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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

19. The Exodus as a Foundational Myth

Reconstruction of Pi-Ramesses. Artefacts Berlin

The annual Jewish celebration of Passover commemorates and emphasizes the significance of Exodus. However, ancient origin stories, like those found in many cultures, often blend history, legend, and theology. Which begs the question: How much, if any, of Exodus is historically true? Historians look to Egypt’s political and cultural landscape in the second millennium BC.

The most commonly proposed timeframes are circa 1446 BC, based on a literal reading of 1 Kings 6:1, which places the Exodus 480 years before Solomon’s temple; and circa 1250 BC, based on archaeological clues and the biblical reference to the city of Ramesses, linked to Pharaoh Ramesses II. The thirteenth century BC date aligns with Egypt’s New Kingdom period, a time of extensive building, military conquest, and a city named Pi-Ramesses in the Nile Delta – possibly the “store city” built by Israelite slaves in Exodus 1:11.

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.