Lecture #5: Moses, Exodus, Covenant

Course: Old Testament

Lecture #5: Moses, Exodus, Covenant

Introduction to Moses and the Exodus

In their fundamental confession of faith, the Israelites affirmed that God whom they worshiped "Heard our voice, and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression and "brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with great terror, with signs and wonders" (Deut. 26:5-9)

One thing needs to be mentioned here – there is a dictum which says that "all Israelites are Habiru, but not all Habiru are Israelites." This simply means that there were far more Habiru then those that Moses led out of Egypt, many still in the land of Canaan.

Only a small portion of the clans of the Patriarchs went into Egypt at Joseph's invitation, the only one we are certain of is the clan of Jacob.

Thus, when Moses led them back, or rather Joshua conquered Canaan, a covenant was made at Shechem (Joshua 24) which included the inhabitants there and the newcomers.

As for the Exodus itself, the 'plot' of this drama is a contest between two opposing powers: on one the God of the Hebrews represented by Moses and his brother Aaron, on the other is a stubborn Pharaoh and his magicians.

Notice that Moses’ God never enters into conflict with the Gods of Egypt, but with the Pharaoh who supposes that he is determining history.

Moses

The saga of Moses is composed of three different strands with J seeing Moses as the prototype of the king, E of the prophet and P as the priest par excellence. though P tends to upgrade Aaron and downgrade Moses wherever possible.

According to the story, Moses was raised in the Pharaoh's court and this tradition seems to be authentic.

The idea is that a great leader is reared apart from his people. Samuel fit this idea as well.

After murdering an Egyptian, he fled and took refuge with the Midianites and married Zipporah, a daughter of the priest.

Is this where he learned the cult of YHWH? We don't know but there is no question that the Midianites apparently worshiped a mountain god.

After an experience (the burning bush; Ex 3:1-6) in which the name YHWH was given to him he went back to Egypt and tried to carry out the command to free the people.

There is no consensus as to what the name YHWH means.

if we take the Sanskrit, as I mentioned, it means ever-flowing, which would certainly fit the volcanic association.

Another guess is that it is a form of the verb “to be”. He Causes to be or create. "I cause to be what I cause to be".

Another interpretation is the simple form of the verb translated "I am" or "I am who is."

A fourth view is "I will be with you” thus the name of God signifies God whose being is turned toward his people, who is present in their midst as deliverer, guide and judge and who is accessible in worship.

There is no question that the YAWH cult had its start with Moses

But where did Moses get it? The most likely hypothesis is that Yahweh was formerly the mountain god of the Kenites, a clan of the Midianites who were known as metalsmiths and who accompanied the Hebrews into the promised land, and that Moses was initiated into the YHWH cult thru his marriage to the daughter of Jetro.

This idea is born out when Moses sees the burning bush in a Midianite holy place, Mt. Horeb, the name used by E for the mountain where the covenant was made.

Moses went back to Egypt to acquaint his kinsmen with the new deity.

The fact is, we do not know for sure the source of the name, the important thing is what the name stood for in the worship of Israel from then on.

Contest with Pharaoh

The Plagues

It is generally agreed that the account of the plagues (Ex 7-12) was put in final form by the Priestly writer who incorporated the J tradition and added some additional material.

The J tradition followed essentially psalm 78, and recounts 8 plagues, but the completed P edition has 10 as in Psalm 105.

it is interesting to see that the J plagues are described with more restraint than P. P's version shows a tendency to heighten the miracles by putting greater stress on the wonder-working power of the rod.

Furthermore, in Ps version Moses is overshadowed by the priestly figure Aaron, as YHWH Commands Moses: “Say to Aaron, stretch out your rod. ."and Aaron wields the rod with marvelous results. (for ex. Ex 8:16-19).

Right in the midst of the tense crisis between the announcement of YHWHS intention (Ex 11:1-10) and the falling of the plague (Ex 12:29-32) – the narrator pauses to introduce the ancient feast of the Passover.

After centuries of transmission, the P writer brought the traditional story to the final, written version of the dramatic contest with Pharaoh.

After the slaying of the firstborn of the Egyptians, the Pharaoh let Moses go.

they left in haste and according to Ex 12:37 there were 600,000 men on foot, not counting women and children – probably @ The writing Count when J was writing

There is no question this is an exaggeration added later.

undoubtedly the band of slaves was comparatively small as the Nile delta could never have accommodated so many Hebrews and their animals.

it is correct in saying they are a motley group: not only the family of Jacob but a "mixed multitude" (Ex 12:38) representing Apiru of other origins.

it is historically inaccurate to speak of them as Israelites at this stage, they were later forged into a community.

It appears that the original goal was for Moses to take the people to the mountain where he had his experience, but no one is sure where that is.

The present biblical texts do not give a clear picture of their route of escape though there is some evidence of at least an initial move along a northern route.

The crossing of the "Red Sea" is not the red sea.

This probably refers to a marshy lake at the northern extension of the Gulf of Suez as the route most likely took them into the wilderness of Shur.

The point is that the narrative expresses the conviction that God Himself was guiding the people on their journey as a pillar of cloud by day and pillar of fire by night.

It has been speculated that this could be a volcano, perhaps the one that ended the civilization on Crete.

The crossing of the Yam Suph or Red Sea constituted a "root experience" which is still celebrated today in the Passover service as the sign of a "saving presence" in history.

Even historians who are skeptical about many of the ancient Mosaic traditions admit that at this point we strike "the bedrock of an historical occurrence.” An event "so unique and extraordinary that it came to constitute the essence of the primary Israelite confession and was regarded as the real beginning of Israel's history and the act of God fundamental for Israel."

something happened but it is difficult to penetrate beyond the faith language to see what really happened.

The J-E tradition, edited by P shows a crossing that was facilitated by wind and tide. (Ex 14:21b, 24-25)

such an occurrence is not impossible in the marshy area of Lake Menzaleh; and has in fact been witnessed at other times.

The miracle was that it happened at a particular time with a particular meaning.

Thus, to Israel it was not a freak of nature, but a sign of God's saving presence using power of the natural world to serve his purpose.

The climax comes when Miriam, sister of Moses and Aaron, sang hymn to YHWH (Ex 15)

This couplet is one of the oldest pieces of poetry in the Hebrew Scriptures and in all probability, it originated during the very event it celebrates.

Later on, in the history of the Red sea tradition the sea came to represent the mythical powers of chaos which YHWH conquers in order to demonstrate his kingship over Israel and the world.

According to this reinterpretation, YHWH's victory was not over pharaonic powers of flesh and blood but over Sea, the mythical symbol of the chaos and evil that threaten the creation (Psalms 74:12-17; 77:16-20; Hab.3)

In other words, the victory at the Sea came to be understood as a victory over the Sea.

What About Evidence?

The Covenant

The fugitives arrive at Sinai in Ex 19:1 and do not break camp until Num 10:11. all the intervening material has its setting at Sinai.

Thus, from Ex thru Leviticus to Num 10:11 deal with incidents and laws associated with Israel's encampment at Sinai. This is of course, where the P-writer puts all the laws

Most of the material in this section is from the P tradition so the main interest is in cultic matters, ritual, the tabernacle, sacred objects (especially the ark), ordination to the priesthood, and various kinds of sacrifices.

All of Leviticus is P material as are the first 10 chap. of Numbers.

Deuteronomic material is not present in any significant degree until Deuteronomy.

P material does preserve many ancient recollections. In dealing with biblical literature, it is axiomatic that the date of a writing is no sure index of the age of the traditions it records.

This holds true for J and E as they also have much older material and preserve ideas and customs from a much earlier age than their writing.

The covenant's heart, given in Ex 20:1-17 is the ten commandments, according to P, though most of the surrounding narrative is J and E.

In Ex 24 the covenant is ratified.

The older J tradition (24:1-2, 9-11) [Read] portrays the ceremony as made effective in a sacred meal on top of the mountain with the chief men of Israel present, along with Moses and Aaron, his two sons and 70 elders.

the statement "they beheld God and ate and drank" this is typical of J (remember, he had God walking in the cool of the evening in Eden).

In E' version (Ex 24:3-8) [Read] the whole assembly of Israel takes part in a covenant ceremony at the foot of the mountain which is made effective by a sacrifice.

Moses reads them the covenant and when they accept, he dashes them with blood.

Of more importance is the different views of the covenant itself. in one, the people are involved only thru their representatives; in the other, the people take part directly.

In J, no stipulations seem to be imposed as part of the ceremony.

In E is the big “If”, ie, you must obey God.

Both these traditions were deeply rooted in Israel history and because they were important for a full understanding of YHWH's relationship with his people Israel, they are dovetailed together in Ex 24.

The Priestly writer used this material, but he subsumed the Sinai covenant under the theology of the "everlasting covenant"--that is, a covenant which God establishes in perpetuity, regardless of human performance.

In P's scheme, both the covenant with Noah (Gen 9:1-17) and the covenant with Abraham (Gen 17) belong to this covenant type.

YHWH's deliverance of the people from Egypt for P is the fulfillment of the pledge made to Abraham.

By contrast, the tradition insists that the covenant contains a conditional element which the people must take with the utmost seriousness

These two understandings of the covenant-the conditional (law) and the unconditional (grace) – stood in tension within one another throughout the history of Israel's traditions.

The editorial procedure just discussed gives a clue that other law collections from later times and circles have been inserted into the story of Israel's sojourn at Sinai for the purpose of making the covenant requirements contemporary.

many other bodies of law ended up at Sinai including the decalogue (Ex 20:1-17), civil and religious law (Ex 20:22-23:33), ritual laws (Ex 34:10-26); priestly legislation (ex 25-31, all of Leviticus; Num 1-10)

By a process of reduction, not much is left that may have come from the time of Moses. There is good reason to believe that the Ten commandments in Ex 20 actually come from Moses.

They were much shorter and terse than recorded in the bible, but the basic words are probably Mosaic.

Covenant

The word covenant was drawn from the field of politics and used as a model for expressing God's relationship with Israel.

Needless to say, the parties in this covenant (God and Man) are not equal in rank; hence it is YHWH who "cuts" the covenant.

the examples found from the late millennium century BCE in Hittite archives (another Indo-European connection) have thrown much light on the relation between covenant and law.

The Suzerainty treaty form is made between a suzerain, a great king, and his vassal the head of a subordinate state.

To his vassal the suzerain gives a covenant and within the covenant the vassal finds protection and security.

The vassal is under certain obligations to obey the suzerain.

To make a covenant in no way infringes on the sovereignty of the great king.

The most striking aspect is the great attention given to the king's deeds of benevolence on behalf of the vassal.

The suzerainty treaty has 6 characteristic features.

Preamble the great Hittite king gives his name and titles

Historical prologue. he then proceeds to rehearse deeds of benevolence which he has performed on behalf of his vassal, thus the motive for the vassal’s obligation

Stipulations imposed on the vassal. a loyalty oath, pledging he will not recognize any other power.

Attention to treaty documents. copies of treaty to be preserved in temples of both countries, and read publicly

Witnesses to the treaty. gods of both countries, natural powers

Sanctions. blessings will result from obedience to treaty, but curses will fall if vassal unfaithful

Breaking the Covenant

Alternative theories (from separate sources)

The Exodus is described only in the Old Testament. There have been alternative theories about the Exodus for centuries and many studies have been conducted.

#1. One is a thought provoking, but widely disputed, theory. In this theory, the Egyptian Pharaoh Akhenaten, who introduced the revolutionary concept of monotheism in ancient Egypt, devoted so much attention to his new capital city of Akhet-Aten that he let the rest of Egypt fall apart. Akhenaten was followed as pharaoh by Smenkhkare, then Tutankhamun, then Ay. He was the High Priest of Akhet-Aten, known as the Divine Father (a hereditary title). Although originally a believer in Aten, Ay realized Egypt had to return to the old gods. The priests of Aten wouldn't reconvert, so they had to go, along with the mass of Aten believers. Ay showered them with gifts, and sent them off to colonize Canaan, where the priests, the Yahus, became the Judahites, settling in the south in Judah, while the ordinary believers settled in the north, in Israel.

Ay was so respected as the Divine Father that he became worshiped as a personification of God; in the Aramaic version of the Old Testament God is called Ay, not Yahweh, and the word Adonay, used by Jews to avoid saying the name of God, Yahweh, aloud, means "Lord Ay". When the Pentateuch came to be written during the Babylonian captivity, centuries later, Akhenaten became a template for Adam, and also for Abraham. The Israelite hero Moses, who in the Bible account led the Children of Israel out of Egypt, was based on Rameses, and his troublesome brother Aaron was the previous pharaoh, Horemheb, who succeeded Ay, and who tried to expunge all evidence of Aten kingship and of his predecessors. Moses' successor, Joshua, was Rameses' successor Seti I. It is also argued that rew was the lingua franca of the many different peoples at Akhet-Aten, borrowing from many sources including Egyptian and Ethiopian. The Exodus mystery has captured the attention of Western thinkers for centuries. Clement of Alexandria in 200 AD was one of the first to mention a stunning similarity between the Egyptian symbols and those used by the ancient Hebrews.

Thus the "Chosen People" might not have been slaves from a foreign country but high-ranking Egyptian priests and the adherents of the monotheist pharaoh Akhenaton, cast out of Egypt. This would mean that the source of Jewish, Christian and Islamic beliefs would go back even further, to the Pharaoh Akhenaten.

#2 For the last 20 years, Rolf Krauss, a scientist at the Egyptian Museum in Berlin, has been looking into the life and times of Amenmesse, about whom little was known. His conclusion: In the early 13th century BCE, Amenmesse, then only 25. tried to depose his own father, Pharaoh Seti II, from the throne. The result was four long years of bloody civil war. But the usurper's unusual background corresponds exactly with details of the legends of Moses in early historical writings, and Krauss theorizes that the writer of the biblical book of Exodus used Amenmesse's exploits to create a heroic past for the Jewish people.

Exodus Decoded has a number of intriguing ideas. More scholarly work needs to be done on parallels between Tempest Stele and the Plagues of Egypt, although it should be remembered that the Ipuwer Papyrus can also make such a claim for parallels which are probably better, and it is thought to date from a far earlier era. We also cannot rule out that these might have served as literary models for the biblical plagues centuries after the fact. The steles the researchers claim depict the Exodus and Egyptians drowning in the sea are also interesting, even though it is not an open and shut case. Other points in this documentary may vanish on closer inspection. The figures on the top of the Ark of the Covenant were not birds, as in the documentary, but cherubim, ie, in all probability winged figures with the body of a lion and the head of a human. Unlike the gold figurine they showed from Troy, the wings should also have been touching. The calcified deposits on top of the mountain are not necessarily of Ahmose I vintage, but until they are tested, might just as easily be from a spring running hundreds of thousands of years ago, before the mountain was a mountain. It would require radiocarbon dating to substantiate the claim that this calcium carbonate was of Ahmose I vintage, but access to the site is an issue also. Geologically, it is not unusual to find fossils from sea beds on the tops of mountains – a circumstance interpreted by evolutionists as the earth being billions of years old, while believers have it that these are remains from Noah's flood.

#3 Volcano Theory

One possible explanation for plagues and the parting of the water is the Santorini volcano eruption and tsunami that occurred sometime possibly coincident with the exodus.

According to tsunami experts, the massive volcanic eruption on the Greek island of Santorini in 1600 BCE could have generated a giant tidal wave or tsunami that struck the Nile Delta, parting of the sea, triggered the ten plagues during the time of Moses' escape from Egypt. Tsunamis are often preceded by the water withdrawing from the shore. A mega-tsunami caused by Santorini's volcano would siphon billions of gallons of water - not just from the shore but from connecting rivers and lakes - creating dry land for as long as two hours. This would give Moses and the Israelites enough time to cross, although maybe not 3 million of them. Heavier chariots may well have been bogged down in the mud. Evidence is based on findings along the rock beddings shores of Africa and Egypt.

#4 Association with Atenism

In his 1939 books Moses and Monotheism, Sigmund Freud linked Moses to the religion of Akhenaten, i.e. Atenism. The Exodus would then come after Akhenaten's death (ca. 1358 BC) when much of the pharaoh's monotheistic reforms were being violently reversed. Joseph Campbell also put forth such theories. Ahmed Osman went one step further, identifying Moses with Akhenaten himself. These ideas are not generally supported by most mainstream Egyptologists. Even so, the "Hymn to Aten" on Ay's sarcophagus shows a similarity to Psalms chapter 104 which may be more than coincidence, and Ay still upheld Ankenaten's monotheism. While most archaeologists, of any stripe, do not place Moses in the Amarna era, Freud's idea that Atenism and Judaism could be related is at least more plausible.