As Alice Camille, biblical columnist for U.S. Catholic, tells people who ask, "Is the Bible true?": Yes, it is true, and a few things in it actually happened.

You are right that there is no archaeological record of the presence of Israelites in Egypt in the Bronze Age, nor of any series of events like what Exodus describes. We're really up in the air -- or ought to be! -- about who exactly the "Israelites" were. It's puzzling, also, that Joseph, and later Moses, associated with Egypt, were important figures in the northern kingdom of Israel, dominated by the tribe named for Joseph's son Ephraim, but not so much down in Judah. The north also liked giving cult to Yahûh in bovine form, à la Golden Calf, which Judah didn't do, preferring a solar form.

Nevertheless believers make what they wish of those quaint old biblical tales. Bringing them to life for oneself is something of an art, when done well. And maybe, at times, the art could actually be called divine.