The Myth of Exodus Essay

A myth is a symbolic way of expressing truths and beliefs that are accepted by society. Myths, which are reading literature that is imaginative, teach truths that may not always have a basis for historical fact. Myths, which communicate ideas in story form, are creative stories that explain and teach religious truths of sin and consequence.

Moses: Like the other monotheistic faiths, my people believe in one God, and only one. The Greek, for example, believe in more than one God; this makes them polytheistic.

I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.” But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” And God said, “I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain.” Moses said to God, “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?” God said to Moses, “I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I am has sent me to you.’” God also said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites, ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you.’ “This is my name forever, the name you shall call me from generation to generation. “Go, assemble the elders of Israel and say to

“Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all my

This lead the reader question why God did not provide defined rules, or expectations, prior to the commandments? Previous covenants focused on God’s obligations: to not destroy mankind again and to provide Abraham offspring and the land of Canaan, whereas Exodus focused on Israelite responsibilities (p. 114). In the end, the reader found Exodus a “rite of passage” that displayed God’s trust in the Israelites and a formalized relationship with God.

Moses: The Holy Land is important to my faith because it was the land promised to my people by God in the torah. In the torah there is a story about the Jews being enslaved and it was this place that I took them

“The law that God gave to Moses had many aspects – e.g., civil, dealing with the legal system of the people of God considered as a state, with courts and penalties; moral, the law of holy living; and religious, the law of the ceremonies and sacrifices.” These laws set the stage for Christ’s Law and eventually a new covenant made by Christ.

As reported by Shaul Magid, the most significant element of Judaism is that there is only one God, who wishes for the people to do what is right and just. The Jews believe that God made a covenant with Abraham, whom is considered the founder of the religion, in which God promised to praise Abraham and his followers, but only if they were to be committed and loyal to Him. This covenant makes Jews responsible for their wrongdoings and actions (par. 3-6). According to Paul Mendes-Flohr, Jews view themselves as chosen people held together by the covenant with God (423). Shaul Magid also reports that people of the Jewish faith also believe that God has yet to send a Messiah to save and rejoin the Jews with God. The Ten Commandments, which the Jews believe were given to Moses by God, outline how the Jews should go about living their lives (par. 3-6). As stated by Jason Levine, the Ten Commandments are:

The Book of Exodus is not a narrative of slavery. The Book of Exodus is not a condemnation of slavery. The Book of Exodus is not an escapee's manual. The Book of Exodus does not even incorporate one journal entry, one trial transcript, or one eye-witness account of the slavery endured by the Israelites in Egypt. Despite its lack of address, the Book of Exodus solidifies man's need for God and God's need for worship.

He says that the Egyptians would mock the Israelites, laughing that their God would lead them out of their servitude only to face destruction at his own hands. Rather than respecting his power, they would see that he was either unable or unwilling to complete the salvation he set his people upon. And so the Lord agres to set aside his anger at the people, while Moses returns to them with God’s commandments.

Hebrew Monotheism, shows that Yahweh, their one god, cares the most about his chosen people, the Israelites, but is capable of manipulating both them and other peoples who do not worship him. When Abraham first forms a covenant with Yahweh, Yahweh tells him that his descendants will be enslaved, but “this is my covenant with you: You will be the father of many nations... I will make you very

In verse 12, God tells Moses, “I will be with you.” This promise to be with Moses throughout his journey is very meaningful because of the great risk and danger that they are going to be enduring. Because of the agreement between God and Moses, “neither of them truly acts alone when bringing the Israelites out of Egypt” (p. 150). God took initiative and called Moses to him and told Moses of his plans. Moses then worked towards fulfilling Gods wish with God helping and accompanying Moses along the way. If God were to speak of doing great actions but then never follow through, God would lose a sense of the divinity. Part of the divine identity is to have an unbreakable connection between the word of God and the presence of God. In order to fully trust in God’s word, God must be

Moses also said, “It was God. He called me to remove my sandals for it was holy ground.” According to the New American Standard Bible Exodus 3:15-16, God told Moses that His name is I am who am and that He is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Not only has God amazed many around the world through this burning bush, but there is even more to Moses’ story that is life changing. Moses told us that God has instructed him to go to Pharaoh and ask to free the Israelites from Egypt and to

When this word “myth” is used, the term is usually related to a fable, invention or a fiction story. Over the years, many scholars started approaching the study of myth differently. These scholars have approach myths in a way their meaning was traditionally regarded. In many traditions these myth are true stories and never refer to as false stories. ( http://ancienthistory.about.com/cs/grecoromanmyth1/a/whatismyth.htm )

Myths differ from other kinds of signifiers. For one thing, they are never arbitrary. They always contain some kind of analogy, which motivates them. Motivation is necessary to the very duplicity of myth: myth plays on the analogy between meaning and form. There is no myth without motivated form. In contrast to ideas of false consciousness, Myth doesn’t hide things, it distorts them. It alienates the history of the