Abstract
The rendition of the exodus in the Old Testament is an excellent example of cultural memory – a remembered past that resulted in collective memories that maintained the actuality or relevance of the past, without getting bogged down in the never ending agonising about the supposed ‘historical factuality’ of the past. In the Old Testament the exodus was remembered in diverging ways in different contexts and the ongoing need for identity and the influence of trauma were but two factors that influenced the manner in which the exodus was recalled. Despite unfavourable connotations it is again suggested that the exodus functioned as a founding myth in the evolving of Israelite and early Jewish identity. Such a heuristic goal will be less interested in establishing historically or archaeologically verifiable truth claims and more interested in how the memory of the exodus shaped identity and enabled human dignity in subsequent contexts of human suffering and oppression up to the present day.
Highlights
The interpretation of the book of Exodus in Africa and other post-colonial contexts has been an exegetical activity often closely related to numerous theologies of liberation.1 Without denying the legitimacy of such interpretative strategies, this contribution will attempt to engage with the book of Exodus as a narrative concerning origin and migration formulated by Israelite and early Jewish communities who developed their own identity by reinterpreting their past.This contribution presupposes that the exodus narratives in the Old Testament can be utilised as excellent examples of collective memory that were crucial to maintain Israelite and early Jewish cultural and religious identity before, during and after the Babylonian exile
The focus on collective memory enables the reader to maintain a serious concern with what happened to believing communities in ancient Israel without getting bogged down in unanswerable questions with regards to the historical events alluded to in the Old Testament exodus narratives
One could ask whether there is an overall consistency, amidst the inevitable fictionalising diversity, in the Old Testament exodus traditions that would suggest that it presupposes the same historical event? Or should one rather be content with the diverging exodus traditions as fictionalised memories that do not allow any attempt to establish the historicity of an exodus behind it
Summary
This contribution presupposes that the exodus narratives in the Old Testament can be utilised as excellent examples of collective memory that were crucial to maintain Israelite and early Jewish cultural and religious identity before, during and after the Babylonian exile.
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