Building Faith Upon Historical Truth

* William Dever and Israel Finkle-stein can teach us much about archeology but very little about how Yahweh revealed himself to his people (“Doubting the Story of Exodus,” April 13). Finklestein’s theory that the Exodus story was produced for the first time by King Josia of Judah in 600 BC in order to politically unite his people against the Egyptians is a weak, postmodern, functional idea.

Josia’s priests found the text of Deuteronomy, which is the second writing of the story. The books of Exodus and Deuteronomy contain so-called inconsistencies that demonstrate the story was told for generations by different groups, probably for hundreds of years.

It would surprise most historians of religion if Judaism were invented by a king out of political necessity. Generally, durable religions are founded upon the revelation of salvational truth to a remarkable leader. The story of Moses and Sinai--like the stories of Buddha, Jesus or Muhammad--leaves no footprints. The reality about Exodus is that something extraordinary happened; the reality about archeology is that it does not have the tools to tell us what that something was.

JEAN E. ROSENFELD

Pacific Palisades

*

Thanks for your article on the slow but steady transformation of the Exodus story from historical fact to liberating myth. Those of us who teach the biblical texts from a scholarly perspective in public universities are sometimes confronted by students expressing the kind of anger and fear that some in Rabbi David Wolpe’s congregation feel.

Believing students often want to hear a confirmation of their faith from the “religion experts,” and many then face a crisis of faith when presented with archeological and historical evidence regarding the biblical texts. What most believers don’t realize is that many rabbis, ministers and university professors have gone through their own crises and discovered that faith is stronger when it’s honest.

BETSY BAUMAN-MARTIN

Religious Studies Lecturer

UC Riverside