This paper will focus on the book of Exodus, chapter 20-23 and it will be discussing the social roles, economic situations and valuation of women in these chapters. It will be discussing the different type of laws which have been made to observe the covenant. It will furthermore be discussing the concerns related to the interaction of social and economic context of these texts, the foundational beliefs hidden in them, and the way in which it shows the differences and similarities in the way in which women have been portrayed in extra-biblical text in the Ancient Near Eastern History.
INTRODUCTION
The book of exodus is divided in to two main parts; A first part tells the story of God’s rescue of people of Israel from Egypt and his bringing them to mount Sinai (Chaps. 1-19), and a second part describes his covenant with them, made as they encamped at mount Sinai (Chaps. 20-40). Exodus is a book which talks about the rescue from human bondages and bondage from sins. The text of the book of Exodus is on the whole rather well preserved in the Masoretic tradition. Moses spent almost thirty nine years to write Exodus. We can reasonably think that he wrote this book for the second postexodus generation, the ones who were preparing themselves to enter the promise land. There are basically six themes which exodus talks about: Bondage-Deliverer-The Law-Sacrifice-The Tabernacle-Presence-Continuation-Anticipation. In this paper we will be discussing about the laws which was made to
Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy compose the majority of the Hebrew law, also known as the Torah. Leviticus is a continuation of Exodus, and it contains the Sinaitic legislation from the time of the completion of the Tabernacle. Throughout the story, we see God accepts the sacrifice of the victim rather the death of the sinner.
The readings of Exodus explain the departure of the Israelites from Egypt and how the covenant was renewed. The rejuvenation made Israel a nation and formed a relationship between god and his teachings. The nature of god’s presence reveals how the Israelites were authentic and productive with how they reproduced and how the land became filled with Israelites. The reality demonstrates how the new king of Egypt stated that, “The Israelite people have multiplied and become more numerous than we are”(Exodus p. 16). This reality proposes how the Egyptians became resentful against the Israelites in order them to suffer brutal slavery and make life difficult for them with intense work and punishment. The texts in Exodus acknowledge the sacrifices Hebrew women had to make in order to live through nature and reality. It states “The Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women. They are robust and give birth before the midwife arrives” (Exodus p. 16). Gods presence through nature and reality reveals how
The status of women in Palestine during the time of Jesus was very decidedly that of inferiors. The women is, ‘in all things inferior to the man,’ as stated by first century
The Exodus story is a key event in regards to Israel’s history and the Old Testament. Exodus is often seen as the beginning for the Israelites in regards to their journey of faith. In Exodus it covers many events which includes Moses being called by God to lead the slaves, the escape of Egypt, wandering in the Sinai desert for forty years, establishing a covenant with God, receiving the Torah, and getting settled in the new land that they were called to. The Torah is known as the instruction from God that was given to Moses and then passed on to the Israel’s people. Passover is an event that has important significance still to this day. Jews still celebrate this event every year as a way to show the importance of passing through the life of
The book “Texts of Terror” describes the lives and defeats through the analyzation of four different women from the Old Testament. These particular women are Hagar, Tamar, the daughter of Jephthah, and the unnamed concubine in the book of Judges. The author, Phyllis Trible, employs a theological perspective with a hermeneutical feminist approach in evaluating these Biblical stories. Phyllis’s literary criticism approaches the scripture as an actual occurrence of catastrophic stories of these four women. The feminist approach is used to grasp the culture and time of these occurrences in relation to the disregard of women.
Throughout history the roles people have play a major part in how their society is run. Roles in societies are used as a way to establish order. By giving each person a specific role it allows them to carry out specific duties and obligations. Each religion has a certain way they perceive and treat certain people. It can be based on class, intelligence or even gender. Gender plays a big part in how a society is run. Judaism is one religion where “it believes, and continues to maintain, that within its religious life men and women have distinct and differentiated roles (Sacks, 1978).” Sacks explains, “that human freedom extends to the freedom to choose our commitments and obligations and since we do not choose to be a man or a woman how then can our being one or the other have any moral or religious significance (Sacks, 1978)?” In this essay I will address how and why woman are treated very respectfully in the Jewish religion rather than the misconception that they are treated in a degrading way.
The contextual range of meaning of האמנה, or covenant, will explore the usage of covenant in the text of topic, Exodus 19:1-8, followed by its usage in the book of Exodus as a whole. Covenant is used only once in the focal passage but carries great significance. (Strong’s “covenant”:
There were at least 3 views of how the Old Testament was composed which include the critical view, the compositional view, and the common view. Each view was somewhat similar and different in the aspects that gave it it's own characteristics. The main point of this discussion is to focus on the similarities and differences of each view which are but not limited to how the bible was created, the process, and design.
God gave the Pharaoh opportunities to let his people go, but he refused, forcing God to cast plagues among Egypt. God split the Red Sea to help the Israelites escape the Egyptian, commissioning the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai for the Israelites adopt. The Israelites began to disobey the commandments, but Moses repented on their behalf, building a tabernacle which God took place in it among the Israelites. Although, we look at Exodus three as God speaking to Moses for the first time, it serves a deeper purpose than what is seen on the surface level. Exodus three verses one through fourteen are split into three subsections of the
There are many central themes that are in the Old Testament, and many may say that there is only one theme of the Old Testament, which is Jesus, and even though that is true in a lot of ways due to the fact that a lot of the minor prophets actually talk about the coming of Jesus, His death and His resurrection. However, I have discovered five main themes of the Old Testament that I found quite interesting. And in this paper I will discuss two of them. I believe one of the most important themes of the Old Testament is Covenant.
“…one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.” And so finishes the Pledge of Allegiance for the United States of America. Whether or not a person would wish to identify our nation as a Christian one, there is certainly no doubt that the very oath that binds a person into serving it includes serving God. As it follows, many of our laws are centered around our understanding of the Bible, and the morality that can be gleaned from it. Even in our modern time, where the lines are becoming more and more blurred, eighty-three percent of Americans still identify themselves as Christian. A common national ideology is that our country has a favored nation status with God; thus it is our responsibility to ‘sow the
The Old Testament consisted of a set of documentations of religious scriptures, which were written by different people at various times for a different audience. Most of the Old Testament contains short stories of traditional stories and those stories of distinguished ways God established mankind. These stories are often told to the people in narrative form, which are guidelines often referred to as laws, songs, genealogies, and a list from these authors that composed the Old Testaments. The pressing of set documentation is essential because it is the framework for the lives of God 's followers. The term “Old Testament” originated as a means to express spoken traditions and God 's creation of that particular era. It is an method of philosophical investigation was designed to answer the why questions within these spiritual text documentations. These religious documentations consisted of four parts. These four sections retrieved from the Old Testaments are the laws, history, wisdom and prophecy. The laws are a rule of behavior enforced within the community. The rules are sometimes called “Torah.” When analyzing this Torah, these rules viewed within the first five spiritual books of the Bible. For example, in the first Torah in Genesis, it explains the creation, Noah’s Flood, Abraham and Isaac, and Joseph’s coats of many colors. However, the laws in Exodus were in regards to the going out. The going out took about 40 plus years, until the people led to
The following assignment is an analysis of the book of Exodus, chapter 3, verses 2-12. In this particular passage God calls on Moses to go back to Egypt and free the Israelites. In examination of Exodus 3:2-12, there are multiple aspects of this verse that should be studied. Below I have explained the importance of this passage to it’s original audience and it’s current audience. I have also illustrated its cultural-historical background, the literary genre and context of the passage, as well as highlighted keywords and phrases within the passage.
Prior to beginning this assignment, I had already found a passionate interest in theology, primarily the logical historical analysis of the Old Testament. I had read several books on the topic, but still had a thirst for more knowledge. With that said, my preceding assumptions predominantly consisted of skepticism towards the religious interpretation of the Old Testament. I believed that Exodus 20 was a prime example of the religious establishment interpreting an ancient text as to be divine. I felt that the Ten Commandments were nothing more then a moral code of antiquity, established as an ethical compass by spiritual leaders in a religious society.
To speak of the Hebrew Scripture is to speak of story, a story stretching from the very beginning of time to only a few centuries before the beginning of the Common Era. It is to speak of richness of content, of purpose and of reality and to engross oneself in an overarching narrative that, depending on your personal convictions, continues to the present day. Within this richness is found a wide variety of different events and experience, told through a series of genre ranging from foundational myth to apocalypse, law giving to poetry, genealogy to wisdom and many more. Within this diversity however, three broad sections can be discerned that speak to a shared purpose and content, these are the sections of Law, Prophecy and Writings. It