Discovering Exodus: Content, Interpretation, Reception by Ralph K. Hawkins

Abstract

Reviewed by: Discovering Exodus: Content, Interpretation, Reception by Ralph K. Hawkins Brian Joseph Meldrum ralph k. hawkins, Discovering Exodus: Content, Interpretation, Reception (Discovering Biblical Texts; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2021). Pp xiii + 308. Paper $22. The Discovering Biblical Texts series seeks to provide "student-friendly introductions to the books of the Bible" (p. ii). Hawkins's contribution to the series comes as the product of his teaching introductory courses on Exodus. His book serves as an excellent introduction to Exodus and contains an extensive bibliography. It would be a useful resource in any course on the Pentateuch generally or Exodus specifically. I would group H.'s thirteen chapters into three sections: chaps. 1–3, which provide an overview of past Exodus scholarship and introduce current questions about the exodus account's historicity and dating; chaps. 4–10, which present descriptions of Moses as Israel's leader, Yhwh as Israel's God, the law and the covenant as Israel's foundation, and the [End Page 483] tabernacle as Yhwh's dwelling; and chaps. 11–13, which treat Exodus's impact throughout the OT, its echoes in the NT, and its reception in Western culture, art, film, music, and politics. For H., Exodus unfolds as a series of crises that Israel endures and Yhwh overcomes: Israel's enslavement, Moses's hesitancy, Pharaoh's stubbornness, and so on. Exodus's distinctive narrative features—Israel's foundation and Yhwh's self-revelation—make the text a compelling story even for modern readers. Exodus ultimately shares the OT vision that Yhwh dwelled first among the Israelites in hopes "that all people would eventually come to acknowledge the Lord as God" (p. 11). Hawkins reviews the Documentary Hypothesis and presents the scholarly movement from source to literary criticism. Employing the latter as his method, he deals with "the final form of the text, in the context of the whole canon of Scripture, in order to determine what its final author or authors wanted to tell its readers" (p. 20). Regarding historicity, H. suggests that, while a lack of extrabiblical attestation is usually the reason why scholars dismiss the Bible's exodus account, the persistence of the exodus tradition throughout the OT and the fact that Israel's foundational myth often presents the people in a way that is "anything but noble" (p. 38) are also significant. H. presents the thirteenth century b.c.e. as "the consensus date for those who hold that a historical exodus occurred" and considers that the enduring quality of the exodus traditions, "the basis on which the nation of Israel's existence was predicated," are the strongest evidence for the exodus's reality (p. 39). Hawkins devotes chap. 5 to Moses's multifaceted depiction. He is a prophet, shepherd, judge, priestly figure, military leader, sanctuary builder, and divine mediator. Chapter 6 has a similar function, but here H. concentrates on a single aspect of Yhwh's portrayal in Exodus: God's power. Sections that detail the ten plagues and the parting of the Red Sea demonstrate "the Lord's mastery over nature and, indeed, all of creation. They were nature weapons in the hand of nature's God" (p. 108). In his treatment of Exodus's legal material, H. argues that suzerain–vassal treaties from the ancient Near East provide the closest parallels to the covenant ratification ceremony and the legal corpus contained in Exodus. H. reviews the constituent parts of suzerain–vassal treaties from their preambles through closing historical reports (pp. 111–14), and he provides a helpful chart detailing where the various sections of the treaties appear from Exodus 20 through Leviticus 27 (p. 116). H. then details the ancient Near Eastern context of the Ten Commandments. When considering the scope of Israel's law, H. notes, "While some of its laws were similar to those of other cultures, others were entirely unique and distinguished Israel from all other people in the region" (p. 129). Chapters 9 and 10 are particularly interesting. In chap. 9, H. interprets the themes of sin, rebellion, restoration, and renewal throughout Exodus as an occasion of good news, or the "gospel" of Israel in Exodus. Through Yhwh's self-revelation of the divine attributes in...