Editing Hyksos (section)

===In modern scholarship===
{{see also|The Exodus|Sources and parallels of the Exodus}}
The majority of modern scholars do not believe that the Egyptian story elements in the Bible can be demonstrated with historical methods. However, some scholars have attempted to tie the narratives of the Hyksos period to the exodus period.{{sfn|Moore|Kelle|2011|pp=91}}

Scholars such as [[Jan Assmann]] and [[Donald B. Redford|Donald Redford]], for instance, have suggested that the story of the biblical exodus may have been wholly or partially inspired by the expulsion of the Hyksos.{{sfn|Redford|1992|p=412–413}}{{sfn|Assmann|2014|pp=26–27}}{{sfn|Faust|2015|p=477}} Archaeologists [[Israel Finkelstein]] and [[Neil Asher Silberman]] argue that the exodus narrative perhaps evolved from vague memories of the Hyksos expulsion, spun to encourage resistance to the 7th century domination of Judah by Egypt.<ref>''The Bible Unearthed'', p. 69.</ref> An identification with the Hyksos would only depart minimally from accepted biblical chronology, and their expulsion is the only known large-scale expulsion of Asiatics from a location in Egypt.{{sfn|Redmount|2001|p=78}} Other scholars, such with [[Manfred Bietak]], have pointed out several problems with such theories, including the conflict between the portrayal of the Hyksos as a ruling elite with a background in trade and seafaring and the biblical portrayal of the [[Israelites]] as oppressed in Egypt.{{sfn|Bietak|2015|p=32}}
[[File:Semitic visiters to Egypt, in the Tomb of Knumhotep II, circa 1900 BCE.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|Semitic visitors to Egypt, in the Tomb of [[Khnumhotep II]], c. 1900 BC]]
[[John Bright (biblical scholar)|John Bright]] states that Egyptian and Biblical records both suggest that Semitic people maintained access to Egypt at all periods of Egypt's history, and he suggested that it is tempting to suppose that Joseph who, according to the [[Old Testament]] (Genesis 39:50), was in favour at the Egyptian court and held high administrative positions next to the ruler of the land, was associated to the Hyksos rule in Egypt during the Fifteenth Dynasty. Such a connection might have been facilitated by their shared Semitic ethnicity. He also wrote that there is no proof for these events.{{sfn|Bright|2000|p=97}} Howard Vos has suggested that the "[[coat of many colors]]" said to have been worn by Joseph could be similar to the colorful garments seen in [[:File:Semitic visiters to Egypt, in the Tomb of Knumhotep II, circa 1900 BCE.jpg|the painting of foreigners]] in the tomb of [[Khnumhotep II]].{{sfn|Vos|1999|p=75}}

Ronald B. Geobey notes a number of problems with identifying the narrative of Joseph with events either prior to or during the Hyksos' rule, such as the detail that the Egyptians abhorred Joseph's people ("shepherds"; Gen. 46:31) and numerous anachronisms.{{sfn|Geobey|2017|pp=27–30|ps=. Notes that the Hebrew word is completely unrelated to the term "Hyksos."}} Manfred Bietak suggests that the story fits better with the ambience of the later [[Twentieth Dynasty of Egypt]], in particular with the xenophobic policy of pharaoh [[Setnakhte]] (1189–1186 BC).{{sfn|Bietak|2015|p=20}} And [[Donald Redford]] argues that "to read [the Joseph story] as history is quite wrongheaded,"{{sfn|Redford|1992|p=429}} while Megan Bishop Moore and Brad E. Kelle note the lack of any extra-biblical evidence for the events of Genesis, including the Joseph story, or Exodus.{{sfn|Moore|Kelle|2011|p=93}}

A number of scholars do not believe that the exodus has any historical basis at all, while only scholars "on the fundamentalist fringe" accept the entire biblical account "unless [it] can be absolutely disproved".{{sfn|Grabbe|2017|p=36}} The current consensus among archaeologists is that, if an Israelite exodus from Egypt occurred, it must have happened instead in the [[Nineteenth Dynasty of Egypt]] (13th century BC), given the first appearance of a distinctive Israelite culture in the archaeological record.{{sfn|Geraty|2015|p=58}} The potential connection of the Hyksos to the exodus is no longer a central focus of scholarly study of the Hyksos,{{sfn|Flammini|2015|p=236}} but this supposed connection to the Exodus has continued to inspire popular interest.{{sfn|Van de Mieroop|2011|p=166}}