The stories of enslavement and release are not attested by extrabiblical sources. Thus, the escape of the Israelites from Egypt may be said to represent history in the accepted, contemporary meaning that this was brought about by divine interference, and was so experienced by Israel, gives the tale of liberation an additional faith dimension. In that sense, Exodus is history grounded in faith. The latter describes events which are rooted exclusively in the human realm the former depicts the will of God as the hinge on which human events must turn. With Exodus, the Pentateuch enters the realm of history, albeit not history in the modern sense. The tales of Genesis were a mixture of myth, legend, distant memory, and search for origins, bound together by the strands of a central theological concept.

It is at this point of change that the Book of Exodus begins it will tell of the fashioning of Israel, the people of God’s choice, the nation that God needs. Their fate will be now forged in a strange land, amidst a people who will turn from welcoming hosts into a nation of oppressors. They leave Canaan behind, the land which God had promised them as their permanent inheritance. He selects Abraham and Sarah as the ancestors of this nation‑to‑be, and the rest of Genesis is the story of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and their families who will be the physical and spiritual forebears of the people Israel.ĭuring a severe famine Jacob and his children and grandchildren migrate to Egypt. After many trials and disillusionments, God chooses a particular people whom in time to come He will make His allies and helpers. It is important to see the book as a continuation of Genesis, which we described earlier as a tale of beginnings and of God‘s disappointments (see “Introducing Genesis”). It has two settings, Egypt and the wilderness of Sinai, and its timeframe is the latter part of the 13th century B.C.E.

It contains the stories of enslavement and liberation, of revelation and wanderings, of belief and apostasy it is the repository of fundamental laws and of the rules governing national worship. My Jewish Learning is a not-for-profit and relies on your help DonateĮxodus is the book which speaks of the physical and spiritual birth of Israel as a nation.

Exodus a novel of israel