Pourquoi Story

A ‘Pourquoi’ ("why" in French) Story, also known as an Origin story, 'Pourquoi Tale' or an 'Etiological Tale,' is a fictional narrative that explains why something is the way it is. Many legends, origin myths and folk tales are Pourquoi Stories.

According to the Jewish Encyclopaedia the terms "Hebrews” and “Israelites” usually describe the same people, stating that they were called Hebrews before the conquest of the 'Land of Canaan' and Israelites afterwards.

While some events in the Bible can be verified, historians do not consider the Bible as a historical reference text.

Palpable assumption has it that the Genesis creation narratives are borrowed Mesopotamian mythology themes, adapted to belief in one God, establishing a monotheistic creation in opposition to the then polytheistic creation.

Most scholar’s view the 'Patriarchal Age,' along with the 'Exodus' and the period of the 'Biblical Judges,' as a late literary construct that does not relate to any particular historical era, and after a century of exhaustive archaeological investigation, no evidence has been found for a historical ‘Abraham.’

The Biblical ?story of the ‘Exodus’ (mass departure) is one of the most researched in all Biblical ?archaeology, yet since research began in the mid-1800s, not one single piece of credible evidence to support any part of the story or the characters in it, including ‘Moses,’ has ever been found.

In fact, all serious archaeological and historical research into this story has ceased, as it’s now considered mythical in its entirety.

In the original Exodus story, there wasn't any crossing of the ‘Red Sea.’ The early texts referred to the people crossing the ‘Yam Suph’ (???-???? in Hebrew), which actually means the ‘Sea of Reeds or Rushes’ or ‘Reed Sea,’ which at the time the story was written was a large marshy region of the eastern Nile Delta several hundred kilometers to the north of the Red Sea and on the route that anyone, fictional or not, leaving the Pi-Ramesses region of northern Egypt for the Levant would take (Exodus 12:37).

The name of the Red Sea arose because of an error in an early translation from Hebrew to Greek, first mentioned around a thousand years ago by a medieval French Rabbi ‘Shlomo Yitzchaki’ (aka Rashi). However, this was never been corrected, and the error was perpetuated into further translations of the Biblical story, including all the modern English versions of the Bible.

While a few scholars continue to discuss the historicity, or at least plausibility, of the Exodus story, the majority of archaeologists have abandoned it, in the phrase used by archaeologist William Dever, as "a fruitless pursuit".

Since there is no evidence for the Exodus, and no evidence of the stories happening as recorded in the Bible, it would be reasonable to conclude that they have clearly been made-up to be impressive to make God look real and mighty.

That said, Egypt’s Pyramids were already ancient by the time of the Exodus story. At least a thousand years old, if not more.

Despite numerous attempts, historians and archaeologists have failed to corroborate the tale of the Hebrews' enslavement in and mass Exodus from Egypt. Although the ancient Egyptians kept thorough records, no mention is made of a Hebrew community within their midst or any calamities resembling the 10 Biblical plagues.

Historian’s consensus has it that, the whole thing was trumped-up. From Joseph and his coat of many colors, to him sold as a slave, to his brothers going to Egypt, to the Hebrews being slaves, to Moses and the ten plagues and the sea parting. And all the rest… Pure fiction. Made up people. Made up events. And a really malevolent God.

The story of Moses’ birth takes place in (Exodus 2:1–10). Like those of the other Patriarchs, it most likely had a substantial oral prehistory (he is mentioned in the Book of Jeremiah and the Book of Isaiah). The earliest mention of him is vague, in the Book of Hosea and his name is apparently ancient, as the tradition found in Exodus gives it a folk etymology.

Thus, it never actually happened and nothing in Egyptian archaeology or history records it as an actual event.

Chroniclers have it that the myth of Moses’ activities was etiological since it attempted to give a reason for why the Hebrews believed in their God and why they would come to exist in Canaan...

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Food for thought!