"The residence of the Hebrews in Egypt, and their exodus thence under the guidance and training of an enthusiast for the freedom of his tribe, form a series of strictly historical facts, which find confirmation even in the documents of ancient Egypt (which we have just shown). But the traditional narratives of these events (were) _elaborated by the Hebrew people_."[54:3]
"What Exodus says of their (the Israelites) servitude under the king of Heliopolis, and of the oppression of their hosts, the Egyptians, is extremely probable. _It is here their history begins. All that precedes . . . is nothing but mythology and cosmogony._"[54:4]
In speaking of the sojourn of the Israelites in Egypt, Dr. Knappert says:
"According to the tradition preserved in Genesis, it was the promotion of Jacob's son, Joseph, to be viceroy of Egypt, that brought about the migration of the sons of Israel from Canaan to Goshen. The story goes that this Joseph was sold as a slave by his brothers, and after many changes of fortune received the vice-regal office at Pharaoh's hands through his skill in interpreting dreams. Famine drives his brothers--and afterwards his father--to him, and the Egyptian prince gives them the land of Goshen to live in. _It is by imagining all this that the legend tries to account for the fact that Israel passed some time in Egypt._ But we must look for the real explanation in a migration of certain tribes which could not establish or maintain themselves in Canaan, and were forced to move further on.
"We find a passage in Flavius Josephus, from which it appears that in Egypt, too, a recollection survived of the sojourn of some foreign tribes in the north-eastern district of the country. For this writer gives us two fragments out of a lost work by Manetho, a priest, who lived about 250 B. C. In one of these we have a statement that pretty nearly agrees with the Israelitish tradition about a sojourn in Goshen. _But the Israelites were looked down on by the Egyptians as foreigners, and they are represented as lepers and unclean._ Moses himself is mentioned by name, and we are told that he was a priest and joined himself to these _lepers_ and gave them laws."[55:1]
To return now to the story of the Red Sea being divided to let Moses and his followers pass through--of which we have already seen one counterpart in the legend related of Bacchus and his army passing through the same sea dry-shod--there is another similar story concerning Alexander the Great.