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| Books of the Torah |
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| Exodus |
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The Septuagint designates the second book of the Pentateuch as "Exodus", meaning "departure" or "out-going". The Latin translation adopted the name, which thence passed into other languages. The Hebrews, according to their custom, called it by its first words Ve-eleh shemoth (i.e., "and these are the names") or simply "Shemoth" שמות.
The Book of Exodus recounts the experience of the Hebrew people in the course of their departure (exodus) from Egypt for the promised land of Canaan. Moses receives the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai in Exodus 19:20 -20:21. The book contains:
The time-span in this book, from the death of JosephJoseph ( Hebrew alphabet " The LORD increases", Standard Hebrew Yosef Tiberian Hebrew Yosep , later called Zaphnath-paaneah or Tzafnat paneach Standard Hebrew fnat panea Tiberian Hebrew pna paane Egyptian origin "Discoverer of hidden things"), is one of t to the erection of the tabernacleTabernacles redirects here. For the Feast of Tabernacles, see Sukkot. The Tabernacle is known in Hebrew as the Mishkan ("Place of [Divine] dwelling"). It was to be a portable central place of worship for the Children of Israel from the time they left anci in the wilderness, covers about one hundred and forty-five years, on the supposition that one computes the four hundred and thirty years (12:40) from the time of the promises made to AbrahamAbraham "Father/Leader of many", Standard Hebrew Avraham Tiberian Hebrew Arhm Arabic Ibrhim is the patriarch of Judaism, Islam, and Christianity. His story is told in the Book of Genesis. Islam also regards him as the ancestor of the Bedouins, through Ish (Gal. 3:17).
Tradition names Moses as the author of Exodus. Some critics believe that the book of Exodus has been redacted together from a number of earlier sources.
According to the Biblical account, it appears that 600,000 adult Hebrew men left Egypt and travelled with Moses first to Mount Sinai; some 40 years later their descendants invaded the land of Canaan. According to many Jewish sources, the total number of Israelites (including women and children) numbered some three million. Believers have generally accepted this story as historically accurate; belief in the details of this story did not constitute a religious tenet as such; rather, readers believed this as an historical fact that the Bible faithfully recorded.
Recent archaeological research has cast doubt on this story. Archaeologists have not found evidence that the Sinai ever hosted millions of people, nor of a massive population increase in Canaan during this time period. At this time the land had a population of between 50,000 and 100,000.
Archaeologists and historians have worked in the Middle East for many years to determine approximately how many people lived in a given area at a given time. They do this by analyzing the evidence: buildings, trash, human waste product, skeletons, traces of ancient farms and fields, clothing, documents, and, of course, historical records.
For fundamentalist Jews and Christians, these findings present a problem, as they would invalidate a major claim in the Bible. Non-fundamentalist factions of Judaism and Christianity find little problem with this issue.
Many rabbis in the Talmud stated that one should never interpret certain Torah verses literally. Later rabbis, such as Maimonides, taught that when scientific evidence contradicts a current understanding of the Gemara, we must re-interpret that Gemara in accord with science. This did not apply to the Torah. For many traditional rabbis, such a position did not count as heresy. This view exists today within Conservative Judaism, Reform Judaism, and parts of modern Orthodox Judaism. How can one understand the text of Exodus in light of these findings?
Hebrew University professor Abraham Malamat points out that the Bible often refers to 600 and its multiples, as well as 1,000 and its multiples, typologically in order to convey the idea of a large military unit. "The issue of Exodus 12:37 is an interpretive one. The Hebrew word eleph can be translated 'thousand,' but it is also rendered in the Bible as 'clans' and 'military units.' When I look at the question as an Egyptologist, I know that there are thought to have been 20,000 in the entire Egyptian army at the height of Egypt's empire. And at the battle of Ai in Joshua 7, there was a severe military setback when 36 troops were killed." Therefore if one reads elephim as military units, the number of Hebrew fighting men lay between 5,000 and 6,000. This would give a total Hebrew population of less than 20,000, something within the range of historical possibility.Some hold that one cannot interpret the counts given for each tribe in Numbers 1-2 in this fashion. They appear in units of "thousands", "hundreds" and "tens" and in addition the total appears. Thus, no interpretation of eleph except "thousand" makes sense in that case. However, the Hebrew Bible does not always use words precisely or consistently, precluding definitive proof either way.
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