40 Years of Wandering and the Exodus Population
Farrell Till (jftill@midwest.net)
Mon, 28 Apr 1997 23:08:58 -0500 (CDT)
>To: jerry@cwent.com
>From: jftill@midwest.net (Farrell Till)
>Subject: 40 Years of Wandering and the Exodus Population
>
>For the absurdities that I will be posting to be understood, I have to
establish the probable population of the Israelite horde that the Bible
claims left Egypt. The census that Moses conducted the second year after
the exodus (Num. 1:1) revealed that there were 603,550 men of military age
(Num. 1:46). Military age began at 20, but there also seemed to be a
provision that these men be physically able to "go forth to war" (vs:3, 20,
22, 24, 26, etc.). We have no way of knowing how many physically or
mentally disabled men there would have been in this group, but we can
reasonably assume that there were at least some. I will return to this
matter later, but for now I want to establish reasonable population figures
based on what the Bible directly claims. If there were 603,550 able-bodied
men fit to "go forth to war," we can reasonably assume that there was also
an approximate number of able-bodied females in the same age group. This
would add up to 1,207,100 who were at least 20 years old. If there were this
many who were at least 20, we could reasonably think that there were
approximately that many who were 19 or younger. Hence, the population for
these two groups alone would have totaled 2,414,200. No upper age limit was
stated for military service, but we can hardly imagine that Yahweh would
have drafted the old and infirm into the army of his chosen ones. That
there were old and infirm ones in the Israelite population was at least
claimed in Deuteronomy 25:19, which states that the Amalekites "smote the
hindmost" of the Israelites, "all that were feeble behind." As for the
physically and mentally handicapped, the Bible at least claims that there
were such in the Israelite population, because Leviticus 21:16-24 refers to
dwarfs and people who were blind, lame, hunchbacked, and afflicted with
scurvy, and commanded Aaron not to permit them to assist in any of the
tabernacle ceremonies. In a population that had almost 2.5 million hale and
hardy ones, it certainly wouldn't be unreasonable to think that there were
at least 85,800 disabled, and old and infirm people, so if we just add this
conservative estimate to the 2,414,200, we would then have a round number of
2.5 million.
>
>The tribe of Levi was not numbered in the military census: "But the Levites
after the tribe of their faithers were not numbered among them [of military
age]" (Num. 1:47). So we have to add a reasonable estimate of the Levite
population to the 2.5 million in all of the other tribes. In Numbers 3, we
do have a census of Levites that was conducted for another purpose, and it
showed that there were 7,500 Gershonites (v:22), 8,600 Kohathites (v:28),
and 6,200 Merarites (v:34). These numbers make a total of 22,300. As the
verses just cited will show, however, these were all males, so we could
reasonably expect that there was an approximate number of Levite females, so
if we add 44,600 to the 2.5 million already counted, we then have a total of
2,544,600.
>
>Israelites were not the only ones in the wilderness wanderers, because we
are told in Exodus 12:38 that when the Israelites left Egypt, they had with
them "a mixed multitude," as well as their flocks and herds, even "very much
cattle." This mixed multitude was referred to elsewhere in the wilderness
stories. This "mixed multitude that was among them [the Israelites]"
participated in the near food riot that led Yahweh to blow quails all around
the encampment (Num. 11:4). This "mixed multitude" could not have been
Israelites, because after "Moses" related that the multitude "lusted
exceedingly" for meat, he went on to say, "And the children of Israel also
wept again" (v:4). So whatever this "mixed multitude" was, it has to be
considered non-Israelite. We have no way of knowing what a "multitude"
would be, but it surely wasn't just a handful of "strangers," which they
were called in other passages. If all biblical claims about the head counts
are taken at face value, we have to conclude that there were between 2.5 and
3 million people in the horde that left Egypt with their flocks and herds
and "very much cattle."
>
>With the population of the exodus horde established, I can now begin to
show that the biblical writers fabricated stories about the wilderness
wanderings without taking into consideration the population of the group
they were writing about. Let's take the 40-year period of the Israelite
wanderings as a simple example. The Sinai penninsula is about 150 miles
long from north to south and about 120 miles across at its widest point.
Since it is shaped like an arrowhead, it is much narrower in other places.
The exodus stories ask us to believe that about 3 million people wandered in
this wilderness for a period of 40 years, but how likely is it that 3
million people could do that in a relatively confined area without finding
their way out of the wilderness?
>
>Let's suppose that these 3 million traveled, say, 200 abreast, taking with
them their tents, herds, and other possessions as they marched along. How
long would this line of humanity have been? If they traveled this way,
there would have been 15,000 oolumns, and if they had only 3 feet between
the columns, they would have been strung out over a distance of almost 9
miles. However, it is unreasonable to think that people traveling with
their tents and herds could have been compacted together with only 3 feet
between the columns. So even if they had formed a horde of people and
animals 20 miles long and had traveled only 20 miles per day, far enough for
the people in the back to be out of the abandoned camp site before the front
of the column stopped to make camp again, their 41 different encampments
(Num. 33:5-49) would have moved them a minimum distance of 820 miles, which
would have equaled about 7 transits across the Sinai penninsula. So they
sometimes backtracked or traveled in circles, some inerrantist will say.
Well, if so, why didn't they stay in the same encampments on their second or
third trips through? Surely, there would have been some advantages in doing
this, since the terrain would have already been prepared as camp sites, but
all 41 encampments had different names, an indication that the writer(s) of
Numbers thought that all of the locations were different.
>
>Rather than seeing this part of the exodus story as an accurate historical
account, it is more reasonable to think that the writer(s) resorted to
excessive exaggeration (characterisitic of ancient literature) without
stopping to consider logistic requirements of moving a population of 3
million for 40 years through the settings of the wilderness wanderings.
Inerrantists on this list will say that there is no real problem here, but
in due time, I will demonstrate that there are just too many logistically
impossible claims in the exodus stories for rational people to believe that
they are accurate historical accounts.
>
Farrell Till
Skepticism, Inc.
jftill@midwest.net