Changes

== Dating ==  

== Dating ==  

The Book of Exodus was likely penned towards the end of the 15th century BC, especially if [[Moses]] is the author. The traditional scholarly hypothesis of the [[Documentary Hypothesis]] proposes that the books of the [[Torah]] were written around the middle of the first millennium BC. The Documentary Hypothesis dominated much of the scholarship of the early to mid-20th century, however the Documentary Hypothesis has received significant challenge over the last few decades and the consensus on it has entirely collapsed.<ref>Kikawada, Isaac M., and Arthur Quinn. Before Abraham was: the unity of Genesis 1-11. Abingdon Press, 1985.</ref><ref>Cassuto, Umberto. The Documentary Hypothesis: And the Composition of the Pentateuch. Shalem Press, 2005.</ref><ref>Archer, Gleason Leonard. Encyclopedia of Bible difficulties. Zondervan Publishing House, 1982.</ref> To a certain degree, most of the modern documentarians themselves have even abandoned a number of fundamental tenants of the documentary hypothesis, with many documentarians no longer acknowledging the existence of J and E, and thus it is no longer a viable option for consideration regarding the date for the composition of any books of the Torah, including the Book of Exodus. Evidence for the dating of the Book of Exodus comes from internal clues in the book itself. The Old Testament scholar [[Richard Hess]] states "Although many of these names remained in use later as well, some of them, such as Pinḥas, show an explicit connection with Egyptian personal names at the period in question, and a few, including Ḥevron (Exodus 6:18) and Puah (Exodus 1:15), are attested as personal names only in the mid-second millennium (that is, the 18th to the 13th centuries [[BCE and CE|BCE]]). The use of other Egyptian words found in the early chapters of Exodus but nowhere else in the Bible similarly supports the view of a connection with Egypt in the same period. Such pieces of incidental information, which would not have been known to a later scribe, point to an antiquity and authenticity in the Exodus account that is difficult to explain otherwise."<ref>[https://mosaicmagazine.com/response/2015/03/how-to-judge-evidence-for-the-exodus/ How to Judge Evidence for the Exodus]</ref> The usage of names strictly used in Egypt between the 18th-13th centuries BC limit the composition of the book to this narrow time frame, because as Hess acknowledges, later scribes would simply not know these ancient Egyptian names that would have entered extinction by the end of the second millennium BC.

The Book of Exodus was likely penned towards the end of the 15th century BC, especially if [[Moses]] is the author. The traditional scholarly hypothesis of the [[Documentary Hypothesis]] proposes that the books of the [[Torah]] were written around the middle of the first millennium BC. The Documentary Hypothesis dominated much of the scholarship of the early to mid-20th century, however the Documentary Hypothesis has received significant challenge over the last few decades and the consensus on it has entirely collapsed.<ref>Kikawada, Isaac M., and Arthur Quinn. Before Abraham was: the unity of Genesis 1-11. Abingdon Press, 1985.</ref><ref>Cassuto, Umberto. The Documentary Hypothesis: And the Composition of the Pentateuch. Shalem Press, 2005.</ref><ref>Archer, Gleason Leonard. Encyclopedia of Bible difficulties. Zondervan Publishing House, 1982.</ref> To a certain degree, most of the modern documentarians themselves have even abandoned a number of fundamental tenants of the documentary hypothesis, with many documentarians no longer acknowledging the existence of J and E, and thus it is no longer a viable option for consideration regarding the date for the composition of any books of the Torah, including the Book of Exodus. Evidence for the dating of the Book of Exodus comes from internal clues in the book itself. The Old Testament scholar [[Richard Hess]] states "Although many of these names remained in use later as well, some of them, such as Pinḥas, show an explicit connection with Egyptian personal names at the period in question, and a few, including Ḥevron (Exodus 6:18) and Puah (Exodus 1:15), are attested as personal names only in the mid-second millennium (that is, the 18th to the 13th centuries [[BCE and CE|BCE]]). The use of other Egyptian words found in the early chapters of Exodus but nowhere else in the Bible similarly supports the view of a connection with Egypt in the same period. Such pieces of incidental information, which would not have been known to a later scribe, point to an antiquity and authenticity in the Exodus account that is difficult to explain otherwise."<ref>[https://mosaicmagazine.com/response/2015/03/how-to-judge-evidence-for-the-exodus/ How to Judge Evidence for the Exodus]</ref> The usage of names strictly used in Egypt between the 18th-13th centuries BC limit the composition of the book to this narrow time frame, because as Hess acknowledges, later [[Scribes (Bible)|scribes]] would simply not know these ancient Egyptian names that would have entered extinction by the end of the second millennium BC.

== Main Events ==  

== Main Events ==