Faith and Reason in Feiler’s
Walking The Bible
Or
The Old Testament without Fear!
Part 2: Moses and the Exodus
Faith and Reason in
Feiler’s Walking The
Bible
Introduction
Today, I am continuing my
review of Feiler’s Book and
television series Walking
The Bible, in which Feiler
retraces the Journeys of
Noah, Abraham, and
Moses in the lands where
they occurred. We
discussed Abraham’s
Journey last Sunday and
today we will look at the
Journey of Moses.
Faith and Reason in Feiler’s
Walking The Bible
Introduction
Last Sunday we saw that the five books of
Moses form a mythic system; that is, they
consist of oral tradition with real history
embedded in it, but with parts rewritten (as
allegory) to stress the relationships of the
Israelites to their God .
The centerpiece of this mythic system is the
Exodus, in which the Twelve Tribes of Israel
escape Egyptian servitude, and in which
Moses confronts God on Mt. Sinai, and
renews the Abrahamic covenant.
Charleton Heston as Moses
This experience is presented in the five books of Moses as forging the identity of
the Israelite Nation, and is seen today as the foundation of modern Judaism.
Moses and the
Exodus
Archaeology
and the
Exodus
There is a problem.
Last time, I called on two
supporting disciplines,
Biblical Archaeology and
Textural Analysis of the
Bible, to help us tease
out the relationship of
Oral tradition and
Allegory in the Abraham
narrative.
Departure of the Israelites", by David Roberts, 1829
Despite what you were told in the recent Lynnhaven Mall lecture, the leaders in both
fields reject the historicity of the Exodus. One leading Biblical archaeologist has flatly
stated that “the archeological evidence does not support the story told in the Book of
Exodus. Another says that most archaeologists have abandoned the investigation of
Moses and the Exodus as "a fruitless pursuit.”
Moses and the
Exodus
Textural
Analysis
and the
Exodus
The Exodus, By Horace William Petherick, 1839–1919
Biblical historians are no more helpful. One says “In the opinion of the
overwhelming majority of modern biblical scholars, the Five Books of Moses
were shaped into their final form in the post-Exilic period (700 years later).
Presumably an original Exodus story lies hidden somewhere inside all the
later revisions and alterations, but centuries of transmission have long
obscured its presence, and its substance, accuracy and date are now difficult
to determine.”
Moses and the Exodus
Archaeology and The
Settlement of Canaan
Last Sunday I argued that Allegorical
portions of the Bible, as the Exodus
seems to be, are of real value, and
that we as Christians can find God
there. But today I can offer more than
that. The book of Judges describing
the settlement of Canaan. is the first
book in the Old Testament that
consists largely of oral tradition. It tells
us that The tribes of Israel did not
form the way that the post-exilic
compilers of the Books of Moses
thought that they did.
Archaeology, aided by textural
analysis, reveals a very powerful but
quite different story. But it is one that
does suggest an Egyptian connection.
Let met review it for you.
Canaan
Moses and the Exodus
The Egyptian
Connection
There is evidence of an
Egyptian connection at
both ends of the Exodus
path, In Egypt and
Canaan; it is the Exodus
itself that is missing.
Pi-Ramesses
In Egypt, there lies in the northwest corner of the Nile Delta a city built by the Pharaoh
Ramesses II (1279-1213 B.C.E), called Pi-Ramesses. It is very probably the same
as the City in Which the Hebrews labored yet. A record of construction work at PiRamesses has survived, in which an official of Ramesses Instructs a foreman to issue
rations to the “Apiru.” In this context, the term was probably not an ethnic name, but rather
a a term for servants, slaves, or migrant laborers. Some scholars equate it with “Hebrew.”
Moses and
the Exodus
Egypt and
Canaan
A portion of the Excavated site of Lachish
At the other end of the route of The Exodus lay Canaan. By the middle
Bronze age (2200 - 1570 B.C.E.) Canaan was dotted with thriving cities.
But Canaan’s prosperity attracted the interest of Egypt. Canaan was
subjugated by Egyptian armies. Canaanite kings became client kings and
their cities received Egyptian garrisons. If these kings were obstreperous,
they were replaced by Egyptian governors.
Moses and the Exodus
Egypt and
Canaan
Cuneiform
Tablet
Shasu
Captives
A Habiru
Chieftain
“Habiru” had been around for some time in Canaan. Cuneiform Letters to pharaoh
Akhenaten (1350 – 1330 B.C.E.) from his client kings and Governors in Canaan
complain about lawlessness and attack by groups of Habiru and Shasu. the term
Habiru here includes nomadic or semi-nomadic rebels, outlaws, raiders,
mercenaries, and bowmen rather than the humbler workers of Pi-Ramesses. The
Shazu in contrast were cattle-herding nomads, organized in clans under a tribal
chieftain, and were described as brigands active from the Jezreel Valley to Ashkelon
and in the Sinai.
Moses and the Exodus
Egypt and Canaan
By the End of the Bronze Age(1300-1200
B.C.E.), The entire eastern Mediterranean
was in a state of upheaval. “Sea peoples”
attacked Egypt and some of them (the
Philistines) settled the coastal plain of
Canaan.
Philistine Warrior
The Origins of Israel
The Settlement of Canaan
The plot thickens. At about this time ~1200
BCE, the central Hill country of Canaan,
heretofore largely unoccupied, became
dotted with small, undefended settlements.
But note that the pattern does not extend
into the southern hills of Judah.
The Origins of Israel
The Settlement of Canaan
The settlements occur as single farmsteads, or a cluster of several such structures.
Terraced hillsides and underground cisterns are distinctive features.
The Origins of Israel
The Settlement
of Canaan
The Judge Othniel
These hill Canaanites emerge into history as
Implements and artifacts of the highland sites are nearly identical to those of
Canaanite settlements of the Jordan Valley A knife with the name of the maker
carved into it suggests that the language was essentially the same. The Canaanite
chief god, El, was used by the hill people as another name for their God, Yahweh.
Despite their contempt for the lowland Canaanites, the hill people seem to have
been Canaanites themselves. These hill people emerge into the historical record as
the Israelites of the biblical book of Judges. The term “Judge” refers to Chieftains of
these highland clans for whom dispensing justice was a secondary occupation,
The Origins of Israel
The Settlement of Canaan
The settlement of the central highlands is
now seen as a response to the general
collapse of the small Canaanite city states
after the withdrawal of Egyptian authority.
The Judge Othniel
War refugees, Disgruntled Canaanite
peasants, city dwellers fleeing taxes or
military service, bandits, and bedouin may all
have contributed to the rapidly growing
highland population.
Mountain tribesmen
defending their territory.
The Origins of Israel
The Settlement of Canaan
To visualize the settlement of Canaan, think
of our thirteen colonies in 1776.
Our coastal cities had become large and
sophisticated, but the hardy settlers of the
Appalachian Mountains were rugged
individualists, imbued with the pioneer spirit.
They fought off Indian attacks and looked
with disdain at the “flatlanders,” even though
they were related to many of them. And they
brought their Bibles with them.
Farming in the Judean hill country
Circa 1200 BCE
The Origins of Israel
The Settlement
of Canaan
The Israelites were also rugged
individualists, imbued with the pioneer
spirit. They fought off Philistine attacks
and looked with disdain at the Canaaniteseven though these may have been uncles
and cousins. The worship of Yahweh,
imported from the south, helped the these
mountain people to establish a separate
identity.
The book of “Judges”) provides a much
clearer picture of the settlement process
than does the book of Joshua. if closely
read, it reveals the beginning and growth
of the Israelite Confederacy.
Gideon and the men of Manasseh
preparing to attack the Midianites
The Settlement
of Canaan
Emergence of the
Israelite tribes
Narratives in Judges seem to focus on
the Tribe of Ephraim, its brother tribe
Manasseh (the Joseph Tribes), and
adjacent Tribe of Benjamin.
Genesis stories about the Patriarch
Jacob (“Israel”) have their setting
primarily in the territory of these
Ephraim-related tribes .
Ephraim, with its satellite clans and
tribes probably represented the
earliest identifiable Israel.
The Origins of Israel
The Settlement
of Canaan
The Song of Deborah in the book of
Judges seems to be the oldest literary
fragment in the Bible. The Judge Deborah
could only muster 7 tribes for the battle of
Kishon against Jabin, the king of Hazor. The
other five tribes hadn’t formed yet.
The name of the tribe of Benjamin means
“Sons of the South,” so named because
there was no Judah below it when it
formed.
The Origins of Israel
The Settlement
of Canaan
The term “ethnogenesis”
means the formation of a
new people from earlier
population elements. The
real ethnogenesis of the
twelve tribes appears to
have occurred in the
central hill country of
Canaan, and not during
the Exodus, as imagined
by the late Compilers of
the Books of Moses.
Modern replica of The Shiloh Sanctuary. meeting place of
the Israelite Confederacy
Truth is stranger than fiction- and often more powerful. God was indeed
nurturing his chosen people, the Israelites, but not as the compliers of trhe
Bible had supposed!
Moses and The Exodus
The Egyptian
Connection
I promised you an Egyptian
connection to this story and
here it is. About a century ago,
Biblical scholars realized that
Genesis- Exodus sequence in
the Old Testament were
compiled from two separate
documents, The J strand, in
which God is referred to as
Yahweh, and the E
strand,where God is referred to
as El or Elohim.
Bull El, from Dothan, Israelite cultic site.
Dating from the period of the Judges
The E strand was written in the North (In Ephraim or Benjamin). El is the older
name for God , and reflects the Canaanite origin of the Israelites. Names in the
north are often theophoric (god-bearing) and ending in -el, like Samuel, Othniel,
or Israel.
Moses and The Exodus
The Egyptian
Connection
The J strand was written in
the South, in Judah, where
god was usually called
Yahweh, a newer name for
God. Judahite names are
often theophoric names
ending in -yah, like Elijah or
Josiah.
Israel
Seir
Midian
The earliest reference to a deity called "Yahweh" appears in Egyptian texts of the 13th
century BC that place him among the Shasu-Bedu of southern Transjordan. There are
other suggestions that Yahweh worship existed in the southernmost Canaan from earliest
times. The Song of Deborah refers to Yahweh going out from the Land of Seir
(South of the dead Sea ); "the earth trembled… and the mountains quaked before
him.” Moses father-in-law, and a Priest of Yahweh, lived in Midian, just south of Seir.
Moses and The Exodus
The Egyptian
Connection
Moses and his father in law Jethro, the Priest of Jahweh
These clues may indicate that Yahweh worship came to hill country
with refugees from the south (Midian or Seir) , who had spent time in
Adjacent Egypt. In the southern Hill country (Judah). However it
happened, Yahweh became the primary name for God among the
sourthern tribes (Judah and Simeon).
Moses and The Exodus
The Egyptian Connection
It has been suggested that the late bronze age saw a steady flow of of
Canaanites into and out of from Egypt over hundreds of years, peaking at
about 1200 BCE, with the collapse of Egyptian power in Canaan. An “Exodus”
may well have occurred then, although apparently not of the grand scale of the
Compiler’s account; it was rather one facet of the truly dramatic ethogenesis of
the israelite nation. In the central hill country Of Canaan.
The Habiru as the the Egyptians saw them. An Egyptian wall painting dating to 1890 BCE
Moses and The Exodus
Final Thoughts
Mt Sinai
Here are some final thoughts before we see selections from the Video. Feiler takes his
account straight from the Allegory. Remember that Allegory is as valuable as the History
from which it has been fashioned. “ Just because it didn’t happen, doesn’t mean that it
isn’t (Spiritually) true.”
Feiler describes both Abraham and Moses as monotheists. But the first commandment
does not say that there are no other Gods. It says “Thou shalt have no other gods before
me” Actually Abraham and Moses were henotheists, Acknowledging other Gods but
following only one. And there were no camels in the time of Genesis or Exodus, but it is
ineresting to see them, anyway.