(Exodus 13:17 - 14:31)
When the Israelites were at last freed by the Pharaoh, Jehovah did not guide them through the land of the Philistines, even though that was the shortest way to Canaan, for, he reasoned, they might encounter hostilities there, regret their decision, and return to Egypt. Instead, he led them by an indirect route through the desert toward the Red Sea. Even so, the Israelites marched out of Egypt like an army ready for battle.
Moses carried with him the mummified corpse of Joseph, who, before he died, had solemnly charged his people, "Jehovah will visit you in the future and come to your aid. At that time you must carry my remains with you when you leave Egypt.”
The Israelites journeyed from Succoth to Etham, where they camped on the edge of the desert. Jehovah guided them in an pillar-shaped aerial vehicle that appeared like a cloud during the day and glowed like a fire at night, lighting the way. By this means they could travel by both day and night, (for the ship was always in the sky, visible to the people).
Jehovah spoke to Moses, "Tell the Israelites that they should turn around and go back to camp beneath Pi-Hahiroth, which is between Magdal and the sea, opposite Baalzephon. They should make their camp by the sea. The Pharaoh will then assume that the Israelites, wandering about aimlessly, are trapped there, hemmed in by the desert. I will make the Pharaoh stubborn and he will come after them. I will then take my revenge upon the Pharaoh and his army so that the Egyptians will know that I am Jehovah." And the Israelites did as they were ordered.
When the Pharaoh was informed that the Israelites had absconded, he and his court rued their decision to free them. The men at court discussed it among themselves and groused, "What possessed us to let the Israelites escape from our service?”
And so the Pharaoh harnessed his war chariot and called out his attendants. He assembled his elite corps of chariots, 600 of them, as well as all the other chariots of Egypt and the officers who commanded them. (Jehovah made the Pharaoh stubborn so he would continue to pursue the Israelites.) The Israelites had left victoriously, but now the Egyptians were chasing after them. The chariots of the Pharaoh, the horses and the charioteers, followed the track of the Israelites. And they caught up with them where they were encamped by the sea at Pi-Hahiroth, opposite Baalzephon.
When the forces of the Pharaoh drew near, the people of Israel espied them advancing toward them and were greatly alarmed. They appealed to Jehovah -- and complained to Moses, "Are there no graves in Egypt that you have led us into the desert to die? Why did you lead us out of Egypt anyway? Didn't we tell you back in Egypt, 'Leave us alone and let us serve the Egyptians, for it's better to be their slaves than to die in the desert.'"
Moses proclaimed to the people, "Have no fear! Stand your ground and witness how Jehovah will save you this day, for the Egyptians that you now see, you will never see again. Jehovah will do battle for you while you hold your peace."
Jehovah said to Moses, "Why do you speak to me? Speak to the children of Israel. Tell them to advance. Raise your staff and reach it out over the sea to divide it so the people of Israel may pass through the sea on dry land. I will make the Pharaoh stubborn so he will pursue you. I will then take my revenge upon the Pharaoh, his army, his chariots and his charioteers, and when I have done so, the Egyptians will know that I am Jehovah!”
The agent of Jehovah who had been guiding the people from the front now moved to the rear of their force. Jehovah's vehicle, which had been in front of the Israelite encampment, also moved and took a position behind it, in between the camp of the Israelites and that of the Egyptians. It was but dark cloud to the Egyptians, but it left the Israelites in light, such that all night neither camp came near the other.
Moses stretched his arm over the sea and Jehovah caused a strong, hot east wind to part the waters of the sea. It blew all through the night and created a path of dry land on the seabed between parted waters. The Israelites, traveling out into the middle of the sea, tread upon the dry ground with the waters a wall beside them on the left and on the right.
The Egyptians, in hot pursuit, followed them onto the seabed, all the Pharaoh's chariots and their drivers. Dawn had broken and Jehovah was observing the Egyptians from his glowing, cloud-like vehicle in the sky. He threw the Egyptian army into disarray by clogging the wheels of their chariots so they had difficulty driving them. The Egyptians declared, "Let us retreat from the Israelites, for Jehovah is fighting on their side against us!"
Jehovah then told Moses, "Stretch out your arm over the sea that the waters may return and come down upon the Egyptians, their chariots and charioteers.”
Moses stretched out his arm toward the sea, and at dawn it resumed its accustomed depth. The Egyptians fled from it, but Jehovah brought the waters down upon them. When the waters returned, it inundated the chariots and their drivers; the entire army that came into the sea in pursuit were swept away and killed to the last man. But the Israelites continued to march across the dry land in the middle of the sea with the wall of water to the right of them and to the left of them.
Thus Jehovah saved the Israelites from the might of the Egyptians on that day. Observing the dead bodies of Egyptians washing upon the shore, the Israelites appreciated the miraculous power that Jehovah had employed against the Egyptians. And so they feared Jehovah and believed in him -- and in his servant Moses.
Notes
1. The route the departing Israelites has been a matter of much speculation, even though the biblical text mentions specific place names. Their direct route to Canaan was to the east, but they would have immediately run into the war-like Philistines, so, at Jehovah's behest, their course was directed southeast probably along what is now the Suez Canal. Succoth is on the easternmost part of the delta region while Etham, to the southeast, is on the edge of a desert that stretches east into the Sinai. The location of Pi-Hahiroth, Baalzephon and Magdal (which means "tower" or "raised land") have not been definitely determined but is most likely near salt-water lakes that connect to the western arm of the Red Sea. The crossing of the Red Sea, or Sea of Reeds as the text refers to it, is most likely here, in waters deep enough to drown chariots, but not so wide as to make crossing infeasible. Other scenarios and other locations have, however, been suggested.
2. Most translations describe Moses carrying with him the "bones" of Joseph with him to take back to Canaan to fulfill a promise his people made to the dying Joseph. "Bones" probably mean "remains." Joseph had been mummified so his corpse would have been wrapped and probably in a good state of preservation.
3. Jehovah appeared to the Israelites in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night, accompanying and guiding his people. It is not clear what to make of this description, but it surely refers to some kind of airship in which Jehovah was riding. For the ancients the only objects that could appear in the sky except for the heavenly bodies would be birds and clouds. If the ship was described as a cloud it only means that it resembled a cloud more than anything else. As for the pillar of fire, fire seems less likely than light. Flames can only result from something burning; a burning object hovering in the sky is not plausible. Illumination is always associated with fire, since, at that time, fire was the sole source of light save for the heavenly bodies, and it was probably generally assumed that the sun burned -- as indeed it does. (It was not yet realized that the light of the moon was merely the reflected light of the sun.) Thus, we have an airship that turned on its lights at night and, at one point, directed those lights to the Israelite encampment. The pillar description must refer to the shape of the object, cylindrical and elongated, rather like the large, cigar-shaped UFOs that have been sighted in modern times. A pillar, though, is thought of as upright and not on its side. It's strange to think of an airship vertical instead of horizontal, except when taking off, but that might have been its normal attitude when hovering, as the ship must have been doing. And it should not be overlooked that missiles and rockets might easily be described by ancients as pillars or columns.
4. True to character, the Pharaoh, incorrigibly stubborn, reneges on his pledge to free the Israelites and decides to go after his slaves and bring them back. Also, true to form, the Israelites are weak, vacillating, ungrateful, and skeptical; they want to go back to Egypt and return to slavery at the first sign of adversity.
5. The Pharaoh is able to muster 600 chariots and more, as well as a huge army. Where did all these men come from? Plague survivors? What did they have to eat in an Egypt whose food supply was destroyed by the just-described series of disastrous plagues? Where did the horses come from? Weren't they all killed off?
6. Not only was Jehovah leading the people from his airship, but there is a reference to one of his agents that was apparently on the ground acting as a guide, probably taking orders from Jehovah himself in the ship above. This is quite interesting, because he was not mentioned previously in the story.
7. Jehovah has Moses stretch out his arm and his staff to summon an east wind to blow all night in order to separate the waters to make a path for the Israelites to walk dry shod through the middle of the sea. This is preposterous on so many levels. First of all, a wind, if it was capable of blowing all the water in the sea, would blow it to the opposite bank (and drown the Israelites); it could hardly form a passage in the midst of the water. Some have suggested a reef might have been uncovered by a wind, but still, the water washed away from it would have come down upon the Israelites. It simply isn't possible that enough water could have been displaced to later inundate the Pharaoh's chariots when sea levels returned to normal. One might imagine a mammoth leaf blower could do the job described, but still, it would have to generate a super gale that would probably blow the Israelites back to Egypt. A tsunami might have caused a receding of the sea before its inundation of the shore. One feels that a memory of this sort of event might have inspired the story here. However, the mechanism by which a path through the sea could be formed with the water held back like walls on each side is not really possible. The parting of the sea, as it is told, is only feasible through some sort of miracle performed by mechanisms we cannot conceive.
8. If the sea bed had been exposed and dried up by the wind, it seems unlikely that it would have been very passable, especially while it was still dark (unless Jehovah's pillar of fire was furnishing enough light for the Israelites). Also, one has to consider how long it would take for the supposed two million people to make the passage. Could this be completed in the wee hours of the morning?
9. Before the sea returned to inundate the Egyptians, Jehovah clogged the wheels of the chariots so they would not make much progress. Most translations describe Jehovah removing the wheels from the chariots, but this seems less likely. Removing the chariot wheels would have been a difficult and senseless task. (What could Jehovah have done, send down an invisible army of angels to unfasten the wheels from their axles, or shoot them all off with a laser gun?) One supposes he impeded the progress of the chariots by simply reversing the drying up of the seabed and reconverting it to mud. Thus, clogged wheels.
10. At last the Israelites are impressed by Jehovah. We will see how long this will last!
Monday, September 23, 2013
Tuesday, September 17, 2013
The Exodus Begins
(Exodus 12:34 - 13:16)
The Israelites packed their bread dough before it could be leavened, bundled the bread pans in their cloaks, and carried them on their shoulders. They did had Moses had bid: they procured from the Egyptians vessels and jewelry of gold and silver and apparel. Jehovah had induced the Egyptians to view them favorably and so they complied with the Israelites and gave them whatever they demanded. (Indeed, the departing Israelites despoiled the Egyptians of their wealth and possessions.)
The Israelites thus journeyed from the city of Ramses to Succoth. They numbered about 600,000 men on foot, not counting children and the motley crew of people who accompanied them or the herds and flocks and the large amount of livestock. The Israelites baked the unleavened dough they had taken with them when they left Egypt and made flat bread. (They did not have time to leaven the bread since they undertook their journey in haste: they dared not delay and had no time to prepare a proper meal.)
The nomadic wanderings of the people of Israel who dwelt in Canaan and in Egypt comprised 430 years. At the end of that time, to the day, the people of Jehovah marched out of the land of Egypt arrayed in military formation. This then was a night to remember, when Jehovah led them out of Egypt -- a night to be commemorated by future generations.
Jehovah told Moses and Aaron, "This is the ceremonial feast of Passover. No stranger may take part in it and eat, but the purchased slave, if he has been circumcised, may join in it, but not the foreigner or the hired hand. The feast shall be consumed within the house and nothing taken outside to eat nor should any bone be broken. The entire Israelite community must observe these rules. If a foreigner lives with you and is willing to observe the Passover, he must circumcise all male members of his family; then he may celebrate it in the same manner as native Israelites. But if any man remains uncircumcised, he must not partake of the Passover meal. These same rules will apply to the native as well as to the foreigner who lives among you. The children of Israel abided by what Jehovah had told Moses and Aaron.
And so on this very day Jehovah ushered the people of Israel out of Egypt like an army.
And Jehovah told Moses, "Reserve for me all the firstborn, the offspring that emerges first from the womb of Israel, both of man and beast. It shall be mine!"
Moses proclaimed to his people, "Remember this day when you left Egypt where you were slaves, for it was by the power of Jehovah that you were brought out of bondage. (Therefore, keep in mind you shall eat no leavened bread.) You were freed in the month of Abib. So when Jehovah guides you into the land of the Canaanites, Hethites, Amorites, Hivites, and Jebusites, which he promised to your forefathers -- a land abounding in milk and honey, you must celebrate this event during this month in the years to come. For seven days you will eat unleavened bread and on the seventh day there will be a feast to Jehovah. Unleavened bread will be eaten for seven days; there will be no leavened bread in your possession, nor shall there be any leaven at all in your homes.
"On the day of the Passover feast, you will explain to your children. ‘We observe this custom because of what Jehovah did for us when we left Egypt. It is intended to remind you like a stamp on your hands or a mark on your forehead that the commands of Jehovah should always be on your mind. For it is by the power of Jehovah that you were brought out of Egypt. You will, therefore, observe this tradition at this time of the year for all the years to come.'
“When it comes to pass that Jehovah will lead you into the land of the Canaanites, which he promised to your forefathers, and settle you there, you will set aside all the firstborn animals, those who emerge first from the womb. The males will belong to Jehovah. The firstborn foil of a donkey may, however, be spared if a lamb or kid be offered in its place. Otherwise, you must kill it by breaking its neck. All of your firstborn sons may similarly have their places taken by sacrificial animals.
"And when the time comes that your son will question you, 'What is all this for?,' you will say to him, 'Jehovah brought us out of Egypt and freed us from slavery with his power. When the Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let us go, Jehovah killed all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both men and animals. That is why we sacrifice to Jehovah all the firstborn males, the offspring first out of the womb, although the firstborn of our children we redeem with a substitute sacrifice.’ It will be a reminder like a stamp on your hand or a mark on your forehead that it is through the power of Jehovah that we were brought out of Egypt."
Notes
1. Several times it is mentioned that the departing Israelites "asked" their Egyptian neighbors to "borrow" their gold and silver -- according to most translations. It's rather absurd. First of all, the Israelites lived segregated from the Egyptians in Goshen; therefore, they would have no Egyptian neighbors. Secondly, it is preposterous that the Egyptians would willing lend their precious items of gold and silver or clothes to absconding slaves who had brought catastrophe after catastrophe upon their country. (Would a modern employer, when the Latina maid wants to go back to Mexico, "lend" her the family silver and the wife’s wardrobe after the maid had used magic to burn down the house and murder the baby?) It is obvious that the Israelites, perhaps not too unjustly vengeful, plundered the country and looted its citizens with the sanction of their god Jehovah, who has yet to say anything against stealing. This seems particularly cruel to the Egyptians who had suffered so much and who had died in vast numbers owing to the Israelites and to their Pharaoh's stubbornness. Jehovah expresses no sympathy for the Egyptians: he is obviously not the god of "do unto others," "forgive your neighbor his trespasses," and "love your enemy." Quite the contrary!
2. The cities of Ramses and Succoth are in northeastern Egypt, the delta region, but the reference to them is probably anachronistic. It is a foolish mistake, made by most who try to date the Exodus, that the place names accurately reflect names and locations that were current at the time of the story, rather than the time of the storyteller. The Exodus, though not exactly as described in the Bible, could only have occurred during an intermediate period in Egyptian history, most likely the period between the Middle Kingdom and the New Kingdom. The plagues may date to this period. The emigration of the Israelites may have been part of the expulsion of the Hyksos at the beginning of the New Kingdom. (The biblical narratives furnish a large number of jigsaw puzzle pieces, but they really can't be put together in any way that creates the picture on the box.)
3. The wanderings, or sojourns of the Israelites, who had no country of their own but were forced to settle in foreign lands for various periods of time, are recorded as lasting 430 years. It is unlikely that this means the duration of time the Israelites stayed in Egypt, but rather the time from their departure from Ur in Mesopotamia. Some versions of Exodus (eg. the Samaritan Pentateuch) actually include Canaan in this sentence, as I have. Calculated from Abraham’s emigration from Mesopotamia, the number of years is 215. Even this less lengthy stay in Egypt is contradicted by the stated number of generations. Moses is only a great grandson of Levi. If Moses were really 80 years old, or 81, at the time, then that still makes less than 150 years as an upper limit for the time of their residence in Egypt, allowing a generous gap between generations. But if Moses at the time of the Exodus were, say, 40 years old, which is more likely, the time spent by the Israelites in Egypt could easily amount to less than 90 years. The protracted number of years is credible only if one permits the impossible longevity of all the biblical patriarchs. It is certainly possible that a remarkable man of ancient times might live to be 90 or even 100 and that he might have children at an advanced age, but that all his descendants would do so is too improbable to be accepted.
4. The number of generations also makes preposterous the level of the Israelite population said to have participated in the Exodus -- 600,000 men, probably 2 million persons overall. (Ancient sources always seem to exaggerate numbers, whether it is the number of soldiers in a battle or the number of years a past event occurred.) Such a number could form a queue stretching from Egypt to Canaan! Considering they all got ready to go in a single night, actually just the wee hours of the morning, credibility is pushed to the breaking point. Such a vast movement of population en masse would simply not be possible for reasons that will be obvious. It seems more likely that if the Exodus ever took place, it probably consisted of a few thousands persons, the number that would normally be produced in the number of generations cited.
5. Jehovah's obsession with unleavened bread and his harping on the Passover feast is past annoying. Amid the epic calamities in Egypt and the forthcoming liberation of his people, this, incredibly, seems of paramount importance to him. --- So far, he has created two rules for his people, neither of them having anything to do with moral conduct. The first is that males must be circumcised and, secondly, all must eat unleavened bread on the Passover. (Violate the first and you will be put to death, violate the second and you will be kicked out of the tribe.) Then, he creates a third, every firstborn male belongs to him. You wonder if he has the time, the appetite, and the capacity to consume all the animals to be sacrificed to him or to enjoy the smoky smell of their roasting flesh. And you wonder how a poor tribe could afford this vast sacrificial waste of livestock.
6. Abib is the first month of the ancient Jewish lunar calendar, occurring in March or April.
7. It might be mentioned at this point, concerning the origin of the Hebrew people, that while most modern historians believe the Exodus never occurred and that the Hebrews never lived in Egypt, but came from Canaan, most ancient historians ascribed the emergence of the Hebrews as a distinct people to their expulsion from Egypt. The Roman historian Tacitus (circa 110 A.D.), who seems to have done some research on the subject, offers several fanciful theories as to their origin, but ends up agreeing with the first-century B.C. Greek historians Chaeremon and Lysimachus of Alexandria and Diodorus of Sicily that the Israelites were expelled from Egypt because they were diseased. Moses emerged as their leader and saved them from perishing in the desert. A less glamorous view of history than the one presented by Exodus! (I might mention that more than a century ago a fraudulent genealogist foisted upon my mother’s family, the Blaisdells, a phony history concerning its origins. The bogus account claimed that their immigrant forefather was a Sir Ralph Blaisdell of Welsh descent, with royal connections, a coat of arms, and a ship of his own. The family bought it until the truth was eventually revealed. Ralph was just plain Ralph, bless him, a Lancashire tailor and tavern keeper who illegally left England and landed on a the coast of Maine in a ship that was then immediately wrecked by a storm. --- I like the real story better!)
8. Among those who credit the Exodus, various dates have been suggested for it from the 16th to the 13th Centuries B.C., or even later. A very long book could be written examining (and debunking) every claim. The very fact that the Exodus cannot be dated is a tip-off to its fictional or, at best, semi-mythical provenance. Confirming this is the fact that the Pharaoh of the Exodus is never named and bears no resemblance to any historical figure (least of all to Ramses the Great, generally believed to be the Pharaoh of the Exodus, courtesy of Cecil B. De Mille.) Archaeological evidence is entirely missing, as is any confirmation from Egyptian historical sources.
The Israelites packed their bread dough before it could be leavened, bundled the bread pans in their cloaks, and carried them on their shoulders. They did had Moses had bid: they procured from the Egyptians vessels and jewelry of gold and silver and apparel. Jehovah had induced the Egyptians to view them favorably and so they complied with the Israelites and gave them whatever they demanded. (Indeed, the departing Israelites despoiled the Egyptians of their wealth and possessions.)
The Israelites thus journeyed from the city of Ramses to Succoth. They numbered about 600,000 men on foot, not counting children and the motley crew of people who accompanied them or the herds and flocks and the large amount of livestock. The Israelites baked the unleavened dough they had taken with them when they left Egypt and made flat bread. (They did not have time to leaven the bread since they undertook their journey in haste: they dared not delay and had no time to prepare a proper meal.)
The nomadic wanderings of the people of Israel who dwelt in Canaan and in Egypt comprised 430 years. At the end of that time, to the day, the people of Jehovah marched out of the land of Egypt arrayed in military formation. This then was a night to remember, when Jehovah led them out of Egypt -- a night to be commemorated by future generations.
Jehovah told Moses and Aaron, "This is the ceremonial feast of Passover. No stranger may take part in it and eat, but the purchased slave, if he has been circumcised, may join in it, but not the foreigner or the hired hand. The feast shall be consumed within the house and nothing taken outside to eat nor should any bone be broken. The entire Israelite community must observe these rules. If a foreigner lives with you and is willing to observe the Passover, he must circumcise all male members of his family; then he may celebrate it in the same manner as native Israelites. But if any man remains uncircumcised, he must not partake of the Passover meal. These same rules will apply to the native as well as to the foreigner who lives among you. The children of Israel abided by what Jehovah had told Moses and Aaron.
And so on this very day Jehovah ushered the people of Israel out of Egypt like an army.
And Jehovah told Moses, "Reserve for me all the firstborn, the offspring that emerges first from the womb of Israel, both of man and beast. It shall be mine!"
Moses proclaimed to his people, "Remember this day when you left Egypt where you were slaves, for it was by the power of Jehovah that you were brought out of bondage. (Therefore, keep in mind you shall eat no leavened bread.) You were freed in the month of Abib. So when Jehovah guides you into the land of the Canaanites, Hethites, Amorites, Hivites, and Jebusites, which he promised to your forefathers -- a land abounding in milk and honey, you must celebrate this event during this month in the years to come. For seven days you will eat unleavened bread and on the seventh day there will be a feast to Jehovah. Unleavened bread will be eaten for seven days; there will be no leavened bread in your possession, nor shall there be any leaven at all in your homes.
"On the day of the Passover feast, you will explain to your children. ‘We observe this custom because of what Jehovah did for us when we left Egypt. It is intended to remind you like a stamp on your hands or a mark on your forehead that the commands of Jehovah should always be on your mind. For it is by the power of Jehovah that you were brought out of Egypt. You will, therefore, observe this tradition at this time of the year for all the years to come.'
“When it comes to pass that Jehovah will lead you into the land of the Canaanites, which he promised to your forefathers, and settle you there, you will set aside all the firstborn animals, those who emerge first from the womb. The males will belong to Jehovah. The firstborn foil of a donkey may, however, be spared if a lamb or kid be offered in its place. Otherwise, you must kill it by breaking its neck. All of your firstborn sons may similarly have their places taken by sacrificial animals.
"And when the time comes that your son will question you, 'What is all this for?,' you will say to him, 'Jehovah brought us out of Egypt and freed us from slavery with his power. When the Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let us go, Jehovah killed all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both men and animals. That is why we sacrifice to Jehovah all the firstborn males, the offspring first out of the womb, although the firstborn of our children we redeem with a substitute sacrifice.’ It will be a reminder like a stamp on your hand or a mark on your forehead that it is through the power of Jehovah that we were brought out of Egypt."
Notes
1. Several times it is mentioned that the departing Israelites "asked" their Egyptian neighbors to "borrow" their gold and silver -- according to most translations. It's rather absurd. First of all, the Israelites lived segregated from the Egyptians in Goshen; therefore, they would have no Egyptian neighbors. Secondly, it is preposterous that the Egyptians would willing lend their precious items of gold and silver or clothes to absconding slaves who had brought catastrophe after catastrophe upon their country. (Would a modern employer, when the Latina maid wants to go back to Mexico, "lend" her the family silver and the wife’s wardrobe after the maid had used magic to burn down the house and murder the baby?) It is obvious that the Israelites, perhaps not too unjustly vengeful, plundered the country and looted its citizens with the sanction of their god Jehovah, who has yet to say anything against stealing. This seems particularly cruel to the Egyptians who had suffered so much and who had died in vast numbers owing to the Israelites and to their Pharaoh's stubbornness. Jehovah expresses no sympathy for the Egyptians: he is obviously not the god of "do unto others," "forgive your neighbor his trespasses," and "love your enemy." Quite the contrary!
2. The cities of Ramses and Succoth are in northeastern Egypt, the delta region, but the reference to them is probably anachronistic. It is a foolish mistake, made by most who try to date the Exodus, that the place names accurately reflect names and locations that were current at the time of the story, rather than the time of the storyteller. The Exodus, though not exactly as described in the Bible, could only have occurred during an intermediate period in Egyptian history, most likely the period between the Middle Kingdom and the New Kingdom. The plagues may date to this period. The emigration of the Israelites may have been part of the expulsion of the Hyksos at the beginning of the New Kingdom. (The biblical narratives furnish a large number of jigsaw puzzle pieces, but they really can't be put together in any way that creates the picture on the box.)
3. The wanderings, or sojourns of the Israelites, who had no country of their own but were forced to settle in foreign lands for various periods of time, are recorded as lasting 430 years. It is unlikely that this means the duration of time the Israelites stayed in Egypt, but rather the time from their departure from Ur in Mesopotamia. Some versions of Exodus (eg. the Samaritan Pentateuch) actually include Canaan in this sentence, as I have. Calculated from Abraham’s emigration from Mesopotamia, the number of years is 215. Even this less lengthy stay in Egypt is contradicted by the stated number of generations. Moses is only a great grandson of Levi. If Moses were really 80 years old, or 81, at the time, then that still makes less than 150 years as an upper limit for the time of their residence in Egypt, allowing a generous gap between generations. But if Moses at the time of the Exodus were, say, 40 years old, which is more likely, the time spent by the Israelites in Egypt could easily amount to less than 90 years. The protracted number of years is credible only if one permits the impossible longevity of all the biblical patriarchs. It is certainly possible that a remarkable man of ancient times might live to be 90 or even 100 and that he might have children at an advanced age, but that all his descendants would do so is too improbable to be accepted.
4. The number of generations also makes preposterous the level of the Israelite population said to have participated in the Exodus -- 600,000 men, probably 2 million persons overall. (Ancient sources always seem to exaggerate numbers, whether it is the number of soldiers in a battle or the number of years a past event occurred.) Such a number could form a queue stretching from Egypt to Canaan! Considering they all got ready to go in a single night, actually just the wee hours of the morning, credibility is pushed to the breaking point. Such a vast movement of population en masse would simply not be possible for reasons that will be obvious. It seems more likely that if the Exodus ever took place, it probably consisted of a few thousands persons, the number that would normally be produced in the number of generations cited.
5. Jehovah's obsession with unleavened bread and his harping on the Passover feast is past annoying. Amid the epic calamities in Egypt and the forthcoming liberation of his people, this, incredibly, seems of paramount importance to him. --- So far, he has created two rules for his people, neither of them having anything to do with moral conduct. The first is that males must be circumcised and, secondly, all must eat unleavened bread on the Passover. (Violate the first and you will be put to death, violate the second and you will be kicked out of the tribe.) Then, he creates a third, every firstborn male belongs to him. You wonder if he has the time, the appetite, and the capacity to consume all the animals to be sacrificed to him or to enjoy the smoky smell of their roasting flesh. And you wonder how a poor tribe could afford this vast sacrificial waste of livestock.
6. Abib is the first month of the ancient Jewish lunar calendar, occurring in March or April.
7. It might be mentioned at this point, concerning the origin of the Hebrew people, that while most modern historians believe the Exodus never occurred and that the Hebrews never lived in Egypt, but came from Canaan, most ancient historians ascribed the emergence of the Hebrews as a distinct people to their expulsion from Egypt. The Roman historian Tacitus (circa 110 A.D.), who seems to have done some research on the subject, offers several fanciful theories as to their origin, but ends up agreeing with the first-century B.C. Greek historians Chaeremon and Lysimachus of Alexandria and Diodorus of Sicily that the Israelites were expelled from Egypt because they were diseased. Moses emerged as their leader and saved them from perishing in the desert. A less glamorous view of history than the one presented by Exodus! (I might mention that more than a century ago a fraudulent genealogist foisted upon my mother’s family, the Blaisdells, a phony history concerning its origins. The bogus account claimed that their immigrant forefather was a Sir Ralph Blaisdell of Welsh descent, with royal connections, a coat of arms, and a ship of his own. The family bought it until the truth was eventually revealed. Ralph was just plain Ralph, bless him, a Lancashire tailor and tavern keeper who illegally left England and landed on a the coast of Maine in a ship that was then immediately wrecked by a storm. --- I like the real story better!)
8. Among those who credit the Exodus, various dates have been suggested for it from the 16th to the 13th Centuries B.C., or even later. A very long book could be written examining (and debunking) every claim. The very fact that the Exodus cannot be dated is a tip-off to its fictional or, at best, semi-mythical provenance. Confirming this is the fact that the Pharaoh of the Exodus is never named and bears no resemblance to any historical figure (least of all to Ramses the Great, generally believed to be the Pharaoh of the Exodus, courtesy of Cecil B. De Mille.) Archaeological evidence is entirely missing, as is any confirmation from Egyptian historical sources.
Wednesday, September 11, 2013
Passover
(Exodus 11:1 - 12:33)
Jehovah told Moses, "I shall bring one more plague down upon the Pharaoh and Egypt, and after that he will not only let you go, but will expel you. Announce to all the people that every man and woman should procure from his neighbors vessels and jewelry of gold and silver."
(Jehovah had caused the Israelites to acquire a favorable reputation among the Egyptian people, and Moses was held in high regard by the Pharaoh's court and by the common people of Egypt as well.)
Moses announced to the Pharaoh, "Jehovah says, 'At midnight I will go abroad through the land of Egypt. All the firstborn children in Egypt will then perish, from the firstborn of the Pharaoh who sits upon the throne to the firstborn of the servant girl who grinds corn upon the millstone -- even the firstborn of the animals. There shall be an wailing outcry such there has never been in the land of Egypt nor will be again. But among the Israelites there will be nary a murmur among men or beasts; not even a dog will bark. You will then see the clear distinction I, Jehovah, am making between Egypt and Israel.’ All those who serve the Pharaoh will bow down before me. They will beg me, ‘Leave and take your followers with you!’ Then, only then, will I depart.” And Moses, very angry, withdrew from the Pharaoh.
Jehovah told Moses, "The Pharaoh will not heed your words, compelling me to perform more miracles in Egypt.”
Moses and Aaron accomplished all the miracles in the Pharaoh’s presence, but Jehovah made the Pharaoh stubborn and he continued to refuse to let the Israelites leave the country.
Jehovah spoke to Moses and Aaron in Egypt. "This month will be observed by you as the beginning of the year; this will be the first month in the year. Inform all the assembled people of Israel. 'On the tenth of this month each man must take a lamb for his family, one for each household. If the family is too small to eat an entire lamb then it will share with that of his next-door neighbor. (Divide the meat according to the number of people and how much each will eat.) The lamb must be perfect, a yearling male. It may be a lamb, or it may be a goat kid. It shall be carefully penned till the fourteenth of the month and then, at sundown, all the people of Israel en masse will slaughter their lamb (or kid). Each shall take the blood of the lamb and smear it over the door posts and the lintel of the house in which the lamb will be eaten. That night they shall dine on the roasted lamb with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. (Don't eat it raw or boiled, but roast it whole on a spit over a fire.) You will save nothing of the lamb, and any left-overs should be burned before morning. When you eat it, you must do so in this manner: with your robe belted up, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. You should eat it quickly; this is Jehovah's Passover. For this is the night when I will pass through the land of Egypt and kill all the firstborn, both man and beast and exact punishment upon the gods of Egypt -- I am Jehovah!”
“The blood on the house will be a sign that you are residing there. When I see it, I will pass over you and spare you from the deadly plague that I will be inflicting upon the land of Egypt.”
“For you this will be a day of remembrance and you will commemorate it throughout the ages as a feast day for Jehovah. Your descendants will observe it forever as a part of religious law. For seven days you will eat unleavened bread. On the first day all leaven must be removed from your house and anyone who eats anything leavened during the seven days will be expelled from the community of Israelites."
"On the first day of Passover and again on the seventh day there will be a religious convocation. On these days you will do no work at all except that necessary for the preparation of meals. You will hold a feast of unleavened bread, as a remembrance of the day when I brought out of Egypt the assembled nation of Israel. This day will be established as a religious festival and will be celebrated down through the ages. From the evening of 14th day of the month until the evening of the 21st you will eat only unleavened bread. For seven days no leaven must be found in your homes and whoever eats anything leavened, that person, whether he be a native or a foreigner, will be expelled from the community of the Israelites. You will eat nothing leavened; wherever you may be living you must eat nothing but unleavened bread."
Moses convened the elders of Israel and told them, “Each family, pick out a lamb and slaughter it as a sacrifice for Passover. Dip a hyssop branch into a basin of lamb’s blood and sprinkle the blood on the lintel and on both the door posts. None of you must leave your houses till morning. Jehovah will be passing through killing Egyptians, but when he sees the blood on the lintel and the door posts, he will pass over those thresholds and bar the assassin from entering your houses and killing you.”
“You will henceforth observe this tradition as law among your descendants for all time to come. When you settle in the land that Jehovah has promised us, you will keep this practice. When it happens that your children will question you, 'What does this custom mean?' You will tell them, 'It is the sacrifice to honor Jehovah's Passover, when he passed over the houses of the Israelites, sparing us while he killed the Egyptians.'" And the people of Israel bowed their heads and prayed. They then departed and did as Jehovah had commanded Moses and Aaron.
And so at midnight Jehovah put to death all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of the Pharaoh that sat on the throne to the firstborn of the prisoner in the dungeon, and all the firstborn of the livestock. The Pharaoh got up in the middle of the night, as did his court and all his subjects. There was a huge outcry in Egypt, for there wasn't a single house in which there was not at least one death.
During the night the Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and told them, "Get out and be gone from my people, both you and the rest of the Israelites. Go worship your Jehovah as you wanted! And take your herds and your flocks with you, as you wanted. Just go -- and ask your god to bless me!”
The Egyptian people were eager to send the Israelites out of their country as soon as possible, for, as they said, "Otherwise, we’ll all be dead men!"
Notes
1. Some of this section of the narrative seems disjointed, repetitive, even out of sequence (eg. the reference in the second sentence to the gold and silver vessels should come later in the narrative.)
2. It is noted that Moses has acquired a reputation among the Egyptians. You could understand how they could fear or hate the man who has brought about the almost total destruction of their country, but think highly of him? Since he was the instrument by which his god had inflicted these catastrophic plagues, it is a great wonder he was not the target of mob violence. How could they be kindly disposed to him? Even the Pharaoh did not make good on his promise to put him to death if he ever appeared again at court. Of course keeping promises wasn't this Pharaoh's strong point.
3. The Tenth Plague planned by Jehovah involves perhaps the greatest act of wanton mass murder in the world's bloody history, the slaughter of the firstborn offspring of every Egyptian. While the Hebrew word “bechor" is usually rendered "firstborn,” the eldest child, it can also mean, figuratively, the choice, the best, the strongest. The biblical authors, though, probably meant it in a literal sense, this act of wholesale murder being the fulfillment of Jehovah's promise to kill the Egyptian firstborn because they had threatened the children of Israel, whom he regarded as his firstborn. However much the act seems dependent upon miracle or supernatural magic, explanations abound to account for the death of the firstborn. It has been pointed out that some diseases, the bubonic plague among them, often seem to strike the fittest rather than the weakest or affect the young rather than the old. Contaminated food supplies may have been consumed more by the favored, eldest child than by the younger children, thus causing them to come down with fatal diseases more often. Noxious gases emanating from the Nile have been blamed for causing instant, overnight death. These and other more exotic explanations come far short of accounting for what is more easily and accurately explained by the near certainty that the death of the firstborn simply didn’t happen -- it is a fictional invention to illustrate the themes of the story.
4. The death of the firstborn includes animals. What animals could possibly remain after their complete (and repeated) extermination by the previous plagues -- house cats?
5. If such an event as the death of the firstborn did really take place, it is puzzling that it was never recorded by Egyptian historians. In fact, the plagues of Egypt, while part of traditional history of the people of the northern Kingdom of Israel, are not even mentioned by the prophets of the southern Kingdom of Judah. It has been suggested that the plagues were, in fact, a late addition to Hebrew legendary history. (Indeed, if all the plagues occurred as they do in Exodus, in the space of less than a year, Egypt would have soon ceased to exist -- no drinkable water, no crops, no food, no livestock, and most of its people dead.)
6. The ceremony of the Passover meal (or seder) is herein described. One wonders if Jehovah, or Moses, simply thought of the menu off the top of his head. The symbolic significance of the unleavened bread, the bitter herbs, and so forth is evident, but it would have significance only as a commemoration. The story seems an explanation for the origin of a later custom, rather like an apocryphal story about Jesus putting decorations on a pine tree. Passover, of course, remains as an important Jewish holiday and, many of the faith observe the rituals meticulously.
7. Jehovah, who, so far, has demanded practically nothing of his followers in regard to their moral conduct, has become very zealous about dietary restrictions and ceremonial observances. It is interesting that you may commit mass murder, sell your brother into slavery, have sex with your step-mother, lie, cheat, and steal and still be a part of the Hebrew community, but if you eat bread with a little yeast in it at the wrong time of the year, you’re kicked to the curb.
8. The smearing of goat's blood on the door posts and lintels is similar to many folk traditions intended to ward off evil spirits from the threshold of the house.
9. The means by which the Tenth Plague is accomplished is left vague -- for a reason: it it not really explainable. Did Jehovah send out an army of angels to enter every residence in Egypt? How many households might have existed in Egypt at that time? It seems likely the population of Egypt would have been at least a couple million people, minus, though, the considerable number who must have perished during the previous plagues. An army spread out over the country, even an invisible one, would be strained to accomplish the task. The instrument, if not "human,” must have been intelligent because it had to figure out who was the firstborn in each household and, more than that, to determine what animals were firstborn and then put them all to death -- how? If this holocaust was accomplished by some miraculous means, the will of God making it so, why then would God have any difficulty discerning what houses were occupied by Israelites? (He was able to enter an Egyptian house and immediately recognize whether the pet dog was firstborn or not.) Also, it should be pointed out that the Israelites all lived in Goshen, removed from the native Egyptians, so why was this even necessary? But very little of this absurd story makes sense or can pass any test of logical, let alone, historic credibility.
10. The instrument of death, whatever or whoever it was, needed that lamb's blood on the door in order to know what houses to pass over. Why the requirement to slaughter some poor lamb in order to get blood to mark the threshold? Why the complicated ceremonial rigmarole? Why not just ask every Israelite to put an "X" or something on the door? The answer is this: all religions and cults and secret societies devise complex, sometimes symbolic, sometimes meaningless rituals in order to nurture a sense of community (we, and only we, do this) and also to cultivate the mindset of unquestioning obedience.
11. On this one fateful night a whole lot happens. The Israelites have their Passover seder, the firstborn of Egypt are all put to death, the entire population of the country (spread out over many hundreds of miles up and down the Nile) raise an outcry that the Pharaoh hears, the Pharaoh summons and receives Moses and Aaron (who seem to need no travel time at all between the Pharaoh’s capital and Goshen), and, as we shall see in the next section, the Israelites all get up, pack their bags, loot their neighbors, and are ready to embark upon an exodus to literally God knows where. This is a dramatic compression of time that is simply jaw dropping.
12. At some point one must ask why Jehovah has chosen to champion among all the peoples of the world this obscure tribe of barbaric nomads, whose leaders have generally been of devious and despicable character, while all but destroying the great civilization of Egypt, whose monumental achievements in architecture, art, engineering, and social organization were triumphs of the ancient world. What sort of values does Jehovah have? Is he interested at all in fostering man's development or in the advancement of civilization, or does he merely want to dominate a flock of docile and obedient sheep and find means and excuses to satisfy his bloodlust?
13. The unleavened bread of Passover, the Jewish matzah or matzo, flat, firm, and wafer-like, is bread made without yeast, a fungal microorganism that makes bread “rise.” Yeast was first used by the ancient Egyptians, who were great bread makers.
14. Hyssop is, in modern usage, a mint plant. The biblical hyssop has not been positively identified, but its branches were used in purification rites.
Jehovah told Moses, "I shall bring one more plague down upon the Pharaoh and Egypt, and after that he will not only let you go, but will expel you. Announce to all the people that every man and woman should procure from his neighbors vessels and jewelry of gold and silver."
(Jehovah had caused the Israelites to acquire a favorable reputation among the Egyptian people, and Moses was held in high regard by the Pharaoh's court and by the common people of Egypt as well.)
Moses announced to the Pharaoh, "Jehovah says, 'At midnight I will go abroad through the land of Egypt. All the firstborn children in Egypt will then perish, from the firstborn of the Pharaoh who sits upon the throne to the firstborn of the servant girl who grinds corn upon the millstone -- even the firstborn of the animals. There shall be an wailing outcry such there has never been in the land of Egypt nor will be again. But among the Israelites there will be nary a murmur among men or beasts; not even a dog will bark. You will then see the clear distinction I, Jehovah, am making between Egypt and Israel.’ All those who serve the Pharaoh will bow down before me. They will beg me, ‘Leave and take your followers with you!’ Then, only then, will I depart.” And Moses, very angry, withdrew from the Pharaoh.
Jehovah told Moses, "The Pharaoh will not heed your words, compelling me to perform more miracles in Egypt.”
Moses and Aaron accomplished all the miracles in the Pharaoh’s presence, but Jehovah made the Pharaoh stubborn and he continued to refuse to let the Israelites leave the country.
Jehovah spoke to Moses and Aaron in Egypt. "This month will be observed by you as the beginning of the year; this will be the first month in the year. Inform all the assembled people of Israel. 'On the tenth of this month each man must take a lamb for his family, one for each household. If the family is too small to eat an entire lamb then it will share with that of his next-door neighbor. (Divide the meat according to the number of people and how much each will eat.) The lamb must be perfect, a yearling male. It may be a lamb, or it may be a goat kid. It shall be carefully penned till the fourteenth of the month and then, at sundown, all the people of Israel en masse will slaughter their lamb (or kid). Each shall take the blood of the lamb and smear it over the door posts and the lintel of the house in which the lamb will be eaten. That night they shall dine on the roasted lamb with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. (Don't eat it raw or boiled, but roast it whole on a spit over a fire.) You will save nothing of the lamb, and any left-overs should be burned before morning. When you eat it, you must do so in this manner: with your robe belted up, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. You should eat it quickly; this is Jehovah's Passover. For this is the night when I will pass through the land of Egypt and kill all the firstborn, both man and beast and exact punishment upon the gods of Egypt -- I am Jehovah!”
“The blood on the house will be a sign that you are residing there. When I see it, I will pass over you and spare you from the deadly plague that I will be inflicting upon the land of Egypt.”
“For you this will be a day of remembrance and you will commemorate it throughout the ages as a feast day for Jehovah. Your descendants will observe it forever as a part of religious law. For seven days you will eat unleavened bread. On the first day all leaven must be removed from your house and anyone who eats anything leavened during the seven days will be expelled from the community of Israelites."
"On the first day of Passover and again on the seventh day there will be a religious convocation. On these days you will do no work at all except that necessary for the preparation of meals. You will hold a feast of unleavened bread, as a remembrance of the day when I brought out of Egypt the assembled nation of Israel. This day will be established as a religious festival and will be celebrated down through the ages. From the evening of 14th day of the month until the evening of the 21st you will eat only unleavened bread. For seven days no leaven must be found in your homes and whoever eats anything leavened, that person, whether he be a native or a foreigner, will be expelled from the community of the Israelites. You will eat nothing leavened; wherever you may be living you must eat nothing but unleavened bread."
Moses convened the elders of Israel and told them, “Each family, pick out a lamb and slaughter it as a sacrifice for Passover. Dip a hyssop branch into a basin of lamb’s blood and sprinkle the blood on the lintel and on both the door posts. None of you must leave your houses till morning. Jehovah will be passing through killing Egyptians, but when he sees the blood on the lintel and the door posts, he will pass over those thresholds and bar the assassin from entering your houses and killing you.”
“You will henceforth observe this tradition as law among your descendants for all time to come. When you settle in the land that Jehovah has promised us, you will keep this practice. When it happens that your children will question you, 'What does this custom mean?' You will tell them, 'It is the sacrifice to honor Jehovah's Passover, when he passed over the houses of the Israelites, sparing us while he killed the Egyptians.'" And the people of Israel bowed their heads and prayed. They then departed and did as Jehovah had commanded Moses and Aaron.
And so at midnight Jehovah put to death all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of the Pharaoh that sat on the throne to the firstborn of the prisoner in the dungeon, and all the firstborn of the livestock. The Pharaoh got up in the middle of the night, as did his court and all his subjects. There was a huge outcry in Egypt, for there wasn't a single house in which there was not at least one death.
During the night the Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and told them, "Get out and be gone from my people, both you and the rest of the Israelites. Go worship your Jehovah as you wanted! And take your herds and your flocks with you, as you wanted. Just go -- and ask your god to bless me!”
The Egyptian people were eager to send the Israelites out of their country as soon as possible, for, as they said, "Otherwise, we’ll all be dead men!"
Notes
1. Some of this section of the narrative seems disjointed, repetitive, even out of sequence (eg. the reference in the second sentence to the gold and silver vessels should come later in the narrative.)
2. It is noted that Moses has acquired a reputation among the Egyptians. You could understand how they could fear or hate the man who has brought about the almost total destruction of their country, but think highly of him? Since he was the instrument by which his god had inflicted these catastrophic plagues, it is a great wonder he was not the target of mob violence. How could they be kindly disposed to him? Even the Pharaoh did not make good on his promise to put him to death if he ever appeared again at court. Of course keeping promises wasn't this Pharaoh's strong point.
3. The Tenth Plague planned by Jehovah involves perhaps the greatest act of wanton mass murder in the world's bloody history, the slaughter of the firstborn offspring of every Egyptian. While the Hebrew word “bechor" is usually rendered "firstborn,” the eldest child, it can also mean, figuratively, the choice, the best, the strongest. The biblical authors, though, probably meant it in a literal sense, this act of wholesale murder being the fulfillment of Jehovah's promise to kill the Egyptian firstborn because they had threatened the children of Israel, whom he regarded as his firstborn. However much the act seems dependent upon miracle or supernatural magic, explanations abound to account for the death of the firstborn. It has been pointed out that some diseases, the bubonic plague among them, often seem to strike the fittest rather than the weakest or affect the young rather than the old. Contaminated food supplies may have been consumed more by the favored, eldest child than by the younger children, thus causing them to come down with fatal diseases more often. Noxious gases emanating from the Nile have been blamed for causing instant, overnight death. These and other more exotic explanations come far short of accounting for what is more easily and accurately explained by the near certainty that the death of the firstborn simply didn’t happen -- it is a fictional invention to illustrate the themes of the story.
4. The death of the firstborn includes animals. What animals could possibly remain after their complete (and repeated) extermination by the previous plagues -- house cats?
5. If such an event as the death of the firstborn did really take place, it is puzzling that it was never recorded by Egyptian historians. In fact, the plagues of Egypt, while part of traditional history of the people of the northern Kingdom of Israel, are not even mentioned by the prophets of the southern Kingdom of Judah. It has been suggested that the plagues were, in fact, a late addition to Hebrew legendary history. (Indeed, if all the plagues occurred as they do in Exodus, in the space of less than a year, Egypt would have soon ceased to exist -- no drinkable water, no crops, no food, no livestock, and most of its people dead.)
6. The ceremony of the Passover meal (or seder) is herein described. One wonders if Jehovah, or Moses, simply thought of the menu off the top of his head. The symbolic significance of the unleavened bread, the bitter herbs, and so forth is evident, but it would have significance only as a commemoration. The story seems an explanation for the origin of a later custom, rather like an apocryphal story about Jesus putting decorations on a pine tree. Passover, of course, remains as an important Jewish holiday and, many of the faith observe the rituals meticulously.
7. Jehovah, who, so far, has demanded practically nothing of his followers in regard to their moral conduct, has become very zealous about dietary restrictions and ceremonial observances. It is interesting that you may commit mass murder, sell your brother into slavery, have sex with your step-mother, lie, cheat, and steal and still be a part of the Hebrew community, but if you eat bread with a little yeast in it at the wrong time of the year, you’re kicked to the curb.
8. The smearing of goat's blood on the door posts and lintels is similar to many folk traditions intended to ward off evil spirits from the threshold of the house.
9. The means by which the Tenth Plague is accomplished is left vague -- for a reason: it it not really explainable. Did Jehovah send out an army of angels to enter every residence in Egypt? How many households might have existed in Egypt at that time? It seems likely the population of Egypt would have been at least a couple million people, minus, though, the considerable number who must have perished during the previous plagues. An army spread out over the country, even an invisible one, would be strained to accomplish the task. The instrument, if not "human,” must have been intelligent because it had to figure out who was the firstborn in each household and, more than that, to determine what animals were firstborn and then put them all to death -- how? If this holocaust was accomplished by some miraculous means, the will of God making it so, why then would God have any difficulty discerning what houses were occupied by Israelites? (He was able to enter an Egyptian house and immediately recognize whether the pet dog was firstborn or not.) Also, it should be pointed out that the Israelites all lived in Goshen, removed from the native Egyptians, so why was this even necessary? But very little of this absurd story makes sense or can pass any test of logical, let alone, historic credibility.
10. The instrument of death, whatever or whoever it was, needed that lamb's blood on the door in order to know what houses to pass over. Why the requirement to slaughter some poor lamb in order to get blood to mark the threshold? Why the complicated ceremonial rigmarole? Why not just ask every Israelite to put an "X" or something on the door? The answer is this: all religions and cults and secret societies devise complex, sometimes symbolic, sometimes meaningless rituals in order to nurture a sense of community (we, and only we, do this) and also to cultivate the mindset of unquestioning obedience.
11. On this one fateful night a whole lot happens. The Israelites have their Passover seder, the firstborn of Egypt are all put to death, the entire population of the country (spread out over many hundreds of miles up and down the Nile) raise an outcry that the Pharaoh hears, the Pharaoh summons and receives Moses and Aaron (who seem to need no travel time at all between the Pharaoh’s capital and Goshen), and, as we shall see in the next section, the Israelites all get up, pack their bags, loot their neighbors, and are ready to embark upon an exodus to literally God knows where. This is a dramatic compression of time that is simply jaw dropping.
12. At some point one must ask why Jehovah has chosen to champion among all the peoples of the world this obscure tribe of barbaric nomads, whose leaders have generally been of devious and despicable character, while all but destroying the great civilization of Egypt, whose monumental achievements in architecture, art, engineering, and social organization were triumphs of the ancient world. What sort of values does Jehovah have? Is he interested at all in fostering man's development or in the advancement of civilization, or does he merely want to dominate a flock of docile and obedient sheep and find means and excuses to satisfy his bloodlust?
13. The unleavened bread of Passover, the Jewish matzah or matzo, flat, firm, and wafer-like, is bread made without yeast, a fungal microorganism that makes bread “rise.” Yeast was first used by the ancient Egyptians, who were great bread makers.
14. Hyssop is, in modern usage, a mint plant. The biblical hyssop has not been positively identified, but its branches were used in purification rites.
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