Endnote 12 – The Exodus from Egypt: Myth or Reality?
See below, and Genesis 46:29. In Genesis 46:28, the Septuagint (LXX) identifies Goshen as Heroonpolis, identified in late sources as Tell Maskhuta. In Genesis 46:34, 45:10, LXX places it in Arabias, the 20th nome of Lower Egypt, whose capital was located at Faqus. John Van Seters (The Hyksos [New Haven, CT: Yale Univ. Press, 1965] p. 148) correspondingly locates Goshen in the region between the Pelusiac branch of the Nile and the Wadi Tumilat. H. Cazelles (Autour de l’Exode [Paris: Gabalda, 1987], pp. 233–239) argues a location outside Egypt, placing the Goshen of Joshua 11:16 in the zone between Kadesh-Barnea and Gaza, between Judah and Egypt. This approach lays too much stress on the putative implication that any “land of Goshen” must be outside Egypt (against Genesis 45:10, 20, 47:11, 27). Interestingly, the Bohairic, a Coptic text, relates Goshen in Genesis 46:28–29 to Pithom. Pithom has been identified with some confidence as Tell Maskhuta, on the Wadi Tumilat (below). In all, the location of Goshen on the eastern Wadi Tumilat and to the north of it seems to claim the balance of probability. But see Gerhard von Rad, Genesis, Old Testament Library ( Philadelphia: Westminster, 1961), p. 394f; Vergote, Joseph en Egypte, pp. 183–186.