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3.1 Introduction to Exodus

General Statements. "The principal aim of the Pentateuch is to recount the prehistory of the Israelite people prior to the conquest of its land. This narrative reaches its climax in the episode most abounding in manifestations of God's miraculous acts, namely, the account of the Exodus from Egypt. I

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3.1 Introduction to Exodus

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    1. 3.1 Introduction to Exodus APTS-BOT620

    2. General Statements "The principal aim of the Pentateuch is to recount the prehistory of the Israelite people prior to the conquest of its land. This narrative reaches its climax in the episode most abounding in manifestations of God's miraculous acts, namely, the account of the Exodus from Egypt. In this story a group of slaves becomes an independent nation, henceforth enslaved to the LORD their God alone. The LORD, by bringing His people out of the house of bondage, becomes the God of Israel, and the Israelites simultaneously become His treasured people." [Loewenstamm, The Evolution of the Exodus Tradition, 13]

    3. Name "The second book of the Torah was given its name from the opening words twmv hlaw ("and these are the names"), which were sometimes shortened by the Jews to twmv ("names"). It was the LXX that designated the work according to its principal theme, VExodoj (Ex 19.1), and this was followed by the Vulgate (Exodus) and the English versions." [Harrison, Introduction to the OT, 566]

    4. Name "One other name is homes] s]el|= "the second fifth" (of the Pentateuch) (Sota 36b)." [Sarna, "Exodus, Book of," ABD, II, 690]

    5. Textual Traditions 1. Introduction: 1.1 "The present division of the books of the Hebrew Bible into chapters is a late innovation. It is Christian in origin and was transferred from the Latin Bible into Hebrew manuscript by R. Salomon b. Ishmael ca. 1330 C.E." [Sarna, "Exodus, Book of," ABD, II, 690]

    6. Textual Traditions 1.2 "The book of Exodus, however, provides a clear example of two editions of a biblical book. The different edition preserved in the Samaritan Pentateuch (SP) has been known since the seventeenth century, but its significance was capable of being dismissed, because the major differences were considered the work of the marginalized Samaritans, With the discovery of 4QpaleoExodm, however, we see that the book of Exodus circulated in Judaism in two editions. One was the form traditionally

    7. Textual Traditions found in the MT and translated in the LXX, and the other an intentionally expanded version with most of the features characteristic of the Samaritan version except the two specifically Samaritan features (namely, the addition of the commandment to build an altar on Mt. Gerizim, and the systematic use of the past, and not the future, of the verb in the formula "the place that the Lord has chosen" [not "will choose"])." [Eugene Ulrich, The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Origins of the Bible (Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdman Publishing Co., 1999), 25]

    8. Textual Traditions 2. LXX: 2.1 "The Hebrew behind the Greek Exodus seems to have differed from MT more than the other books of the Pentateuch. It also differs from it in arrangement of contents in two main respects (1) within the Decalog (chap. 20), the order of the commandments in Codex Vaticanus (B) is 7, 8, and 6; (2) while it closely corresponds to MT in chaps. 25-31, there are considerable differences in the parallel account in chaps 35-40. The section dealing with the ornaments and garments of the priesthood (39.2-31[MT]), which in MT follows the

    9. Textual Traditions description of the structure of the tabernacle and its furnishings, is shifted in LXX to head the entire section (36.9-40[LXX]) within the subsections of that pericope (Swete 1902: 231-36)." [Sarna, "Exodus, Book of," ABD, II, 691] 2.2 "In the various translation-technical studies which describe the translators' way of handling typically Hebrew syntactical phenomena, Exodus has proved to be one of the most freely translated books in the LXX and one of those in which the requirements of Greek idiom have been best taken into account. This translator was capable of using free renderings that are

    10. Textual Traditions perfectly appropriate in their context, but he also used literal renderings. He was capable of changing grammatical construction in order better to meet the requirements of Greek, but he did not always do so. He was free enough to change the word-order of the original, but, actually, most of the time he followed the original word-order. He could add and omit word and grammatical items but he obviously did not do so out of indifference or carelessness. Even in the free renderings he mostly proves to be faithful to the original. He may be characterized as a competent translator, one of

    11. Textual Traditions the best, but still not perfect. He made his mistakes too." [Aejmelaeus, A., "Septuagintal Translation Techniques - A Solution to the Problem of the Tabernacle Account," in Septuagint, Scrolls and Cognate Writings, eds. Brooke & Lindars, p.388-389] 2.3 "The text of the Vorlage of the LXX actually represented a halfway phase in the development. It was incomplete and inconsistent and had perhaps also suffered in the hands of scribes. Through editorial additions, harmonizations and rearrangements the development was brought to an end in the MT, but in a way that had changed the nature of the second section from a report of the work

    12. Textual Traditions done to a repetition of the instructions in the past tense." [Aejmelaeus, A., "Septuagintal Translation Techniques - A Solution to the Problem of the Tabernacle Account," in Septuagint, Scrolls and Cognate Writings, eds. Brooke & Lindars, p.397-398]

    13. Textual Traditions 3. Samaritan Pentateuch: 3.1 "The Samaritan text is characterized by a number of major expansions, conflate readings, and interpolations. Thus Exod 18.24 is supplemented by Deut 1.9-18, the tenth commandment in Exod 20.17 has been augmented by citations from Deut 11.29 and 27.2-7, Exod 20.19 has been enlarged by Deut 5.24-27, and Exod 20.22 by the excerpts from Deut 5.28-31." [Sarna, "Exodus, Book of," ABD, II, 691]

    14. Textual Traditions 4. Qumran: 4.1 "A total of fifteen Hebrew scrolls of Exodus, all fragmentary, were uncovered at Qumran. Thirteen were found in cave 4; two of them written in the Paleo-Hebrew script. Other fragments were found in cave 1, which feature Exod 16.12-16; 19.24-20.1; 20.25-21.1; 21.4-5, and in the 'small caves,' that is, in cave 2 that held Exod 1.11-14; 7.1-14; 9.27-29; 11.3-7; 12.32-41; 21.18-20(?); 26.11-13; 30.21(?); 32.32-34 and another group containing Exod 4.31; 12.26-27(?); 18.21-22; 21.27-22.2; 22.15-19; 27.17-19; 31.16-17; 19.9; and 34.10; and a third represented by 5.3-5. In cave 7 were found

    15. Textual Traditions Exod 28.4-6 and v7 in Greek translation. In addition, fragments of Hebrew Exod 4.28-31; 5.3; and 6.5-11 were preserved at Murabba'at." [Sarna, "Exodus, Book of," ABD, II, 691] 4.2 "The field of text criticism of the Hebrew Bible in general and specifically in the Pentateuch or more narrowly in the book of Exodus and Numbers has been changing in the last few years. At the forefront has been Emanuel Tov, who, through many articles and books has presented a new perspective on the texts. Tov argues that the traditional "three textual traditions," is no longer a viable approach. The Qumran scrolls have shown us

    16. Textual Traditions that the "three" are "just three texts of the O.T., similar to other texts which were current in the Second Temple period and that there were a "great variety of texts for each book" during this period. Language such as "recensions," and "text-types," should give way to such "minimal terms . . . as source, textual witness or simply text." However, Tov does give a grouping of these texts instead of a infinite number of isolated "texts." For example a proto-Masoretic group is extant at Qumran. This group is characterized as being one in which changes were not made after a certain period. Similarly there were texts that

    17. Textual Traditions link closely with the LXX at Qumran which also, were conservative when it came to emendations. Finally, 4QpaleoExm and 4QNumb can be linked with the Samaritan Pentateuch, but represent a "free approach to the biblical text allowed for orthographic modernization, as well as contextual and grammatical changes, including harmonizations of various types." Tov and others have also identified two other groups of significance. The first are those written in the Qumran style of orthography and morphology. While the last group found at Qumran is called the "Non-Aligned Texts." Tov describes these

    18. Textual Traditions as those texts that "agree sometimes significantly, with MT against the other texts, or they agree with SP and / or LXX against the other texts, but the non-aligned texts also disagree with the other texts to the same extent. They furthermore contain readings not known from one of the other texts or groups." The works of Judith Sanderson on the 4QpaleoExodm scroll and Nathan Jastram on the 4QNumb scroll have further refined our understand of the so-called "Pre-Samaritan group in relations to the texts of Exodus and Numbers.

    19. Canonical Context "The links with Genesis are discernible in the initial verses. Verse 1 cites Gen 46.1, and v5 is dependent on Gen 46.26-27. The list of tribes in Exod 1.2-4 is drawn from Gen 35.23-26, because that chapter (vv11-12) contains the divine promises to Jacob. . . . Exod 1.7 tacitly affirms that the blessing of fertility has been realized; the fulfillment of the promise of national territory is about to be set in motion. In addition, the references to Joseph in 1.5-6 presuppose a knowledge of his identity and activities (cf. 3.16 and 13.19 with Gen 50.24-25). Still other instances of dependency on the Genesis narrative lie in the repeated invocation of the divine promises to the

    20. Canonical Context three patriarchs (Exod 2.24; 6.3-4, 8; 32.13; 33.1; cf. Gen 12.1-3; 15.5, 7, 18; 17.2; 28.13-14; 46.3; Fishbane 1979: 63-64) . . . . The closing chapters of Exodus that recount the construction and dedication of the tabernacle in the wilderness provide the background and rationale for the main theme of the books of Leviticus and Numbers, which is the ordering of the cultic institutions and religious life of Israel." [Sarna, "Exodus, Book of," ABD, II, 690]

    21. Literary Analysis 1. Ironic reversals: 1.1 The use of @Ws in 2.3, Moses' basket and the @Ws-~y in 13.18 and 15.4. 1.2 Moses' mother is actually paid to nurse him. 1.3 Moses' name meaning "He who draws out (from the water)" becomes significant in light of the @Ws-~y.

    22. Literary Analysis 2. Literary structure: 2.1 "Ten Plagues . . . three series of three, with two announce and the third not. The first of each series is "in the morning", but the next two lack time indication. "The instruction given to Moses in the first of each series begins with "Station yourself . . ." and in the second of each it is, "Go to Pharaoh," while the third is consistently without any such instruction. The entire first series is brought about through the agency of Aaron, the entire third series through the instrumentality of Moses." [Sarna, "Exodus, Book of," ABD, II, 695]

    23. Literary Analysis 3. Repetitive Motifs and Leitwort: 3.1 Between chapters 4-14, Pharaoh's heart is mentioned 20 times: 10 times it is the king's obstinacy (Ex 7.13, 14, 22; 8.11, 15, 28; 9.7, 34, 35; 13.5) and 10 times it is a product of divine intent (Ex 4.21; 7.3; 9.12; 10.1, 20, 27; 11.10; 14.4, 8, 17). 3.2 Ex 1.15-21 the term midwife = 7x. Ex 2.1-10 "child" = 7x. Ex 5.7-19 the stem lbn for building bricks etc.

    24. Literary Analysis 4. Deliberate Chronological Displacement of an Episode: 4.1 Ex 18's Jethro's visit must have occurred after the revelation at Sinai not before. Note (18.15 verses 19.1-2) (18.16, 20). 4.2 The location of Ex 32.1-34.35 is problematic

    25. Structure 1. "The structure of Exodus is very different from that of Genesis. There is no series of genealogical formulae to provide clearly marked divisions. Although there is an itinerary from the priestly source (12.37a; 13.20; 14.1f; 15.22a; 17.1a; 19.2), it neither extends the whole length of the book nor provides an overarching framework. The itinerary is picked up again in Numbers." [Childs, Introduction to the OT as Scripture, 170]

    26. Structure 2. "The chapters are very unevenly divided in terms of the detail by which the passage of chronological time is recorded. Exodus 12.41 fixes the period of the Egyptian captivity at 430 years, yet the bulk of chs. 1-12 relate to a very short period before deliverance. Similarly, the last chapters from 19-40 cover a period of less than a year (19.1; 40.17) . . . . the interest of the writer falls on certain specific moments within the history." [Childs, Introduction to the OT as Scripture, 170]

    27. Structure 3. "There is no obvious way to divide the book into its parts. Chapters 1-15 cover the exodus from Egypt, 15.22-18.27 the wilderness journey, and 19-40 the covenant at Sinai and its ordinances. Yet such divisions are based on the elements of general content and do not rest on formal literary markers. It would seem that the general structure of the book reveals little conscious canonical shaping." [Childs, Introduction to the OT as Scripture, 170-171]

    28. Structure I. Israel in Egypt: 1.1-13.16 A. The Progeny of Israel, the Persecution and Deliverance (1.1-2.25) B. The Call of the Deliverer, His Commission, and His Obedience (3.1-7.7) C. The Ten Mighty Acts and the Exodus: The Proof of Yahweh's Presence (7.8-13.16) II. Israel in the Wilderness: 13.17-18.27

    29. Structure III. Israel at Sinai: 19.1-40.38 A. The Advent of Yahweh's Presence and the Making of the Covenant (19.1-24.18) B. Yahweh's Instructions for the Media of Worship (25.1-31.18) C. Israel's First Disobedience and Its Aftermath (32.1-34.35) D. Israel's Obedience of Yahweh's Instructions (35.1-40.38)

    30. Theological Significance to the Structure 1. "It is theologically significant to observe that the events of Sinai are both preceded and followed by the stories of the people's resistance which is characteristic of the entire wilderness wanderings. The narrative material testifies to those moments in Israel's history in which God made himself known. For Israel to learn the will of God necessitated an act of self-revelation. Israel could not discover it for herself." [Childs, Introduction to the OT as Scripture, 174]

    31. Theological Significance to the Structure 2. "The placing of the Decalogue . . . . The prologue (20.2) summarizes the previous narrative of the first eighteen chapters. The commandments are addressed to the people who have been rescued from slavery in Egypt. However, the decalogue also serves as an interpretive guide to all the succeeding legal material." [Childs, Introduction to the OT as Scripture, 174]

    32. Theological Significance to the Structure 3. ". . . the Book of the Covenant (21-23) . . . . The material is now placed within a narrative setting which legitimizes Moses' role as interpreter of the law (20.18ff). The canon thus recognizes the different form of the divine law in the decalogue and the laws which follow, and it does not fuse the two . . . . The commands are to be understood in closest relation to the God of the covenant who laid claim upon a people and pointed them to a new life as the people of God." [Childs, Introduction to the OT as Scripture, 174]

    33. Theological Significance to the Structure 4. "The canonical function of Ex 32-34 is to place the institutions of Israel's worship within the theological framework of sin and forgiveness . . . . The worship inaugurated at Sinai did not reflect an ideal period of obedience on Israel's part, but he response of a people who were portrayed from the outset as the forgiven and restored community. If ever there were a danger of misunderstanding Sinai as a pact between partners, the positioning of Ex 32-34 made clear the foundation of the covenant was, above all, divine mercy and forgiveness." [Childs, Introduction to the OT as Scripture, 175-176]

    34. Theological Significance to the Structure 5. "One of the most significant examples of canonical shaping in the book of Exodus involves the use of literary technique which combined the account of an original event with the portrayal of the continuous celebration of that same event. [Chp 13 > 15; 12] . . . . The canonical effect of this literary device is of profound theological significance. The original events are not robbed of their historical particularity; nevertheless, the means for their actualization for future Israel is offered in the shape of scripture itself." [Childs, Introduction to the OT as Scripture, 176]

    35. Dating the Exodus Period 1. First half of 13th Century: 1.1 "Among Biblical scholars and archaeologist it is almost axiomatic that the Israelites entered Canaan about 1230-1220 B.C. In terms of archaeological periods, this would be towards the end of the Late Bronze Age, for which the GAD is 1550-1200 B.C." [Bimson & Livingston, "Redating the Exodus," BAR, (Sept/Oct, 1987), 40] 1.2 "But while the exact dates can be set for neither events [exodus/conquest], we may be fairly certain that the exodus took place no earlier than the thirteenth century....If

    36. Dating the Exodus Period Hebrews labored at Avaris, then they must have been in Egypt at least in the reign of Sethos I (ca. 1305-1290), and probably of Ramesses II (ca 1290-1224), under whom the rebuilding of that city was accomplished. On the other hand, if the destruction of various Palestinian cities late in the thirteenth century is to be connected with the Israelites conquest, as many have believed, the exodus from Egypt must have taken place perhaps a generation before that." [Bright, A History of Israel, 3rd ed., 123]

    37. Dating the Exodus Period 2. Arguments for 13th Century: 2.1 The Israel stele of Merneptah indicates that Merneptah encountered Israel in Palestine in his fifth year, ca. 1220. [La Sor & Hubbard & Bush, Old Testament Survey, 125-126] 2.2 Ex 1.11s store cities of Pithom and Raamses fit into Rameses IIs building program, therefore ca. 1300. 2.3 Edom and Moab (Num 3-20:14-21) did not exist until ca. 1300. Also the sites of Lachish, Bethel, Hazor, Tell Beit Mirsim and Tell el-Hesis destruction seems to call for a 1300 date.

    38. Dating the Exodus Period 2.4 Egyptian documents of Merneptah and Rameses II period provide historical parallels, like Apiru as slave. 2.5 Josephs setting then becomes the Hyksos period.

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