manu/mldr-zoomed-100char-total-queries-documents

chunk_id stringlengths 3 9	chunk stringlengths 1 100
9847_105	The climax of the Exodus is the covenant (binding legal agreement) between God and the Israelites
9847_106	mediated by Moses at Sinai: Yahweh will protect the Israelites as his chosen people for all time,
9847_107	and the Israelites will keep Yahweh's laws and worship only him. The covenant is described in
9847_108	stages: at Exodus 24:3–8 the Israelites agree to abide by the "book of the covenant" that Moses has
9847_109	just read to them; shortly afterwards God writes the "words of the covenant" – the Ten Commandments
9847_110	– on stone tablets; and finally, as the people gather in Moab to cross into Canaan, the land God
9847_111	has promised them, Moses makes a new covenant between Yahweh and the Israelites "beside the
9847_112	covenant he made with them at Horeb" (Deuteronomy 29:1). The laws are set out in a number of codes:
9847_113	Ethical Decalogue (i.e., the Ten Commandments), Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5;
9847_114	The Book of the Covenant, Exodus 20:22–23:3; Ritual Decalogue, Exodus 34;
9847_115	The ritual laws of Leviticus 1–6 and Numbers 1–10; The Holiness Code, Leviticus 17–26;
9847_116	Deuteronomic Code, Deuteronomy 12–26.
9847_117	Origins and historicity
9847_118	There are two main positions on the historicity of the Exodus in modern scholarship. The majority
9847_119	position is that the biblical Exodus narrative has some historical basis, although there is little
9847_120	of historical worth in the biblical narrative. The other position, often associated with the school
9847_121	of Biblical minimalism, is that the biblical exodus traditions are the invention of the exilic and
9847_122	post-exilic Jewish community, with little to no historical basis. The biblical Exodus narrative is
9847_123	best understood as a founding myth of the Jewish people, providing an ideological foundation for
9847_124	their culture and institutions, not an accurate depiction of the history of the Israelites. The
9847_125	view that the biblical narrative is essentially correct unless it can explicitly be proven wrong
9847_126	(Biblical maximalism) is today held by "few, if any [...] in mainstream scholarship, only on the
9847_127	more fundamentalist fringes."
9847_128	Reliability of the biblical account
9847_129	Mainstream scholarship no longer accepts the biblical Exodus account as history for a number of
9847_130	reasons. Most scholars agree that the Exodus stories were written centuries after the apparent
9847_131	setting of the stories. The Book of Exodus itself attempts to ground the event firmly in history,
9847_132	dating the exodus to the 2666th year after creation (Exodus 12:40-41), the construction of the
9847_133	tabernacle to year 2667 (Exodus 40:1-2, 17), stating that the Israelites dwelled in Egypt for 430
9847_134	years (Exodus 12:40-41), and including place names such as Goshen (Gen. 46:28), Pithom and Ramesses
9847_135	(Exod. 1:11), as well as stating that 600,000 Israelite men were involved (Exodus 12:37). The Book
9847_136	of Numbers further states that the number of Israelites in the desert during the wandering were
9847_137	603,550, including 22,273 first-borns, which modern estimates put at 2.5-3 million total
9847_138	Israelites, a clearly fanciful number that could never have been supported by the Sinai Desert. The
9847_139	geography is vague with regions such as Goshen unidentified, and there are internal problems with
9847_140	dating in the Pentateuch. No modern attempt to identify a historical Egyptian prototype for Moses
9847_141	has found wide acceptance, and no period in Egyptian history matches the biblical accounts of the
9847_142	Exodus. Some elements of the story are miraculous and defy rational explanation, such as the
9847_143	Plagues of Egypt and the Crossing of the Red Sea. The Bible also fails to mention the names of any
9847_144	of the Pharaohs involved in the Exodus narrative.
9847_145	While ancient Egyptian texts from the New Kingdom mention "Asiatics" living in Egypt as slaves and
9847_146	workers, these people cannot be securely connected to the Israelites, and no contemporary Egyptian
9847_147	text mentions a large-scale exodus of slaves like that described in the Bible. The earliest
9847_148	surviving historical mention of the Israelites, the Egyptian Merneptah Stele (c. 1207 BCE), appears
9847_149	to place them in or around Canaan and gives no indication of any exodus. Archaeologists Israel
9847_150	Finkelstein and Neil Asher Silberman say that archaeology has not found any evidence for even a
9847_151	small band of wandering Israelites living in the Sinai: "The conclusion – that Exodus did not
9847_152	happen at the time and in the manner described in the Bible – seems irrefutable [...] repeated
9847_153	excavations and surveys throughout the entire area have not provided even the slightest evidence."
9847_154	Instead, modern archaeology suggests continuity between Canaanite and Israelite settlement,
9847_155	indicating a primarily Canaanite origin for Israel, with no suggestion that a group of foreigners
9847_156	from Egypt comprised early Israel.
9847_157	Potential historical origins
9847_158	Despite the absence of any archaeological evidence, a majority of scholars agree that the Exodus
9847_159	probably has some historical basis, with Kenton Sparks referring to it as "mythologized history."
9847_160	Scholars posit that small group of people of Egyptian origin may have joined the early Israelites,
9847_161	and then contributed their own Egyptian Exodus story to all of Israel. William G. Dever cautiously
9847_162	identifies this group with the Tribe of Joseph, while Richard Elliott Friedman identifies it with
9847_163	the Tribe of Levi. Most scholars who accept a historical core of the exodus date this possible
9847_164	exodus group to the thirteenth century BCE at the time of Ramses II, with some instead dating it to
9847_165	the twelfth century BCE at the time of Ramses III. Evidence in favor of historical traditions
9847_166	forming a background to the Exodus myth include the documented movements of small groups of Ancient
9847_167	Semitic-speaking peoples into and out of Egypt during the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Dynasties, some
9847_168	elements of Egyptian folklore and culture in the Exodus narrative, and the names Moses, Aaron and
9847_169	Phinehas, which seem to have an Egyptian origin. Scholarly estimates for how many people could have
9847_170	been involved in such an exodus range from a few hundred to a few thousand people.
9847_171	Joel S. Baden notes the presence of Semitic-speaking slaves in Egypt who sometimes escaped in small
9847_172	numbers as potential inspirations for the Exodus. It is also possible that oppressive Egyptian rule
9847_173	of Canaan during the late second millennium BCE may have aided the adoption of the story of a small
9847_174	group of Egyptian refugees by the native Canaanites among the Israelites. The expulsion of the
9847_175	Hyksos, a Semitic group that had conquered much of Egypt, by the Seventeenth Dynasty of Egypt is
9847_176	also frequently discussed as a potential historical parallel or origin for the story.
9847_177	Alternatively, Nadav Na'aman argues that oppressive Egyptian rule of Canaan during the Nineteenth
9847_178	and especially the Twentieth Dynasty may have inspired the Exodus narrative, forming a "collective
9847_179	memory" of Egyptian oppression that was transferred from Canaan to Egypt itself in the popular
9847_180	consciousness.
9847_181	A minority position among scholars is to see the biblical exodus traditions as the invention of the
9847_182	exilic and post-exilic Jewish community, with little to no historical basis. Lester Grabbe, for
9847_183	instance, argues that "[t]here is no compelling reason that the exodus has to be rooted in
9847_184	history," and that the details of the story more closely fit the seventh through the fifth
9847_185	centuries BCE than the traditional dating to the second millennium BCE. Philip R. Davies suggests
9847_186	that the story may have been inspired by the return to Israel of Israelites and Judaeans who were
9847_187	placed in Egypt as garrison troops by the Assyrians in the fifth and sixth centuries BCE.
9847_188	Finkelstein and Silberman argue that "the most consistent geographical details of the Exodus story
9847_189	come from the seventh century BCE [...] six centuries after the events of the Exodus were supposed
9847_190	to have taken place". There is no direct evidence for any of the people or Exodus events in
9847_191	non-biblical ancient texts or in archaeological remains, and this has led most scholars to omit the
9847_192	Exodus events from comprehensive histories of Israel.
9847_193	Development and final composition
9847_194	The earliest traces of the traditions behind the exodus appear in the northern prophets Amos and
9847_195	Hosea, both active in the 8th century BCE in northern Israel, but their southern contemporaries
9847_196	Isaiah and Micah show no knowledge of an exodus ( contains a reference to the exodus, which many
9847_197	scholars take to be an addition by a later editor); while Jeremiah, active in the 7th century,
9847_198	mentions both Moses and the Exodus.
9847_199	The story may, therefore, have originated a few centuries earlier, perhaps in the 9th or 10th BCE,
9847_200	and there are signs that it took different forms in Israel, in the Transjordan region, and in the
9847_201	southern Kingdom of Judah before being unified in the Persian era. The Exodus narrative was most
9847_202	likely further altered and expanded under the influence of the return from the Babylonian captivity
9847_203	in the sixth century BCE.
9847_204	Evidence from the Bible suggests that the Exodus from Egypt formed a "foundational mythology" or

9847_105

The climax of the Exodus is the covenant (binding legal agreement) between God and the Israelites

9847_106

mediated by Moses at Sinai: Yahweh will protect the Israelites as his chosen people for all time,

9847_107

and the Israelites will keep Yahweh's laws and worship only him. The covenant is described in

9847_108

stages: at Exodus 24:3–8 the Israelites agree to abide by the "book of the covenant" that Moses has

9847_109

just read to them; shortly afterwards God writes the "words of the covenant" – the Ten Commandments

9847_110

– on stone tablets; and finally, as the people gather in Moab to cross into Canaan, the land God

9847_111

has promised them, Moses makes a new covenant between Yahweh and the Israelites "beside the

9847_112

covenant he made with them at Horeb" (Deuteronomy 29:1). The laws are set out in a number of codes:

9847_113

Ethical Decalogue (i.e., the Ten Commandments), Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5;

9847_114

The Book of the Covenant, Exodus 20:22–23:3; Ritual Decalogue, Exodus 34;

9847_115

The ritual laws of Leviticus 1–6 and Numbers 1–10; The Holiness Code, Leviticus 17–26;

9847_116

Deuteronomic Code, Deuteronomy 12–26.

9847_117

Origins and historicity

9847_118

There are two main positions on the historicity of the Exodus in modern scholarship. The majority

9847_119

position is that the biblical Exodus narrative has some historical basis, although there is little

9847_120

of historical worth in the biblical narrative. The other position, often associated with the school

9847_121

of Biblical minimalism, is that the biblical exodus traditions are the invention of the exilic and

9847_122

post-exilic Jewish community, with little to no historical basis. The biblical Exodus narrative is

9847_123

best understood as a founding myth of the Jewish people, providing an ideological foundation for

9847_124

their culture and institutions, not an accurate depiction of the history of the Israelites. The

9847_125

view that the biblical narrative is essentially correct unless it can explicitly be proven wrong

9847_126

(Biblical maximalism) is today held by "few, if any [...] in mainstream scholarship, only on the

9847_127

more fundamentalist fringes."

9847_128

Reliability of the biblical account

9847_129

Mainstream scholarship no longer accepts the biblical Exodus account as history for a number of

9847_130

reasons. Most scholars agree that the Exodus stories were written centuries after the apparent

9847_131

setting of the stories. The Book of Exodus itself attempts to ground the event firmly in history,

9847_132

dating the exodus to the 2666th year after creation (Exodus 12:40-41), the construction of the

9847_133

tabernacle to year 2667 (Exodus 40:1-2, 17), stating that the Israelites dwelled in Egypt for 430

9847_134

years (Exodus 12:40-41), and including place names such as Goshen (Gen. 46:28), Pithom and Ramesses

9847_135

(Exod. 1:11), as well as stating that 600,000 Israelite men were involved (Exodus 12:37). The Book

9847_136

of Numbers further states that the number of Israelites in the desert during the wandering were

9847_137

603,550, including 22,273 first-borns, which modern estimates put at 2.5-3 million total

9847_138

Israelites, a clearly fanciful number that could never have been supported by the Sinai Desert. The

9847_139

geography is vague with regions such as Goshen unidentified, and there are internal problems with

9847_140

dating in the Pentateuch. No modern attempt to identify a historical Egyptian prototype for Moses

9847_141

has found wide acceptance, and no period in Egyptian history matches the biblical accounts of the

9847_142

Exodus. Some elements of the story are miraculous and defy rational explanation, such as the

9847_143

Plagues of Egypt and the Crossing of the Red Sea. The Bible also fails to mention the names of any

9847_144

of the Pharaohs involved in the Exodus narrative.

9847_145

While ancient Egyptian texts from the New Kingdom mention "Asiatics" living in Egypt as slaves and

9847_146

workers, these people cannot be securely connected to the Israelites, and no contemporary Egyptian

9847_147

text mentions a large-scale exodus of slaves like that described in the Bible. The earliest

9847_148

surviving historical mention of the Israelites, the Egyptian Merneptah Stele (c. 1207 BCE), appears

9847_149

to place them in or around Canaan and gives no indication of any exodus. Archaeologists Israel

9847_150

Finkelstein and Neil Asher Silberman say that archaeology has not found any evidence for even a

9847_151

small band of wandering Israelites living in the Sinai: "The conclusion – that Exodus did not

9847_152

happen at the time and in the manner described in the Bible – seems irrefutable [...] repeated

9847_153

excavations and surveys throughout the entire area have not provided even the slightest evidence."

9847_154

Instead, modern archaeology suggests continuity between Canaanite and Israelite settlement,

9847_155

indicating a primarily Canaanite origin for Israel, with no suggestion that a group of foreigners

9847_156

from Egypt comprised early Israel.

9847_157

Potential historical origins

9847_158

Despite the absence of any archaeological evidence, a majority of scholars agree that the Exodus

9847_159

probably has some historical basis, with Kenton Sparks referring to it as "mythologized history."

9847_160

Scholars posit that small group of people of Egyptian origin may have joined the early Israelites,

9847_161

and then contributed their own Egyptian Exodus story to all of Israel. William G. Dever cautiously

9847_162

identifies this group with the Tribe of Joseph, while Richard Elliott Friedman identifies it with

9847_163

the Tribe of Levi. Most scholars who accept a historical core of the exodus date this possible

9847_164

exodus group to the thirteenth century BCE at the time of Ramses II, with some instead dating it to

9847_165

the twelfth century BCE at the time of Ramses III. Evidence in favor of historical traditions

9847_166

forming a background to the Exodus myth include the documented movements of small groups of Ancient

9847_167

Semitic-speaking peoples into and out of Egypt during the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Dynasties, some

9847_168

elements of Egyptian folklore and culture in the Exodus narrative, and the names Moses, Aaron and

9847_169

Phinehas, which seem to have an Egyptian origin. Scholarly estimates for how many people could have

9847_170

been involved in such an exodus range from a few hundred to a few thousand people.

9847_171

Joel S. Baden notes the presence of Semitic-speaking slaves in Egypt who sometimes escaped in small

9847_172

numbers as potential inspirations for the Exodus. It is also possible that oppressive Egyptian rule

9847_173

of Canaan during the late second millennium BCE may have aided the adoption of the story of a small

9847_174

group of Egyptian refugees by the native Canaanites among the Israelites. The expulsion of the

9847_175

Hyksos, a Semitic group that had conquered much of Egypt, by the Seventeenth Dynasty of Egypt is

9847_176

also frequently discussed as a potential historical parallel or origin for the story.

9847_177

Alternatively, Nadav Na'aman argues that oppressive Egyptian rule of Canaan during the Nineteenth

9847_178

and especially the Twentieth Dynasty may have inspired the Exodus narrative, forming a "collective

9847_179

memory" of Egyptian oppression that was transferred from Canaan to Egypt itself in the popular

9847_180

consciousness.

9847_181

A minority position among scholars is to see the biblical exodus traditions as the invention of the

9847_182

exilic and post-exilic Jewish community, with little to no historical basis. Lester Grabbe, for

9847_183

instance, argues that "[t]here is no compelling reason that the exodus has to be rooted in

9847_184

history," and that the details of the story more closely fit the seventh through the fifth

9847_185

centuries BCE than the traditional dating to the second millennium BCE. Philip R. Davies suggests

9847_186

that the story may have been inspired by the return to Israel of Israelites and Judaeans who were

9847_187

placed in Egypt as garrison troops by the Assyrians in the fifth and sixth centuries BCE.

9847_188

Finkelstein and Silberman argue that "the most consistent geographical details of the Exodus story

9847_189

come from the seventh century BCE [...] six centuries after the events of the Exodus were supposed

9847_190

to have taken place". There is no direct evidence for any of the people or Exodus events in

9847_191

non-biblical ancient texts or in archaeological remains, and this has led most scholars to omit the

9847_192

Exodus events from comprehensive histories of Israel.

9847_193

Development and final composition

9847_194

The earliest traces of the traditions behind the exodus appear in the northern prophets Amos and

9847_195

Hosea, both active in the 8th century BCE in northern Israel, but their southern contemporaries

9847_196

Isaiah and Micah show no knowledge of an exodus ( contains a reference to the exodus, which many

9847_197

scholars take to be an addition by a later editor); while Jeremiah, active in the 7th century,

9847_198

mentions both Moses and the Exodus.

9847_199

The story may, therefore, have originated a few centuries earlier, perhaps in the 9th or 10th BCE,

9847_200

and there are signs that it took different forms in Israel, in the Transjordan region, and in the

9847_201

southern Kingdom of Judah before being unified in the Persian era. The Exodus narrative was most

9847_202

likely further altered and expanded under the influence of the return from the Babylonian captivity

9847_203

in the sixth century BCE.

9847_204

Evidence from the Bible suggests that the Exodus from Egypt formed a "foundational mythology" or