Passover 2014, The Unleavened Basics: Dates, Facts And History Of Pesach

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83. What one might look for perhaps depends on how one reads the stories

If archaeologists find no evidence of a mass emigration from Egypt during or somewhat after the time of Ramesses, then of course one probably has no reason to believe thus such a mass emigration occurred

But the ancient Egyptians did, at one time, have a large empire that stretched at least to what is now Israel, and like other ancient peoples they did use war to obtain slaves. So there is nothing implausible in the idea that various people from that area were held as slaves in Egypt

There is also the testimony of Josephus in Against Apion, written perhaps at the end of the first century CE. Josephus purports to quote the work of an Egyptian historian Manetho:

... he says ... The king, although he had been informed of these things, and terrified with the fear of what was to come, yet did not he even then eject these maimed people out of his country, when it had been foretold him that he was to clear Egypt of them; but, as Manetho says, "he then, upon their request, gave them that city to inhabit, which had formerly belonged to the shepherds, and was called Avaris; whither when they were gone in crowds," he says, "they chose one that had formerly been priest of Hellopolis; and that this priest first ordained that they should neither worship the gods, nor abstain from those animals that were worshipped by the Egyptians, but should kill and eat them all, and should associate with nobody but those that had conspired with them; and that he bound the multitude by oaths to be sure to continue in those laws; and that when he had built a wall about Avaris, he made war against the king." Manetho adds also, that "this priest sent to Jerusalem to invite that people to come to his assistance, and promised to give them Avaris; for that it had belonged to the forefathers of those that were coming from Jerusalem, and that when they were come, they made a war immediately against the king, and got possession of all Egypt." He says also that "the Egyptians came with an army of two hundred thousand men, and that Amenophis, the king of Egypt, not thinking that he ought to fight against the gods, ran away presently into Ethiopia, and committed Apis and certain other of their sacred animals to the priests, and commanded them to take care of preserving them." He says further, that" the people of Jerusalem came accordingly upon the Egyptians, and overthrew their cities, and burnt their temples, and slew their horsemen, and, in short, abstained from no sort of wickedness nor barbarity; and for that priest who settled their polity and their laws," he says, "he was by birth of Hellopolis, and his name was Osarsiph, from Osyris the god of Hellopolis, but that he changed his name, and called himself Moses" ...

Now one might suspect that this story of an uprising against the Egyptians is simply convenient polemic from Josephus. But according to Josephus, the king's name is Amenophis -- apparently a Greek version of Amenhotep. And despite the somewhat garbled story (Manetho seems to regard Ramesses as the son of Amenhotep), there was a period of chaos following the reign of the odd monotheist Amenhotep IV: Smenkhkare ruled a year; Neferneferuaten perhaps two; Tutankhamun eight or nine; the vizier Ay three or four; then the general Horemheb became Pharoah a while, but upon his death his tomb was sealed unfinished, after which Ramesses I ruled a year or two. Meanwhile, the capitol relocated from Amarna back to Thebes, and Amenhotep IV was blotted from the official dynastic histories

The Biblical authors were at least accurately aware of an Egyptian change in attitude towards monotheism in the era before Ramesses II consolidated his power