Were the Jews ever enslaved in Egypt?

[Cramulus]

Just read a few articles which suggest there is no archaeological evidence that the Jews (well, Israelites) were ever enslaved in Egypt... My mind is a bit blown!

http://www.haaretz.com/jewish-world/the-jewish-thinker/were-jews-ever-really-slaves-in-egypt-or-is-passover-a-myth-1.420844

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Exodus#Archaeology

EVERYTHING I LEARNED IN SUNDAY SCHOOL WAS WRONG 

[Faust]

This is incredibly racist. What next Holocaust de Nile?

[Cain]

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[Q. G. Pennyworth]

The question I'd like to see answered is where that story actually came from. Was there an earlier instance where the Hebrews were enslaved and the antagonist was changed later for political reasons? Was it made up whole-cloth long after the time period? It's a really intense story, and it seems like it would take a long time for it to become the basis for a major holiday if it was entirely fictional.

[Nephew Twiddleton]

The question I'd like to see answered is where that story actually came from. Was there an earlier instance where the Hebrews were enslaved and the antagonist was changed later for political reasons? Was it made up whole-cloth long after the time period? It's a really intense story, and it seems like it would take a long time for it to become the basis for a major holiday if it was entirely fictional.

I base this on nothing but i suspect slavery might really be refering to assimilation. Perhaps the israelites were becoming too egyptian for moses liking.

[Q. G. Pennyworth]

The question I'd like to see answered is where that story actually came from. Was there an earlier instance where the Hebrews were enslaved and the antagonist was changed later for political reasons? Was it made up whole-cloth long after the time period? It's a really intense story, and it seems like it would take a long time for it to become the basis for a major holiday if it was entirely fictional.

I base this on nothing but i suspect slavery might really be refering to assimilation. Perhaps the israelites were becoming too egyptian for moses liking.

I think that's still giving too much credit to the story. As far as I've heard, there isn't really any support for the idea of them ever being in Egypt in massive numbers.

[Cain]

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[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Oh shit, another perfectly good holiday ruined! 

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Oh shit, another perfectly good holiday ruined! 

Balls.  Don't let these secular-humanist whackjobs destroy your joy of Passover.

I mean, who are you going to believe?  These geeks, or the ANGEL OF DEATH (who apparently can't tell the difference between the heathen and the chosen people unless the door gets marked with BLOOD)?

[Suu]

I'm doing a little bit of work on this now. We have extremely limited evidence of Exodus, but with some newer translations of the Torah, we are finding a shit ton of old mistakes (for instance, Moses didn't cross the Red Sea, it was the Reed Sea near the Nile Delta, which could have easily flooded on it's own natural power.)

The majority of the hypotheses revolving around Hebrew enslavement in Egypt is that they were actually hired workers and mercenaries, and a translation of "Hebrew" could mean that. The most accepted translation is "the ones who cross over [the Euphrates]" from when Abraham moved to Canaan from South Turkey. But it's also possible it could be a bastardized translation of a word that means "mercenary." This is possible in another translation error in which the Hebrews fled "with arms raised" when it could very well be armed with weapons. It's difficult to say.

Translations are written by those who want to make the impact. Which is why the Bible is 99.9% wrong.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Which is why the Bible is 99.9% wrong.

But it's that 0.1% that will FUCK US ALL.

Because we DON'T KNOW WHICH BIT IT IS.

Odds are, the one true religion is worshiped by a single clan in New Guinea, and everyone else is DAMNED TO HELL.

[Suu]

Which is why the Bible is 99.9% wrong.

But it's that 0.1% that will FUCK US ALL.

Because we DON'T KNOW WHICH BIT IT IS.

Odds are, the one true religion is worshiped by a single clan in New Guinea, and everyone else is DAMNED TO HELL.

[Faust]

Which is why the Bible is 99.9% wrong.

But it's that 0.1% that will FUCK US ALL.

Because we DON'T KNOW WHICH BIT IT IS.

Odds are, the one true religion is worshiped by a single clan in New Guinea, and everyone else is DAMNED TO HELL.

fingers crossed that it's the book of revelations,  that's where the story started to pick up for me.

[P3nT4gR4m]

Which is why the Bible is 99.9% wrong.

But it's that 0.1% that will FUCK US ALL.

Because we DON'T KNOW WHICH BIT IT IS.

Odds are, the one true religion is worshiped by a single clan in New Guinea, and everyone else is DAMNED TO HELL.

This is the assumption that I base my whole theology around.

[Suu]

Which is why the Bible is 99.9% wrong.

But it's that 0.1% that will FUCK US ALL.

Because we DON'T KNOW WHICH BIT IT IS.

Odds are, the one true religion is worshiped by a single clan in New Guinea, and everyone else is DAMNED TO HELL.

fingers crossed that it's the book of revelations,  that's where the story started to pick up for me.

The Book of Revelations, aka, the Apocalypse of St. John, is a butthurt pissy ass hate letter to the Emperor Nero from the Apostle John who was stuck in exile living in a cave for being a zealous jerkface. He's lucky he was just dismissed from the Roman court with laughs and not killed.

666 = Nero, written in Greek and translated over into the Greek use of their alphabet to determine numerics.  None of it is real, it's all allegory in attempts to shake up the Roman Empire. Unfortunately, it looks like by the time the letter GOT to Rome, John was dead, Nero was dead, and the psycho Domitian was Emperor, who was a Flavian and a known anti-Semite. Considering Christianity was looked upon as as sect of Judaism at this point still, Domitian ordered a nasty persecution because of it. This resulted in a lot of the "oh woe unto us Christians" bullshit. They already had their apocalypse, and it was brought on by one of their own for being a douchenozzle to the Greatest Fucking Empire in the World.

-Suu
Might be a Romanophile.