Editorial Note: This post was originally intended as an online-only supplement to Lenten meditations for Exodus chapters 1-15. I’ve decided to go a different way with next year’s Lenten meditations, but I hate for all this work to go to waste. While I may yet do a series of meditations on Exodus, it won’t happen for a while and it’s been a bit since I’ve posted. This is written to answer questions about the book of Exodus and to remove some of the barriers that come up when reading a book that is thousands of years old. I hope this proves interesting, and I will, God willing, have new mediations both in Lent and thereafter next year!
Exodus: Myth, Legend, or History?
The most important fact to establish from the outset about the story of the Exodus is whether it actually happened or not. While secular historians would generally shy away from considering the story entirely mythological, most would say that it bears the hallmarks of a legendary account. That is, there was a cultural memory in Israel of an escape by some of their ancestors from Egyptian slavery. The story we have in the Bible is, therefore, an embellished account of a historical event, with literary flourishes designed to encourage faith in the one true God and to forge a sense of shared national identity among the twelve tribes of Israel. Thus, we can approach this story as a sort of fable, a dramatic morality tale set against the backdrop of a historical event whose true details have long been lost to the mists of time.
I think there are many good reasons to reject this notion. First off, this is the most important historical event recorded in the Hebrew Bible (the Old Testament), one that is cited over and over again (about 120 times) as evidence of God’s faithfulness and active work in lives of His chosen people. I don’t think it is plausible that such a central event would essentially be made up out of whole cloth at a date long after settlement in Canaan. Rather, this story has all the hallmarks of an oral tradition passed down for generations, recalling real people and real events. Secondly, the book of Exodus contains a large number of Egyptian loan words, much more than the rest of the Hebrew Bible, as well as using literary devices found in Egyptian mythology. In other words, the Hebrew in this book shows evidence of being highly-influenced by the Egyptian language and culture of the Bronze Age (when the Hebrews would have been enslaved), which makes it much more likely to have been originally written by someone who had lived in Egypt. Third, the names of people in the account are appropriate to the time of the exodus and not to later periods, meaning that later fabrication of these names is unlikely. Lastly, geographical and political data in Exodus are also consistent with the late Bronze Age (c. 2200-1200 BC) rather than a later era. All this should lead even a secular historian to take the historicity of the Exodus account more seriously. Of course, many such historians balk at the miraculous claims made here and elsewhere in the Bible. But as Christians, we know that God can and does act to influence history and that miracles are not only possible, but expected in a world ruled by a loving God. Thus, we should read Exodus not as a pleasant mythological or legendary story, but as a real historical account of God’s dramatic salvation of His people.
Who Wrote Exodus?
Traditionally, the first five books of the Bible (also known as the Torah, “Law”) are called “the five books of Moses”. Modern scholarship has cast doubt on Mosaic authorship and offered up its own (often far-fetched) theories, most notably the documentary hypothesis. I don’t think its that important to get into all these theories, but simply to reiterate what I said in the last section, namely that Exodus is history, not legend. As such, it clearly represents the written version of a very old and sacred tradition dating back to Moses himself. To call Moses the “author” of the Torah is not to say that he wrote every word (after all, Deuteronomy includes the account of his death! [Deut. 34]), but that it is his version of events. Moses is the main character of Exodus and events are told largely from his perspective. Whether some later person actually wrote down the words we are reading is immaterial. In a very real way, Exodus is a “book of Moses” and we can rightly call him the author of the work even if other hands were involved in its creation. After all, no less an authority than our Lord Jesus considers Moses to be the author of the Torah: “For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?” (John 5:46-47). That’s good enough for me.
When did the Exodus Occur?
Few issues in Biblical scholarship are quite as contentious as the dating of the Exodus. 1 Kings 6:1 says that Solomon built the temple 480 years after the Israelites left Egypt. The temple was completed in 966 B.C., so 480 years earlier was 1446 B.C. (under Pharaoh Thutmose III of the 18th Dynasty). This is the date favored by some conservative Evangelical scholars, especially those who see the dates in the Torah as being literal. However, most Egyptologists, both secular and Christian, prefer a date some 200 years later, around 1226 B.C. (under Pharaoh Ramesses II of the 19th Dynasty). If the 480 years is an idealized number symbolizing 12 generations of 40 years, which fits with the Near Eastern literary context of the Old Testament, then the later date (300 years before the temple) is not only possible, but likely. The thirteenth-century date better fits the data we have and thus I will use it going forward in my historical analysis. That said, some scholars much smarter and better read than me on the subject hold passionately to the earlier date and the scarce archaeological evidence to work with means that we must keep open multiple possibilities.
Historical Overview
The story of Egypt is the story of the Nile River. 4100 miles long, the river connects Egypt with both the center of the African continent and the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile floods on a regular and predictable basis, leaving behind rich deposits perfect for various kinds of agriculture. Little wonder that Egypt was a cradle of civilization, having a continual human presence for at least the last 5000 years. The agricultural abundance of the Nile granted Egypt the luxury to engage in both massive building projects and great wars of conquest. Contrary to what the movie Prince of Egypt might have led you to believe, Hebrew slaves had nothing to do with the building of the pyramids at Giza, which had already stood for a millennium by the time Joseph arrived to Pharaoh’s court in chains.
Joseph arrived in Egypt at an auspicious (or God-ordained) time. Egypt was divided between an Egyptian-ruled dynasty (the 16th) in Thebes in upper Egypt (which, confusingly, is to the south because the Nile flows from south to north) and a foreign-ruled dynasty (the 15th) in Avaris near the Nile delta in Lower Egypt. The 15th dynasty (1650-1550 BC) was ruled by the so-called “Hyksos”, a group of Canaanites, the first such foreign rulers in Egypt’s history. This group retained many of the customs of their homeland, while adopting other Egyptian practices. Ironically, given later events, it was the Hyksos that introduced the chariot to Egyptian warfare. It is not surprising to see that Joseph was able to move up quickly in such a court, given that he was from the same region as these rulers. However, the Theban Egyptian pharaoh Ahmose I conquered Avaris and deposed the Hyksos in 1550 BC, reuniting Egypt again under a single rule. No matter which date of the exodus you hold to, this accords with the idea that a pharaoh arose “who did not know Joseph” (Ex. 1:8).
Thus dawned the New Kingdom, which soon conquered much of the Levant under Thutmose III (r. 1479-1425), including what would later be the nation of Israel. They took many slaves, whom they called “Asiatics”, to carry out the massive building projects that would be a hallmark of this “golden age”. These projects reached their apex under Pharaoh Ramesses II, also known as Ramesses the Great (r. 1279-1213). The Hebrews had mostly settled in a region they called Goshen, near the old Hyksos capital of Avaris in the Nile delta. It was here that Ramesses decided to build his new capital city, humbly named Pi-Ramesses (simply called Raamses in Exodus) as well as the city of Pithom (see Ex. 1:11). Pi-Ramesses alone required the building of storehouses, a dock, military facilities, temples, and an enormous palace, complete with its own zoo! Slaves would be required to do all the backbreaking work, not only to build these structures, but to make the bricks required for the buildings. Such slaves were often brutally treated, with beatings and even ritual executions being recorded in the archaeological data. The Egyptians could be severely xenophobic against “Asiatics”, and the Biblical account of the brutality the Israelites endured fits quite well with this fact. In short, as the book of Exodus begins, Egypt is more powerful than it has ever been, both politically and militarily, and the Hebrews are in complete subservience, with no end in sight to their slavery and suffering.
Egyptian Religion
With one notable exception, the history of Egyptian religion was a polytheistic one, that is, they worshipped many gods. It’s not important to get into the entire story of their pantheon of gods (1500 or so in total), but I’ll outline the basic ideas of their religious ideology. The most important figure in their religion was the pharaoh himself, who was thought to posses divine power by virtue of his position, or, in some cases, to actually be a god. He served as a bridge between the gods and living people (the dead were also seen as semi-divine, hence the pyramids and other elaborate burial structures). It was the pharaoh’s responsibility to maintain Ma’at, which was the cosmic order, and to keep ever-encroaching chaos (Isfet) at bay. This meant keeping the gods happy through sacred rituals and offerings made at the many elaborate temples throughout the land. The gods could also be compelled to act through the use of magic, and the pharaoh would employ court magicians for just this purpose. There was an almost-pantheistic view of nature, as different parts of the natural world were seen as being divine in themselves. Everything was the result of the action of the gods, so that a good harvest, wealth, and military success were seen as signs of divine favor, while famine, pestilence, and military defeat indicated divine displeasure.
From time to time, certain members of the pantheon, like the sun god Ra or the mother-goddess Isis, would be considered more prominent than others. The most extreme version of this was under the Pharaoh Akenhaten (r. 1352-1335) who abolished the worship of all other gods except for Aten, the god of the sun disc. In doing so, he became the first major ruler to enforce monotheism on his people. It’s unclear to what extent Hebrew monotheism influenced, or was influenced by, Atenism. Either way, Egyptian monotheism was short lived, as later pharaohs aggressively reasserted polytheism, going as far as to destroy all the monuments of Akenhaten under Pharaoh Horemheb (r. 1319-1292). Monotheism was thereafter viewed with great suspicion as a pernicious heresy, and thus the Hebrews would have been especially suspect with their worship of one God. That said, Amun, the god of hidden power, was in New Kingdom Egypt the pre-eminent deity, one who ruled all things and in whom ultimate divine power was said to dwell. Perhaps the Egyptians and Israelites weren’t so different after all.
Israelite Religion
As for the Hebrews and their monotheistic worship of the One True God, it looked different than either the Christianity or Judaism of our day. Before the Exodus, God had not revealed the Law and it would not be until the day of Pentecost in the New Testament that His Spirit would come to dwell in the hearts of all His people. Therefore, the Israelites worshipped God as someone far away, a God of both benevolence and terrifying power. While God had formed close relationships with the great Patriarchs, with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, He must have felt far away to those enslaved people in Egypt. That said, the most important fact of Israelite religion was the belief that God had sovereignty over every aspect of a person’s daily life. He brought both prosperity and calamity; He gave life and He took it away. His omnipotence was absolute, even over the “gods” of the Egyptians. Indeed, the Hebrews would not have been surprised that Pharaoh’s magicians were effective, for they believed in a world filled with spiritual power and spiritual beings. The “gods” of the Egyptians existed, although later scriptures tell us that they were actually just demons (Deut. 32:17; Ps. 106:37; 1 Cor. 10:20). Thus, a cosmic battle was always taking place around the Israelites between their God and the gods of those who enslaved them. In that sense, the plagues would have come as no surprise to the Hebrews — it was simply a physical manifestation of spiritual realities. To understand Exodus is to take off the blinders that our modern materialistic mindset have put on us and see the world through the eyes of these God-haunted people. We also must have compassion on them because they did not have the indwelling Holy Spirit and depended on the voice of prophets like Moses to give them guidance. In many ways, the book of Exodus provides the turning point in God’s relationship with His people, where He goes from only being the God of Abraham’s family to being a God who dwells among all His people.
God Said write 