Exodus and settlement: A two sojourn hypothesis

Abstract

Although recent scholarship has questioned the very existence of an historical Exodus, a review of the evidence does suggest that a significant number of Asiatic workers did leave Egypt during the late 19th or early 20th Dynasties of Egypt and made their way to the Canaanite highlands via the Sinai peninsula. It is very probable that this event is related to the establishment of numerous new settlements in the Canaanite highlands during the early Iron Age. The suggestion made here is that the numerous conflicts between the biblical and extrabiblical materials associated with this model may be resolved by assuming that migrants split into two distinct groups during this Exodus-Sojourn experience. The larger of these spent very little time in transit and formed the bulk of the population of the Iron I highland settlements. A second, smaller contingent, however, remained in the Sinai for a considerably longer period of time in association with Bedouin tribes in the Arabah. It is this second group to which the emergence of Yahwism may be attributed.