Summary
The advent of printing in the 15th Century allowed common usage of the Bible, establishing its authority as the sole record of ancient history without competition from other sources for over 4 centuries. It was only in the middle of the 19th Century that we rediscovered how to understand ancient cuneiform and hieroglyphic texts from pre Greek civilisations.
Gradually, translations of ancient original texts, dating back twice as far as the oldest fragments of the Old Testament (Dead Sea Scrolls) have revealed the muddled record of history contained in the Bible. This is hardly surprising as Hebrew writing emerged only after 1000BC, adopting the Phoenician alphabet invented c1050BC.
Perhaps surprisingly, even texts from the Monarchical period (1000BC to 586BC) generally appear to have been written, or at least heavily redacted, hundreds of years after the events recorded. Indeed, the bulk of the Old Testament scripture uses language and references dating to the time of the Exile (586BC to 538BC) or later.
Without any method of authenticating details, the priests in Babylon had only a very hazy understanding of history when trying to craft the national foundation story from ancient oral traditions. Research for this booklet has led the author to a novel explanation for the Biblical story of slavery under the Egyptians and of the Exodus, the evidence points to an Expulsion, followed later, by slavery under Egyptian rule.