")

Indeed, men are few, and he who places his brother in the ground is everywhere .... (Exodus 12:30: "[T]here was not a house where there was not one dead.")

Indeed, every dead person is as a well-born man .... Indeed, the children of princes are dashed against walls .... (Exodus 12:29: "[A]t midnight the Lord smote all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of the Pharaoh that sat on his throne unto the firstborn of the captive that was in the dungeon ....")

Indeed, laughter is perished and is [no longer] made; it is groaning that is throughout the land .... (Exodus 12:30: "[L]oud wailing was heard throughout the land of Egypt. There was not a single house where someone had not died"; New Living Translation.)

All is ruin! ... Indeed, that has perished which yesterday was seen .... Ipuwer laments the utter—and sudden—destruction of the land.

Indeed, poor men have become owners of wealth, and he who could not make sandals for himself is now a possessor of riches .... (Exodus 12:35-36: "And the children of Israel ... borrowed of the Egyptians jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and raiment .... And they spoiled the Egyptians.")

Indeed, gold and lapis lazuli, silver and turquoise, carnelian and amethyst, Ibhet-stone and [...] are strung on the necks of maidservants .... (Exodus 11:2: "[E]very woman (borrowed) of her neighbor, jewels of silver, and jewels of gold.")

And it shall come to pass, if they will not believe also these two signs, neither hearken unto thy voice, that thou shalt take of the water of the river, and pour it upon the dry land: and the water which thou takest out of the river shall become blood upon the dry land.
https://armstronginstitute.org/159-plag ... ypt-proved

Here is the full text of the Admonitions of Ipuwer:
https://web.archive.org/web/20190113210 ... ipuwer.htm

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Re: How can we trust the Bible if it's not inerrant?

Post #1055

Post by otseng »

Non-Biblical accounts of the exodus out of Egypt.

Hecataeus

"The earliest non-biblical account is that of Hecataeus of Abdera (c. 320 BCE), as preserved in the first century CE Jewish historian Josephus in his work Against Apion and in a variant version by the first-century BCE Greek historian Diodorus.[88] Hecataeus tells how the Egyptians blamed a plague on foreigners and expelled them from the country, whereupon Moses, their leader, took them to Canaan."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Exodus
The earliest existing reference to Moses in Greek literature occurs in the Egyptian history of Hecataeus of Abdera (4th century BCE). All that remains of his description of Moses are two references made by Diodorus Siculus, wherein, writes historian Arthur Droge, "he describes Moses as a wise and courageous leader who left Egypt and colonized Judaea."[6] Among the many accomplishments described by Hecataeus, Moses had founded cities, established a temple and religious cult, and issued laws.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moses_in_ ... _Hecataeus

Strabo
Strabo, a Greek historian, geographer and philosopher, in his Geography (c. 24 CE), wrote in detail about Moses, whom he considered to be an Egyptian who deplored the situation in his homeland, and thereby attracted many followers who respected the deity. He writes, for example, that Moses opposed the picturing of the deity in the form of man or animal, and was convinced that the deity was an entity which encompassed everything – land and sea:[12]

35. An Egyptian priest named Moses, who possessed a portion of the country called the Lower Egypt, being dissatisfied with the established institutions there, left it and came to Judaea with a large body of people who worshipped the Divinity. He declared and taught that the Egyptians and Africans entertained erroneous sentiments, in representing the Divinity under the likeness of wild beasts and cattle of the field; that the Greeks also were in error in making images of their gods after the human form. For God [said he] may be this one thing which encompasses us all, land and sea, which we call heaven, or the universe, or the nature of things....

36. By such doctrine Moses persuaded a large body of right-minded persons to accompany him to the place where Jerusalem now stands....[13]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moses_in_ ... #In_Strabo

Tacitus
The Roman historian Tacitus (c. 56–120 CE) refers to Moses by noting that the Jewish religion was monotheistic and without a clear image. His primary work, wherein he describes Jewish philosophy, is his Histories (c. 100), where, according to Murphy, as a result of the Jewish worship of one God, "pagan mythology fell into contempt."[16] Tacitus states that, despite various opinions current in his day regarding the Jews' ethnicity, most of his sources are in agreement that there was an Exodus from Egypt. By his account, the Pharaoh Bocchoris, suffering from a plague, banished the Jews in response to an oracle of the god Zeus-Amun.

A motley crowd was thus collected and abandoned in the desert. While all the other outcasts lay idly lamenting, one of them, named Moses, advised them not to look for help to gods or men, since both had deserted them, but to trust rather in themselves, and accept as divine the guidance of the first being, by whose aid they should get out of their present plight.[17]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moses_in_ ... In_Tacitus

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Re: How can we trust the Bible if it's not inerrant?

Post #1056

Post by otseng »

Another alignment that better fits with the early date than the late date is the drowning of the Egyptian army. With the loss of most of the Egyptian military in the Red Sea, it would've been a blow to their military power. And what we see in the early dating of the Exodus is the lack of military exploits during and after Amenhotep II.

The beginning of his reign, he went on many campaigns and then ceased campaigns after his ninth year.

"Amenhotep's last campaign took place in his ninth year, however it apparently did not proceed farther north than the Sea of Galilee.[29] According to the list of plunder from this campaign, Amenhotep claims to have taken 101,128 slaves."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amenhotep_II

Thutmose IV succeeded Amenhotep II and had a reign around 10 years and only had one minor campaign.

"He suppressed a minor uprising in Nubia in his 8th year (attested in his Konosso stela) around 1393 BC and was referred to in a stela as the Conqueror of Syria, but little else has been pieced together about his military exploits."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thutmose_IV

Amenhotep III was the next Pharaoh and reigned for around 38 years. He only had one campaign during his reign and even that was hyped up.

"Despite the martial prowess Amenhotep displayed during the hunt, he is known to have participated in only one military incident. In Regnal Year Five, he led a victorious campaign against a rebellion in Kush. This victory was commemorated by three rock-carved stelae found near Aswan and Saï in Nubia. The official account of Amenhotep's military victory emphasizes his martial prowess with the period-typical hyperbole."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amenhotep_III

And the lack of campaigns was not just because there was peace in the land. The Amarna letters covers the reign of Amenhotep III and his successor Akhenaten. These letters came from vassal states and included requests for military help against invaders, but Egypt gave no assistance.

"Under Amenhotep III and Akhenaten, Egypt was unable or unwilling to oppose the rise of the Hittites around Syria.The pharaohs seemed to eschew military confrontation at a time when the balance of power between Egypt's neighbors and rivals was shifting, and the Hittites, a confrontational state, overtook the Mitanni in influence."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akhenaten

For the late dating of the Exodus, the military under Ramesses II and his successors were quite active.
In his second year, Ramesses II decisively defeated the Sherden sea pirates who were wreaking havoc along Egypt's Mediterranean coast

The immediate antecedents to the Battle of Kadesh were the early campaigns of Ramesses II into Canaan.

The Battle of Kadesh in his fifth regnal year was the climactic engagement in a campaign that Ramesses fought in Syria, against the resurgent Hittite forces of Muwatallis.

In the seventh year of his reign, Ramesses II returned to Syria once again. This time he proved more successful against his Hittite foes.

Eventually, in the twenty-first year of his reign (1258 BC), Ramesses decided to conclude an agreement with the new Hittite king, Ḫattušili III, at Kadesh to end the conflict.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramesses_II
Ramesses II campaigned in Palestine and Syria for the next fifteen years after Kadesh and also commemorated these wars with panoramic war scenes on several temples including the Hypostyle Hall.
https://www.memphis.edu/hypostyle/tour_ ... scenes.php

Merneptah succeeded Ramesses II and reigned for 10 years and was involved in several military campaigns. And I'll discuss more about the infamous Merneptah stele later.

"Merneptah had to carry out several military campaigns during his reign. In the fifth year of his rule, he fought against the Libyans, who—with the assistance of the Sea Peoples—were threatening Egypt from the west. Merneptah led a victorious six-hour battle against a combined Libyan and Sea People force at the city of Perire, probably located on the western edge of the Nile delta. "
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merneptah#Campaigns

If the Exodus occurred during the reign of Ramesses II, it would appear it would've had little impact on the Egyptian military.

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Re: How can we trust the Bible if it's not inerrant?

Post #1057

Post by William »

[Replying to otseng in post #1056]

If the military was that decimated it would have been a signal to other nations that Egypt was ripe for the taking.

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Re: How can we trust the Bible if it's not inerrant?

Post #1058

Post by otseng »

William wrote: Tue May 17, 2022 12:12 pm If the military was that decimated it would have been a signal to other nations that Egypt was ripe for the taking.
Possibly. However, who would be the candidates during this time? Thutmose III, who was the predecessor to Amenhotep II, had conquered the surrounding area and drastically weakened them.
otseng wrote: Sun Apr 03, 2022 11:02 pm
Widely considered a military genius by historians, he was an active expansionist ruler who is sometimes called Egypt's greatest conqueror or "the Napoleon of Egypt."[14] He is recorded to have captured 350 cities during his rule and conquered much of the Near East from the Euphrates to Nubia during 17 known military campaigns. He was the first Pharaoh to cross the Euphrates, doing so during his campaign against Mitanni. His campaign records were transcribed onto the walls of the temple of Amun at Karnak, and are now transcribed into Urkunden IV. He is consistently regarded as one of the greatest of Egypt's warrior pharaohs, who transformed Egypt into an international superpower by creating an empire that stretched from southern Syria through to Canaan and Nubia.[15]
https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Thutmose_III

"Thutmose III began the first and most decisive of the great conqueror’s campaigns in the region of Canaan and Syria establishing Egyptian dominance over the region."
https://biblicalhistoricalcontext.com/i ... of-canaan/

The Egyptians had a policy of keeping the Canaanites weak after conquering them.
But, what stands out most in the archaeological record from the time period of Egyptian domination isn’t so much what was there as wasn’t– from the time of Thutmose III until the end of Egyptian rule, almost all towns in Canaan had no city wall.13 Excluding Hazor, Megiddo, and (possibly) Gezer – the very largest Canaanite cities – the only towns with walls constructed in the Late Bronze age are Ashdod, Tel Abu Hawam, and Tel Beit Misrim.14 The rest stood vulnerable and unprotected – just how Pharaoh wanted them.
https://biblicalhistoricalcontext.com/i ... of-canaan/

"from the time of Thutmose III until the end of Egyptian rule, almost all towns in Canaan had no city wall."
https://biblicalhistoricalcontext.com/i ... of-canaan/

"We’re going to come back to the topic of Late Bronze age deportation in a future post and get into the detail there, but for now we just need to understand that depopulation happened, and it left Canaan all the more weakened and all the more in the shadow of Egypt."
https://biblicalhistoricalcontext.com/i ... of-canaan/
It was only later do we see major battles, such as with the Hittites and the Sea peoples.
After expelling the Hyksos' 15th Dynasty around 1550 BC, the native Egyptian New Kingdom rulers became more aggressive in reclaiming control of their state's borders. Thutmose I, Thutmose III and his son and coregent Amenhotep II fought battles from Megiddo north to the Orontes River, including conflict with Kadesh.

Many of the Egyptian campaign accounts between c. 1400 and 1300 BC reflect the general destabilization of the Djahy region (southern Canaan). The reigns of Thutmose IV and Amenhotep III were undistinguished, except that Egypt continued to lose territory to the Mitanni in northern Syria.

During the late Eighteenth Dynasty, the Amarna letters tell the story of the decline of Egyptian influence in the region. The Egyptians showed flagging interest here until almost the end of the dynasty.[19] Horemheb (d. 1292 BC), the last ruler of this dynasty, campaigned in this region, finally beginning to turn Egyptian interest back to this region.

This process continued in the Nineteenth Dynasty. Like his father Ramesses I, Seti I was a military commander who set out to restore Egypt's empire to the days of the Tuthmosid kings almost a century before.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Kadesh
The Sea Peoples are a purported seafaring confederation that attacked ancient Egypt and other regions in the East Mediterranean prior to and during the Late Bronze Age collapse (1200–900 BCE).[1][2] Following the creation of the concept in the 19th century, the Sea Peoples' incursions became one of the most famous chapters of Egyptian history, given its connection with, in the words of Wilhelm Max Müller, "the most important questions of ethnography and the primitive history of classic nations".[3][4]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_Peoples

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Re: How can we trust the Bible if it's not inerrant?

Post #1059

Post by William »

[Replying to otseng in post #1058]
If the military was that decimated it would have been a signal to other nations that Egypt was ripe for the taking.
Possibly. However, who would be the candidates during this time? Thutmose III, who was the predecessor to Amenhotep II, had conquered the surrounding area and drastically weakened them.
This in itself doesn't make a truth out of a possible popular fireside story, where the story-tellers promote their own culture as supreme to another's - especially a weaker culture in the face of a vastly stronger one.

Add to the storyline, the idea of a GOD who performs and protects the weaker culture - for the explicit purpose of using said weaker culture to promote that idea of a GOD...and we have what we have...

The GOD plays with the Egyptian culture - out-performing the oppressor at every twist and turn.

Eventually the goal is achieved [the weaker culture is set free from the suppressive system of the stronger] but low and behold, they are then pursued by the stronger cultures armies with the intent of recapturing or perhaps exterminating the weaker culture...

Only that doesn't work out too well for the Egyptian army which is subsequently drowned due to an anomaly of nature which can only be ascribed to a GOD - entertaining fireside stories for sure, but where is the practical in believing the stories to be real and historical events?

The GOD character behaves as some type of immature entity with the intent of upstaging a strong empire and using his ability to foretell events, manipulates the whole cast in order to show his ability to upstage and get one over his adversary...then when the adversaries army is destroyed by drowning, it is done at a time and place in history where there is no other culture around to finally strike a death blow to an obvious blight on the landscape - a ruthless and oppressive dictatorship which has - for centuries - enslaved cultures around it in order to build up its own...

All the story tells us is that the GOD was interested in using "His [potential] People" to somehow show the world [eventually] how mighty he is, without him having to do it directly.

The stories do serve to allow for a weak culture to survive in the midst of adversary, in the hope of finding a strong position within the adversarial structures, showing that the GOD is interested in taking over said systems from within rather than using the more direct approach from without.

Either way there is manipulation. Perhaps the GOD saw in the Pharaoh's, something of Himself...

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Re: How can we trust the Bible if it's not inerrant?

Post #1060

Post by otseng »

The Passover and the Feast of Unleavened bread was instituted during the Exodus.

Exod 12:11-13 (KJV)
11 And thus shall ye eat it; [with] your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and ye shall eat it in haste: it [is] the LORD's passover.
12 For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I [am] the LORD.
13 And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye [are]: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy [you], when I smite the land of Egypt.

Exod 12:14-17 (KJV)
14 And this day shall be unto you for a memorial; and ye shall keep it a feast to the LORD throughout your generations; ye shall keep it a feast by an ordinance forever.
15 Seven days shall ye eat unleavened bread; even the first day ye shall put away leaven out of your houses: for whosoever eateth leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from Israel.
16 And in the first day [there shall be] a holy convocation, and in the seventh day there shall be a holy convocation to you; no manner of work shall be done in them, save [that] which every man must eat, that only may be done of you.
17 And ye shall observe [the feast of] unleavened bread; for in this selfsame day have I brought your armies out of the land of Egypt: therefore shall ye observe this day in your generations by an ordinance forever.

Lev 23:5-6 (KJV)
5 In the fourteenth [day] of the first month at even [is] the LORD's passover.
6 And on the fifteenth day of the same month [is] the feast of unleavened bread unto the LORD: seven days ye must eat unleavened bread.
Passover, Hebrew Pesaḥ or Pesach, in Judaism, holiday commemorating the Hebrews’ liberation from slavery in Egypt and the “passing over” of the forces of destruction, or the sparing of the firstborn of the Israelites, when the Lord “smote the land of Egypt” on the eve of the Exodus. Passover begins with the 15th and ends with the 21st (or, outside of Israel and among Reform Jews, the 22nd) day of the month of Nisan (March or April). On these seven (or eight) days, all leaven, whether in bread or other mixture, is prohibited, and only unleavened bread, called matzo, may be eaten. The matzo symbolizes both the Hebrews’ suffering while in bondage and the haste with which they left Egypt in the course of the Exodus. Passover is also sometimes called the Festival of Unleavened Bread.
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Passover
The holiday of Passover (Pesach in Hebrew) is perhaps one of the most central to Jewish life and history. More widely observed than any other holiday, Passover celebrates the biblical account of the Israelites’ redemption and escape from 400 years of Egyptian slavery. Holiday rituals include a dramatic retelling of the Exodus story and many unique food traditions. We come together with friends and family to celebrate the great lessons of the story: the blessing of freedom and the reminder that since we were once slaves and were freed, it is our responsibility to work for freedom for all people, everywhere.
https://reformjudaism.org/jewish-holida ... er-history

One of the earliest attestations of the celebration of the Passover is in the Elephantine papyri that dates to late 5th century BC.

Image
The "Passover letter" of 419 BCE (discovered in 1907), which gives detailed instructions for properly observing the holiday of Passover, is in the Egyptian Museum of Berlin.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elephanti ... nd_ostraca
A papyrus letter, written in Aramaic, from the fortified island of Elephantine in Egypt. The letter was written c. 419 BCE by a Jewish man named Hananiah and is addressed to his brother Jedoniah and the rest of the Jews garrisoned at Elephantine. The letter states that King Darius II (r. 424 - 404 BCE) has instructed the Persian satrap Armases (c. 5th Century BCE) to allow the Jewish garrison at Elephantine to observe a seven-day festival of unleavened bread. This is believed to be an early reference to observance of the Passover holiday.
https://www.worldhistory.org/image/1046 ... ephantine/
This papyrus fragment is from a letter to the leader of the Elephantine community in Egypt explaining the customs and practices of the Jewish festival of Passover. The letter is written in Aramaic, the language of the Jews in the Persian and Hellenistic periods. The word “Passover” does not survive in the text, but various practices associated with the festival, such as eating unleavened bread and refraining from work, are mentioned. These practices are consistent with rules set out in the Torah and with accepted Jewish practice.
https://www.bibleodyssey.org/en/tools/i ... er-papyrus
Some of these details can be corroborated, and to some extent amplified, in extrabiblical sources. The removal (or "sealing up") of the leaven is referred to in the Elephantine papyri, an Aramaic papyrus from 5th century BCE Elephantine in Egypt.[37] The slaughter of the lambs on the 14th is mentioned in The Book of Jubilees, a Jewish work of the Ptolemaic period, and by the Herodian-era writers Josephus and Philo. These sources also indicate that "between the two evenings" was taken to mean the afternoon.[38] Jubilees states the sacrifice was eaten that night,[39] and together with Josephus states that nothing of the sacrifice was allowed to remain until morning.[40] Philo states that the banquet included hymns and prayers.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passover

Text of the Passover letter at:
https://web.archive.org/web/20070225103 ... apyri.html

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