Or the alternative:
Much of ‘mythology’ has as its purpose not the recording of actual deeds but the inculcation of moral virtues and using image and symbolism to communicate the wisest things that a society had figured out.
We now think of history as facts, dates, information; but the ancients didn’t view it that way; they viewed it as ‘what do we need to teach the next generation to ensure the continuance and growth of our society.
It wouldn’t really matter if the Jews wandered for 18 years or 47 years, what mattered was that in that period of time soft, polytheistic urbanized farmers turned into lean, mean, militarized, monotheistic warriors, for example; that the ones who weren’t up to the task of conquest and firm in their faith never made it out of the desert-
Of course it gets a bit of mud on its face when they find evidence of certain events they wrote off as mythical.
But that is easily solved by sticking Proto- in front of the discovery. That way you don't have to admit your dissertation was a load of rubbish.