Genesis and Exodus
Genesis and Exodus
• GENESIS & EXODUS:
– read Genesis 1.1-4.15; 6.1-9.27; 11-12; 15; 17; 22;
25; 27-28; 37; 40; 49-50
– read Exodus 1-4; 6; 12-13; 15-17; 20; 24; 32; 40
Genesis and Exodus
• Five [-and-a-half] things:
– Author
• Moses
– Title
• bereshith, Genesis
• v'elleh shemoth, Exodus
– Date
• 1446-1406bc
– Location
• Egypt, Arabia, Palestine
– Language
• Hebrew
Genesis and Exodus
• [textual tradition/edition]
•
Qumran lit (dead sea scrolls): 2nd c bc!: 24
mss of genesis; 18 of exodus
•
MT, Hebrew LXX, and Samaritan
Pentateuch were 3 impt branches, the
scripture becoming pretty-well est by 100ad;
best text before qumran discovery was MT
(9th-10th c ad)
•
Sinaiticus and Vaticanus (Greek: 4th c ad)
Genesis and Exodus
• Masoretic period 7th-10th c: using the TR of the Talmudic
period (6thbc-6thad) established authoritative canon with
vowel points and accents; one great thing about the period
was that it opened an epoch of careful preservation faithful
to the text of the Masoretes, but the oldest mss that
survive are pretty recent: 10th-11th c ad. 6th c bc - 6th c
ad was a period of canonical authority for the Torah and by
turns the rest of the OT; the texts had a variety of ms
tradition behind them, however, and Talmudic emphasis
during the period was for explication of Torah, not to
establish text. Before that we see the liturgical anxiety
motive of Ezra in the restoration period (536bc), but even
Josiah's reforms before that (at least Torah) (622bc).
Genesis and Exodus
• 19th-20th century scholarship on the text of the
Pentateuch was source critical et al., resting on foundations
from the 17th century (Spinoza & Hobbes); the
development of the documentary hypothesis is based on
the various names for God in the text (YHVH, Elohim, etc.)
and a theory of 4 sources (JEDP: Yahwist, Elohist,
Deuteronomic, and Priestly) that were written at different
periods between the 10th-6th centuries bc and finally
redacted into the form we have now. Criticism of
Wellhausen et al. has since 1970 evolved to the point of
emphasizing text instead of source (final form criticism),
underscoring the plausibility of a single author, though still
leaving open the question of dating.
Genesis and Exodus
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Major literary concerns:
Creation & comparative traditions
Origins: Patriarchal history and Mosaic history
Eponymy
Generations (toledoth) and emphasis on seed
Redemption, sacrifice, liturgical tradition
Covenant (promise): Noah, Abram/Abraham,
Moses
• Law
• Racial identity
Genesis and Exodus
• The text:
• Setting: Prehistory - 1446 bc
• Gen 1.1: In the beginning God: notice the e nihilo
emphasis of the Mosaic account
• Gen 1-2: notice the emphases in creation: the
hexaemeron and the account of human beings
• Gen 3: fall; promise through seed
• Gen 4: promise and non-fulfillment; emphasis on seed
• Gen 6-9: consider the comparative account in
Gilgamesh. What's the same? What's different?
Genesis and Exodus
• Gen 11: toledoth and genesis of nations
• Gen 12: abram; berith: covenant; emphases of covenant:
land, children (seed), blessing
• Gen 15: berith again: notice the language of the promise;
name change through ritual action; aetiology of judaism
• Gen 17: more names - consider the significance of
eponymous patriarchs; what is the women's role? humor: is
any of this funny?
• Gen 22: time to interpret: Moriah
• Gen 25: more eponymy with Jacob (Israel) and Esau (Edom)
• Gen 27-28: the blessing and the dream: the stairway to
heaven and the continuation of Abrahamic promise
Genesis and Exodus
• Gen 37: the dreams of Joseph and cultural
intertext with divination and prophecy; also
remark on the social history aspect of this
• Gen 40: fulfillment again of dream
interpretation
• Gen 49-50: Observe the formal structure
(including parallelism); power of eponym
again (these are the 12 tribes); theology /
interpretation (consider destiny once again)
Genesis and Exodus
• Ex 1 What's the status of nations at this point?
consider the hegemony of Egypt in the middle of
the 2nd millennium - 1400's bc
• Ex 2 Paronomasia in Hebrew; again with name
significance; Hebrew pedigree but raised in
Pharaoh's house
• Ex 3 Burning bush and name: yiyeh / yahweh
• Ex 4 Aaron as administrator
• Ex 6 Promise of plagues; notice levitical
genealogy
Genesis and Exodus
• Ex 12-13: emphases once again on ritual and
aetiology of judaism: not just circumcision but
redemption. people of the word, the book,
history. Vicarious substitution.
• Ex 15: Formal structure: epic poetry in a true
sense: compare / contrast with Gilgamesh
• Ex 16: Providence and provision: manna and
quail
• Ex 17: Notice the names: massah and meribah
Genesis and Exodus
• Ex 20: commandments: consider both the
specific theology & the universality (and
therefore connection with natural law)
• Ex 24: confirmation of mosaic covenant:
remarkable immanence
• Ex 32: golden calf
• Ex 40: shekinah and the dwelling place of
chabod