History
- Egypt & the Wanderings
The Children of Israel in
Egypt
However dim and uncertain Hebrew history is in the age of the
patriarchs, there is no question that the migration out of Egypt around
1250 BC is the single most important event in Hebrew history. More than
anything else in history, this event gave the Hebrews an identity, a
nation, a founder, and a name, used for the first time in the very first
line of Exodus, the biblical account of the migration: "bene yisrael,"
"the children of Israel."
How did this happen? How did this diverse set of tribal groups all
worshipping a god they called "god," suddenly cohere into a more or less
unified national group? What happened in Egypt that didn't happen with
other foreigners living there?
Well, we really can't answer that question, for we have almost no
account whatsoever of the Hebrews in Egypt, even in Hebrew history. For
all the momentousness of the events of the migration for the Hebrews and
the dramatic nature of the rescue, including plagues and catastrophes
raining down on Egypt, the Egyptians do not seem to have noticed the
Hebrews or to even know that they were living in their country. While we
have several Egyptian records of foreign groups during the New Kingdom,
they are records of actively expelling groups they feel are threatening
or overly powerful. The Hebrews never appear in these records, nor do
any of the events recounted in the Hebrew history of the event. The
Hebrews themselves are only interested in the events directly leading up
to the migration; all the events in the centuries preceding are passed
over in silence.
We can make some guesses about the Hebrews in Egypt, though. It isn't
unreasonable to believe that a sizable Hebrew population lived in the
north of Egypt from about 1500-1250 BC; enormous numbers of tribal
groups, most of them Semitic, had been settling in northern Egypt from
about 1800 BC. These foreigners had grown so powerful that for a short
time they dominated Egypt, ruling the Egyptians themselves; this period
is called the Third Intermediate Period in Egyptian history. When the
Egyptians reasserted dominance over Egypt at the start of the New
Kingdom, they actively expelled as many foreigners as they could. Life
got fairly harsh for these foreigners, who were called "habiru," which
was applied to landless aliens (taken from the word, "apiru," or
foreigner). Is this where the Hebrews got their name? It's a hotly
contested issue. Nevertheless, the New Kingdom kings also began to
garrison their borders in the north and east in order to prevent
foreigners from entering the country in the first place. In particular,
the Egyptian king, Seti I (1305-1290), moved his capital to Avaris at
the very north of the Nile delta. This move was a shrewd move, for it
established a powerful military presence right at the entrance to Egypt.
Garrisoned cities, however, don't pop into existence at a whim; they are
labor intensive affairs. Typically, building projects involved heavy
taxation of local populations; these taxes took the form of labor taxes.
It isn't unreasonable to guess that the heaviest burden of these taxes
fell on the foreigners living in the area, which would include the
Hebrews. As best as we can guess, we believe that these building
projects form the substance of the oppression of the Hebrews described
in Exodus.
Moses and the Yahweh Cult
Nothing, however, should have prevented these oppressed and miserable
foreigners from spilling into the anonymity of history—as so many had
done before and since. One figure, however, changed the course of this
history and united some of these foreigners into a distinct people; he
also gave them a religion and a theology that would forever unite them
in a singular purpose in history. That person was Moses. In spite of the
masterful portrayal of him in Exodus , he is a difficult figure to pin
down. Few people dispute that Moses was a reality in history, whether as
an individual or a group of individuals, but there are several
perplexing aspects of the man. First, he has an Egyptian name (as do
many of his relatives). Second, he seems to spend a large amount of time
among a non-Hebrew people, the Midianites, where he marries and seems to
learn the Yahweh religion, and some of its cultic practices, from the
Midianites. Are there two Moses, an Egyptian and a Hebrew? Or an
Egyptian and a Midianite? And are the Midianites the first peoples to
worship Yahweh and who then transmit this religion to the Hebrews? The
question is complicated by the presence of Miriam, Moses' sister, in the
migration. For she is the first individual in the Hebrew bible to be
called a "prophet," and seems to have been an important player in the
migration, possibly even being the principle figure in the climactic
battle between the Egyptians and the Hebrews at the Sea of Reeds. At
some point, however, there was a falling out between Miriam and Moses,
and Miriam gets lost to history.
It is equally difficult to pinpoint exactly who participated in the
migration. Although the focus is on the Hebrews, Exodus claims that a
"diverse group of peoples" left Egypt with Moses. Who were these? Did
they include other Semites? Was the migration to Egypt a staggered
affair, or was it a single, heroic migration as indicated in Exodus?
What resistance did the Egyptians put up? What was the nature of their
battle with the Egyptians at the Sea of Reeds? The account of this
battle is vitally important to Hebrew history, for the deliverance of
the Hebrews at the Sea of Reeds stands as the single most powerful
symbol of Yahweh's protection of the Hebrews. Exodus gives two accounts;
in the first, Yahweh blows the water away to create a ford, and the
Egyptians get stuck in the mud and go home. In the second, Yahweh
separates the waters and drowns the Egyptians when they try to cross.
Which is the correct account?
It's difficult to answer any of these questions. In the end, the only
account we have of the migration from Egypt is the Hebrew account.
Several salient aspects give this narrative its foundational role in the
Hebrew view of history. First, Moses is especially chosen by Yahweh to
deliver Yahweh's people. In other words, Yahweh directly intervenes in
history in order to bring about his purposes for his people. Second, the
people of Yahweh become a national entity, identified by the name, "bene
yisrael," rather than simply being a diverse group of tribes. They are
united around a specific leader, Moses. Third, the events in Egypt,
including the plagues and the miraculous deliverance of the Israelites
at the Sea of Reeds when pursued by the king's army, are meant to serve
as the primary proof of God's election of the Hebrews. There's no
question that these stories were told and retold among the Hebrews as
the most important events of their history. For in the events leading up
to and involving the migration from Egypt, Yahweh proved once and for
all that he would use and protect the Hebrews as the people, and the
only people, selected by Yahweh. Third, Hebrew religion became the
Yahweh religion. The Hebrews did not worship "Yahweh" before the
migration, but learned the cult, according to Exodus, from Moses during
the migration.
This introduction to Yahweh and the Yahweh cult occurred in the
southernmost region of the Arabian peninsula, in an area around Mount
Sinai. This area had been occupied by a nomadic, tribal people called
Midianites. They seem to have worshipped a kind of nature god which they
believed lived on Mount Sinai. It is here, living with a priest of the
Midianites, called Jethro, that Moses first encounters Yahweh (on Mount
Sinai) and learns his name for the first time. The name of god, which in
Hebrew is spelled YHWH, is difficult to explain. Scholars generally
believe that it derives from the Semitic word, "to be," and so means
something like, "he causes to be." Nevertheless, when Moses returns to
Sinai with the people of Israel and stays in the area (this period is
called the Sinai pericope), Jethro declares that he has always known
Yahweh to be the most powerful of all gods (was the Midianite religion,
then, a religion of Yahweh?). During the Sinai pericope, all the laws
and cultic practices of the new Yahweh religion are set down. The laws
themselves come directly from Yahweh in the Decalogue, or "ten
commandments." The Decalogue is a unique part of the Hebrew Torah in
that it is the only part of Hebrew scriptures which claims to be the
words of god written down on the spot .
Whatever happened in the migration from Egypt to Canaan, it is clear
that somewhere in this period the general laws and cultic practices of
the Hebrews settled down into a definite form. These laws and this new
cult of Yahweh would form the eternal character of the Hebrews down to
the present day. What began as a "diverse group of peoples" has become
one people, who then systematically begin to settle the land of the
Canaanites.
From:
http://www.wsu.edu:8080/%7Edee/HEBREWS/HEBREWS.HTM
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