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1:1 Belief Vs Claims 2:1 Why the Bible Is False 3:1 The Bible You Don't Know 4:1 We Are All Godless 5:1 Lets Be Honest 6:1 Faith vs Science

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Slaves Did Not Build the Pyramids

It is estimated that 10,000 men built the Great Pyramid over a span of 30 years. Archaelogical evidence shows that they lived in good housing at the foot of the pyramid, and when they died, they received honored burials in stone tombs near the pyramid in thanks for their contribution. They also ate well, received the best medical care, and were well paid. Egypt had no shortage of labor, especially during the months when there was no work to be done in the fields. The builders were recruited from poor communities and worked shifts of three months, distributing the pharaoh's wealth out to where it was needed most. Each day, 21 cattle and 23 sheep were slaughtered to feed the workers, enough for each man to eat meat at least once a week.

No Post-Exodus Population Increase

If there were a great Exodus to Israel as the Bible claims we would obviously have seen a population increase, there was none. Surveys of ancient settlements--pottery remains and so forth--make it clear that there simply was no great influx of people around the time of the Exodus (given variously as between 1500-1200 BCE). In Israel at that time, there was no population explosion. There was also no sudden change in the kind or the volume of pottery being made. If people suddenly arrived after hundreds of years in Egypt, their cups and dishes would look very different from native Canaanites.

No Jews In Ancient Egypt

No Egyptian records contain a single reference to anything in Exodus which is no surprise since there were not Jews in ancient Egypt. It wasn't until almost 2,000 years after the Great Pyramid received its capstone that the earliest known record shows evidence of Jews in Egypt, and they were neither Hebrews nor Israelites. They were a garrison of soldiers from the Persian Empire, stationed on Elephantine, an island in the Nile, beginning in about 650 BCE. They fought alongside the Pharaoh's soldiers in the Nubian campaign, and later became the principal trade portal between Egypt and Nubia. Their history is known from the Elephantine Papyri discovered in 1903, which are in Aramaic, not Hebrew; and their religious beliefs appear to have been a mixture of Judaism and pagan polytheism. Archival records recovered include proof that they observed Shabbat and Passover, and also records of interfaith marriages. In perhaps the strangest reversal from pop pseudohistory, the papyri include evidence that at least some of the Jewish settlers at Elephantine owned Egyptian slaves.

Other documentation also identifies the Elephantine garrison as the earliest immigration of Jews into Egypt. The Letter of Aristeas, written in Greece in the second century BCE, records that Jews had been sent into Egypt to assist Pharaoh Psammetichus I in his campaign against the Nubians. Psammetichus I ruled Egypt from 664 to 610 BCE, which perfectly matches the archaeological dating of the Elephantine garrison in 650.

 

Luke 2:2 places the birth of Jesus during the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria for taxation purpose. The only census that was even close to being large enough to fit the Bible's description happened in 6 CE, so according to Luke 2:2 Jesus' birth could not have been before then. Also Quirinius was not governor of Syria until 6 CE, so again Luke is placing the birth no earlier than 6 CE.

Matthew 2:1 says Jesus was born in Judea, during the time of King Herod (aka Herod the Great). King Herod died in 4 BCE so according to Matthew Jesus could not have been born after 4 BCE which is 10 years before the census by Quirinius.