Introduction: The Backstory

• My Personal Journey
• A Brief Overview of the Exodus Story
• The Journey: From Idea to Film

Asking the Big Question

• Vincent Bugliosi
• Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins, and the New Atheists
• Kenneth Kitchen
• Hershel Shanks
• Jim Phillips
• Rabbi David Wolpe

A Change of Plans

• Norma Franklin
• Israel Finkelstein
• Ze’ev Herzog
• Natan Sharansky
• Benjamin Netanyahu
• Shimon Peres
• The Oldest Copies of Exodus

Investigating With the Standard Approach

• Off to Egypt
• The Wall of Time: Understanding Egypt’s History
• The Ramesses Exodus Theory
• The Crisis: A Turning Point

Adopting a New Approach

• Who Was the Pharaoh of the Exodus?
• Looking at the Text Objectively
• Abraham: The Six Steps of the Biblical Sequence

Evidence of Arrival?

• Avaris: The City Beneath Ramesses
• Joseph: The Search for a Semitic High Ruler
• Pharaoh’s Dreams and Joseph’s Famine Policy
• The Rise of Pharaoh’s Power
• The Egyptian Tomb of Joseph?
• Shechem: A Place of Conflict and Promise
• A Lesson From the Life of Joseph
• Arrival Summary and Timeline

Evidence of Multiplication and Slavery?

• Multiplication: Semitic Growth at Avaris
• Music in the Mix
• Multiplication: Semitic Expansion in the Nile Delta
• Slavery: Mudbricks and Tomb Inscriptions
• Slavery Clues at Avaris?
• Israelite Slaves on an Egyptian Papyrus?
• Multiplication and Slavery Summary and Timeline

Evidence of Judgment?

• The Ten Plagues
• Visualizing the Ancient Story
• Death of the Firstborn
• Celebrating Passover
• To Budapest With Love
• Aftermath of the Plagues: Egypt’s Devastation
• The Admonitions of an Egyptian Sage: The Ipuwer Papyrus
• Objections to an Ipuwer - Exodus Connection

Challenging the Ramesses Exodus Theory

• Devastating Judgment at the Time of Ramesses?
• Conquest of Canaan at the Time of Ramesses?
• A Defense of the Ramesses Date
• Discovering a Second Exodus Date
• The Case Against Ramesses Builds
• Was Ramesses’ Son the Pharaoh of the Exodus?
• Merneptah Stele: The First Mention of Israel in Egypt
• Berlin Pedestal: An Even Earlier Mention of Israel?
• The Shepherds of God
• Moving Beyond the Ramesses Exodus Theory
• Reestablishing the Bible’s Timeline

Evidence of the Exodus?

• Abandonment at Avaris
• Another Abandonment: Kahun
• The Only Collapse of Egyptian Power in 1,000 Years
• Judgment and Exodus Summary and Timeline

Evidence of the Conquest?

• Why Do Many Archaeologists Reject the Conquest?
• Jericho: Did the Walls Come Tumbling Down?
• Further Intrigue at Jericho
• Hazor: Another City Burned
• Joshua and the Missing Conquest Evidence
• The Forgotten Story of the Conquest
• Nine Cities Destroyed in the Conquest
• Shechem: A Center of Biblical History
• Conquest Summary

A Pattern Among the Rags and Tatters

• A Question of Time
• A Collection of Rags and Tatters
• Questioning Egypt’s Timeline
• Shifting Egypt’s Timeline
• Six-Step Summary and Timeline

How Did the Problem Get Started?

• A Curious Problem
• The Early Days of Egyptology
• The Origins of Egypt’s Timeline
• Taking a Closer Look
• Reevaluating a Basic Assumption
• Conclusion
• Epilogue

• Acknowledgements
• Bonus Chapter A: A Conversation With David Rohl
• Bonus Chapter C: How Many Israelites in Egypt?
• Bonus Chapter D: Four Hundred Years of Slavery?
• Bonus Chapter E: The Conquest Debate
• Endnotes