[Commentary by EF/Everett Fox, THE FIVE BOOKS OF MOSES. Reformatted for this post.–Admin1.]
PART I
THE DELIVERANCE NARRATIVE
(1-15:21)
The first part of the book of Exodus is presented as a continuation of the Genesis narratives, by abbreviating the genealogy of the immigrant Yaakov from Gen. 46:8-25. We find here the same centrality of God, the same kind of sparse by powerful biographical sketch of the human hero, and a narrative style similar to that of the previous book.
And yet Exodus introduces a new and decisive element into the Hebrew Bible, which becomes paradigmatic for future generations of biblical writers.
The book speaks of a God who acts directly in history, blow by blow—a God who
- promises,
- liberates,
- guides,
- and gives laws to a people.
This is, to be sure an outgrowth of a God who brings the Flood and disperses the Babel generation, but it is also a decisive step forward from a God who works his will in the background, through intrafamily conflicts (which comprise most of Genesis). This deity frees his people, not by subterfuge, but by directly taking on Egypt and its gods. Pharaoh and the Nile, both of which were considered divine in Egypt, are in the end forced to yield to superior power. Surely it is no accident that the ending of Part I—the Song of Moshe at the Sea—hails YHWH as Israel’s true king, a king whose acts of “leading,” “redeeming” and “planting” his people are exultingly affirmed in the body of the Song.
Part I receives its structure coherence in a number of ways. For one, it encompasses a straight chronological narrative, moving from Israel’s enslavement to its liberation and triumph over its oppressors. The ending, Chapter 15, is rhetorically and stylistically fitting (see Gaster 1969), celebrating as it does the mighty deeds of God. For another, Part I carefully paces its climaxes, building up from the Burning Bush to various stages of Plagues, to the Tenth Plague/exodus and finally the great scene at the sea. There are also a number of key words that help to tie together various sections of the narratives: “know,” “serve,” and “see.” All of these go through interesting changes in meaning, through which one can trace the movement of central ideas.
In the area of vocabulary, David Daube (1963) has made the interesting observation that the Deliverance Narrative uses a number of verbs that occur regularly in biblical law regarding the formal release of a slave: “send free” (Heb. shale’ah), “drive out” (garesh), and “go out” ( yatzo). In addition, the motif of the Israelites “stripping” the Egyptians (3:22,12;36) links up with the regulation of release in Deut. 15:13 ” . . . you are not to send him free empty-handed.” Daube sees our text as bearing the stamp of Israelite social custom: Pharaoh is made to flout “established social regulations.”
Finally, several scholars (Kiwada, Ackerman 1974, Fishbane 1979, and Isbell) have pointed out that the vocabulary of the first few chapters of the book foreshadows the whole of Part I. This use of sound and idea helps to create unity in these narratives (despite their possibly diverse origins), and is also of importance in viewing the biographical material in the first four chapters.
THE EARLY LIFE OF MOSHE AND RELIGIOUS BIO0GRAPHY
Dominating the early chapters of exodus, more than the description of bondage, is the figure of reluctant liberator, Moshe the portrayal of his beginnings contrast strongly with the classic hero stories of the ancient world.
This is not immediately apparent. Moshe’s birth narrative parallels that of King Sargon of Akkad : his flight from Egypt and return as leader are reminiscent of Jetthah and David in the bible , and of the Syrian king Idrima (as recounted in Akkadian text) as well . in addition , half a century ago Lord Raqglan attempted to demonstrate common elements in hero biographies by compiling a list up to thirty key motifs. Those relevant to Moshe include: the father a relative of the mother, an attempt made to kill him at birth, his escape through the action of the others, being raised by foster parent, little information about his childhood, his traveling to his” future kingdom ” upon reaching adulthood , promulgating laws losing favor with the deity, dying on the top of hill, not being succeeded by his children, and and a hazy death /burial Moshe therefore shares with Oedipus, Hercules, Siegfried, and Robin Hood , among others, a host of common elements ;his point total according to Raglan’s scheme puts him toward the top of the list as an archetypal traditional hero. it must be concluded that, far from being a factual account , his biography is composed largely of literary constructs.
When one looks closer at the biblical portrayal of Moshe, however, the purpose and particularly Israelite thrust of these construct becomes clear. Almost every key element sin Moshe’s early life e.g., rescue from death by royal decree rescue from death by water , flight into the desert, meeting with God on the sacred mountain-foreshadows Israel and Egypt , so centrals to the plague Narrative and to Israelite religion as whole , is brought out beautifully in the depiction of Moshe’s development from Egyptian prince to would-be liberator to shepherded in the wilderness, the latter an ancestral calling(cf. Nordberg, who also discuss Yosef as developing in exactly the opposite direction-from Israelite shepherd boy to Egyptian viceroy, complete Egyptian appearance, wife, and name). What is important in these early chapters of exodus , then is not the customary focus on the young hero’s deeds ( e.g. Hercules strangling serpents in the cradle) or his fatal flaw (although there is a hint of this too), but one on what he shares with his people ,or more precisely , how he prefigures them. Another aspect of these stories removes them from the usual realm of heroic biography, elsewhere in the Bible, individual hero types are at least partially over shadowed by the true central” character”: God . This appears to be true in Exodus the plague Narrative, to emerge sporadically I later encounters with the people (e.g. chaps.16 and 32-33; the portrait expends in the narrative of the book of Numbers). No wonders that later Jewish legend (and further, Christian and Muslim Stories as well) found it necessary to fill in the tatalizing hints left by the biblical biographer, with sometimes fantastic tale. But in the exodus text. It is God who holds sway. in this context, one is reminded that Israelite thinking had room neither for worship of Human heroes nor interest in the biography of God (i.e.., divine birth and marriage) on the model of surrounding cultures The biblical portrayal of both God and Moshe has been reduced in our books to only such facts as will illuminate the relationship between Israel and its God. Thus we learn from the Moshe of Exodus much about the people themselves, and about prophecy (Chaps. 3-4); from the God of Exodus, how he acts in history and what he demands of the people. More than that is not easily forthcoming from our text (interesting, the Passover Haggadah picked up on the Bible’s direction and all but omitted Moshe’s name in the celebration of the holiday).
as we have suggested , later Jewish legend – some of which may actually be of great antiquity- sought to fill in various aspect of Moshe’s life that are missing from Exodus text. A perusal of Ginsberg wills uncover rich legendary material, dealing with Moshe’ Childhood, family identity, experience in Midyan and elsewhere as a hero. While this material does not always illuminate the biblical story, it does demonstrate how folk belief includes a need for heroes in the Classic Raglan mold; the Midrashic portrait of Moshe corresponds nicely to what we find in other cultures.
Turning to stylistic characteristics of these early chapters we may note that a good deal of repetition occurs, as if further to highlight the themes. Baby Moshe is saved from death twice; three times he attempts of opposing oppression; twice ( chaps. 2 and 5) he fails in his attempts to help his enslaved brothers; ands twice ( chaps.3 and 6) God reassures him with long speeches that center around the divine Name. This kind of continuity is artfully literary, but it is also an echo of real; life, where people often live out certain themes in patterns.
Finally there is the matter of recurring words. Most important is the telling use of “see” fro the loving gaze of Moshe’s sympathetic observing of his brothers’ plight (2; 6), then Moshe sympathetic observing of his brothers’ plight(2;ii); all this seems to be linked to the episode at the burning Bush, where God is “ seen” by the future leader(3;2), and where the climax of this whole development takes place: God affirms that he has “ seen. Yes, seen the affliction of my people that is in Egypt…. And I have also seen the oppression with the Egyptian oppress them” (3; 7, 9) Thus Moshe’s biography lead to , and is an out growth of the people’s own situation.
In sum, Moshe’s early biography leads us ponder the “growing up” process through which the people of Israel must pass on their way out of Egypt. The narratives that deal with his leadership of the people in the wilderness period from the Ex. 16 on will help to round out our picture of him as a real personality, with the tragedy and triumphs that our a part of human life but magnified on the case of individual
ON THE JOURNEY MOTIF
World literature is dominated by stories involving a journey. More often than not, these tales are framed as quest for holy or magical object (e.g., the Holy Grail) or for external youth/ immorality (Gilgamesh). The classic pattern, as Joseph Campbell has describe it, calls for the hero to make a kind of roundtrip, crossing dangerous thresholds (monster, Giant, unfriendly supernatural being) both on the way towards the goal and on the way home. Either at the middle or at the end of the journey stands goal, which often entails meeting with the divine and or obtaining a magical or life- giving object (e.g.., the Golden Fleece).
Such stories mirror our own longings for accomplishment and acceptance, as well as universal desire to overcome the ultimate enemy, Death. In the Heroes triumph, we triumph; his vanquishing of death cathartically becomes our own.
This mythic substructure has penetrated the biblical tales but it has been toned down for human protagonist, to suppress the idea the mortal Hero in favor of divine one. Thus all the patriarchs except Yitzhak (Isaac) go on fateful long journeys (his is reserved for the three days treat to Moriah in Gen.22), yet there is none of the color and adventure that we find, for example, in the Greek methodology. Outside of Yaakovs’s encounter with mysterious wrestler in Gen.32, there is little in Genesis to suggest hero tales on the classic mold. In Exodus, too, Moshe makes a significant journey—to Midya—one might say, within himself, to find his true identity and calling, but it is highly muted, containing virtually details. The roundtrip containing thresholds of death, with Moshe first threatened by Pharaoh’s justice (2; 15) and, on the way back to Egypt, by God himself (4; 24-26). The initial goal is attained at the”mountain of God” behind the wilderness”, where, meeting with divinity amid fire, he is finally able to integrate on his past, present, and the future (as he will return to this mountain with the entire people in Chaps.19ff). At the burning bush, the Egyptian prince, the Israelite Shepherd, and the Hebrew liberator coalesce, investing Moshe with unique qualification for his task.
But it is to a larger journey framework that we must look to understand the “hero” content of Exodus, and with it, that of the Torah as a whole. The major journey under taken is, of course, that of the people of Israel from slavery to Promised Land it is also a Journey from death to life, from servitude to God –king to the service of God as king along the way, death serve to purify an entire generations. And yet even this most obvious of journey stories differs markedly from those of God and Heroes saw familiar in western culture. The people of Israel function us a collective anti hero, an example of precisely how not to behave. They play no active role whatsoever in their liberation, used neither brawn nor wits to survive in the wilderness, constantly grumble about wanting to return to Egypt , and at both Sinai and the threshold of the promise Land ( in the books of numbers) their chief form of behavior I s first fear and later rebellion.
Moshe’s own journey parallel thiose of the entire people later on. Like them, he flees from Pharaoh in to the wilderness, meets God at flaming Sinai, and half trouble accepting his task but must in the end. Here is where Moshe shines as the true leader; he epitomizes his peoples experience and focuses and forges it into something new.
MOSHE BEFORE PHAROAH: THE PLAGUE NARRATIVE (5-11)
The heart of the Exodus stories sets out the confrontation between the visible god-king Pharaoh, who embodies the monumental culture of Egypt, and the invisible God of Israel who fights for his ragtag people. The drama conveyed by means of alternating conversations/ confrontation and events. The narrator has built his account, bracketed by the early approach of Moshe and Aaron (Aaron) to Pharaoh, which fails (Chap. 5). And the extended construct of the Tenth Plague (11-13); in between fall the schematically arranged first nine plagues.
Three overall stages characterize this latter section. The first is indicated by the oft-repeated demand, “Send free my people, that they may serve me!” in the second is the hardening” of Pharaoh’s heart; and the third, the unleashing of each plague. Further, it can be shown that the plagues are presented via a variety of structures and substructures (see Greenberg 1969 and the chart in Sarna 1986). Some commenter divides them into five thematic groups of two apiece—1 and 2, the Nile; 3 and 4, insects; 5and 6, disease; 7 and 8, airborne disaster; and 9 and 10, darkness/ death (Plaut). Also fruitful is the following threefold division: 1, 4, and 7, God’s command to confront Pharaoh in the morning; 2 ,5 and 8, God say, “Come to Pharaoh”; 3, 6, an d9, no warning is given to Pharaoh. Yet another grouping of themes is possible (Bar Efrat): i-3 God vs. the magicians of Egypt 4-6, stress on the distinction between Egypt; 7-9, the most powerful plagues.
This utilization of order symbolized by “perfect” numbers such as 3 and 10 finds a parallel in the creation story of Genesis ( where the key number, of course, is 7,3+3+1 whereas here we have 3+3+3+1) both texts display a desire to depict God as one endows nature and history with meaning . the poetic tradition about the plagues , as represented , for instance , by psalm 78, was content to describe the plagues in brief ,within the setting of a single poem. The narrator of Pentateuchal traditions, however, has a different point to make, and structured exposition is the best way to do it.
There is another structural tendency that one may observe in the plague narrative repeating words and motifs comprise over twenty shared and discrete elements in the story. Since the vast majority of these occur by the end of the fourth plague , this leaves the narrator free to develop plagues 7 and 8 with particular intensity, using a full palette of descriptions, with the addition of the theme that these were the worst of their kind ever to take place in Egypt. It will be the full here to list a few of the key words and phrases, and Motifs that can be found in the plague narrative
Word / phrases: Go pharaoh; send … free; know; throughout the land of Egypt ; plead; distinguish ; tomorrow ; man and beast ; not one remained ; heavy [i.e.., severe ] as YHwH had said.
Motifs; Moshe’s staff; Aharon as agent; magicians; death
It is important to note here that the structuring of the plagues is not perfectly balanced one. The narrative varies between exact repletion of elements and phrases non repetition (licht). By thus using sounds and ideas in variation, the narrator is able to weave a tale whose message constantly reinforces itself, and which holds bolds audiences attention without getting tedious.
I have deliberately omitted the question of Pharaoh’s heart above, as a separate issue. A host of expression is used in the text to describe Pharaoh’s stubbornness: “harden” (Heb. hiksha), “make heavy- with stubbornness( hakhbed), and strengthen “(hehzik /hazzek), with the resultant “refused “ and “ did not hearken” This motif is though only one occur in all nine plagues, and therefore stands at the very heart of our narrative . When one notes the pattern within- that Pharaoh does the hardening at the beginning, God at the end- the intent begins to become clear. The plagues narrative is recounting of God’s power , and Pharaoh’s stubbornness, which starts out as a matter of will , eventually becomes trapped by his own refusal to accept the obvious( in biblical parlance, to know “). Despite the prophetic idea that human beings can be forgiven, we find here another one- that evil leads to moiré evil, and become petrified and unmovable.
A final note about the backdrop of these stories. Cecil B. DeMille did it differently, and in the difference lies the gap between Western cultures and biblical culture and biblical culture in the movie (a strange title, given the actual content of the film!), DeMille’s own The Ten Commandments 1956 remake of his earlier silent film , great stress is put on the physical; visual trappings of Pharaoh’s court. Apparently no expense was spared to bring in costumes, sets and extras, and extras, and the result causes the audience to focus on the splendor of Egypt culture, despite the fact that ii is peopled by the villains of the story. In contrast, the bible says practically nothing about the visual backdrop of plague Narrative. Just as Genesis made reference to the mighty culture of Babylonia by parodying it (for instance, in the Babel story of Chap.II), Exodus strips down Egyptian culture by making it disappear, and by reticulating it gods. The book saves description saves descriptive minutiae for the Tabernacle (Chaps.25ff,), proffering to stress the positive and simply to omit what is found as negative. This profoundly “Anticultural” stance (see the intriguing analysis by the Schniedau ) was characteristic of Israel’s worldview and was a mystery to the Greek and Romans who centuries later conquered the land ; it was to stand the people of Israel in good stead in their wandering through the centuries.