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Let My People Go! – The History and Historicity of the Biblical Account of the Exodus

Khalid Elhassan May 31, 2025 17 min

9. Arguments Against the Hyksos-Exodus Link

Ancient Canaanite sarcophagi. Israel Museum

Despite the parallels, some scholars caution against equating the Hyksos expulsion with the biblical Exodus. The Hyksos were expelled around 1550 BC, but the earliest possible dates for the Exodus, based on biblical and archaeological data, are several centuries later. Such a significant gap suggests that if the Exodus is based on the Hyksos expulsion, it is a long-distance cultural memory, not a direct historical record. Also, the Bible describes the Israelites as slaves who flee their captors.

The Hyksos, however, were ruler expelled by native Egyptians. This reversal of roles complicates attempts to draw a straight line between the two narratives. Finally, little direct evidence links the Hyksos and Israelites. The archaeological record does not show a Hyksos migration turning into Canaan’s early Israelite population. Most scholars now believe that the early Israelites emerged from within Canaanite society, rather than arrived as external invaders or migrants.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.