Or again, as the lack of archaeological evidence strongly suggest, Moses and his followers were never there in the first place. Archaeology instead strongly suggests the Jews did not wander from far afield until they found a promised land. Rather their society coalesced among peoples who long lived in the Levant. The Old Testament tales were merely a method of cementing cultural and political identity.

This identity is quite important. As we know from ancient secular texts such as Gilgamesh and The Iliad, people then as now did question their political rulers when they asked them to attack others in order to cement that rulers authority. Religious identity was then as now a valuable tool for the leading class to assure the people the needed to fight for and maintain territory and wealth of their nations put in the necessary effort.