{"id":12739,"date":"2024-03-05T22:37:03","date_gmt":"2024-03-05T17:07:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/2024\/03\/05\/archaeology-and-the-exodus-story-as-a-mnemo-narrative\/"},"modified":"2024-03-05T22:37:03","modified_gmt":"2024-03-05T17:07:03","slug":"archaeology-and-the-exodus-story-as-a-mnemo-narrative","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/2024\/03\/05\/archaeology-and-the-exodus-story-as-a-mnemo-narrative\/","title":{"rendered":"Archaeology and the Exodus Story as a &#8220;Mnemo-Narrative&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Below is a half-hour video passed on to me a while back by an\u00a0archaeologist\u00a0friend of mine. It is of a lecture given by Israeli archaeologist Aren Maeir of Bar Ilan University.<\/p>\n<p>The lecture is entitled, \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=3eWqMX716Zs\">Can Archaeological Correlates for the Mnemo-Narrative of Exodus be Found?<\/a>\u201d I think I embedded the video properly, but if not, you can click the link above.<\/p>\n<div class=\"jeg_video_container jeg_video_content\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Aren Maeir - Can Archaeological Correlates for the Mnemo-Narratives of Exodus be Found?\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/3eWqMX716Zs?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>I find this sort of thing fascinating. Maeir\u2019s main point is that the <a href=\"https:\/\/peteenns.com\/did-the-exodus-happen-how-historical-evidence-might-or-might-not-help\/\">exodus story<\/a> in the Bible is the end product of narratives (plural) that came down to the biblical writer from different times and which he compiled into a narrative (singular). He compares the exodus story to an archaeological tell\u2013dig down and you go further back in time to earlier stages of the story.<\/p>\n<p>Part of Maeir\u2019s lecture focuses on what he feels are misuses of archaeology by those who seek to find correlation between archaeological findings and the biblical narrative. One of the problems with that approach is that the \u201cbiblical narrative,\u201d though still capable of depicting history, is nevertheless a memory\u2013a \u201cmnemo-narrative.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Following the work of such scholars as <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/0521188024\/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=9325&amp;creativeASIN=0521188024&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=inspirandinca-20\">Jan Assmann<\/a><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;\" src=\"http:\/\/ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com\/e\/ir?t=inspirandinca-20&amp;l=as2&amp;o=1&amp;a=0521188024\" alt=\"\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" border=\"0\"\/>, Maeir points out that memories are not simply reports of events but <em>reconstructions of events<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Common experience will bear this out when we think of how we recall the past as individuals.<\/p>\n<h2>We, often unwittingly, shape our retelling of the past to reflect how we see the past and ourselves in general.<\/h2>\n<p>We collapse together discreet events, we invent dialogue, etc., not to deceive but in an effort to bring the past into our current experience of ourselves.<\/p>\n<p>Understanding the biblical story of the exodus as a mnemo-narrative, Maeir argues, helps explain why there is no archaeological support for it\u2013even though an event of this magnitude could not stay in hiding for long.<\/p>\n<p>Based on how these things are normally handled in the ancient world,\u00a0one would expect Egyptian sources not to <em>ignore<\/em> the departure of about 2,000,000 slaves and the crippling of the Egyptian power base (as in the plagues). They would <em>need<\/em> to explain it, i.e., they would have to spin it, as, say, an indication that their gods were angry with them for some failure. That is a common way that ancient cultures \u201cexplained\u201d military defeat. The worse the defeat, the better an explanation was needed.<\/p>\n<p>Maeir reasons that archaeology and the biblical narrative do not match up not so much because\u00a0<em>nothing\u00a0<\/em>happened, but because of the nature of the biblical narrative as a mnemo-narrative. The exodus story that we have is the result of a process of \u201cremembering\u201d the past through ongoing reception and appropriation over time.<\/p>\n<h2>Those memories were\u2013as are all memories\u2013transformed and shaped by those very communities that embrace and transmit them.<\/h2>\n<p>Seeking correspondence between archaeology and the biblical narrative of the exodus is, therefore, misguided, for it treats the biblical narrative is a single-layered report handed down essentially unchanged from early on and that can be placed side-by-side with potential archaeological remains.<\/p>\n<p>Put another way, the exodus story we have in the Bible, whatever its historical foundation might be, is a story that is not open to archaeological verification because the story reflects more how later Israelite communities came to understand the past in view of their present purposes for remembering.<\/p>\n<p>On one level, there is nothing tremendously new here, though Maeir helpfully brings the study of memory to bear on the perennial issue of archaeology and the Bible.<\/p>\n<p>Any thoughts on this, especially from those who might be abreast of biblical archaeology and the process of memory?<\/p>\n<form action=\"https:\/\/app.convertkit.com\/forms\/1626631\/subscriptions\" class=\"seva-form formkit-form\" method=\"post\" data-sv-form=\"1626631\" data-uid=\"6dc77eac72\" data-format=\"modal\" data-version=\"5\" data-options=\"{&quot;settings&quot;:{&quot;after_subscribe&quot;:{&quot;action&quot;:&quot;redirect&quot;,&quot;success_message&quot;:&quot;Success! Now check your email to confirm your subscription.&quot;,&quot;redirect_url&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/peteenns.com\/archaeology-insights-with-dr-shafer-elliott\/&quot;},&quot;analytics&quot;:{&quot;google&quot;:null,&quot;facebook&quot;:null,&quot;segment&quot;:null,&quot;pinterest&quot;:null},&quot;modal&quot;:{&quot;trigger&quot;:&quot;timer&quot;,&quot;scroll_percentage&quot;:null,&quot;timer&quot;:5,&quot;devices&quot;:&quot;all&quot;,&quot;show_once_every&quot;:&quot;&quot;},&quot;powered_by&quot;:{&quot;show&quot;:false,&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/convertkit.com\/?utm_source=dynamic&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=poweredby&amp;utm_content=form&quot;},&quot;recaptcha&quot;:{&quot;enabled&quot;:false},&quot;return_visitor&quot;:{&quot;action&quot;:&quot;hide&quot;,&quot;custom_content&quot;:&quot;&quot;},&quot;slide_in&quot;:{&quot;display_in&quot;:&quot;bottom_right&quot;,&quot;trigger&quot;:&quot;timer&quot;,&quot;scroll_percentage&quot;:null,&quot;timer&quot;:5,&quot;devices&quot;:&quot;all&quot;,&quot;show_once_every&quot;:15},&quot;sticky_bar&quot;:{&quot;display_in&quot;:&quot;top&quot;,&quot;trigger&quot;:&quot;timer&quot;,&quot;scroll_percentage&quot;:null,&quot;timer&quot;:5,&quot;devices&quot;:&quot;all&quot;,&quot;show_once_every&quot;:15}},&quot;version&quot;:&quot;5&quot;}\" min-width=\"400 500 600 700 800\">\n<div class=\"formkit-container\" data-style=\"full\" style=\"background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);\">\n<div class=\"formkit-hero\">\n<div class=\"formkit-content\" data-element=\"content\" style=\"color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-size: 18px; font-weight: 400;\">\n<p>Archaeology Insights With Dr. Shafer-Elliott<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<style\/><\/form>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/thebiblefornormalpeople.com\/archaeology-and-the-exodus-story-as-a-mnemo-narrative-and-no-cracks-about-finding-mnemo-please\/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=archaeology-and-the-exodus-story-as-a-mnemo-narrative-and-no-cracks-about-finding-mnemo-please\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Below is a half-hour video passed on to me a while back by an\u00a0archaeologist\u00a0friend of mine. It is of a lecture given by Israeli archaeologist Aren Maeir of Bar Ilan University. The lecture is entitled, \u201cCan Archaeological Correlates for the Mnemo-Narrative of Exodus be Found?\u201d I think I embedded the video properly, but if not, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12740,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[]},"categories":[44],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12739"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12739"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12739\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12740"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}