God’s blueprint for the Ark was exceedingly specific. It was to be a portable wooden chest, about four feet long by two feet wide by two feet high. Made of an extremely resilient wood called acacia. And plated inside and out with pure gold. At the corners of the Ark there would be four gold rings into which gold-plated poles could be inserted for carrying. Its lid – God’s footstool – would be pure gold, with golden-winged angels called cherubim at each end facing each other. The Ark served as Moses’s direct hotline to God. The Bible Uncovered: Hunt for the Ark, National Geographic 2010
But by around 620 B.C. references to the most important artefact in the Jewish religion simply ceases ... But three decades after that, in 587 B.C. came another crisis ... The city and its temple were overrun and looted by Babylonians, led by the famous Nebuchadnezzar. ibid.
Hancock is among those who believe that the high priests in charge of the Ark somehow managed to save it before the city of Jerusalem was sacked along with the Temple of Solomon in 587 B.C. ibid.
Exodus: a Biblical tale of miracles. Catastrophes. History changed by the hand of God. From the burning bush to the death of the first-born, scholars and enthusiasts pursue natural explanations for supernatural events. The Bible Uncovered: Exodus/Riddles of the Bible: Exodus Revealed
No evidence of their passage out of Egypt has been found. ibid.
Not a single artefact has been found that could be definitively linked to the Biblical exodus. ibid.
There’s no way to confirm even that the Israelites were slaves in Egypt. ibid.
It was the beginning of an epic story. The flight of the Hebrews from Egypt. God’s intervention was a turning point in the Bible. One man – Moses – was chosen to lead the Hebrews out of Egypt. Who Was Moses? Discovery 2012
No such evidence has emerged of a mass wandering of Hebrews. ibid.
The plagues ... could have been natural phenomena. ibid.
In the original Hebrew Bible they crossed the Yam Suf, or Sea of Reeds. ibid.
A 2000-year-old rock carving found on the plateau. ibid.
The conclusion is no Israelites ever dwelt in Egypt. Dr Rolf Krauss
No, if we had believed that perjury, murder and theft were all right we would never have got to the feet of Mount Sinai. Christopher Hitchens v Alister McGrath, Georgetown University Washington 2007
If you think that it would be impossible to improve upon the Ten Commandments as a statement of morality, you really owe it to yourself to read some other scriptures. Once again, we need look no further than the Jains: Mahavira, the Jain patriarch, surpassed the morality of the Bible with a single sentence: ‘Do not injure, abuse, oppress, enslave, insult, torment, torture, or kill any creature or living being.’ Imagine how different our world might be if the Bible contained this as its central precept. Christians have abused, oppressed, enslaved, insulted, tormented, tortured, and killed people in the name of God for centuries, on the basis of a theologically defensible reading of the Bible. Sam Harris, Letter to a Christian Nation
You are using your own moral intuitions to authenticate the wisdom of the Bible – and then, in the next moment, you assert that we human beings cannot possibly rely upon our own intuitions to rightly guide us in the world. ibid.
Freedom was gone from the world. The Ten Commandments 1956 starring Yul Brynner & Anne Baxter & Charlton Heston & Edward G Robinson & Yvonne De Carlo & Debra Paget & John Derek & Sir Cedric Hardwicke & Vincent Price et al, producer & director Cecil B DeMille, opening commentary
Every newborn Hebrew manchild shall die. ibid. Rameses
Is life and bondage better than death? ibid. Joshua
You’re a sharp-clawed treacherous little peacock. ibid. Rameses
I do not know what power shapes my way; but my feet are set upon a road that I must follow. ibid. Moses
It would take a God – but if I could free them, I would. ibid. Moses to Pharaoh
Let the name of Moses be stricken from every book and tablet. ibid. Pharaoh
I commend you to your Hebrew God who has no name. ibid. Rameses
What gods? You prophets and priests made the gods that you may prey upon the fears of men. ibid.
Ten times you have seen the miracles of the Lord and still you have no faith. ibid. Moses to Israelites
Who is on the Lord’s side? Let him come to me. ibid. Moses
There was a man whose name is revered by Jews, Christians and Muslims alike. He was born into slavery among a people who had been held captive by the Egypt of the Pharaohs. The Ten Commandments 2006 ABC mini-series starring Dougray Scott & Naveen Andrews & Omar Sharif & Linus Roache & Paul Rhys et al, director Robert Dornhelm, music Randy Edelman
Who made the gods? ibid. inchoate Moses
Where is He? What has He done for us? Why does He let this happen to us? ibid. bloke
What is He a God of? ibid. Moses
Could I stand by and do nothing? Could I? ibid. Moses
If this is what He wanted, you’d think He’d make the going a little easier. ibid.
He does what He wants – I’m learning that. ibid.
Because a man is born in slavery that doesn’t mean that he is a slave. He has to think of himself as a slave before he is one. To be a free man you have to start thinking as one. ibid.
I am who I am? What does that mean? ibid. Moses
Will we have to keep fighting and winning to show we are worthy of you? ibid.
You want to take everything from me, is that it? ibid. Moses to God
Far better that there should be as many gods as there are men. If only to keep us priests employed. ibid. old bloke
This God is too fond of rules. ibid. bloke
Who will stand with God? ibid. Moses
Although God did not permit Moses to enter the promised land He allowed him to see it before he died. ibid. commentary
God gave Moses his laws ... The Ten Commandments were the heart of a binding covenant between God and the Israelites. Empires Special: Kingdom of David: The Saga of the Israelites: By the Rivers of Babylon PBS 2003
Four different sources? Then Moses can’t have written it [Pentateuch] at all. Dr Robert Beckford, Who Wrote the Bible? Channel 4 2004
Moses dragged us through the desert for 40 years to bring us to the one place in the Middle East where there was no oil. Golda Meir
Faced with total catastrophe Pharaoh relents and the Hebrew slaves are set free. The Old Testament says that Moses led more than 600,000 men, women and children out of Egypt on foot. The Exodus symbolises the birth of Israel. Moses guided the slaves to the Promised Holy Land where the capitol of Jerusalem was eventually established. The Ten Plagues of the Bible
[Graham] Phillips was particularly intrigued by the Staff of Moses ... It was a weapon that could tame Nature and bring an empire to its knees. Secrets of the Bible: The Staff of Moses, 2014
He’s determined to track it down. ibid.
The rod found in Petra is the Staff of Moses? ... It could have been taken to America. ibid.
Phillip’s discovery begs an awful possibility: the Staff is at the bottom of the ocean [Titanic] ... What happened to the May family? Did they survive and did they have the Staff with them? (Bible & Moses) ibid.
The Staff had survived ... Phillips is firmly back on the trail ... May sells the Staff ... Maybe the Staff is in America after all ... The Staff ends up in Birmingham Museum! ibid.
The Miracles of the Parting of the Red Sea ... ‘There is no archaeological evidence.’ Secrets of the Bible: Parting of the Red Sea, Professor Eric Cline
You were born a slave. Exodus: Gods and Kings 2014 starring Christian Bale & Joel Edgerton & Ben Kingsley & Sigourney Weaver & John Turturro & Aaron Paul & Maria Valverde & Indira Varma & Hiam Abbass & Kevork Malikyan & Anton Alexander, Kingsley to Bale
Remember this. I am prepared to fight. For eternity. ibid.
And there went a man of the house of Levi, and took to wife a daughter of Levi.
And the woman conceived, and bare a son: and when she saw him that he was a goodly child, she hid him three months.
And when she could not longer hide him, she took for him an ark of bulrushes, and daubed it with slime and with pitch, and put the child therein; and she laid it in the flags by the river's brink. Exodus 2:1-3
And the daughter of Pharaoh came down to wash herself at the river; and her maidens walked along by the river’s side; and when she saw the ark among the flags, she sent her maid to fetch it.
And when she had opened it, she saw the child: and, behold, the babe wept. And she had compassion on him, and said, This is one of the Hebrews’ children. Exodus 2:5&6