Part 1: The Book of Exodus and Its MessageSay no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why violent video games should not be banned"? Get an original essay In his theory of forms, the philosopher Plato proposes that objects and situations encountered in the ordinary world are often indicative of a reality superior and more complete. . Although Plato did not have the Old Testament in mind when he wrote "The Republic," his conception of reality speaks to the relationship between the culmination of Jewish writing, Ve-eleh Shemoth, better known as the name "Exodus", and the events which would ultimately become the center of Christianity. In many ways, Exodus is the thematic well from which the rest of the Bible draws inspiration. In its pages, we find the departure of Israel from slavery in Egypt, the revelation of the Law on Mount Sinai, the journey to Canaan and the beginnings of Judaic religious practice. As a cornerstone of Old Testament soteriology, Yahweh's deliverance of his people from Egypt is a crucial event in the unfolding of God's covenant with Israel, as well as the theological archetype in which the Christianity is rooted. Furthermore, the events of the Exodus precipitate the creation of the Torah, or Teaching, and can therefore be seen as the direct antecedent of later Jewish customs. The story of the Exodus is well known, having been the subject of numerous films and books. , but its causes penetrate deep into the stories of the first book of the Torah, bere-sit, or “Genesis,” as it is called in the Pentateuch. There, Yahweh blessed Abraham with the promise that his offspring would inherit the land of Canaan, thereby establishing a nation through which the entire Earth would be blessed. This forms the basis of the covenant relationship between God and the descendants of Abraham, the children of Israel. Genesis 15, however, contains a more ominous prophecy: 13 And he said unto Abram, Know ye assuredly, that thy seed shall be strangers in a strange land. a land that is not theirs, and which will serve them; and they will afflict them four hundred years; 14 And I will also judge the nation which they serve, and afterward they shall come out from it with great riches. Thus, it was known from the time of the patriarchs that Israel would endure a period of servitude in a foreign land. before the alliance bears fruit. The groundwork for this event is laid in Genesis 45, when Joseph moves the ancestors of the twelve tribes of Israel to Egypt, where they make their home in the northern region of Goshen. Over time, this small ethnic enclave became a potential threat to Egyptian sovereignty. To allay his fears that the Israelites would betray Egypt in the event of war, the pharaoh of the Exodus imposed the unrelenting chains of slavery on Joseph's descendants, preventing them from rebelling. When servitude proved ineffective, the Pharaoh added genocide to his agenda, ordering that all newborn Jewish males be slaughtered to prevent population growth among the Israelites. Setting an exact date for these events has proven futile, but most scholars believe the exodus took place during the first half of the 13th century BC (LaSor, 59). Since the biblical text does not explicitly mention the year of departure from Egypt, such exegesis has relied heavily on extra-biblical sources, as well as clues found in the text itself. Exodus 1:11 informs the reader that Israelite slaves were responsible for the construction of the cities Pithom and Raamses (or Pi-Ramesus), which were built sometime after 1290 BC (LaSor, 59). This dating is further attestedby the “Stele of Israel” (see Figure 1): a limestone monument erected around 1209 BC by the pharaoh Merneptah, which was unearthed in Thebes in 1896 (Wood). The stele, which extols the military victories of the Pharaoh in Canaan, includes the phrase: “Israel is devastated, deprived of seeds” (Dunn). In addition to being the first non-biblical reference to the name "Israel", the Stele demonstrates that the Israelites were established in the land of Canaan around 1209 BC (LaSor, 59). If this is true, then the Exodus would have occurred at least 40 years earlier, placing it in the mid-1300s BC. Although this dating of the Exodus is still debated among scholars, it places the Exodus approximately two hundred years after the Hyksos period: a time when Egypt was dominated by foreign Semitic kings. The resulting xenophobia may explain the Pharaoh's suspicions of the teeming Hebrew population. In the midst of this environment, the Bible reports, God raised up Moses, the deliverer, to free the Israelites from slavery and lead them to the land of Canaan. At the center of these events are the ten threatening plagues that Moses sends upon Egypt, increasing in severity as Pharaoh's heart hardens. As William Sanford LaSor describes on pages 68 and 70 of Old Testament Survey, the literary form used to describe the plagues is to divide them into three groups of three. They follow this pattern: Before the first plague, Moses confronts Pharaoh by the river at dawn. Before the second plague, Moses and Aaron “pass before” Pharaoh. Before the third plague, they do not appear before Pharaoh, but use a symbolic gesture. In biblical numerology, the number three is associated with the triune presence of God (Slick), so its triple presence in the plague story indicates the divine source of these calamities. Additionally, three times three brings up the number nine, which is paradoxically considered a number of judgment and blessing (Slick). The fact that the plagues are ten in number indicates the completion of God's plan of deliverance (Slick). As YHWH states in Exodus 12:12, additional meaning is added to the plagues because they are direct assaults on the natural deities of Egyptian religion. By attacking the elements themselves, God opposes his power to Egyptian superstition (Pennington). The sacred Nile is turned to blood in Exodus 7, for example, and the sun worshiped as Aten, the supreme deity, by the Egyptians (Pennington) is darkened in Exodus 10. Finally, the tenth plague - the death of the Egyptian firstborn - occurs. against Pharaoh himself, whom the Egyptians held to be a god incarnate (Pennington), and the will of the tyrant is finally broken. This last plague precipitates the introduction of the Passover feast in chapter 12, during which a one-year-old lamb is sacrificed and its blood poured on the doorposts of the Israelites. Acting as a symbol of redemption, the blood serves as a signal for God to "pass over" the house to which it was applied, thus sparing the Israelites' firstborn from suffering the scourge of death. The meat of the lamb was then quickly eaten with unleavened bread and bitter herbs, and the Israelites prepared for the next journey, as described in Exodus 12:11. While some scholars argue that Passover already existed as " a customary spring feast for shepherds” (LaSor, 70), the events surrounding the tenth plague clearly increased the importance of the Easter tradition, as evidenced by the continued practice of the feast. among contemporary Jews. Additionally, Passover is particularly important to Christians, who see it as a foreshadowing of the blood of Christ. Communion, which is a central ritual of the Christian Church, draws both its imagery and use fromunleavened bread of the Jewish Passover. For Jews and Christians alike, the symbolism of the meal is indicative of God's power to bring his people out of oppression. It is not clear what route the Israelites followed after Passover, but indications of their route are recorded in passages such as Exodus 12:37; 13:17-14:4; and Numbers 33:5-8 (see Figure 2). In Exodus 13:17, the Bible says, “God did not lead them by the way of the land of the Philistines. » Historically, "the way of the Philistines" referred to an efficient trade route that ran along the coast of Palestine and arrived in Canaan via the city of Gaza (LaSor, 61). Because this route was very busy and home to many Egyptian fortresses and supply depots, it was to be avoided at all costs by the Israelite exiles (LaSor, 61). Instead, the Hebrews chose to trudge the isolated "Wilderness Road" (Ex. 13:18), which crossed the "Wilderness of Shur" (15:22) in the Sinai Peninsula, eventually arriving at the legendary Mount Sinai. In most English Bibles, Exodus 13:18 and Numbers 33:11 seem to suggest that a miraculous crossing of the Red Sea served as the starting point for the Israelites' wanderings in the Sinai Desert. Although the historical nature of the parting of the waters must be accepted by faith, not all scholars agree that the traditional site of the miracle is accurate. In Hebrew, the name translated "Red Sea" literally reads "Sea of ​​Reeds", leading some to conclude that the location of the water crossing would have been one of the marshes near the current canal of Suez (LaSor, 61). We can imagine that the wheels of Egyptian chariots would have gotten stuck in this muddy region, to be carried away when the waters returned. Equally vague is the location of Mount Sinai, which traditional calculations place near the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula. , where there is a mountain range that the Arabs call Jebel Musa, or "Mountain of Moses". At this nexus between Heaven and Earth, Moses received the crucial revelation that would later become the foundation of the Torah. Inscribed on two stone tablets and placed in the Ark of the Covenant, the Ten Commandments reveal God's expectations for how His people should behave both with Him and with each other in the period following the Exodus. This is not about the conditions under which the people were saved, but a response to having already been saved from Egypt. In their literary form, they are similar to other Near Eastern legal codes, such as the Babylonian Code of Hammurabi (LaSor, 73-72). Furthermore, they reflect the style of a Near Eastern overlord treaty, in that they codify the relationship of a king (YHWH) and a vassal (Israel) in the form of a dialogue " I and You” (LaSor, 75). called "Commandments", the revelations Moses received on Mount Sinai would more accurately be called ten "words" or "teachings", as indicated by the Pentateuch's use of the Greek word Decalogue (from "deka", ten; and “logos”). ", word) ("The Ten Commandments"). To illustrate this point, the first teaching is "I am Yahweh your God", which is considered the initial revelation of the Tetragrammaton YHWH (LaSor 67). Although English Bibles translate "Yahweh" by "Lord", it is better understood as a derivative of the Hebrew verb haya, meaning "he is". Thus, it is the third person equivalent of the name revealed by God to the Burning Bush - "I AM". ". "Lord" replaces YHWH, as the Tetragrammaton was not spoken verbally for fear of violating the commandment not to take the Lord's name in vain (LaSor 67). According to the Ten Commandments, YHWH must be the only God of Israel, and idolatry must be condemned Even if the.While idol worship was common at the time of the Exodus, the Decalogue's prohibition of this practice demonstrates the unique importance that the Jewish worldview places on the relationship between man and God. “Crown images” are forbidden because God already created humanity in His image in Genesis 1:26. Thus, from a biblical perspective, the devotion and respect one would give to an idol should instead be be turned towards one's fellow human beings, through the principles set out in the rest of the Bible. To house the Ark of the Covenant and its sacred object contents, the Israelites built a portable place of worship called the "Tabernacle", the specifications of which are recorded in Exodus 25-40. With the introduction of the Tabernacle, the Jewish faith began its transition from the devotion of the patriarchs to the formalized religion of the post-Exodus period. Perhaps this transition was motivated by the idolatry of Exodus 32, which would have forced Moses to accept the necessity of institutionalized religious practices. Around the Tabernacle was a fence and an outer courtyard, where burnt offerings were performed for the people. Beyond stood the “Tent of Meeting,” the first room of which was called the “Holy Place.” Levitical priests were permitted to enter this sanctuary, and it was here that the majority of priestly activity took place. Behind the Holy Place was a room called the “Holy of Holies,” which contained the Ark and was considered the literal dwelling place of God (Barrow). Only once a year, on Yom Kippur, the High Priest was allowed to enter this most sacred chamber with sacrificial blood on his hands. In addition to its role on the Day of Atonement, the Tabernacle prefigures Christ in his role as the presence of God in the midst of humanity (Barrow). This foreshadowing is attested in John 1:14, which is most accurately translated as: “the Word became flesh and “tabernacled” among us” (LaSor 76). and the work of Moses, who is in turn prophet, legislator, governor and savior. Considered the penultimate prophet of Judaism, belief in the message of Moses is among the 13 essential elements of Rambam's (rich) Jewish faith. His writings, which make up the Pentateuch, are revered by Jews above all other sacred writings. For this reason, he is traditionally called "Moshe Rabbeinu", or Moses the Rabbi; a name that has a numerical value of 613 – the same number of “mitzvot,” or commandments, contained in the (Rich) Torah. Furthermore, the Jews consider Moses to be the only man who saw God face to face (Deut. 34:10) and spoke directly to Him (Numbers 12:8). For Christians, this tenant of Judaism is a prefiguration of Jesus, who would affirm that he and the Father (YHWH) are One. Hebrew by birth, Moses escaped the Pharaoh's death sentence when his intelligent mother (named Yocheved in the Jewish tradition) and his sister Miriam left him adrift in a small boat on the Nile when he was a child. Discovered by Pharaoh's daughter, he received the name "Moses", which derives from a root meaning "to pull" (Ex. 2:10). According to most scholars, this name is of Egyptian origin (LaSor 65), but some speculate that Moshe (Moses) is actually a Hebrew translation of the Egyptian word "minios" "stretched" (Rich). Exodus does not record the name. of the Pharaoh who reigned at that time, but tradition associates him with Raamses II. Most scholars agree that the cities of Pitham and Pi-Raamses (Ex. 1:11) were built by Pharaoh Ramesses II, making him the most common suspect as the pharaoh of the 'Exodus. If the widely accepted dating of the Exodus to the mid-13th century is correct, then Raamses II would almost certainly be the pharaoh with whom Moses wrestled. Alternative dating based onInformation in 1 Kings 6:1, however, has led other scholars to date the Exodus to 1447 BC (LaSor 60), which would disqualify Raamses II as the pharaoh of the Exodus. While the Pharaoh plays a villainous role in the story. of the Exodus, there is an important spiritual lesson that can be learned from his situation. After each plague, Pharaoh's heart would be "hardened", preventing him from meeting Moses' demands. Perhaps this is an illustration of the fact that when a person's heart is closed to God, he is unable to hear His words or respond properly to His will. Regardless of Pharaoh's nefarious reputation, it is likely that the lifestyle of his court was that of a person. of the first influences of Moses. Raised as an Egyptian prince, Moses would have been highly educated, knowledgeable, and capable of military leadership (LaSor 65). This makes plausible the traditional designation of Moses as the author of the Torah, as well as his alleged administrative skills. A familiarity with the literary forms of the period is demonstrated in Exodus 15:1-18, in which Moses composes a triumphal song to celebrate God's deliverance of the Israelites at the "Sea of ​​Reeds." Significantly, the “Song of Moses” differs from other poetry of its time in that it focuses exclusively on YHWH, rather than on the exploits of human champions and warriors (LaSor 72). This sensitivity to Hebrew culture is best explained by Exodus 2:7-10, which records that Pharaoh's daughter hired Moses' mother to serve as her nurse. It is reasonable to assume that Moses' mother would have instilled in him an appreciation for his Hebrew heritage, if only through the customs of his daily life. There is no doubt that Moses was deeply conscious of his ethnicity, as evidenced by his outrage at seeing a Hebrew slave beaten in Exodus 2:11-12. In his anger, the Bible tells us, Moses killed the Egyptian then fled to the desert of Midian, where he stayed with a local priest named Jethro. In Midian, Moses worked as a shepherd, tending Jethro's flocks, and eventually married the priest's Ethiopian daughter, Zipporah. It was during this period that Moses encountered the “Burning Bush” through which God spoke to him. After electing Moses as His Prophet and Deliverer, God reveals to Moses one of the Divine Names: “I AM”. According to LaSor, page 66, a person's name in ancient times was descriptive of his attributes, so God here asserts his ontological superiority, as well as his closeness and accessibility to his people. As is often the case, it's not clear. why God chose Moses to act as his representative, especially when the Bible says in Exodus 4:10 that Moses was not an eloquent speaker. A Jewish midrash, as recounted in “Judaism 101” by Tracy R. Rich, speculates that Moses' devotion to Jethro's flocks of sheep was the trait that led YHWH to select him to guide the flocks of the Israelites. The story, as Rich presents it, tells of a time when Moses was taking the sheep to water and one particular lamb did not come. Leaving the rest of the flock behind, Moses returned to the lost lamb, put it on his shoulders and carried it to the water so that it could drink. Although this story may be folklore, it deeply resembles Jesus' parable of the lost sheep in Luke 15. This would be appropriate, because as a savior figure, Moses foreshadows the work of Christ. Just as Moses delivered the Israelites from slavery in Egypt, Christ has freed all humanity from the bondage of sin. Although Moses' relationship with God was amazing, his life was fraught with challenges. His lack of faith in receiving water from a stoneprevented him from entering the Promised Land for which he had worked so hard (Numbers 20:7-13). It is not clear what transgression he committed in striking the stone twice to receive water, but it is generally understood as an indication of Moses' impatience or frustration. Additionally, I suggest two alternative explanations that might shed some light on the situation. The first is that Moses' compounded statement in verse 10 – “shall we bring you water” – suggests that for a moment he thought of himself, rather than YHWH, as the source of blessing. The other possibility that comes to mind is that the act of striking the rock and pouring water was meant to foreshadow Jesus being struck on the cross, with the water flowing down his side (John 19:34). However, Jesus was only struck once, and the fact that Moses struck the rock twice ruins what could have been a Christological picture. It may be easy to judge Moses for his eventual frustration with the journey out of Egypt, but given the level of stress he was under, he performed remarkably – almost flawlessly – as a leader. . Exodus 18:13-26 seems to indicate that he was under immense pressure trying to judge fairly all the problems that arose among the Israelites, as Jethro's disturbing observation that Moses would "surely wear out" suggests. he did not seek administrative assistance (18:18). To ease the pressure on Moses, Jethro suggested the institution of a basic justice system – a proposal that Moses readily agreed to. Additionally, Moses regularly received help from Aaron, whom God appointed to serve as the Israelites' spokesperson because of Moses' lack of verbal gravitas (Ex 4:10). Assuming that Aaron was the older brother of Moses, Jewish scholars believe that Aaron was born before the massacre of the Hebrew children (Rich). Besides his role as a diplomat, Aaron was also the first of the Levitical priesthood and functioned as the center of Israel's religious life during the Exodus; thus, the meaning of his name, “the exalted one” (Molloy 283). This role becomes especially important after the construction of the Tabernacle, when routine sacrifices and religious duties become central to Israelite life. As high priest, Aaron would have been the only individual allowed to enter the Holy of Holies and enter into the direct presence of God with the Yom Kippur offering. In Jewish tradition, it is believed that Aaron's success as a priest and diplomat was due to his love for peace (Rich). In the Talmud, Rabbi Hillel is said to have said: “Be disciples of Aaron, loving peace and seeking peace, loving people and bringing them closer to the Torah” (Rich). This sentiment is reflected in Aaron's role as intercessor on the Day of Atonement, establishing peace between the people and God for the coming year. Unfortunately, this character trait may be responsible for Aaron's willingness to follow the people's desire to build the golden calf at the foot of Mount Sinai (Ex 32:22). Like Moses, Aaron did not enter the land of Canaan, but died while traveling in the wilderness. Moses and Aaron's older sister, Miriam, completes the three-part Exodus leadership team. Referred to as a “prophetess” in Exodus 14:12, Miriam is the first woman in the Bible to be given this title and depicted in a position of leadership. There is no doubt that she was well suited to the task, given her skill in organizing the events that saved Moses' life in Exodus 2, as well as her courage in approaching Pharaoh's daughter with the proposition that the mother of Moses serves as her nurse. The level of education she would have had as a Hebrew slave is notclear, but Exodus 15:20 indicates that she had some musical skills. Verse 21 describes Miriam as leading the women of Israel in song and dance, but the lyrics of her song simply echo the first verse of Moses' composition, suggesting that she did not write her own music. Like her brothers, Miriam had an impeccable relationship. with YHWH, but she made a mistake during the journey to Canaan. Numbers recounts how Miriam, along with Aaron, challenged Moses' prophetic leadership and criticized his decision to marry an Ethiopian woman. Miriam's name, meaning "rebellion" (Molloy 283), seems to indicate that she was predisposed to anti-authoritarian tendencies. In response to her chronic complaints, God punished Miriam with leprosy, causing her to be “excluded” from the Israelite community. Fortunately, Aaron interceded on her behalf and implored God to take away his sister's illness. YHWH relented and Miriam was accepted back into the camp of the Israelites, although she too was ultimately excluded from the Promised Land. It could be argued that the story of Miriam's leprosy contains Christological connotations. Sin results in a person's separation from the community of believers, but Christ's intercession (foreshadowed in Aaron) results in the sinner's restoration. Part III: Evaluation - The Exodus in a Christian Context For Christians, the ramifications of the Book of Exodus extend far beyond the Torah. As the apostle Paul states in Colossians 2:17, the events of Jewish history are "the shadows of things to come" - like the silhouettes projected on the walls of Plato's cave, they simply allude to the fullness of reality manifested in Christ. In Matthew 8:4, he explicitly asks a man to come to the Temple and “offer the gift that Moses commanded.” In Matthew 17, Christ speaks with Moses and the Hebrew prophet Elijah during his supernatural transfiguration, and in Mark 12:26, ​​Christ quotes directly from the "Book of Moses," reciting an event from the Exodus. Point by point, the life of Christ parallels and develops the story of the Exodus. Matthew makes this particularly evident in his Gospel, written for a Jewish audience (Middendorf 48). Matthew begins to build his comparison in chapter 2, in which he reports that, like Moses, Jesus' childhood consisted of narrowly escaping the massacre of young Jewish men by a king. As a result, Christ's family fled to Egypt, returning to Judea after the death of King Herod. In verse 2:15, Matthew explicitly invokes the Exodus with a prophetic quote: “I have called my son out of Egypt.” In Matthew 3:13, Jesus crosses the Jordan River through baptism, mirroring the passage through the Sea of ​​Reeds. Immediately afterwards, he is driven into the wilderness (4:1), where he wanders for forty days and faces temptation. Obviously, the forty years that Israel spent in the wilderness were a foreshadowing of this event, although Christ enhances the original story by resisting temptation, as Israel repeatedly falls into sin over the course of of his “desert experience”. Matthew's use of the Exodus as a model for the story of Christ reaches a crescendo in chapter 5, when Christ delivers the Sermon on the Mount. As the traditional name of the discourse indicates, the placement of this event in Matthew's account is intended to evoke Moses' reception of the Law on Mount Sinai. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus reveals God's Will for his people, just as Moses did centuries earlier. Like Matthew, John also draws on Exodus imagery in the sixth chapter of his Gospel. In v.6:31, Christ compares himself to the manna that God provided to the Israelites during their