Exodus
 This article is part of the series on the book of Exodus. |
The Exodus is the second book of the Bible ( Old Testament ). It recounts the exodus from Egypt of the Hebrews led by Moses , the gift of the Ten Commandments and the Hebrew people wandering in the desert of Sinai to the Promised Land.
Summary
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"Exodus" comes from the Greek words ex (), "outside" and Hodos ( ), "the road". The Greek word used in the Septuagint is " ( ).
This word is used in French since the eighteenth century.
The Hebrew name of the text is Shemot ( names) The biblical According to the text, the situation of Jews in Egypt has changed considerably since their arrival in this country at the time of Jacob's son Joseph (see Genesis ). A "new Pharaoh who knew not Joseph "was lifted on the country and reduced the Children of Israel to slavery. The text begins by giving the genealogy of the twelve tribes of Israel descended from the twelve son of Jacob. Moses , a child of the tribe of Levi found on the Nile by the daughter of Pharaoh and raised in the royal court, fled Egypt after killing an Egyptian. It is the land of Midian where he married Zipporah the daughter of the priest Reuel ( Jethro ), who gave him two son, Gershom and Eliezer. He shares the lives of Bedouin flocks which it retains. After the episode of the burning bush , in which God appears and commands him to release the Israelites , he returned to Egypt. With his brother Aaron , he went to the Court of Pharaoh to ask him permission to stop work for a holiday celebration in the desert. The Pharaoh refuses, and requires the Hebrews not only to resume their work, but also to go mow the hay necessary for making bricks. After an escalation wonders and plagues against the Egyptians, the Israelites are freed / hunted. The Jewish holiday of Passover this was the source. After one week, they crossed the Red Sea miraculously who departs to let them pass and which closes behind them, on their pursuers by tanks. After this new miracle, the Israelites began their journey to Canaan through the wilderness of Sinai. On Mount Sinai , Moses received from God the Ten Commandments , a code of law (the Alliance ), engraved on two stone tablets. Note: These interpretations are not compatible with archaeological data on early Israelites. According to the text, the Hebrews arrived in Egypt with Joseph , who eventually bring Jacob , his father and his family, having been established, at the age of thirty years, at a very high position in the administration, the equivalent of vizier. They reportedly arrived 430 years before the Exodus, so about 1870 BC. AD, according to the Book of Kings (1 Kings 6:1) according to this thesis. Chap. 38 of Genesis suggests that Judah did not go down to Egypt but remained in Canaan. In 1 Kings 6:1, it says that the construction of the Temple began the fourth year of Solomon (~ 960) or 480 years after the Exodus from Egypt, which would date the Exodus around ~ 1440 AD, is more than a century after the expulsion of the Hyksos. This chronology, very schematically the number 480, is building the Temple of Jerusalem midway between the end of the exile in Egypt and the end of the Babylonian Exile and must be considered a symbolic value calculated on twelve generations of forty years. Here, the case is complicated because the first pharaoh to bear the name of Ramses reign from ~ 1320 BC. In Ex 2:23, the story says that Pharaoh had died while Moses was a shepherd in the desert of Midian, after his flight that followed the assassination of Egyptian foreman of Pi-Ramses (House of Ramses) s' it acts of Ramses I (1320 - 1318) or Ramses II (born in 1328?), who reigned from 1304 to 1236, unless either of his father Seti I (1318-1304). In Ex 1:11, it says that the Hebrews were forced to make bricks to build the cities of Ramesses and Pithom (Pi-Atum: House of the god Atum ), that is to say more than one century after the date suggested by biblical chronology. Considering the Merneptah Stele (1226 BC. Assimilation by the Hebrews to the Hyksos Manetho Manetho , Egyptian historian of the third century BC. AD, describes the history of the surprising success of an immigrant group Canaanite he called the Hyksos (Hellenization of an Egyptian term meaning "king-shepherds" or "foreign kings") who would be prepared to Avaris (later Pi-Ramses , now Tell ed-Daba) on the eastern arm of the Nile, identified as the fifteenth dynasty who reigned from 1670 to 1570. According to Manetho, the Pharaoh Ahmose , the eighteenth dynasty , put an end to this invasion and sacking Avaris killing large numbers of Hyksos, before continuing the survivors to the borders of Syria. More reliable is an Egyptian document from the sixteenth century BC. AD recounting the exploits of the pharaoh Ahmose who continued until the last Hyksos citadel Sharuhen , near Gaza , he stormed after a long siege. The excavations at Tell el-Daba reveal that the site was abandoned Avaris from the sixteenth centuryBC. AD for a long period. Manetho suggests that after their expulsion, the Hyksos founded the city of Jerusalem and built a temple dedicated to their national god. The Hebrews would rather nomadic pastoralists fleeing famine or drought in Canaan. Egyptian texts indicate periodic intrusions Habiru (Akk. cApiru) classified as looters and marginalized in the north-eastern Egypt and the Delta. These must be regarded not as an ethnic group, but as a social group of semi-nomads living on the fringes of cities with their Canaanite transhumant herds to cropland, by agreement with the farmers: fertilizer livestock grazing cons stubble. In the winter, grazing in the steppe at the edge of the desert. These Habiru, excluded from formal worship because of their lifestyle, as only the kings and their clergy-priests could officer, gave themselves a god egalitarian implied personal responsibility through a simple worship with rites reduced to their simplest form. It is unclear who is the Pharaoh of the Exodus. Some look for Ramses II , others think it could be Merneptah. It is possible that the pharaoh of the oppression or Seti I, father of Ramses II, who built the cities of Pithom and Ramses , and died while Moses takes refuge in Midian (Ex.2: 23). The Merneptah stele talking about the people of Isaraal as a people already established in Canaan. The journey out of Egypt is the subject of various arguments. According to the Book of Numbers chap. 33, the Israelites would have left Rameses and Pithom south-east to Sukkoth and the Sea of Reeds (current Bitter Lakes). According to Ex 14:2, the Israelites camped outside Pihahiroth between Migdol and the sea, vis--vis Baal Zephon. From this passage, the Israelites would have crossed a southern arm of Lake Manzala to return to Sukkoth and down the east coast of the Gulf of Suez towards Gebel Serbal, 35 km north-west of Mount Horeb (Jebel Musa). Their journey would have continued in the desert to Mount Sinai, at the foot of which lies the Monastery of Saint Catherine, before heading to the southern tip of the peninsula. From there, the Israelites would have traveled along the west coast of the Gulf of Aqaba before arriving at Etzion-Geber, between Eilat and Aqaba. Etzion-Geber, the Hebrews would have directed their steps towards the oasis of Kadesh-Barnea (Numbers 34:4), now identified as the Ein-el-Qudeirat near the modern Egyptian-Israeli border, to remain thirty eight years. First, it begs the essential question: is there really been a massive exodus of the Israelites from the land of Goshen (whose name appears only in the sixth century BC.) Canaan ? In 1283 BC. BC, Ramses II and Hittite king Hattusil III signed a treaty of alliance and peace in the Middle East division into two zones of influence. Phoenicia, Canaan, south-western Syria, and north-west of the Jordan become protectorates filled Egyptian garrisons in major cities and strategic sites. Gaza became the capital of the protectorate of Canaan and his Egyptian governor has authority over the kings of city-states of Canaan. From the reign of Thutmose III (1484-1450 BC.), the Egyptians anxious to ensure security in the east of the eastern Delta, since the expulsion of the Hyksos , built a road along the coast Mediterranean, known as Horus Way, between Delta and dotted with citadels Gaza-steps every 25 km, called "Migdol" from the New Kingdom. Following the expulsion of the Hyksos , the eastern border of Sinai , which corresponds roughly to the current border between Egypt and Israel, was fortified by Migdol, and a floor drawn to link the garrisons and enable patrols along the border. According to the text in Ex.12: 37, almost six hundred thousand men, besides children, from Rameses and Pithom south-east to begin a journey of two years following the coast of the Sinai Peninsula until 'at Etzion-Geber near Eilat, before receding with Kadesh-Barnea (Ein-el-Qudeirat), ie near the eastern border fortified since the sixteenth centuryBC. AD, and that for 38 years. It is unlikely that Egyptian soldiers have remained grounded arms and kept in the dark so long for the presence of such a multitude. In ancient Israel until the Roman domination, women and boys under twelve years have no legal status. In other words, they were not counted in the census, which means that you multiply by 4 or 5 in a given population to obtain a plausible figure. In the book of Numbers (NB. 1:2-3.18), God ordered Moses to identify, at Sinai, all men from twenty years giving a total of 603 550 men (Numbers 1:46). So if we are to believe the story, the multitude of Israel, which has about three million people, would have settled in a small oasis, without attracting the attention of the Egyptian garrisons? And while pushing it to the countless herds of cattle with hundreds of thousands of head of livestock (Ex 12:32.38) and, more importantly, littered with pots of gold, silver and clothes taken off in the Egyptian an operation which is very similar to racketeering (Ex 3:22; 12:35-36). Nothing that the statement of the figures makes them suspicious and implausible. Any Egyptian text of the thirteenth centuryBC. AD evoke the massive displacement of populations of this magnitude. Demographers estimate the population of the Ramesside period between 2.5 and 3 million for the whole of Egypt. Then they face the king of Arad , who defeated and returned to Kadesh-Barnea. In the book of Numbers (Numbers 21:1-3), it is said that the king of Arad, inhabiting the Negev, said some prisoners Hebrews. They appealed to God to destroy the Canaanite cities. The excavations at Tel Arad, east of Beersheba, have unearthed remains of a city of the Bronze Age (3500-2200) stretch of ten hectares, but no traces of occupation dating from the Late Bronze Age ( 1550-1150), when suspected of Exodus, where the site is abandoned. They go around Edom according to the story. According to the book of Chronicles (2 CH 21:8), Edom was given a king at the time of the king of Judah, Jehoram (851-843). According to Assyrian sources, Edom had neither King nor state before the late eighth centuryBC. AD, the kings of Edom were not a dynasty, they were chosen by clan leaders. The first towns and the erection of fortresses were not introduced until the end of the century, peaking in the next century. The excavations of Bosra, the capital of Edom in the Iron Age II late show that the city did not become widely quoted as the Assyrian period. In the last decades of the eighth century BC. BC, the Edomites drove the Judeans in the Negev and occupied ports Etzion-Geber and Eilat in the Gulf of Aqaba. Also according to the text, they bypass Moab, then beat Sihon , king of the Amorites of Heshbon to Jahatz. They occupy a territory of the banks of the Arnon to Jabbok, a tributary of the left bank of the Jordan valley in the lower Transjordan. The Hebrews are fighting in the north-east, Edrei, King Og of Bashan , area south of Damascus. It is unlikely that Egyptian troops in the sector have remained passive in the face of hordes of Hebrews multiplying the abuses, and spreading terror before them, in areas controlled by Egypt. In Transjordan, the situation repeats itself, the excavations at Tel Hesban (Heshbon), south-west of Amman (ancient Rabbath-Ammon) reveal that no city occupied the site in the Late Bronze Age. According Nb 21:32-33, Moses and Ashtaroth march against Bashan, east of the Jordan, to counter a threat from the north. Here the text describes the geopolitical context of the seventh century BC. BC, where the threat came from Damascus in Babylonian and Assyrian domination. Indeed, nothing prevented Moses from entering Canaan by the lower Jordan Valley after conquering the territory of the Amorites from the Arnon and Jabbok. For the inconvenience firm believers in the idea of a historical Exodus, these sites were deserted at the time assumed they were supposed to play a role in the events that have punctuated the march of the Hebrews to Canaan. Moses rises from the "plains of Moab "in Transjordan on Mount Nebo to the top of Pisgah south-east of Jericho (Ex.34: 1) and is buried in a valley of Mount Nebo vis--vis Beth Peor (Ex.34: 6). Joshua succeeded him. The biblical narratives that describe Edom, Moab, Ammon and Bashan as established kingdoms did not have a settled population at the time of the Late Bronze Age. The sites mentioned in the narratives of Exodus and Numbers have indeed existed. Some were known, but well before or well after the presumed time of the Exodus. In fact, well after the emergence of the kingdom of Judah, when the text of the story was written for the first time in the late seventh centuryBC. AD. We must consider it as an apology, a compilation of texts of various origins shaped by the Deuteronomic reform initiated by King Josiah (640-609), as one of the founding myths of the Judean identity at a time where it appeared to be crushed between the Babylonian expansionism in the Levant, after the collapse of the Assyrian empire in 612-609, Egypt and interventionism in the Middle East to protect the delta by seizing provincial Assyrian Phoenicia, Philistia and Samerina (Samaria, cap. Meggido) (37:5.11 Jr, 42:14-19, 43:7-13, 44:1-30, 46:2-36). What is obvious in the story are the numerous anachronisms which punctuate the text and will not be mentioned here a few. In Ex 23:31, God told Moses that he will set its bounds from the Red Sea to the Sea of the Philistines. Now they appear only after the victory of Ramesses III won the Peoples of the Sea in 1190/1180 BC, bordering the mouth of the Nile. Only after 1150 BC, the Philistines appear as a nation constituted by occupying and erecting kingdoms in five cities in south-west of Canaan with Gaza, Ashkelon and Ashdod on the coast. Around 1085 BC, Ramses XI evacuate Egyptian troops back to Canaan and the Egyptian border to the east of the eastern branch of the Nile. The Philistines also appear in Ex.13: 17; 15:14, ie several centuries before their appearance on the Canaanite coast. In Ex 24:7, it says that Moses read the "book of the covenant" before the people at the foot of Mount Sinai, the parallel is striking with the book of Kings (2 Kings 23:2), where King Josiah reads the same book of the covenant before the assembled men of Judah and Jerusalem. This is probably the original version of Deuteronomy (Greek Deutronomos: second law) discovered by the high priest Hilkiah during the renovation of the Temple (2 Kings 22:8) to ~ 622. The conclusion is that the Exodus took place does neither then nor how the Exodus and the book of Numbers tells it. The Exodus narrative expresses a theological conception of history which does not correspond to historical reality and the Judean claims to land in one holder of Jewish identity after the demise of the kingdom of Israel ~ 722. Many workers of foreign origin are located in Egypt. They are either free men came looking for work, either prisoners of war reduced to slavery. Following insubordination or unjustified requests, it is common that these people are driven out of Egypt. They are grouped by nationality: Syrians at Karnak and Luxor , Hyksos against Memphis (Tura quarries), Phoenicians to Memphis ( temple of Ptah , shipbuilding), Hebrews in the region of Tanis , more precisely, the Land of Goshen, on the central part of the eastern arm of the Nile from the Bible as the text of Exodus. (Bricks). The era of the XXVI Dynasty Saite (663-525) provides a good illustration of such movements who see Judean settle in the delta. They formed a large community in the region according to the prophet Jeremiah (Jer 44:1, 46:14). Public works undertaken in this period correspond to those described in Exodus for the cities of Pi-Ramses , Pi-Atum and Migdol which is a fortress city. Only towards the end of the seventh century BC. AD that was built the city of Pithom (Tell Maskouta). All indications are that the story has found his form at the transitional period end VIIe - early sixth century BC. AD. The many references to places and events that occurred during this period suggest that the authors have incorporated many details in the story who were their contemporaries and found in the book of Jeremiah in chap. 48 to 49:22. Unless we accept the idea of miracles as wonderful as each other, it is not conceivable to consider the hypothesis of a flight from Egypt by a horde of slaves who, having reached a heavily guarded border have crossed the desert until Canaan at a time when Egypt kept there a considerable number of troops. Any band fleeing Egypt against the will of Pharaoh was in hot pursuit, not only from the delta, but also by the garrisons of northern Sinai and Canaan. It is most unlikely that a sizable group has escaped the control of Egypt at the time of Ramses II. As would the wilderness and into Canaan. In the thirteenth centuryBC. BC, Egypt had reached the height of his power in the Middle East. The authority of Egypt was absolute; Egyptian fortresses covering its territory and the Egyptian officers administered throughout the country. According Messod and Roger Sabbah in their book "The Egyptian origin of the Hebrews" published by Jean-Cyrille Godefroy , it would be Ay , who reportedly ordered the deportation of monotheistic believers in one god Aten. These, many would be the origin of the Hebrew people, although the notion of the Hebrew people appear until much later. There is no other trace of deportation in the history of Egypt. Ay was a general of the Pharaoh Amenhotep IV became Akhenaten. After the death of one it would become regent during the reign of the young Tutankhamun Pharaoh and the latter's death. Ay who worked to restore the worship of Amun , a time replaced by the worship of Aten , decided to drive out the stubborn out of Egypt. The words "driven out of Egypt" are included in Exodus 12:39. The facts as recounted to have taken place circa 1340 BC. AD, but this theory has proven wrong following the discovery of the internal criticism of biblical texts. History ( Jean Deshaies , Civilizations of the Ancient East - Arthaud ) also says that peoples nomads would have settled in the land of Canaan to the thirteenth century BC. AD. There was no talk yet of the Hebrew people, the notion of Jewish people appears only much later. The legend of the Exodus of the Hebrew people slaves trained workers should be reviewed. If the Hebrews came to work or enlist as mercenaries in Egypt what may be several centuries later. In the Second Book of Kings, these immigrants appear earlier than the eighth century BC. AD in King of Judah, Ahaz. In 2006, a new theory of Egyptian origin was issued by the scientist Joseph Davidovits. Joining the thesis Messod and Roger Sabbah, one of its arguments based on the fact that in ancient Egyptian, the phrase "Exiles in a hurry because of their heresy" said IISS-r-iar, or Israel. This thesis is completely crazy: Isaraal is that the Egyptian translation of a Hebrew word Israel means "He who fights with God". Through the action of Moses , who is considered the first prophet of Yahwihsme, starts up the alliance that creates the essential link between the tribes and their God , which becomes the single unifying principle groups naturally inclined to independence and disunity. But it is true that in Deuteronomy through radical religious reform promoted by King Josiah in ~ 622. On Mount Sinai , Moses received from Yahweh the Decalogue , a code of law (the Alliance), engraved on two tables: "I am YHWH your God who brought you out of Egypt. You will have no other God but Me. You will not images. You do not pronounce the name of YHWH in vain. Respect the Sabbath. Honour thy father and thy mother. Thou shalt not kill. You shall not commit adultery. Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not bear false witness. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife. " Upon returning to camp, Moses, anger breaks the Tables of the Law when he learns that the Hebrews, in his absence, have molded a golden calf (the Egyptian god Apis or the storm god Haddad Aramaic?) and ordered the massacre worshipers that golden calf , YHWH banning the worship of idols. The Mosaic law puts the value of life as the primary principle and recognizes the rights of the slave. After construction of the sanctuary of the Ark of the Covenant, which are deposited the tables of the law, making vestments and the appointment of Aaron and his son to the priesthood. It would be curious to know in what language, and especially in what alphabet would transcribe the Decalogue and the book of the covenant, the archaic Hebrew alphabet - Hebrew round - borrowed from the Phoenician alphabet appears only eighth century BC. AD. The temple of the Egyptian goddess Hathor from Timna (20 km north of Etzion-Geber), was transformed into a Midianite tent sanctuary in the twelfth centuryBC. AD. It has striking similarities with the description of the tabernacle cited Ex.40 :16-21. In the same Midianite shrine, it was discovered a copper head snake golden irresistibly reminds the brazen serpent that Moses had placed on a pole (Numbers 21:6-9), and the latter was destroyed during the reform Hezekiah, where he was the object of worship inside the temple and adored by the term Nehushtan (nahash amalgam of the word: the word snake and nhoshet: copper, brass). Another incongruity, Moses and Aaron are presented as the descendants of the fourth generation of Levi, a son of Jacob, while Joshua who was their contemporary, is presented as a descendant of the twelfth generation of Joseph, another son of Jacob. The difference is huge. The early history of Israel reported by the Exodus can be divided into three parts: (1) The slavery of the people in Egypt, (2) His departure from Egypt under the leadership of Moses and (3) Her consecration to the service of God in his religious life and politics. Part One, Chapters 1-15, explains the oppression of Israel in Egypt, the early history and the call of Moses, the Exodus, the institution of the Passover and walking towards the Red Sea the destruction of Pharaoh's army and the song of victory of Moses. Part Two, Chapters 15-18, speak of the redemption of Israel and events that occurred during the voyage of the Red Sea to Sinai, the bitter waters of Marah , the appearance of manna and quails, observance of Sabbath , the miraculous water from the rock of Horeb and the battle against the Amalekites in Rephidim ; arrival of Jethro at the camp and his counsel regarding the civilian government of the people. The third part, chapters 19-40, dealing with the consecration of Israel to serve God in the solemn events of Sinai. The Lord puts people apart as a kingdom of priests and holy nation, he gives the Ten Commandments and instructions for the tabernacle , its furnishings and worship that will engage them. Then comes the story of the sin committed by the people he loves when the golden calf and finally account of the construction of the tabernacle and arrangements for services required to meet them. Interpretations
What is Ramses?
The apiru
The Pharaoh of the Exodus
Route followed to reach the Promised Land
Reality of Exodus
Population concerned
Other aspects and excavations
Anachronisms
The Hebrews in Egypt
Moses and the Alliance
Summary
References
Notes
See also
Bibliography
External Links
Genesis or Bereshit (Genesis) or Exodus Shemot (Exodus) Leviticus or Vayikra (Leviticus) Numbers or Bemidbar (Nb) Deuteronomy or Devarim (Deuteronomy) Parts of the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) Torah (Pentateuch) Nevi'im (Prophets) Ketuvim (Other Writings)
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