Only problem is Moses died about 800 years earlier

Maybe to you, but that’s not what it means… It is a Hebrew term that means ‘instruction, guidance, law’ (תּוֹרָה). A related Hebrew verb with the same etymological root (י-ר-ה) is הוֹרָה יוֹרֶה ‘to teach, instruct, show.’

You might rethink that and I use the word think with great trepidation in this case. You’re translating Torah as to rah like a journey “to ra” but To” is an English word.

I thought the exact same thing as you did. Very flawed reasoning. That's like me retelling a story from another culture and language but doing so in my own language using English names for the same things and places to make it more appealing or believable.

I totally agree with you

@@masterdistiller5173 they would have been familiar with the Sargon story right there in Egypt too

If the Moses in the river story was clearly pinched directly from the Sargon story, you'd be able to find clear literary parallels (similar story structure, events that parallel in some way, direct borrowing of language, etc.). But all the stories actually have in common is the general concept of a baby being placed in a basket in a river and ultimately being brought up by somebody he isn't biologically related to (though in the case of Moses the latter isn't an entirely accurate description of what happens - since Moses was given back to his mother for several years).

@@stephengray1344 Wouldn't you say the endangered baby in the basket forms the crucial part of both stories? Isn't that a " clear literary parallel" ? As for " borrowing of language" are you saying the hebrews should have used Sumerian words?

@@mikev4621 It's a part of the stories. But in one story the baby is sent floating away down the river to protect the mother. In the other he is left secured among the reeds by the bank in order to protect the baby, and is watched over by his sister. I'm not saying that the Biblical story should have Sumerian loan words rather than Egyptian ones, or that the Sumerian story should have Hebrew loan words. But you'd expect a story in one language that's essentially a reworking of a story from another to have some sentences that say the same thing in the same way unless the structure of the two languages is such that it's just not possible. There's a good case that both stories draw on a common tradition about putting unwanted babies into the river in baskets (either a real-world practice or something that existed in even earlier stories that are lost to history). But when the other details of the two stories are so different it' seems to me to be a real stretch to get to the idea that one of the stories is based on the other. If you applied the same logic you used here to modern stories you'd have to say that Spider-Man's origin story is borrowed from Batman's because the crucial element of both is "hero's motivation is based on the death of his father figure at the hands of a criminal". But the stories use that common element in very different ways. Batman is after vengeance and spends years deliberately training to become Batman. Spider-Man is acting out of a sense of guilt after he discovers that he could have stopped the death if he had acted differently. And he gained his abilities entirely by accident well before uncle Ben's death.

@@stephengray1344 You are right that there have been several iterations of the same story from several cultures.Maybe Sargon wasn't the first; but the Bible most definitely wasn't. Note - the Sumerians could have just practised infanticide on baby Sargon; but no, they preserved his life - perhaps inspired by God? The Mother's life was only in danger if little Sargon was known to exist; Sargon himself was in danger too. The central plot detail is an infant placed in a basket, sealed in both cases with pitch, and set upon the water. Sargon was adopted to become a civic leader of his people; Moses to become a spiritual one ( Toby vs Adam West) .They are all 'hero' stories. The hebrew writers must have been aware of the Sargon story- he was a semite after all. They had a habit of re-working common myths and fables- largely to good effect ( eg consider the Genesis account of creation).If they had related Moses' story as identical in every respect to Sargon's it would have been of little use . They modified the story to present a new area of psychological understanding to their people. If the Sargon story had appeared after Exodus was written, I'd agree with you; but it was 1000 years before Moses.If the writers had wanted to be totally original they would have avoided the 'basket in the water' scenario completely - maybe saying that an eagle picked Moses up and delivered him to Phaoraoh's daughter instead. ps Have you watched the Matrix? It is a re-telling of the Christian myth but doesnt use any words or phrases from the New Testament. A story doesn't have to use the same words to be the same as another story.

@@mikev4621 I didn't say that Exodus was the first instance of this story. Though I would point out that the existence of this trope in earlier stories doesn't prove that any given instance of the trope is fictional. Yes, the priestess in Sargon's story could have practiced infanticide. But there's no real difference between sending the child away down the river and the way the Greco-Roman world practiced infanticide (by leaving the baby outside,exposed to the elements , predators, etc.). Both methods allow you to dispose of the unwanted child but allow a slim possibility of the child surviving. I'm not convinced that the use of pitch is significant - it seems more like a practical detail that would be necessary to make the basket watertight. And the only real similarity between Moses' career and Sargon's are that they became leaders of their people. Which isn't particularly notable. As for the question of originality, you'd have to come up with something radically different to your eagle idea to replace the basket in the story. For the story to work Moses has to have been both adopted by pharaoh's daughter and been bought up by his mother for long enough that he knows his true parentage. The story's unique take on the baby in a basket trope allows this to happen. If you compare the Genesis creation account with other creation accounts from the ancient near east the striking thing is the differences, rather than the similarities. It reads more as a rejection of them than it does a reworking. I'd also point out that we don't actually know when the Sargon story first appeared. Yes, Sargon lived a thousand years before Moses. But our first evidence of the Sargon basket story comes from the seventh century BC and doesn't contain the kind of details that would prove a much earlier origin. Whilst the Exodus account clearly has its origins in the second millennium BC (the form of the covenant between YHWH and Israel, the placenames it uses, and some of the Egyptian loanwords used in the text all come from that period). So whilst it's likely that Sargon's basket story came first, it's not proven to be the case. I don't see that there's much similarity at all between the Matrix and the Christian myth. You've got Neo being the chosen one (which is far too generic an idea to call it a reworking of Christian myth), and the third film has him dying and resurrecting (but also has the very un-Christian idea of the Matrix we see being the latest in a long line of worlds being destroyed and reborn). But I'm struggling to see any other similarities. And the central concept of the original film (that the physical world is an illusion) is utterly alien to Christianity.

From what I recall, that documentary places Joseph before the introduction of the chariot to Egypt (despite the Joseph story featuring chariots). And it uses a timeline that directly contradicts at least 40 pieces of clear archaeological evidence (in the form of writings that show two individuals lived at the same time). If you want to watch documentaries that put forward a case for an historical exodus that actually stands up to scrutiny, I'd recommend the Exodus: Rediscovered series over on the Inspiring Philosophy channel: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/mq-TasxnyrzPZ6s.html