>>568608
>The consensus of modern scholars
If the Jesus Seminars have taught us anything, it's that the opinions of "scholars" are meaningless, especially when it comes to biblical matters. The only time you hear something along the lines of "the majority of scholars believe X" is when someone has no actual evidence and therefore has to resort to an appeal to authority. Heck, half the time the appeal to authority isn't even based on truth. Remember the whole "97% of scientists believe in global warming" nonsense?
>There is no indication that the Israelites ever lived in Ancient Egypt
You know, aside from all those Egyptian records containing Jewish names.
>the Sinai Peninsula shows almost no sign of any occupation for the entire 2nd millennium BCE
And what signs of occupation would a nomadic tribe, who carried water in animal skins rather than pots, and who lived in tents rather than proper houses, leave behind exactly?
>Certainly no Egyptian sources mention Moses or the events of Exodus-Deuteronomy
Yeah, and Egyptian historians also had a tendency to ignore anything that showed the Egyptians in a negative light. Like how they thought the Nile was a gift from the gods and then it destroyed one of their villages, so they all pretended that the village never existed in the first place to keep up the delusion.
>nor has any archaeological evidence been discovered in Egypt or the Sinai wilderness to support the story in which he is the central figure
Really now?
>The story of his discovery picks up a familiar motif in ancient Near Eastern mythological accounts of the ruler who rises from humble origins
This is just reaching for straws. Moses also dies at the end of the story, does that mean Exodus-Deuteronomy is a ripoff of all those other stories where people died?