Exodus Narrative Research Articles

God Fights to Save the Nation of Israel: A Historical-Critical Review of Exodus 15:1-21

In the context of Israel’s liberation from Egyptian slavery, God is depicted as the victor who defeats Pharaoh through the drowning of the Egyptian army in the Red Sea. God's power, surpassing that of Egypt, underscores that this deliverance was entirely the result of His might, without direct intervention from the people of Israel. Through the narrative of Exodus 15:1-21, the author highlights the relationship between the song of salvation sung by Moses and Miriam and the destruction experienced by Egypt. This song is an expression of gratitude for the victory granted by God, showing His favor towards the Israelites. The author hypothesizes that the destruction of the enemy is a manifestation of God’s glory as a Divine Warrior, who fights against sin and brings salvation to His people. The theoretical framework includes an etymological and terminological analysis of the concepts of warfare, salvation, and song in the biblical context. Warfare is seen as a divine act to display God's glory through victory over enemies. Salvation is understood as liberation from both physical and spiritual oppression, ultimately fulfilled in the name of Jesus Christ. Song, as an expression of thanksgiving, reinforces the theme of salvation in the Exodus narrative, where the Israelites celebrate their deliverance by praising God. Overall, this study affirms that the event of Israel’s liberation is central to the Old Testament’s salvation history, with God serving as the Savior and Warrior who brings victory to His people.

Anti-Semitic thought and defense: Ptolemaic Egyptian writers’ rewriting of Exodus narrative

Anti-Semitic thought and defense: Ptolemaic Egyptian writers’ rewriting of Exodus narrative

The Meaning of Waiting: Meaning-making Narratives and Counter-narratives in the Teachings of the Desert Fathers

Recent work in the psychology of emotions has highlighted the helpfulness of meaning-making narratives to contextualize and make sense of experiences of suffering. In this article we argue that the experience of waiting should be regarded as an experience of suffering with the potential to produce a disruption in a person’s sense of the meaningfulness of their experience. We look to the resources of the Christian tradition for a narrative of waiting that can reorient a person feeling the disruption of a long season of waiting. We argue that Evagrius’ description of the deadly thought of acedia is best understood as a meaning-making counter-narrative, employed by a demonic tempter to disrupt a believer’s perseverance. We show how the responses suggested by Evagrius, namely to reassert an orienting narrative through the use of scriptures, can be expanded to lean on the larger Christian tradition, which grounds the meaningfulness of waiting in the theological virtues of faith, hope, and love through meditations on the Exodus narrative and the life of Christ.

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

Ralph K. Hawkins. <i>Discovering Exodus: Content, Interpretation, Reception</i>

Enfeoffment to Use, Legalism, and Humanism in Gower's Mirour de l'Omme

Enfeoffment to Use, Legalism, and Humanism in Gower's <i>Mirour de l'Omme</i>

From the Editor

From the Editor Uwe Michael Lang Lord, I love you"—these were reported to be the last words of Pope Benedict XVI before he died on December 31, 2022.1 The words echo the threefold profession of faith the Apostle Peter made to the Risen Christ in John 21. Both Joseph Ratzinger's warm personal faith, which he had treasured since his childhood in Catholic Bavaria, and his profound theological work were animated by his friendship with Christ. It is no easy task to render justice to the immense legacy of Benedict XVI, whose lifework stands out in so many ways. In the first place, we must be truly grateful for his loving service to God and the Church, as a theologian and pastor. Having had the grace of knowing Joseph Ratzinger personally, I have always found it painful to see how a man of such gentleness, humility, and openness in listening to others was often met with anticipated hostility from the wider public, and with thinly veiled obstruction from some even inside the Catholic Church. So many assaults on him were personal, manifestly unjust, full of verbal abuse and intended to distract from the real reasons why the opinion makers of our time intensely disliked him. Joseph Ratzinger was a Catholic thinker who explained the faith in a luminous and attractive way and intelligently questioned the assumptions of the relativism that has dominated the public square in the Western world for some time and is now showing increasingly totalitarian features. Throughout his long life and ministry that led him to the See of Peter, he strove to put God first and ensure that Christ was at the [End Page 1] center of the Church's mission. Since his early years of formation, he found in the New Testament "the soul of all theology."2 As cardinal and pope, he challenged the hubris of historical-critical exegesis and called for a rediscovery of what it means to read the Bible in the tradition of the Church. In the three volumes of his work Jesus of Nazareth, written during his pontificate, Benedict XVI invited us to join his search for the face of Christ, which he has now completed. Even though his university career focused on fundamental and dogmatic theology, Joseph Ratzinger considered the liturgy central to his academic and pastoral work and hailed it as the "living element" of theology, "without which it would necessarily shrivel up."3 Divine worship brings us into the right relationship with God and with one another, and its true meaning and relevance far exceed the actual liturgical celebration. As Joseph Ratzinger concludes from his reading of the Exodus narrative: the worship to which the people of Israel—and, by extension, all the nations—are called "embraces the ordering of the whole of human life."4 Joseph Ratzinger lived and worked at a time when the form and expression of the Church's faith in the sacred liturgy had become a highly controversial topic. As a theologian and bishop, he did not shrink from entering this contested arena with admirable lucidity. He was convinced that infelicitous choices have been made in the actual implementation of the sound principles of the Second Vatican Council's Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy. With his election to the See of Peter, Benedict XVI found himself in a position to shape the future of the Catholic liturgy, a position he could only approach with misgivings, because he strongly held that genuine liturgical renewal does not happen by decrees and instructions. Instead, he [End Page 2] intended to create favorable conditions and open perspectives for an "organic" development of the liturgy that would avoid the discontinuity that had done so much damage to Catholic ritual in the post-conciliar period. The Society for Catholic Liturgy is indebted in a particular way to the liturgical vision of Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI. Authentic liturgical renewal needs to be grounded in scholarship that is academically rigorous, faithful to the Church's perennial teaching, and guided by charity. The various activities of the Society, above all its annual conference and its journal Antiphon, promote such scholarship in the service of liturgical formation. It is rewarding...

Exodus, Nakba Denialism, and the Mobilization of Anti-Arab Racism

Nakba denialism – that is, denying Zionist culpability for the mass expulsions of Palestinian Arabs from their homeland in 1948 – has long been a feature of US discourse on Palestine. Through a content analysis of Leon Uris’ 1958 novel, Exodus, I argue that Nakba denialism rests on three anti-Arab racist tropes. The first trope presents Palestinian Arabs as lacking religious attachment to Palestine, the second trope claims they lack modern feelings of national identity, and the third trope claims they are easily induced to commit acts of violence by their ruthless leaders. Through the deployment of these tropes, the Exodus narrative popularized key elements of Nakba denialism in US discourse by blaming the victims of settler colonial violence for the expulsions they faced. More broadly, this article shows how the imbrication of race and settler colonialism functions to epistemologically erase the very acts of settler colonial violence that produce racialized Others.

A Theology of Justice in Exodus. By Nathan Bills

This work is a revised dissertation that approaches the text of Exodus through the theological lens of creation and justice. Offering a synchronic reading, Bills highlights the creational motifs of Genesis as a critical backdrop to the narrative of Exodus. He argues against scholars who hold a particularistic view of God’s justice for Israel and contends that Exodus’s use of creational themes embraces a universal perspective on justice. He also links the theological theme of justice with Israel’s new life as a liberated people who, as servants to YHWH, are formed by the ethical mandate to live as a just people. The first chapter offers a detailed survey of how justice was perceived in the ancient Near East and in Israel. Bills notes that the biblical word pairing ‘justice and righteousness’ applies not only to Israel but to all humanity. This is made most explicit in the commands regarding the widow, the orphan, and the sojourner as a summary for those with the least power in society who are most in need of justice. The following two chapters turn to the Exodus narrative from Egypt to the wilderness. Bills explores the inner-biblical echoes with Genesis and contends that Exodus 1–4 looks back to God’s justice established in creation and looks forward to Israel’s role as God’s emissary of justice on earth. Exodus 5–15 continues with similar themes, but the question of sovereignty comes to the fore in the clash between Pharaoh and YHWH. The mixed multitude that leaves Egypt is a sign of God’s global desire for justice, and the drama reveals the demise of Pharaoh’s systematic injustice by the mythic victory of YHWH at the sea. In the fourth chapter, Bills turns to pedagogy and sees the wilderness wanderings as YHWH’s movement towards training Israel to be a holy and just people. This leads to the giving of the Law at Sinai, which ‘institutionalizes’ Israel’s vocation to express YHWH’s creational justice both to those within, and outside of, the covenant community. The fifth chapter examines the construction of the tabernacle. Bills contends that the portable shrine ‘institutionalizes’ the Sinai experience. Though he rightly connects the theme of justice to the worshipping community, it is here that his argument seems most stretched. Having minimized the descent of the divine presence foreshadowed in the burning bush, actualized at Sinai, and concluding with God’s glory filling the tabernacle, we find that the priestly motif of holiness becomes obscured. Bills has crafted an excellent argument for creational justice and pedagogy in Exodus, but it comes at the expense of the cult, atonement, purity, and holiness, which are all represented by the tabernacle and the divine presence. Even with a synchronic reading of Exodus, the tabernacle points directly to the work/worship of the cult as expressed in Leviticus. Despite this omission, Bills offers a compelling reading of Exodus that builds on a creational theology of justice found in Genesis. Throughout the book he makes use of canonical and intertextual links as well as a breadth of research to help build his argument. This volume will be an excellent resource for clergy and students of the Bible who are interested in the Exodus narrative and its relationship to God’s justice in the past and its importance in the world today.

Implications of Including Zipporah’s Story in a Theology of Mediation

Due to his role as mediator between YHWH and Israel (see Ex. 32:11-14; 33:12-13), Moses has often been seen as a type of Christ. But perhaps due both in part to the brevity of her story and in part to her identity as a “foreign” woman, Zipporah’s role as a mediator has not afforded her the same legacy in the church. Nevertheless, her legacy is needed. The way that Zipporah acts in the narrative serves to fill out important aspects of Exodus’s theology of mediation that are missed when she is overlooked. Reminding ourselves of her role is especially important today, when populist nationalism and xenophobia are gaining ground in too many majority Christian countries. Not only does Zipporah’s actions in the narrative demonstrate that even Moses needed a mediator, and that God found one in a “foreign” woman, Zipporah’s location between Moses’s calling and YHWH’s alleged slaughter of the firstborn Egyptian children provides a much-needed counter-voice in the text that hints toward a hope that, with the right mediator, God can become the saviour of all people, no matter which “side” they are on. Christians have tended to focus on the Passover Lamb as the substitute in the Exodus narrative–the one who stands in Israel’s place and dies for it. But in practical terms it was the Egyptian firstborn children whose deaths effected Pharaoh’s (temporary) change of heart, leading to the Israelites’ liberation. If the story is read without Zipporah, an “us-versus-them” dualism tends stubbornly to emerge and re-emerge. But when Zipporah’s is story is given its proper place, the force of the “us-versus-them” way of reading the Exodus story is mitigated. Meditating on Zipporah as mediator illuminates both our understanding of the theology of Exodus as a cohesive narrative as well as our Christology, as we consider how she foreshadows the mediating work of Jesus as the final deliverer of Israel and the world.

A Theology of Justice in Exodus by Nathan Bills

Reviewed by: A Theology of Justice in Exodus by Nathan Bills Jaeyoung Jeon nathan bills, A Theology of Justice in Exodus (Siphrut 26; University Park, PA: Eisenbrauns, 2020). Pp. xii + 311. $125. This book presents a synchronic reading of the Book of Exodus from the specific perspective of Yhwh's "creational justice." Nathan Bills synthesizes mostly literary and theological scholarly work and undertakes a thorough framing of Exodus with "justice" in connection with creation and pedagogy. In the first chapter, B. briefly reviews the concept of justice in the ancient Near East and Israel. He finds elements common in these two contexts, such as kindness for the poor and embodiment of creational order in the ancient concepts of justice. Chapter 2 presents a discussion on the introductory section of Exodus (chaps. 1–4). B. finds inner-biblical connections with Genesis while also characterizing the Egyptian oppression as "anticreational forces" that challenge Yhwh's creational order. In this framework, Israel's plight is a cosmic injustice, and thus the commissioning of Moses comes from Yhwh's concern not only for the patriarchal covenants but also for his justice. In a similar way in chap. 3, B. covers the story of the plagues (Exodus 5–15), presenting the narrative as recovering the creational justice by punishing Pharaoh and Egypt for their chaotic disruption of the creational order. Responding to the notion that the plagues were too severe and unbalanced, B. endeavors to defend Yhwh's punishments as "just." For instance, Pharaoh's heart was not always hardened by Yhwh; in most cases Pharaoh was responsible for the hardening. The killing of the Egyptian firstborns corresponds to Pharaoh's savagery to Yhwh's own firstborn, Israel. Presenting "cross-references" between the sea narrative (Exodus 14–15) and the creation account (Genesis 1), B. agrees with the view of the sea crossing as Yhwh's mythic victory over the primordial and cosmic chaos. In chap. 4, B. frames the wilderness and law giving at Sinai (Exodus 15–24) as an educative process through which Yhwh's justice is understood and implemented by the Israelites against the injustice of Egypt. All the wilderness episodes serve the purpose of "Yhwh's reordering of their habitus" (p. 207). B. also emphasizes Exod 19:4–6, the vocation of Israel as a priestly nation, as a realization of Yhwh's creational agenda for all humanity beyond the Abrahamic covenant. Recognizing that the law collection (Exodus 19–24) [End Page 109] parallels ancient Near Eastern law corpora, B. finds the uniqueness of Israelite law in its connection with the exodus narrative, giving a "distinct hermeneutical edge to Israel's ethic in God's creation" (p. 208). The final chapter is devoted to the construction of the tabernacle and the episode of the golden calf (Exodus 25–40). B. presents the former in sharp contrast to the labors of the Hebrews in Egypt: voluntary devotion versus corvée; life with Sabbath rest versus Egyptian industry without rest (Exod 5:5). Further, B. argues, the construction of the Tabernacle parallels creation through elements such as Yhwh's seven speeches (Exodus 25-31) and the seven-day creation, verbal parallels, and various thematic connections. The production of the golden calf (Exodus 32-34) is understood as a return to Egyptian ways and a reversion to the creational chaos comparable to the story of the Flood (Genesis 6-9). For this comparison B. provides a useful list of corresponding literary elements (pp. 230-31). The problem is resolved by Yhwh's mercy with justice. The ending of Exodus with Israel's worship service and the glory filling the tabernacle (Exodus 40) signifies, for B., an overcoming of chaos in the world and creational justice being put "on display for the world to see" (p. 254). The Book of Exodus has been a subject of significant debate in critical pentateuchal scholarship in the last few decades. B. examines alternative models of formation of the Pentateuch replacing the classical Documentary Hypothesis. He points out that no consensus has been achieved and that critics increasingly argue for both a tradition-historical gap and a literary gap between Genesis and Exodus, especially in pre-Priestly stages. B...

Resistance of Oppression in Exod 1-15 and Southern Africa: An Intersectional Perspective

The article investigates the oppression of people as well as its resistance in Exod 1-15 and Southern Africa, from an intersectional perspective. The Zimbabwean migrant women embody the intersectional struggles of the working-class people (class), women (gender) and immigrants (internationality) in Southern Africa. This scenario might have been the case in the world of the biblical texts. First, the study outlines the lived experiences of the Zimbabwean migrant women in South Africa in order to highlight the multi-layered and intersectional character of and the resistance of their oppression. Second, the essay probes the resistance of oppression in the Exodus narrative, with a specific interest in women. Third and lastly, the study shows how the intersectionality theory assists us in drawing a broader and relative depiction of the oppression of women in Exod 1-15 and in Southern Africa as well as the need to resist such oppression.

『셩경젼셔』(1911)의 복합적 번역대본 가능성 - 출애굽기 4:8을 중심으로 -

The process of identifying the source texts for the translation of The Korean Bible (『셩경젼셔』, 1911) primarily starts with the premise that the translators used English, Chinese, and Japanese Bibles as their source texts. Furthermore, I already proposed in the previous article concerning Exodus 4:13 that they might have used the LXX. Therefore, this study aims not only to find the source text for Exodus 4:8 but also to consider the possibility that the first Korean Bible was translated under the combined influences from these different translated Bibles and the LXX.<BR> The result of this study could be summarized in three aspects. First, the expression of “the word of the sign (이젹의 말)” in The Korean Bible reflects “the voice of the sign” in the English Bibles (KJV, RV) which were based upon the MT. In addition, it overcame the temptation of the Chinese and the Japanese Bibles that translated קל (“voice”) using the word 聲 and adopted the translation of either Morrison’s Version or Bridgman-Culbertson’s Version. It probably wanted to convey that the sign is not merely a voice but speaks the words of YHWH. This kind of exegetical translation would be the unique characteristic of The Korean Bible.<BR> Second, where the MT, Chinese, and Japanese Bibles were mostly translated as “the first” and “the latter”, The Korean Bible translated them as “the first” and “the second”. This fact demonstrates that the translators of The Korean Bible in those days might have used the LXX as one of the source texts. Third, the plausible reason for the translation of “the first” and “the second” would be based on the fact that the narrative of Exodus 4:1-9 flows according to the three signs that Moses was supposed to perform in front of the people of Israel and Pharaoh.<BR> This study shows that the translators of The Korean Bible did not translate the biblical text per se, but they did it in harmony with the narrative of the biblical text. Therefore, The Korean Bible was translated under the influences of the combined source texts available at the time and in consideration of the flow of the narratives in Exodus 4:1-9. The missionaries and Korean helpers together did a superb job in finishing up the first Korean Bible in 1911.

The Story of Greater Exodus in Hebrews: A Narrative Reading of Hebrews 3-4

The author of Hebrews presents Israel’s exodus story in the light of Christ’s event as the consequential continuity with the original intended goal, heading toward the true and ultimate destination of God’s promised land. For the author of Hebrews, the exodus narrative did not end with the deliverance from Egypt or at Mount Sinai, where God revealed himself to his people or even with Israel’s conquest of Canaan under Joshua. Instead, the author demonstrates that the final goal of the exodus deliverance includes something greater than the promised land. In this view, this paper argues that the author’s greater exodus narrative is one way of demonstrating the redemption of Christ for humanity in Hebrews. The Hebrews’ exodus narrative is not only about the person of Christ, who is faithful like Moses in the house of God, but also about what he has accomplished in his priestly work for the people of God, producing greater provisions than what Moses mediated for the people of God. Thus, the people of God have a firm assurance that they can enter God’s rest through a new and living way, inaugurated by Christ’s suffering death,. Just as Moses was a shepherd of his people, leading them toward the promised land, Jesus is the Great Shepherd of the whole of God’s house who leads them into the promised rest, which is greater than the earthly promised land. Hence, the book of Hebrews’ centrality of the gospel story of Christ - his incarnation, suffering death as an atonement, and his priestly ministry - hermeneutically stands on the exodus motifs in the way the greater exodus reveals the fulfillment of the anticipated goal of the exodus story.

Practising piety in a (post-) pandemic time: A spatial reading of piety in Psalm 66 from the perspectives of memory and bodily imagery

Situated in the larger collection of Psalms 51–72, also known as the second Davidic Psalter, the smaller group of Psalms 65–68 is found. This smaller collection of psalms can be classified mostly as psalms of praise and thanksgiving. The relation and compositional work in this cluster of psalms become apparent on many points in the pious expressions between groups and persons at prayer, especially in the universal praise of God, and in the imagery referring to the exodus, the Jerusalem cult and blessing. Such piety becomes most discernible in the imagery and expressions in Psalm 66. The psalm’s two main sections may be described as praise, with verses 1–12 being praise by the group or the ‘we’, and verses 13–20 being praise by the individual or the ‘I’. Personal or individual piety and private piety are expressed by the desire of the ‘we’ and the ‘I’, and the experienced immediacy to God by transposing the past into the present through the memory of the exodus narrative, the Jerusalem cultic imagery and the use of body imagery. In this research article, an understanding of piety in Psalm 66 in terms of the memory of past events and body imagery is discussed from a perspective of space and appropriated for a time of (post-) pandemic where normal or traditional ecclesiological formal practices cannot take place.Contribution: This article makes an interdisciplinary contribution based on knowledge from the Psalms in the Old Testament, social anthropology, literary spatial theories and practical theological perspectives on the church in order to contribute to the relevance and practice of theology today, during a time of turmoil and a global pandemic.

Do more Vibrant Rural Areas have Lower Rates of Youth Out-Migration? Evidence from Zambia

We use nationally representative survey data from Zambia to evaluate whether rural youth out-migration is associated with a lack of rural economic vibrancy, as often asserted in policy discussion. After controlling for distance from markets, we do find some evidence that areas with more productive and market-oriented agriculture are associated with lower rates of out-migration, particularly for those who leave explicitly to find work. However, measures of non-farm orientation of the local economy are positively associated with out-migration, indicating that the sectoral composition of the local economy has some bearing on the relationship between vibrancy and migration. When we examine more disaggregated patterns, we find that the out-migration decisions of young males are particularly responsive to rural vibrancy conditions. However, we find that the migration decisions of those who have completed secondary school are influenced less by vibrancy measures than the decisions of less educated individuals, possibly indicating that individuals who aspire to leave rural areas, and who invest in educational attainment to achieve such aspirations, may be less susceptible to influence by rural productivity changes. Our results suggest that the narrative of a stagnation-driven exodus of educated rural youth is oversimplified and, as such, is of limited policy relevance.

Across the Red Sea to the Paradise Regained: Easter Vigil and Baptism in Prudentius, Cathemerinon 5

Abstract Easter themes and motifs constitute a secondary level of meaning of the fifth poem in Prudentius’ Cathemerinon, namely the “hymn for the lighting of the lamps”. This is the result of a comparison between this evening hymn and the proclamations that were sung during the Easter vigil throughout the West from the fourth century onwards. The parallels found include light, the crossing of the Red Sea, Christ’s descent into hell, as well as the close relationship between the Exodus and baptism, which was commonly celebrated during the paschal night. That kind of scenario better explains the presence of the Paradise scene that follows the Exodus narrative in Cathemerinon 5: the Eden regained as is depicted by Prudentius, with references to the enclosed garden in the Song of Songs, appears to stand for the Church community to which the newly baptised had finally access.

Wearing the Cosmos: The High Priestly Attire in Josephus’ Judean Antiquities

Abstract In his recounting of the Exodus narrative of the making of the priestly vestments in Judean Antiquities 3.151-180, 184-187, Josephus provides a vivid description of the high priest’s wardrobe, including its cosmological connotations. This article shows that Josephus uses cosmological motifs in his recounting of the high priestly attire in order to convey a message to his intended audience in Rome. Josephus adds his own accents to the biblical narrative to convince his public that the high priest’s fine clothing functions as a statement that the Judean God is not a national deity with restricted power, but the Highest God, who is the only creator, maintainer, and supreme ruler of the universe. Seen from this perspective, we observe Josephus in dialogue with a well-established Greco-Roman clothing imagery tradition that portrays gods and mortals in symbolic garments to enhance their far-reaching power or authority.

A Study of the Framing on the Exodus of Egyptian Jewry in Translation into Arabic: A Case Study of the Arabic Translation of The Man in the White Sharkskin Suit by Lucette Lagnado

This study attempts to examine the role of framing in re-narration. It applies Mona Baker’s narrative theory of translation to study the narrative of the second Jewish exodus from Egypt during Nasser’s reign in translation. To reach this end, it investigates the Arabic translation of Lucette Lagnado’s memoir The Man in the White Sharkskin Suit in order to trace the framing techniques employed by the translators. Since the narrative of the second Jewish exodus has always been controversial, especially in Egypt, the study mainly focuses on the role of framing in the circulation of competing narratives in the source and target texts through tracing the textual and paratextual framing techniques that subtly alter the underlying narrative of the source text in translation. It has become evident upon investigation that the target text employs textual and paratextual framing in order to challenge the main narrative perpetuated in the source text. This study aims primarily at investigating the presence, effectiveness and results of framing in the re-narration of a controversial narrative.

The Pentateuch: Exodus–Deuteronomy

The Pentateuch:Exodus–Deuteronomy Christopher T. Begg, Fred W. Guyette, John M. Halligan, Martin Nitsche, and Richard A. Taylor Christopher T. Begg Catholic University of America Fred W. Guyette Erskine College and Seminary John M. Halligan St. John Fisher College Martin Nitsche Goethe Universität Frankfurt am Main Richard A. Taylor Dallas Theological Seminary 1298. [Exodus Covenant Tradition] Micha Roi, "'You Shall Worship God on This Mountain' (Exod 3:12) as a Key to Revealing the Roots of the Sinai Covenant," Beit Mikra 65 (1, 2020) 138-63 (Hebrew). In their attempt to trace the literary development of the Sinai covenant tradition from its earliest stages, many biblical scholars distinguish between the foundational elements of the narrative and those that were added later. This article seeks to identify the original components of the narrative by reading the account of Israel's arrival at Sinai in Exodus 19 as a "scene of return," i.e., a moment at which the protagonist of the story comes back to a sacred place where he had camped during a previous journey. In the case of Moses, the protagonist of the Sinai narrative, the deity's statement to him "you shall worship God on this mountain" in Exod 3:12, which appears in the context of the exchange between God and Moses at Horeb in Exodus 3–4 as an announcement pointing toward a later return by Moses to the site, creates a link between Moses's two stays at the sacred mountain, thereby strengthening the identification of the sites in question and the understanding of Exodus 19 as a "return scene." [End Page 477] Analysis of the five biblical narratives that reflect the "return scene" motif shows that in these narratives the hero returns to a sacred place in order to "worship God" there, an act which serves to "repay" God for having escorted and protected him during his travels and for leading him safely back to his starting point. This mutual exchange involving divine accompaniment and human worship, in turn, gives rise to a covenant between the two parties. The verses that present the two parties to the agreement between God and Israel with its leader Moses, i.e., Exod 19:1-8, constitute the first part of the story of the Sinai covenant. The close affinities between the story of Moses's journey and twofold encampment at God's mountain in Exodus on the one hand and Jacob's journey to Bethel and his double stay there (Genesis 28 and 35) on the other help reveal the elements of the current Sinai covenant narrative that are its original constituents. Comparison of the two narratives leads to the conclusion that the details of the Genesis stories of Jacob at Bethel which seem to have a distinctive and specific character, focusing as they do on a particular time and place, take on an absolute and universal quality in the Sinai covenant narrative with its timeless commands. The Sinai ordinances, which relate to the repudiation of concrete ritual objects, the prohibition of sexual activity within the sanctuary, the erection of an altar, and the offering of sacrifices upon it, and the naming of the Sinai site with God's own name, constitute the second (original) part of the Sinai covenant narrative that is preserved in Exod 20:19-23. The fact that this original narrative speaks of the first covenant between God and Israel as the context within which absolute commands (laws) appear prompted the later insertion of legal codes and other types of material within that original account. [Adapted from published abstract—C.T.B.] Google Scholar 1299. [Law-Didactic Torah Composition in Exodus 1–15] Kåre Berge, "Law-Didactic Torah Composition in the Exodus Narrative?" Fortgeschriebenes Gotteswort, 43-53 [see #1707]. B.'s essay seeks to make the case that the extant text of Exodus 1–15 features considerable evidence of an overarching didactic purpose of the narrative, e.g., the use of wisdom vocabulary familiar from the OT Wisdom Books, the depiction of the call of Moses in Exodus 3–4 as one who is charged with providing guidance for the people, the contrast between the "foolish" Pharaoh...

The African Methodist Episcopal Church: A History

On 17 June 2015 a white supremacist invaded Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, and opened fire on a Bible study group. Nine members were killed, including the pastor, Clementa Pinckney. Pinckney had been a member of the South Carolina House of Representatives and of the State Senate, as well as an AME minister, and the eulogy at his funeral was given by President Barack Obama. The story of the Charleston atrocity and its aftermath says much about the history of the AME, the largest of the black Methodist denominations, capturing its courageous and risky witness against injustice, its role in giving institutional expression to black aspirations, and its success in claiming a recognized place in the polity and public life of the United States. These themes, and more besides, are explored in Dennis Dickerson's magisterial history of the denomination.Professor Dickerson is well qualified to write the history of the AME Church. As the substantial bibliography to the present volume shows, he has been publishing on related subjects for more than two decades, and he has amassed an extensive knowledge of the primary and secondary sources. Here he presents a chronological account, beginning with the development of African Methodism in North America and the Caribbean, and describing the origins of the AME in the work of Richard Allen (1760–1831). Allen's departure from St George's Methodist Episcopal Church in Philadelphia in 1787 rooted the AME in an Exodus narrative that continued to be significant as a new denomination gradually took shape. Formally constituted in 1816, with Allen as its first bishop, the AME grew steadily through the nineteenth century, seeing itself as ‘a Creole church for the Atlantic world’ (106).Dickerson shows how building the infrastructure of the denomination, including flagship institutions like Wilberforce University in Ohio, could sometimes sit uncomfortably with the AME's ‘insurgent’ emphases, with commentators like Frederick Douglass criticizing the AME leadership, albeit unfairly, for failing to prioritize the cause of abolition. During the era of Reconstruction the AME grew rapidly in the southern states of the United States; thereafter, economic pressures and the impact of ‘Jim Crow’ segregation led to a massive migration to the industrial and urban north in the decades around World War I. Both developments posed challenges and opportunities for the denomination in ministering to new populations and addressing deep human needs. The narrative here weaves together the broad themes of political, social, and ecclesiastical history with case studies of individuals like Winfield H. Mixon, of Alabama, Bishop Henry M. Turner, the Social Gospellers Reverdy and Emma Ransom, and the Garveyite R. H. Tobitt. The final chapters discuss the civil rights years and the AME's sense of being a global church by the closing decades of the twentieth century.The tension between institution and insurgency surfaces in each chapter: over abolitionism before the Civil War and Tuskegee-style strategies in the ‘Jim Crow’ era; over responses to Garvey's Universal Negro Improvement Association and proto-apartheid in South Africa; over civil rights and equal rights. But other themes emerge: pressure for indigenous rather than African American leadership in AME churches in Africa, the Caribbean, and Central America; challenges to episcopal autocracy and occasional abuses of power; the call to recognize and fully affirm the ministry and leadership of women. Dickerson acknowledges that ‘respectable’ AME congregations sometimes proved less than welcoming to southern migrants and African musical traditions, and that the AME lost ground to Pentecostal and neo-Pentecostal denominations at the beginning and end of the twentieth century, although he records the success of AME megachurches like Allen Cathedral in Jamaica, New York. He also notes that the United Methodist Church had a far better record of appointing black women bishops than the AME, although twenty-first-century General Conferences worked hard to redress this situation.Threaded through this history is an insistence that those nurtured in the AME Church remembered their heritage, and that the denomination continued to draw on its African and Methodist origins. AME heritage mattered to Shirley Graham Du Bois and to Dave Chappelle, and the AME retains its place within the structures of World Methodism. How the Wesleys' Methodism and its later expressions are inflected in a worldwide denomination that is nonetheless predominantly African American in membership and ethos remains a fascinating phenomenon.Grateful thanks are due to Dennis Dickerson for this thoroughly researched and beautifully written study of one of World Methodism's most significant branches.