Revised by Cameron B.R. Howard (5/24)
Types of laws
The laws found in the Book of Exodus occur in two distinct forms, which scholars commonly refer to as “casuistic” and “apodictic.” Casuistic laws are “case” laws, where regulations change depending on the particulars of a situation. They are concentrated in Exodus 21:1-22:17 and are constructed with an “If/when…, then…” pattern. For example, “If someone leaves a pitA pit is a hole or a cavity in the ground. While a pit can be actual in the Bible, it is often a metaphor for separation or abandonment. The Psalms frequently speak about going down to the pit, a place from which – it… open, or digs a pit and does not cover it, and an ox or a donkey falls into it, the owner of the pit shall make restitution, giving money to its owner, but keeping the dead animal” (Exodus 21:33-34). Apodictic laws are “absolute.” Rather than varying from case to case, they give a direct command or prohibition, and they use an imperative form: “You shall/shall not….” The Ten Commandments, also known as the Decalogue, are perhaps the most famous apodictic laws (e.g., “You shall not steal,” Exodus 20:15), but more examples can be found at Exodus 20:22-26 and 22:18-23:19.
Composition history
As soon as interpreters recognize that Exodus was not composed by a single author such as MosesProphet who led Israel out of Egypt to the Promised Land and received the law at Sinai., they are confronted by a complex and ambiguous history of composition. The Book of Exodus does not itself claim Moses as the author in any modern sense of authorship. Data such as two narratives introducing the divine name (Exodus 3 and 6) and variations in the name of Moses’ father-in-law (Exodus 2 and 18) undergird the theory that multiple ancient narratives are entwined in the Exodus story, each at the same time reflecting concerns of its own era. Although Exodus probably emerged in its final form in the 4th century BCE, the period of its composition is an extended one: an ongoing process of telling and retelling of the accounts to shape identity and to form practice in varied circumstances, most of which are now no longer recoverable with historical exactness.
Connections to the rest of the PentateuchThe Pentateuch is a Christian term the first five books of the Old Testament. These books contain stories of Israel’s early history, God’s covenants, and many laws such as the Ten Commandments).
Exodus can be read as a freestanding book moving from building store cities in slavery to building a tabernacleThe tabernacle, a word meaning “tent,” was a portable worship place for the Hebrew people after they left Egypt. It was said to contain the ark of the covenant. The plans for the tabernacle are dictated by God in Exodus 26. in service to a liberating and forgiving God. However, there are many indications that those who shaped the present form of the book intended it to be part of a larger whole. Exodus 1, for example, begins by tying Exodus to Genesis by means of a genealogyGenealogy involves the study and tracing of families through the generations – in short, family history. One genealogy in Genesis traces the nations descended from Noah. In the New Testament Matthew traces the ancestry of Jesus back to Abraham, while Jesus’ genealogy in Luke goes… of the family of JacobThe son of Isaac and Rebekah, renamed Israel, became the father of the twelve tribal families.. Israel’s plight commences with a Pharaoh who “did not know Joseph,” but the reader presumably knows from the narratives at the end of Genesis what Joseph had earlier meant to Egyptian survival. When God hears the cries of Israel at the end of Exodus 2, God remembers the covenantA covenant is a promise or agreement. In the Bible the promises made between God and God’s people are known as covenants; they state or imply a relationship of commitment and obedience. with AbrahamGod promised that Abraham would become the father of a great nation, receive a land, and bring blessing to all nations., IsaacSon born to Abraham and Sarah in fulfillment of God’s promise., and Jacob/Israel, again connecting Exodus with Genesis. Exodus is also linked to the remainder of the Pentateuch. For example, God’s instructions for the appointment of priests (Exodus 29) are not fully implemented until Leviticus 8, and the book ends with clear indications of further journeying. Sinai is not imagined as the destination point.
The historicity of the exodus event
There is no reliable evidence outside of the biblical text to prove or disprove that the Exodus event really happened. Different biblical scholars have different theories. Even so, one way to get at the question of the exodus out of Egypt is to examine how the people of Israel came to be in the land of Canaan. The Merneptah Stele, a record of the victories of the Egyptian Pharaoh Merneptah dating from approximately 1210 BCE, mentions a group named Israel present in Canaan by that time. Hence, some scholars date the Exodus to the mid-1200’s BCE. On the other hand, excavations of sites that the book of JoshuaThe successor of Moses, Joshua led the Israelites into Canaan. claims Israel to have taken during the conquest of Canaan have revealed that no walled cities existed there in the Late Bronze Age; in other words, the biblical account of the Israelites’ entrance into the land does not match the archaeological record. Based on this and other evidence, many scholars believe Israel was a subset of Canaanites who emerged with a distinctive identity, thus casting doubt on the historicity of the Exodus event.
At the same time, the story of the Exodus is a core narrative testifying to the identity of Israel, its God, and their relationship. The community has a vibrant shared memory of liberation from some type of Egyptian oppression—a memory which has grown and been nurtured by the community to create this foundational narrative. Biblical scholar Walter Brueggemann has called this process “imaginative remembering,” a phrase that helpfully captures both the shared communal roots of the story and its creative literary development. Regardless of whether the biblical text “accurately” narrates the history of the Exodus, it provides vigorous, captivating testimony to God’s singular power, God’s love for Israel, and God’s care for the oppressed.
Decalogue/Ten Commandments
The Ten Commandments appear three times in the Pentateuch, each with variations, but the first and most well-known of these appearances is in Exodus 20. There these laws are not specifically labeled as “ten commandments,” but they are editorially separated from the rest of the statutes and ordinances given to Israel at Sinai. The text mentions both before and after the words of the Commandments that God communicates from a cloud surrounded with thunder and lightning. Before the Commandments are given, Moses is instructed to warn the people not to approach the mountain lest they die. After the text of the Commandments is given, the people ask Moses to receive communication from God, for they fear they will die if God communicates to them directly. This framing heightens the importance of the Ten Commandments, even without the title. The number ten and its association with two tablets are derived from Exodus 34, in which Moses “wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the ten words” (Exodus 34:28).
The numbering of the commandments varies by tradition, but in general the opening segment of the Ten Commandments relates to God and the remainder addresses communal conduct. The two segments should not be sharply separated, as other legal material intersperses social regulations with requirements for appropriate conduct with regard to God. The preface, “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery” (20:2), arcs across these commandments. Some have speculated that all of the commandments may have had a short form such as the prohibition against murder. In their current form they are grounded in God’s bringing Israel out of bondage, and they stand at the head of all law grounded in revelation at Sinai.
Geography
Interpreters will encounter difficulty in tracing the Exodus geographically. While it is plausible that Israel was part of Semitic groups that episodically resided in the Nile Delta region, the exact location of Israel’s residence in Egypt has not been recovered. Whether or not the storehouse cities can be pinpointed is debated. While it is clear that Israel did not follow the most direct route from Egypt to the land of Canaan, there remains debate about what path was followed as they left Egypt. One view has Israel navigating through a marshy lake region and translates the biblical phrase yam suph (used to describe the body of water throughout the Exodus narrative) literally as the “Reed Sea” (for example, Exodus 13:18). Others insist that the water must be the Red Sea (as translated in the NRSV). Once beyond the sea, the wilderness stops also cannot be pinpointed. Finally, the location of Sinai is debated. While the correlations with extrabiblical data are not so minimal as to disprove the historicity of the narrative, interpreters must acknowledge that the historicity is at best plausible, not proven. The plausible narrative background does not by itself prove that the specifics of an event occurred as narrated.
Hardening the heart
Pharaoh hardened his heart (for example, Exodus 8:15); God hardened Pharaoh’s heart (for example, Exodus 9:12). Relating these two themes is a perennial task for interpreters. The issue loops into many others, especially election. God chose Israel; God did not choose Pharaoh. In Romans 9, St. PaulThe Apostle Paul, originally known as Saul of Tarsus, was the author of several New Testament letters and the founder of many Christian communities. couples this theme with the choice of Jacob over EsauSon of Isaac and Rebekah and the older twin brother of Jacob.. Modern Christian interpreters inevitably bring a discussion of free will into the picture. Many attempts have been made to soften the impact of God hardening Pharaoh’s heart with its implication that Pharaoh was doomed from the beginning. A common move is to argue that there is a progression from Pharaoh’s persistent hardening of his heart to God’s eventual giving in to Pharaoh’s intent, the latter encompassing the language of God hardening Pharaoh’s heart. A fundamental narrative obstacle to this approach is Exodus 4:21, where God announces to Moses, even before he returns to Egypt, God’s intention to harden Pharaoh’s heart. Although the question of free will must inevitably be faced, it is not the focus of Exodus. Exodus articulates the depth of God’s commitment to Israel, a commitment now put to the test by slavery in Egypt. It is a narrative about the mighty being brought low and the lowly being exalted, not about the intricacies of philosophical and theological debates over free will.
Manna
Some interpreters have attempted to identify just what sort of substance manna may have been. Proposals have been made to identify manna with known edible secretions of plant life or insects. None of the proposed sources are naturally available throughout the calendar year. These attempts to prove the plausibility of the biblical narrative ironically undercut it. If the identifications are accurate, they raise serious questions about the numbers for the population of Israel in the wilderness. The supposed naturally occurring manna would not come close to providing for the nutritional needs of such a large population. The miracle of God’s provision is not verified by making it a natural process. Theologically the central point is that God gave the manna (Exodus 16; see also Numbers 11) both to provide for Israel’s need and to test whether Israel would follow God’s instruction, specifically with regard to the SabbathSabbath is a weekly day of rest, the seventh day, observed on Saturday in Judaism and on Sunday in Christianity. In the book of Genesis, God rested on the seventh day; in the Gospel accounts Jesus and his disciples are criticized by some for not…. There was always the right amount for everyone, and no one was allowed to accumulate a surplus. Israel was to learn to depend on a dependable God, a lesson commemorated by keeping a portion of the manna in the ark of the covenantThe ark of the covenant was a box or chest that God commanded the Israelites to make from wood richly adorned with gold. The ark was built to contain the tablets of the covenant (the Ten Commandments). The ark served as a mobile shrine to… (Exodus 16:32-34).
Murmuring
In recurrent episodes in Exodus 15:22-17:7, Israel complains about the lack of water and food and the quality of the water. These narratives are commonly referred to as “murmuring,” although many translations, including NRSV, use the term “complaining.” The needs in each case are real, and interpreters should be at least as restrained in judging Israel as the text is. God does not punish Israel for these murmurings as in Numbers 11. Perhaps the divine restraint is shaped by the fact that the formal enactment of the Sinai covenant will come later. The episodes are used to test and to teach Israel as it becomes a people freed from Egyptian tyranny. These actions also involve Israel’s testing God, a fact remembered in the name given to the location, namely, Massah, meaning “test” (see PsalmA psalm is a song of praise. In the Old Testament 150 psalms comprise the psalter, although some of the psalms are laments and thanksgivings. In the New Testament early Christians gathered to sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. 95:8-9). Full-blown opposition to God occurs in the golden calf episode where God’s judgment is clearly articulated (Exodus 32). The stories of murmuring in Exodus are a prelude to later blatant disobedience. They set an ominous trajectory, but the reader should empathize more than condemn at this point.
Narrative coherence
The Documentary Hypothesis emphasized tensions within and between narratives in the Book of Exodus. Interpreters highlighted such features as the threefold occurrence of God’s commands to Moses and Moses’ exact execution of those commands in Exodus 13 and 14 before and after the people cross on dry land (for example, “stretch out your hand over the sea” and “Moses stretched out his hand over the sea,” [14:16, 21 and again in 14:26-27]). Mixed in with this almost liturgical pageantry are references to Israel’s fear, Moses’ command to stand still and see how the Lord will fight for them, the movement of the pillars during the night, and Israel’s awakening to the sight of dead Egyptians on the seashore. From such observations, multiple prior documents were posited.
More recent literary interpretations have sought instead to highlight what connects narrative elements despite surface level tensions. For example, literary interpreters will emphasize three series of plagues consisting of three each, with each series having the same pattern of forewarnings and instructional formulae. Narrative coherence is emphasized at the level of theology and confession rather than at a level that would satisfy the interest of a historian.
Pharaoh
As with the Joseph story in Genesis, interpreters have been endlessly frustrated by the lack of a proper name by which to identify the specific Egyptian ruler involved in the Exodus narrative. Three different Pharaohs are implied or referred to in Exodus: (1) one or more who, at the outset, were grateful to Joseph and consequently shielded Israel; (2) a ruler who did not know Joseph and consequently oppressed the Israelites and from whom Moses fled; (3) a ruler who opposed the release of Israel and ends up drowned in the sea. The biblical story can be plausibly read against several periods, with interpreters making different judgments about the degree of correlation. The more confident one is of the correlations, the more puzzling it is that none of the pharaohs is named. Some have understood not naming the Pharaoh as a narrative technique to undercut the presumptions of the Egyptian ruler. He lacks divine powers and he cannot maintain order to protect his people; he has no stature as a ruler. Or, is it because the only king recognized by the narrative is the LORD (see Exodus 15:18)? The absence of a proper name in royal psalms has also been offered as an analogy. Or, assuming historic–but now unidentifiable–pharaohs, the role of “Pharaoh” has become perpetual and thus paradigmatic (see Deuteronomy 6:20-25). Rather than verifying the story in the past, readers can recognize the role of pharaohs (oppressive rulers) embodied in their own world.
Plagues
The plagues are also called “signs” or “wonders” in Exodus. Deuteronomy regularly employs the phrase “signs and wonders,” which includes all the wonders done against Egypt to bring about the Exodus from Egypt. Many attempts have been made to correlate the “plagues” with natural phenomena that occur in the region of Egypt. The assumption is that if such correlations are successful, the unusual dimension of the plagues would be shifted to a matter of fortunate timing. More recent attempts have been made to correlate Pharaoh’s social tyranny with ecological consequences. Both moves seek to tone down the degree to which one speaks of divine intervention. Within the biblical text, the concern focuses on the purpose for and impact of the plagues. Israel and Egypt are to be impressed with the power of God. This is a showdown between Israel’s God and Pharaoh, and Israel’s God will win. Egyptians are to be overwhelmed and to come to know the power of Israel’s God, recognizing at the same time their own ineffectiveness as well as that of their gods. The plagues are intertwined with the theme of Pharaoh’s hardened heart. Modern concerns regarding free will and the integrity of nature are not taken up. Rather, the plagues are celebrated as part of God’s deliverance of Israel from the bondage of Egypt.
Questions
Key questions are asked by characters in the Exodus narratives, questions that are informational, ironic, and challenging. Moses anticipates the Israelites’ question concerning the one who sent him: “What is his name?” (3:13). The name YHWH (probably ‘Yahweh’) is provided as an answer. Pharaoh asks, “Who is the LORD?” (5:2). His question may not have been sincere, but from the reader’s point of view the answer is clear: The LORD is the one who brought Israel out of Egypt, out of the house of slavery (Exodus 20:2). Even before the plagues, Moses asked, “Why did you ever send me?” (5:22). His question is echoed in the later question of Israel, “What have you done to us, bringing us out of Egypt?” (14:11). They later ask in one of the murmuring episodes, “Why did you bring us out of Egypt, to kill us and our children…?” (17:3). At times the questions are purely factual: “What shall we drink?” (15:24). On other occasions they imply disobedience: “Is the LORD among us or not?” (17:7). Others are occasions for paradigmatic instruction: “What do you mean by this observance?” (12:26). The effect of these many types of questions is both to invite readers into the drama of the narrative and to echo theological questions that readers themselves may have.
Sabbath: Composition History
The first explicit reference to the Sabbath in Exodus occurs in Exodus 16. It is termed holyHoly is a term that originally meant set apart for the worship or service of God. While the term may refer to people, objects, time, or places, holiness in Judaism and Christianity primarily denotes the realm of the divine to the Lord and a day of solemn rest. No manna was to be collected on that day. The Sabbath law, however, is given prior to the presentation of the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20). Some interpreters argue that the Sabbath practice has already been in place narratively since Genesis 2:2-3; the Ten Commandments merely formalized it. Other interpreters see this as one more indication of a complicated, multileveled history of composition. In Exodus 20 the motivation for keeping the Sabbath is grounded in the six-day creationCreation, in biblical terms, is the universe as we know or perceive it. Genesis says that in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. In the book of Revelation (which speaks of end times) the author declares that God created all things and… pattern of Genesis 1. In Deuteronomy 5, in contrast, the motivation is grounded in the memory of slavery in Egypt in which there was no time for rest. The need for rest is also cited in Exodus 23:12 (note the use of “the seventh day” rather than “Sabbath”). Exodus 31:12-17, in the midst of instructions for building the tabernacle, lifts up Sabbath observance as an ongoing sign of the covenant and adds the death penalty for violators. The death penalty is again cited in Exodus 35:2-3, and restrictions on fires are added. There is no one place that gathers all Sabbath regulations, an indication for some interpreters that Sabbath regulations developed over time and were attached to prior narratives.
Tabernacle
The instructions for the tabernacle are given to Moses after formalizing the covenant between God and the people who had come out of Egypt (Exodus 24). The initial revelation at Sinai had terrified the people; both the outward presence of thunder and lightning and the danger of encroaching on the boundary of God’s holiness fueled the fear. Only a select few were allowed to approach God on the mountain. In addition, since Israel’s destination was the Promised Land, not Sinai, the question of how God would continue to be present needed to be answered. The tabernacle addressed these issues. God commits to be present in the community and provides prescriptions for a regularized manner to honor boundaries. God was not locked into being present only at Sinai; the tabernacle provided a mobile presence. Readers may find it difficult to sort out the overlap between the tabernacle, which was at the center of the community, and the tent of meeting, which was at the periphery. Moses was able to consult God at both places. The golden calf episode disrupts the flow from instructions to implementation of the building plans. Whether or not God will continue to be present with the people is a contested issue because of Israel’s act of idolatry. God’s decision to continue to be present is embodied in the building of the tabernacle, and the Book of Exodus ends with the presence of God occupying the tabernacle.
Women in Exodus
Although many of the main human characters of Exodus—including Moses, AaronMoses’ brother and spokesman, and Israel’s first high priest., and Pharaoh—are men, women play key roles in the narrative, particularly in the early chapters of the book. The midwives to the Hebrews (Exodus 1:15-21) resist Pharaoh’s directive to kill Hebrew boys on the birthstool. Moses’ mother saves him from the next phase of the king’s genocide by floating him in a basket on the river, while his sister MiriamMoses’ and Aaron’s sister who danced after the exodus. keeps a watchful eye (Exodus 2:1-4). Pharaoh’s daughter takes Moses and brings him into the king’s householdA household is a living unit comprised of all the persons who live in one house. A household would embrace all the members of a family, including servants and slaves. In the book of Acts, stories are told of various persons and their households, like… (Exodus 2:5-10). If it were not for the interventions of these women, Moses would not have lived to deliver his people. This circumstance makes Pharaoh’s obsession with killing Hebrew boys quite ironic, since it is women and girls who most successfully thwart his plans.
