Chapter 11 FROM ABRAHAM TO MOSES

A large part of the Old Testament claims to be an account of the history of the Jews from the earliest times.We shall now survey that account.But we need to remember that much of the material was not written at the time of the events it describes and that it may also have been shaped or altered to fit particular purposes — principally to demonstrate the invincible power of the Jewish God and his protection of his chosen people,the Jews.^[1]

So the“historical”portions of the Bible are not unbiased,academic descriptions of what actually happened.They were designed to serve the societies for which they were written.And we need to remember that these societies were Jewish.Everything is here written from a Jewish point of view.Other tribes,whose civilizations we can tell from archeological and written evidence were immensely impressive,are usually not presented in a favourable light.

As a result today we would probably categorize many of the attitudes in the Old Testament as racist.When making such a judgment,it is always necessary to bear in mind that the societies in which the writers of the Old Testament were living were,by modern standards,primitive.For a great part of their early history the Jews were nomadic and the land they inhabited had no fixed borders.Other races or tribes were a deadly threat to their very existence.Hostility leading to xenophobia was unfortunately a natural primitive response.In the modern world a much lower degree of insecurity has led patriotic nationalism to degenerate into dangerous xenophobia on many occasions.We ought to reflect on this when,understandably,we condemn Old Testament racism.

Insecurity explains a great deal about the attitudes we meet in the Old Testament.It is hardly surprising that an insecure nomadic people aspired to possess land that would provide them with the prospect of prosperity and comfort.They persuaded themselves that this land had been set aside for them by God,that it was the“promised land.”In order to secure the promised land,indeed in order simply to survive,absolute unity and discipline were required.This explains why the Jewish God in much of the Old Testament is such an imperial figure,a figure who tolerates no disloyalty and demands exclusive and complete obedience.Unity and discipline are essential to political strength and political stability.To keep the Jewish tribe united,very detailed laws are laid down and disobedience is severely punished.This makes God in the Old Testament often appear a very severe,disciplinarian figure.But the other side of the coin is that he is devoted to the Jewish people.He has made a covenant or promise never to abandon them.They can therefore rejoice in the certainty that they are ultimately invincible.History is on their side.

This idea of God is not the idea of God held by most people who believe in God today.So we need to remember that the idea of God is changing all the time.In other books of the Old Testament,usually written at a later date,we can see it beginning to develop into something generally much more attractive.But in the earlier“historical”narrative,if we examine it critically,there is much to deplore about the God figure that is portrayed.

From Abraham to Joseph

Abraham was the first great patriarch^[2]of Israel.His story is described in Genesis Chapters 12 to 25.Jews,Christians and Muslims respect him as the personification of human faith in the will of God.Faith,of course,secures loyalty and discipline and so enhances the chances of survival.

Abraham was a wealthy man and his wife’s name was Sarah.He was probably born over 4,000 years ago in the big Babylonian city of Ur（in modern Iraq）.He and his family were nomads.

Now the Lord said to Abram,^[3]“Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.I will make of you a great nation,and I will bless you,and make your name great …^[4]

So Abraham took his wife Sarah,his nephew Lot,and all their possessions and moved to Canaan（in modern Israel）.The solemn promise or covenant^[5]which God made here to Abraham is fundamental to traditional Judaism.For Jews,the covenant between God and themselves marked them out as His chosen people.The covenant between God and Abraham is closely related to the idea of Judaea as the Promised Land.This has had major implications right up to the present day,for there are some Jews today who regard Judaea and the surrounding regions as theirs by God’s decree and who are therefore unwilling to share the land with the Palestinian Arabs who also claim it.^[6]

Abraham’s nephew,Lot,lived in the city of Sodom.Before long,God decided to destroy the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah“because their sin was very grievous”.One particular sin was that of homosexuality.Abraham pleaded with God to spare Sodom,and God agreed to do so if ten good men could be found there.But there were not.Angels sent by God instructed Lot and his family to flee before the city was destroyed.They did so,but Lot’s wife disobeyed instructions by looking back and was turned into a pillar of salt.^[7]

The story of Sodom and Gomorrah is a good example of how a literal reading of the Bible quickly comes into conflict with modern principles.There are those in the modern world who cite this story,and some of the comments of St Paul in the epistle to the Romans in the New Testament,as evidence that homosexual relations are an absolute evil.Others,however,will claim that the attitudes displayed in this story are no more than a reflection of the moral prejudices of the writer and the people in whose company he moved.

In the story of Sodom and Gomorrah,it is the sexual element that has claimed most attention.However,there is another important principle laid down at the start of the story when Abraham extracts from God the promise that he will not indulge in indiscriminate collective punishment.Only individuals can be guilty,not entire peoples or populations.Although this principle appears to be abandoned in many places in the Old Testament,and even in the New,it is significant that it is articulated so clearly here at such an early stage.

Abraham was an old man and had no heir until his slave woman Hagar^[8]gave birth to his first son,Ishmael.Later his wife Sarah gave birth to Isaac.^[9]Clearly jealous,Sarah set about getting rid of Hagar and Ishmael,and persuaded her husband to send them off into the desert.But God saved them,and Ishmael became the patriarch of the Arab people.^[10]

The most dramatic story about Abraham is about when God put his faith to the test by demanding that he sacrifice his son,Isaac.^[11]The story has a literary quality to it as the narrative builds to its terrifying climax.

After these things God tested Abraham.He said to him,“Abraham!”And he said,“Here I am.”He said,“Take your son,your only son Isaac,whom you love,and go to the land of Moriah,and offer him there as a burnt-offering on one of the mountains that I shall show you.”So Abraham rose early in the morning,saddled his donkey,and took two of his young men with him,and his son Isaac;he cut the wood for the burnt-offering,and set out and went to the place in the distance that God had shown him.On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place far away.Then Abraham said to his young men,“Stay here with the donkey;the boy and I will go over there;we will worship,and then we will come back to you.”Abraham took the wood of the burnt-offering and laid it on his son Isaac,and he himself carried the fire and the knife.So the two of them walked on together.Isaac said to his father Abraham,“Father!”And he said,“Here I am,my son.”He said,“The fire and the wood are here,but where is the lamb for a burnt-offering?”Abraham said,“God himself will provide the lamb for a burnt-offering,my son.”So the two of them walked on together.

When they came to the place that God had shown him,Abraham built an altar there and laid the wood in order.He bound his son Isaac,and laid him on the altar,on top of the wood.Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to kill his son.But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven,and said,“Abraham,Abraham!”And he said,“Here I am.”He said,“Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him;for now I know that you fear God,since you have not withheld your son,your only son,from me.”And Abraham looked up and saw a ram,caught in a thicket by its horns.Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt-offering instead of his son.^[12]

God rewarded Abraham for his faith,declaring

… because you have done this,and have not withheld your son,your only son,I will indeed bless you,and I will make your offspring as numerous as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore.And your offspring shall possess the gate^[13]of their enemies,and by your offspring shall all the nations of the earth gain blessing for themselves,because you have obeyed my voice.^[14]

Although it is clear that God never intended Isaac to be killed,there is something deeply repulsive to the modern mind in the idea of a God who can demand that a parent kill his own child.How can anyone believe in a God who makes such demands? Perhaps in the primitive Old Testament context,this story is an emphatic assertion of the importance of unquestioning obedience without which survival was not possible.That may explain,although it cannot excuse,the horror.

Christians who are not fundamentalists deal with the story in another way —in a way Christians often turn to when faced with unpleasantness in the Old Testament.They look for meaning by drawing a parallel.They see the intended sacrifice of Isaac as pointing the way forward to the death of Jesus.Like Abraham,God was prepared to sacrifice his own Son — indeed,unlike Abraham,God actually did so.And God’s son submits willingly to the sacrifice.That is why in the sketch of the sacrifice of Isaac by Rembrandt,Isaac’s hands are not bound.This contradicts the biblical account and is a demonstration of how an Old Testament story can be adapted to suit new purposes and given a meaning it never originally had.

When Isaac was old enough to marry,Abraham sent a trusted servant to the land of his ancestors to find him a suitable wife.The servant returned with Rebecca.^[15]Rebecca gave birth to twins.The first was reddish and covered with hair and was named Esau.Immediately afterwards his brother Jacob was born,with his hand grasping Esau’s heel.Before Esau’s birth,God told Rebecca that her older son would serve her younger.^[16]This was unusual in ancient times because the oldest son was traditionally regarded as the heir of the father’s wealth,power and authority.But time and again in Genesis God upsets the natural order and prefers a younger son over an older.^[17]In a deeply traditional society this must have emphasized how absolutely powerful and inscrutable God was.

When they grew up,Esau became a skilled hunter while Jacob was a“quiet man,staying at home among the tents.”Isaac preferred Esau,but Rebecca favoured Jacob.One day Esau returned from hunting and found Jacob cooking a stew.Desperately hungry,Esau begged his brother for a mouthful.Jacob bargained.He demanded that Esau give up his birthright in exchange.

Esau said,“I am about to die;of what use is a birthright to me?”Jacob said,“Swear to me first.”So he swore to him,and sold his birthright to Jacob.^[18]

Later,when Isaac was old and blind,he summoned Esau in order to give him his special blessing.First,however,he demanded that Esau hunt game and make him an appetizing dish.Overhearing her husband,Rebecca told Jacob to bring her two young goats so that she could make the kind of dish Isaac liked,and then sent Jacob to impersonate Esau and steal his brother’s blessing.She covered her younger son’s neck and arms with the skins of the slaughtered goats to make him feel hairy.Isaac was deceived.He gave Jacob his blessing,making him master of his brothers.When Esau returned and discovered what his brother had done,he was naturally very distressed and planned to kill him once their father had died.But when Rebecca discovered Esau’s intention,she forewarned Jacob and sent him to take refuge with her brother Laban in Haran.^[19]

Today we might be inclined to think that Jacob’s theft,although it did not show him in a good light,was not a matter of great importance.However,in a primitive society a father’s blessing was considered to have objective power and could therefore secure a young man’s future as materially as a generous provision in a will today.None the less,the story reflects badly on both Rebecca and Jacob and inevitably invites the question of why God should sanction rather than punish such behavior.

On his way to Haran,Jacob had a memorable dream.He saw a ladder set up on the earth and reaching to heaven,with angels ascending and descending it.And God stood beside him and promised him

the land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring;and your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth,and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south;and all the families of the earth shall be blessed in you and in your offspring.… Then Jacob woke from his sleep and said,“Surely the Lord is in this place — and I did not know it!”And he was afraid,and said,“How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God,and this is the gate of heaven.”^[20]

From there Jacob proceeded to the land of his uncle Laban.Laban had two daughters,Leah and Rachel.Jacob fell in love with Rachel.Laban offered her in marriage to him in return for seven years’ service.After Jacob had served Laban for seven years,he demanded his reward.But Laban tricked Jacob by getting him so drunk that Jacob did not notice that he was sleeping with Leah rather than Rachel.Laban excused himself on the grounds that it was not customary to give away a younger daughter before an older one.Jacob then undertook to serve Laban seven more years in order to acquire Rachel.^[21]So he returned back home with two wives.^[22]The existence of divinely sanctioned bigamy is obviously a problem for anyone wishing to read the Bible literally rather than interpret it by placing it in a changing and changeable historical context.

On his return,Jacob still feared what his brother Esau might do to him.Shortly before meeting Esau,

Jacob was left alone;and a man wrestled with him until daybreak.When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob,he struck him on the hip socket;and Jacob’s hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him.Then he said,“Let me go,for the day is breaking.”But Jacob said,“I will not let you go,unless you bless me.”So he said to him,“What is your name?”And he said,“Jacob.”Then the man said,“You shall no longer be called Jacob,but Israel,for you have striven with God and with humans,and have prevailed.”Then Jacob asked him,“Please tell me your name.”But he said,“Why is it that you ask my name?”And there he blessed him.So Jacob called the place Peniel,saying,“For I have seen God face to face,and yet my life is preserved.”^[23]

This mysterious story probably derives from an ancient pagan tale about spirits guarding particular places.Because Jacob’s attacker is eventually recognized as God,it is strange that Jacob should be able to defeat him and force him to bless him.Whatever the case,the story enhances the status of Jacob and is the origin of the name Israel,after which the modern state of Israel is named.

When he met Esau,who was now wealthy and master of a 400-man army,the brothers were reconciled.

Jacob / Israel had twelve sons.^[24]The eleventh was his favourite,Joseph,for whom he made a long robe with sleeves.^[25]Joseph’s brothers envied him,all the more so when Joseph began recounting dreams which predicted that he would reign over them.Even Jacob began to rebuke Joseph for speaking about these dreams.

One day Jacob sent Joseph to his brothers as they were shepherding their flocks.As his brothers saw him approaching,they conspired to kill him,throw his body in a pit and tell their father that he had been devoured by a wild beast.But Reuben persuaded his brothers not to kill Joseph but simply to throw him into a pit;for he intended to rescue him later.So his brothers stripped Joseph of his long robe with sleeves and threw him into a waterless pit.

They then sat down to eat.During their meal,they noticed a caravan of merchants on their way to Egypt,and Judah,who was uneasy about killing Joseph,suggested that they sell him to the merchants.And they did so,for twenty pieces of silver.

Reuben,who had had no part in the sale of his brother,was greatly distressed when he found Joseph was gone.The brothers slaughtered a goat and dipped Joseph’s coat in it and brought it to Jacob,who concluded that his youngest son had been killed by a wild beast.Jacob was inconsolable.

Meanwhile,the merchants had sold Joseph in Egypt to Potiphar,one of Pharaoh’s^[26]officials,the captain of the guard.^[27]Joseph quickly gained Potiphar’s trust and Potiphar made him manager of his household.But Potiphar’s wife fell in love with Joseph and tried to seduce him.Joseph,feeling great respect for his master,rejected her advances.To take revenge on Joseph,she accused him of having raped her.Believing his wife,Potiphar had Joseph arrested and put into prison.^[28]

Some time later Pharaoh threw his cupbearer and chief baker into the same prison.One night both men had dreams,and the following morning they asked Joseph to interpret their dreams.Joseph replied that in three days’ time the cupbearer would be restored to office while the baker would be hanged.And it happened exactly as he had predicted.^[29]The cupbearer had promised to speak to Pharaoh on Joseph’s behalf.He failed to do so until Pharaoh himself was troubled by a dream two years later.Pharaoh then summoned Joseph and recounted his dreams:

“In my dream I was standing on the banks of the Nile;and seven cows,fat and sleek,came up out of the Nile and fed in the reed grass.Then seven other cows came up after them,poor,very ugly,and thin.Never had I seen such ugly ones in all the land of Egypt.The thin and ugly cows ate up the first seven fat cows,but when they had eaten them no one would have known that they had done so,for they were still as ugly as before.Then I awoke.I fell asleep a second time and I saw in my dream seven ears of grain,full and good,growing on one stalk,and seven ears,withered,thin,and blighted by the east wind,sprouting after them;and the thin ears swallowed up the seven good ears.”^[30]

Joseph then interpreted Pharaoh’s dreams for him：the seven good cows and the seven good ears were seven years of plentiful harvest,the seven lean and ugly cows and the seven empty ears were seven years of famine.It was therefore advisable for Pharaoh to appoint a discerning and wise man to make careful provision during the seven years of plenty for the seven years of famine.Impressed,Pharaoh made Joseph his chief minister over all the land of Egypt.

Joseph was 30 years old when he received this appointment.In the following seven years he prepared Egypt for the famine that was to follow.And when the famine came,Pharaoh sent his subjects to buy grain from Joseph.Moreover,as the famine was worldwide,many foreigners also came to Egypt to buy grain.^[31]

When Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt,he sent his sons,with the exception of the youngest,Benjamin,to buy grain there.When they met Joseph,they did not recognize him.However,Joseph recognized them,accused them of being spies,arrested them and threw them into prison for three days.He then set them a test.One of them would remain in Egypt as a hostage while the others would go and fetch Benjamin,whom they had revealed was still with Jacob in Canaan.^[32]

The brothers returned home and found Jacob obstinate that Benjamin not be allowed to go to Egypt.However,as the famine became more severe,eventually,under great pressure,Jacob gave way and allowed Benjamin to go.When Joseph saw Benjamin,“he was overcome with affection for his brother,and he was about to weep.So he went into a private room and wept there.”^[33]Then he commanded his steward to fill his brothers’ sacks with as much food as they could carry and to put each brother’s money in the top of his sack.He also ordered him to put his own silver cup in the top of Benjamin’s sack.

The following morning the brothers left to return home.When they had gone only a short distance from the city,Joseph ordered his steward to follow them and accuse them of having stolen his silver cup.The brothers were astonished and denied the theft.But when they had emptied their sacks,the cup was found in Benjamin’s sack.“At this they tore their clothes.”^[34]Joseph now told his brothers that he would keep Benjamin as a slave,but his brothers themselves would be permitted to go free.Judah offered to remain as a slave in Benjamin’s place,pleading for his release on the grounds that,if Benjamin did not return,his father would die of grief.^[35]

Then Joseph could no longer control himself before all those who stood by him,and he cried out,“I am Joseph.Is my father still alive?”But his brothers could not answer him,so dismayed were they at his presence.Then Joseph said to his brothers,“Come closer to me.… I am your brother Joseph,whom you sold into Egypt.And now do not be distressed,or angry with yourselves,because you sold me here;for … it was not you who sent me here,but God;he has made me a father to Pharaoh,and lord of all his house and ruler over all the land of Egypt.… You must tell my father how greatly I am honoured in Egypt.Hurry and bring my father down here.”Then he fell upon his brother Benjamin’s neck and wept.… And he kissed all his brothers and wept upon them.^[36]

In due course an astonished Jacob was told of what had happened to Joseph and he and all of Joseph’s family then came and settled in Egypt.^[37]But at the very end of the book of Genesis,Joseph on his deathbed predicts that God will eventually bring the Jews back to the Promised Land.^[38]

Moses and the Exodus from Egypt

The book of Exodus which follows is not a work of history in the modern sense of the word.Although it may possibly have some basis in fact,its purpose is to demonstrate the powerful intervention of God in support of the Jewish people.It is in effect a work of propaganda.It reflects the period at which it was compiled,probably between the 7th and 5th centuries B.C.This was a time when the survival of the Jews as a nation was in some doubt and during which they had been expelled from the land of Israel.So this story is designed to bolster national cohesion and help Jews maintain a sense of their distinct identity,and it does so by strictly insisting on a monotheistic ideal and showing how following the one true God enabled the Jews to survive and claim the territory they believed to be theirs.

The story begins many years after the death of Joseph,when relations between the Jews and the Egyptians had allegedly badly deteriorated.Many Jews had stopped being shepherds and moved into towns,attracted by an easier and more comfortable life.But they paid a high price for this.Far from enjoying the favour which Joseph had secured for them,they became cheap labourers for the Egyptians.Treated with cruelty and contempt by the rulers of Egypt,they did not rise up and resist.They had developed a mental attitude of subservience and were unable to rouse themselves to break free from the“fleshpots of Egypt.”^[39]

Then Moses appeared.^[40]He was born at a time when Egyptian policy against the Jews had become particularly severe.Pharaoh had ordered the drowning of male children born to Jewish parents.In order to save her son’s life,Moses’ mother placed him in a basket and hid him in the bulrushes along the bank of the river Nile.Moses was discovered by Pharaoh’s daughter,who took the child in and cared for it.^[41]Moses’ sister,Miriam,observing the discovery,recommended to Pharaoh’s daughter that none other than Moses’ mother be appointed to nurse the child.So Moses was brought up in the royal palace by his own mother,^[42]and so he never forgot his Jewishness.

Having grown up,one day,observing an Egyptian mistreating a Jew,Moses killed the Egyptian.The next day he intervened to stop a quarrel between two Jews,only to be insulted by one of them and accused of having murdered the Egyptian the day before.This accusation alerted him to the danger that he might be arrested and condemned to death.So he fled into the desert.There he supported the seven daughters of the shepherd and Midianite priest Jethro in a dispute about water with other shepherds.He later married one of Jethro’s daughters.^[43]

During Moses’ stay in the desert,God spoke to him out of a burning bush,commissioning him to lead his people out of slavery and to the Promised Land.

God called to him out of the bush,“Moses,Moses!”And he said,“Here I am.”Then he said,“Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet,for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.”… And Moses hid his face,for he was afraid to look at God.

Then the Lord said,“I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt;I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters.Indeed,I know their sufferings,and I have come down to deliver them from the Egyptians,and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land,a land flowing with milk and honey,^[44]to the country of the Canaanites,the Hittites,the Amorites,the Perizzites,the Hivites,and the Jebusites.… So come,I will send you to Pharaoh to bring my people,the Israelites,out of Egypt.”^[45]

The idea of a God who shows favouritism to one ethnic group and sanctions the dispossession of other groups is profoundly offensive to many people today.This should strongly suggest to us that this idea of God needs to be understood and evaluated in a particular historical and social context.Insecure,nomadic peoples had a desperate need for reassurance that a mighty divine power was on their side and would assure their survival.

Moses feared that the Israelites would not believe that God had sent him.So God instructed him to perform a miracle.When Moses cast his staff on the ground,it became a serpent;and when Moses picked it up by its tail,it became a staff again.^[46]

So Moses and his brother Aaron went to Pharaoh and asked permission for the Jews to leave.Pharaoh refused,and angrily punished the entire Jewish people for Moses’ request by requiring that they make bricks without straw.^[47]

But Moses persisted.As instructed by God,he went back to Pharaoh and performed the miracle of the staff and the serpent and again tried to convince him to let the Jews go.When Moses took Aaron’s rod and cast it on the ground and it was transformed into a serpent,Pharaoh summoned his own magicians,who did the same,but Aaron’s serpents consumed all the serpents of Pharaoh’s magicians.^[48]

Pharaoh remained stubborn.At God’s command,Moses then put him under more pressure by bringing down ten plagues on Egypt.First,the rivers turned to blood and the water became undrinkable;then there was a terrible infestation of frogs;then of gnats;then clouds of flies;then the cattle became diseased;then terrible sores appeared on the bodies of the Egyptians;then everything in the fields was destroyed by hailstorms;then locusts consumed every plant and tree and shrub;then the land was covered with a terrible,unrelenting darkness.Finally God decreed that the first-born of Egypt —“from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sits on this throne,even to the first born of the slave girl who is behind the handmill,and all the firstborn of the cattle”— should die.^[49]However,the Jews were warned beforehand.They were instructed to paint the doors of their houses with the blood of a young lamb and so the Angel of Death passed over their houses.This is the origin of the important Jewish feast of the Passover.Moses ordered that on the feast of the Passover,only unleavened bread（bread where the dough had not been allowed time to rise）should be eaten.^[50]

Although earlier in the book of Genesis,the idea of indiscriminate collective punishment was rejected,it appears here with terrifying force.God appears in his most unpalatable Old Testament form,showing racial preference for the Jewish people and slaughtering the first-born children of the Egyptians.

At last Pharaoh gave way and allowed the Jews to leave.We are told that the Jews consisted of over 600,000 fighting men（a wild exaggeration）,besides women and children.They had lived in Egypt for 430 years.And God went before them,leading them in a pillar of cloud by day and in a pillar of fire by night,never deserting them.^[51]

At the last moment,angered by the death of his own eldest son,Pharaoh changed his mind once again and pursued the Jews as they approached the Red Sea.When the Jews reached the Red Sea,Moses lifted up his rod and the waters divided at his command;the Jews passed through safely to the other side.Then Moses lifted up his rod again and the water closed in,drowning Pharaoh and all his troops as they attempted to cross in pursuit.^[52]

The Jews now began a long period as nomads in the desert of Sinai.They travelled south towards Mount Sinai,thereby initially avoiding the Philistines,who were later to become major rivals.The discomforts of the nomadic life soon led them to complain that they had been better off as near slaves in Egypt.After three days,they reached Marah where the water was so bitter it was undrinkable.God told Moses to cast a log into the water and it became sweet and drinkable.When they were in danger of starvation,God provided manna as bread,and birds called quails.As they moved further on and were again in danger of dying of thirst,at God’s command Moses struck the rock with his staff and water came flowing out.When the Arab tribe of the Amalekites attacked them and stole their animals,Moses ordered Joshua to go into battle against the Amalekites.During this battle,so long as Moses kept his hands raised to heaven,the Jews won.When Moses tired,his brother Aaron supported him and the Amalekites were defeated.

When they reached Mount Sinai,Moses left the Jews for forty days and climbed the mountain,on the top of which,veiled in a cloud,he spoke with God and received from Him the law,including the Ten Commandments:

“I am the Lord your God,who brought you out of the land of Egypt,out of the house of slavery.You shall have no other gods before me.^[53]

You shall not make for yourself an idol,whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above,or that is on the earth beneath,or that is in the water under the earth.You shall not bow down to them or worship them.

You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God.

Remember the sabbath day,and keep it holy.For six days you shall labour and do all your work.But the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God.^[54]

Honour your father and your mother,so that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.

You shall not murder.

You shall not commit adultery.^[55]

You shall not steal.

You shall not bear false witness against your neighbour.

You shall not covet your neighbour’s house;you shall not covet your neighbour’s wife,or male or female slave,or ox,or donkey,or anything that belongs to your neighbour.”^[56]

Moses carried this back to the Jews written on two tablets of stone.But when he reached the foot of the mountain,he found that,during his absence,they had reverted to the idol worship with which they had been familiar in Egypt.They had made an image of a Golden Calf and were worshipping it.Furious,Moses smashed the two tablets of stone and pulled down the golden image of the calf.He urged others to support him,but only the tribe of Levi did so.Three thousand died in the subsequent struggle,but Moses prevailed.^[57]

Then he went back up Mount Sinai and spoke with God,who ordered him to take two more tablets of stone and write the law on them.God also renewed his covenant with his chosen people.When Moses returned,he was unaware that the skin of his face shone,because he had been talking with God.^[58]He ordered the construction of a tabernacle,or tent,in which would be kept the chest containing the tablets on which the law was written.This chest was known as the Ark of the Covenant.Later the Jews rebuilt the tabernacle or tent as the Temple at Jerusalem.The Levites were chosen to be priests in the tabernacle,because it was they alone who had supported Moses in his battle against the worship of the Golden Calf.

The books of Exodus,Leviticus,Numbers and Deuteronomy give extensive details of the many laws given by God to the Jews.^[59]They also tell stories of the dangers and difficulties experienced by the Jews,of the disagreements among them and of their rebellions against God.At one point God afflicted them with snakes,whose bites were fatal.When they repented,he ordered Moses to make a large snake out of bronze and put it on a pole.After that,anyone who had been bitten needed only to look on the bronze snake and the bite became quite harmless.^[60]At another point God became so infuriated with the Jews’ rebelling against Him that he decreed that only Joshua and Caleb should enter the Promised Land.^[61]Even Moses did not enter the Promised Land,although before his death^[62]he was able to view the valley of the river Jordan from high on a mountain on its borders.But in the end,with Moses’ constant intercession,God kept his covenant with the Jews.At one point in the book of Numbers,in a particularly beautiful piece of writing that is still used in worship today,

The Lord spoke to Moses,saying：Speak to Aaron and his sons,saying,Thus you shall bless the Israelites：You shall say to them,The Lord bless you and keep you;the Lord make his face to shine upon you,and be gracious to you;the Lord lift up his countenance upon you,and give you peace.^[63]

Before his death,Moses named Joshua as his successor.^[64]We are told that Joshua led an army of 40,000 as they crossed the Jordan into the Promised Land.He first approached the city of Jericho.He planned the capture of the city carefully.First he sent ahead spies,who met up with one of the inhabitants,a woman named Rahab.When the spies’ presence was suspected,Rahab hid them and enabled them to escape.She expected that the Jews would eventually take the city,and asked the spies to ensure that she and her family and friends were spared.They told her to attach a red rope to the window of her house so that the Jewish attackers would know not to harm her.

When the Jews reached Jericho,Joshua obeyed God’s instructions for the taking of the city.For six days the Israelites marched round the city walls,with priests carrying the Ark of the Covenant on their shoulders and trumpets being blown.^[65]On the seventh day they walked round the city seven times.Then the trumpeters blew their trumpets,the people shouted with all their strength and the walls fell down.The people of the city were all killed,with the exception of Rahab and her family and friends.^[66]

Thus began the conquest of the Promised Land by the Jews.Under Joshua,they went on to conquer six nations and thirty-one kings.

The more we reflect upon this entire account of the exodus,the more unattractive it seems.A God who is ready to slaughter the eldest children of their parents on a racial basis is a horrific deity.And this God,although tolerant of his people’s weaknesses at times,also shows an unforgiving severity towards those of them who transgress by erecting and worshipping the Golden Calf.And when the Israelites approach and enter the Promised Land,there is no mercy shown to other tribes — just as the Israelites can expect no mercy from them.What a terrible,tribal,racially divided world it is.

It has already been pointed out that none of this may actually have happened.There is no historical evidence in Egyptian sources to back up the story of the Exodus.And scholars have puzzled over exactly where,if it did all happen,the Israelites crossed over into Sinai.^[67]There are other aspects of the story which suggest that it is more myth than history.For example,the natural disasters that happen to the Egyptians when Pharaoh refuses to let the Jews leave do not seem to affect the Jews themselves.As this is not credible,we can consider that these are stories simply intended to carry the message that God backed the Jews and not the Egyptians.While it is perfectly credible,even likely,that some sort of exodus of slaves from Egypt took place at some point,there is no need to regard the account of the exodus as an historical one in all its detail.

That does not mean it is of no use or value.To the Jews who read and believed this account it conveyed a strong message of God’s covenant with them.It was designed to generate in them confidence in their inevitable eventual triumph.And it laid down for them the laws and discipline which they must follow in order to maintain the unity and strength to make that triumph happen.The Israelites are not alone in having had national myths that powerfully serve a political or military goal.

Nor has the myth been of use only to Jews living thousands of years ago.The story of the exodus was adopted by the American anti-slavery movement in the 1850s and 1860s.Take,for example,the most famous of all negro spirituals,^[68]Go down,Moses:

When Israel was in Egypt’s land,

Let my people go,

Oppress’d so hard they could not stand,

Let my people go.

Go down,Moses,

Way down in Egypt’s land,

Tell old Pharaoh,

Let my people go.

Here,obviously,Israel stands for the black slaves in the American south and Egypt for the slave owners,while going“down”refers to going down the Mississippi river to where the slave conditions were worst.^[69]Later,in 1954,Martin Luther King,Jr.referred to the Supreme Court Judgment ordering desegregation as the parting of the Red Sea.And in 1968,in his final speech the evening before he was assassinated,Martin Luther King,Jr.made an extraordinarily prophetic reference:

And I’ve looked over.And I’ve seen the promised land.I may not get there with you.But I want you to know tonight,that we,as a people,will get to the Promised Land.^[70]

There is no need for the story of the exodus to be historically accurate for it to inspire and resonate with future generations.

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注释

[1]For many years it was thought that the entire Pentateuch（the first five books of the Bible）was written by Moses.This is now discredited.Much of the material of the Pentateuch was probably written or assembled at a date after the Exile,probably after 538 B.C..This fits with God’s constantly renewed promises that the Jewish people will possess the land of Canaan,a promise that would have appealed strongly to a people recently dispossessed of that homeland.

[2]patriarch = a ruler who exercises authority as a father does over his family.The term is applied to Abraham,Isaac and Jacob.

[3]Only later（Genesis 17）does God alter Abram’s name to Abraham,meaning Father of many.

[4]Genesis 12：1-2.

[5]covenant = a solemn promise.The centrality of the idea of covenant is demonstrated by the Christian assertion that God made a“new covenant”when he sent Jesus to redeem mankind from sin.The covenant with Abraham and the new covenant are one-way engagements.Nothing needs to be promised in return.Other covenants were conditional.For example,the one made between God and Moses was conditional on the Jews obeying God’s commandments.

[6]The Jews settled in Judaea but in 70 and 135 A.D.uprisings against the Romans were severely crushed and many Jews forced to join the“diaspora”（the Jews scattered or dispersed outside of Judaea / Palestine）.In 136 the emperor Hadrian forbade Jews to enter Jerusalem and the name Judaea was changed to Syria Palestina.Jerusalem and the surrounding area was conquered by the Arabs in the 7th century and then later by the Turks,who were only expelled during the First World War in 1917.When the movement for a Jewish national home arose in the late 19th century,various possibilities were explored,including locations in Africa（Uganda）and South America.However,because of its historical and religious significance,Judaea was where eventually the modern state of Israel was founded in 1948.Some Jews regard their right to the land as historical and God-given.To Arabs,who lost land in the wars of 1948 and 1967,the Jews’ religious claims mean little or nothing;they consider themselves as dispossessed and their land as having been stolen.This is a major cause of the dangerous instability that exists in the Middle East today.

[7]Genesis 18:16-19:29.

[8]Tradition has it that Hagar was a daughter of Pharaoh,who gave her to Abraham during his travels in Egypt.

[9]Isaac or“Yitzchak”means laughter,and reflects Abraham’s joy at having a son in his old age（the Bible records that he was 100 and his wife 90 when she gave birth）.

[10]Genesis 21：9-21.

[11]There are outstanding artistic representations of the sacrifice of Isaac by the painters Caravaggio（1603）and Rembrandt（1635）.

[12]Genesis 22：1-13.

[13]gate — here used metaphorically to mean property and possessions.

[14]Genesis 22：16-18.

[15]An arranged marriage! Of course,there is nothing particularly primitive about this.The practice continues in many parts of the world today.

[16]Genesis 25：23.

[17]We have already seen this in the preference for Isaac over Ishmael.It will recur in the preference for Jacob’s eleventh son,Joseph,over his ten older brothers,and for Joseph’s younger son over his older;and again in the preference for David over his seven older brothers,and for Solomon over his older brothers.

[18]Genesis 25：32-33.

[19]Genesis 27.Haran was a city to the northwest of Ur on a tributary of the river Euphrates.Abraham had emigrated there from Ur（in modern Iraq）and Rebecca herself came from there.

[20]Genesis 28：13-17.Jacob called the place“Bethel,”meaning“house of God.”

[21]Genesis 29.

[22]He also had two concubines.Leah was mother of six of Jacob’s sons,Rachel of two,Bilhah of two,and Zilpah of two.

[23]Genesis 32：24-30.

[24]These are the origin of the twelve tribes of Israel.

[25]The robe is often called the“coat of many colours.”The story of Joseph is the subject of Thomas Mann’s novel Joseph and His Brothers,written in four parts between 1926 and 1943 and covering Genesis chapters 27 to 50.In popular culture the story has been spread through the musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat created by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice in the late 1960s.

[26]Pharaoh = the ruler of Egypt.

[27]Genesis 37.

[28]Genesis 39.

[29]Genesis 40.

[30]Genesis 41：17-24.

[31]Genesis 41.

[32]Genesis 42.

[33]Genesis 43：30.

[34]Genesis 44：13.

[35]Genesis chapter 44.

[36]Genesis 45：1,3-5,8,13-14.

[37]When Jacob blessed the sons of Joseph,he put the younger,Ephraim,before the older,Manasseh.Genesis.48：1-20.

[38]And after the Jews had returned to Canaan,Joseph was reburied there：Joshua 24：32.

[39]This phrase has entered the English language.A person attracted by the“fleshpots of Egypt”is someone so addicted to pleasure of some kind that he or she cannot find the energy or will to break free and embark upon a more profitable and worthwhile mode of life.

[40]Assuming the historicity of the events described,some date Moses’s appearance to the 13th to 12th centuries B.C..

[41]The name Moses means“taken out.”It was given to him by Pharaoh’s daughter because he was“taken out”of the river.

[42]Exodus 2：1-10.

[43]Exodus 2：11-22.Although descended from Abraham,the Midianites were not Jewish in religion.After the Jews had escaped from Egypt,and after one of the earliest defeats of the Amalekites,Jethro visited Moses in the wilderness and on this occasion he sacrificed to the Jewish God.However,later Moses ordered the extermination of the Midianites after Midianite women had seduced Israelite men into idolatrous practices — Numbers Chapter 31.

[44]The phrase“a land flowing with milk and honey”has entered the language as a phrase indicating an ideal and prosperous area or place.

[45]Exodus 3：4-8,10.

[46]Exodus 4：1-5.

[47]Exodus 5：6-7.In other words,they had to provide their own straw for making bricks,so that their labour was hugely increased.（Straw strengthened the clay used in brick-making,making the bricks more durable.）This made the Jews angry with Moses.The phrase“making bricks without straw”has become an English idiom,indicating a requirement to produce a specified result without being provided with the materials or the means to do so.

[48]Exodus 7：10-13.

[49]Exodus 7 to 12.

[50]Exodus 12.It is speculated that the Passover is celebrated with unleavened bread because,when fleeing from Egypt,the Jews had not had time to allow the dough of the bread they were making to rise.

[51]Exodus 13：21-22.

[52]Exodus 14.

[53]By the late 6th century Judaism had become a monotheistic religion.However,in this early period,it is quite possible that the Jews acknowledged other gods who were subordinate to the one true God.Under Moses,as here,considerable stress was placed on monotheistic belief.

[54]For the background to the Sabbath,see above pages 154-5.

[55]In a version of the Bible printed in 1632,a careless printer accidentally left out the word“not.”This earned this version of the Bible the title of the“Wicked”Bible.

[56]This（slightly abridged）version of the Ten Commandments is from Exodus 20:1-17.There is another version in Deuteronomy 5：6-21.

[57]Exodus 32.

[58]Exodus 33-34.

[59]The entire body of Jewish teachings is called the Torah.In its narrowest sense,the Torah is the first five books of the Bible,or the Pentateuch：Genesis,Exodus,Leviticus,Numbers and Deuteronomy.

[60]Numbers 21：4-9.

[61]Numbers 20：2-13 and Deuteronomy 32：48-52.

[62]Moses is reported to have been 120 years old at his death（Deuteronomy 34：7）.His lifespan was considered ideal.One way to wish someone well in the Jewish tradition is to say：“May you live to be 120!”

[63]Numbers 6：22-26.

[64]Deuteronomy 31：1-8.

[65]When the crusaders besieged and captured Jerusalem in 1099,they took inspiration from this passage.

[66]Joshua 1-6.

[67]Traditionally it is identified as the“Red Sea,”but the Hebrew term is ambiguous.Most likely it was somewhere near Suez in northern Sinai.

[68]Negro spirituals were Christian songs sung by black slaves which described the hardships they experienced.

[69]This is also the origin in modern English of the idiomatic phrase about being“sold down the river.”

[70]The Exodus story also gave inspiration to the Boer Voortrekkers,who left British South Africa and migrated north to the Transvaal and Orange Free State in the 1830s and 1840s;and to the Mormons in their trek from Missouri to Utah（with Brigham Young as the Moses figure）in the 1840s.In both cases,as with the Israelites,the claims of the original inhabitants were ignored.