Listen Everywhere!
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What we learned in ep. 38 - What is Exodus
Historical context
- Most of the writing was carried out during the Babylonian exile (597 BCE to 538 BCE)
- They felt oppressed and repressed by an all-powerful evil king, Nbuchadnezzar
- The exiled leadership chronicles its challenges in keeping their authority over the exiled community
The biblical authors of Exodus are the editors
- Exodus is made of parallel "cinmatic universes" that never meet: the Egyptian Dystopia cinematic universe, and the Willderness cinematic universe
- The book's stories are standalone stories that do not carry over to the following story
- The stories of Exodus were edited into one chronological literary narrative long after they were written
What we learned in ep. 39 - The Evil Loser Egyptian King
What and where is the story?
- The book of Exodus, chapter 1
- Plot: The Hebrews from the time of Joseph (i.e. Genesis) are long dead
- A new Egyptian king persecutes the Hebrews, and enslaves them
- He then proceeds to murder all Hebrew male newborn baby boys
Our first editor (P source)
- According to biblical scholarship: he wrote chapter 1, verses 1-5, 7, and 13-14
- The book starts with a a text written by this first editor
- He connected chronologically the book of Exodus to come right after Genesis, which concludes in Egypt
- According to scholarship: the books of the Torah came to be around 450 BCE when the Persians took over and allowed a return
- The editor mistakingly thought the Genesis Hebrews in Egypt were farmers, when they hated farmers and were proud herders
Our second editor (J source)
- Wrote chapter 1, verses 6, and 8- 12
- His Hebrew is linguistically and literarily centuries ahead of the others writers of this chapter
- Probably lived around 400 years after the other writers of this chapter
- His Hebrew is exquisite
- In his account, the persecution starts with a a royal tax collector
- He wrote a dialogue between the new king of Egypt and his court
- In his account, the Hebrews are a threat to overtake Egypt and then flee
Our very talented writer (E source)
- According to scholarship: he wrote chapter 1, verses 15-22
- According to scholarship: his stories are completely separate from the plot
- Nowhere else in the Bible does anyone remember that Hebrew babies were massacred in great numbers
- The Hebrews remember other hardships for generations
- The Hebrews later remenisce over the grand time they had in Egypt
- The story is deliciously satirical, funny and purposefully nonsensical
- The story ends with a cliffhanger
- The stories of chapter one are clearly literature and later editing
What we learned in ep. 40 - Baby Moses & the Nehelamite
What and where is the story?
- The book of Exodus, chapter 2, verses 1-10
- Baby Moses is placed in a basket along the banks of the Nile
- He is picked up by the Pharoah's daughter who adopts him
- Moses' sister tricks the princess to pay Moses' mother to breastfeed her baby
- The Egyptian princess names Moses after the Hebrew verb "to take out of the water"
Our very talented writer (E source)
- His stories are completely separate from the rest of the book
- Moses doesn't know he was raised in Egyptian royal court
- Dialogues are absurd and nonsensical, on purpose: it's a tongue-in-cheek satire
- The heroes are regular people, while the elite is ridiculed
- The story is a Hebrew adaptation to many famous abandoned baby origin stories
- Likelihood of these events ever happening: 0%
According to scholarship
- E source is separate from the rest of the book
- Moses has Egyptian roots
- Moses is an Egyptian name (Mou-se +-)
- Moses is a Levite and Levites came from Egypt
- Pharaoh's daughter gave the Hebrew name even though she doesn't speak Hebrew
Second Isaiah
- Scholars have long identified the author of Isaiah chapters 40 to 43 as a different prophet who went through the Babylonian exile
- They dub him "Second Isaiah"
- The exile started in 597 BCE and Jerusalem was destroyed ten ears later, in 587 BCE
- So these "Second Isaiah" chapters were written between 597 BC and 586 BCE
- The chapters of Second Isaiah, 40-43, contain more than a dozen easter eggs to the stories written by the E source of Exodus, mentioned above
- The most glaring: the midwife Pua (פעה) and Second Isaiah exclaiming that he will cry out (אפעה) like a woman giving childbirth
Who are our very talented writer (E source) and Second Isaiah?
- Our writer was the scribe for the prophet known as Second Isaiah
- The prophet called Shemaya from Nehelem fits all the information we have about Second Isaiah:
- He had a prolific scribe
- He was in the exile between 597 BCE and 587 BCE
- He rails against the elite and champions working people
- He believes Yahweh will save the Hebrews from their exile in Babylon
What we learned in episode 41 - Schrodinger's Moses
What and where is the story?
- The book of Exodus, chapter 2, verses 11-15
- Moses is grown, comes out to his brothers and sees their suffering
- He kills an Egyptian man beating a Hebrew
- He quarrels with a disloyal Hebrew
- He flees as a fugitive to Midian
Breaking Down the story
- The story doesn't make sense
- Did Moses know he was a Hebrew born of slaves? Did he learn it?
- Why kill the Egyptian man? Why is it "a man" and not a slaver?
- What does the quarrel with the Hebrew mean?
- Why does the Pharaoh want to kill his grandson Moses just for killing a man?
Our Second Editor (J source)
- His Hebrew is exquisite and evolved
- Lived after 300 BCE
What we learned in ep. 42 - The Maccabean Coincidence
What and where is the story?
- The book of Exodus, chapter 2, verses 11-15
- Moses is grown, comes out to his brothers and sees their suffering
- He kills an Egyptian man beating a Hebrew
- He quarrels with a disloyal Hebrew
- He flees as a fugitive to Midian
A historical account & a movie version
- The "J Source" of Exodus is a Maccabean editor living in the 100s BCE
- The Maccabean editor took his historical account of the breakout of the Maccabean Revolt - and adapted it to a "Hollyood" biblical version in Exodus chapters 1-2
- Moses in these verses is a representation of the Maccabean hero Mattithias
- For our Maccabean editor, the evil Egyptian king represents Antiochus IV
Our Maccbean Editor (J Source in Exodus)
- Read his texts from a Maccabean perspective to understand what his texts mean
- His texts are the most violent and gory, per Maccabean values
What we learned in ep. 43 - King Baby Moses
Baby Moses: What and where is the story?
- The book of Exodus, chapter 2, verses 1-10
- Baby Moses is born to nameless parents
- His mother nurses him for three months
- He is taken to live in theEgyptian court while the othrer Hebrews are doing hard labor
It was written between 597 BCE an 587 BCE
- The writer of the baby Moses story penned prophecies for a nameless prophet
- Scholars call him "Second Isaiah" since his prophecies are in Isaiah chapters 40 to 43
- These were written in the Babylonian exile, between 597 BCE and 587 BCE
- Many biblical scholars and archeologists maintain Exodus was written during the Babylonian exile
Shemaya of Nehelam was the nameless prophet
- The only prophet that checks all the boxes is called Shemaya from Nehelam
- We're calling his writer, who wrote the baby Moses story - the Nehelamite writer
- Shemaya and the Nehelamite made many copies of their stories and sent them to prominent Hebrew families
- But their stories were left out of the canon initially because Shemaya was dubbed a false prophet by Jeremiah
The Maccabees added the Baby Moses story to Exodus
- The story was added to the canon around 130 BCE by Maccabean King-Priest John Horkynus
- Around the time he had his historian write up a Maccabean historical account (1 Macabees) to put their narrative on record
- Around the time his kingdom was gaining in power, money and religious furvor
- The prequel to baby Moses, the midwives story, was essential for the Maccabees because it included a genocide of Hebrew male babies by the evil Egyptian king
- The Maccabean propaganda stated that they saved the Hebrews from such a Hebrew male baby genocide
- The Maccabean additions to Exodus are the only ones connected to the Baby Moses story
Better Understanding the Baby Moses story
- When reading the story in its original context, it is a satirical swipe at the elite Hebrew exiles in Babylon who venerated boy king Yehoyakhin and his queen Mother
- Eight-year-old boy king Yehoyakhin lasted three months on the throne until taken to live in a hostile foreign court while the other Hebrews had to do hard labor
What we learned in ep. 44 - Renewing the Ancient Pact
What and where is the story?
- The book of Exodus, chapter 1, verses 1 to 5, 7, 13-14
- And chapter 2, verses mid-23 to 25
- What scholars call the Priestly source of Exodus
- The Genesis characters are mentioned in this story
- The Children of Israel perform hard labor, but God hears their cries of pain
A carefully structured vague story
- The story follows the precise three-act story structure
- It is not set in a specific time and it doesn't describe an event that occurred
- The Hebrews are not characters, and no person has agency
- The vague God is the only one with agency: he hears, remembers, sees and knows
- The climax of the story is God remembering his pact with Abraham
Who was the writer?
- Scholars have identified him as a priest who lived in Persia around 500 BCE
- He was the first editor of Exodus and the master editor who connected Genesis and Exodus together along a chronological timeline
- He was a high priest of sorts who wrote the ancient laws of Exodus
- He is meticulous, organized, obsessive compulsive and optimistic person who loved listing things and repeating himself
Why is the writer Ezra the scribe-priest?
- Ezra was a scribe priest who lived in Persia right after 500 BCE
- Ezra brought Genesis and Exodus to Judea from Persia, after the Hebrews were allowed to return from exile
- Ezra brought the ancient laws
- He was meticulous, organized, obsessive compulsive and optimistic person who loved listing things and repeating himself
- His personal story mirrors his version of the Exodus and Moses
- Ezra is famous for being a scribe even though he only has one little book in his name, half of it written by someone else after his death
What we learned in ep. 45 - Creating the Pact