Exodus

Border Crossings in Jewish, Christian and Islamic Texts and Images

Annette Hoffmann, Annette Hoffmann

• Publisher: De Gruyter
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9783110617085
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Theologie & Religion
• Subtopic: Biblische Studien

The scientific debates on border crossings and cultural exchange between Judaism, Christianity, and Islam have much increased over the last decades. Within this context, however, little attention has been given to the biblical Exodus, which not only plays a pivotal role in the Abrahamic religions, but also is a master narrative of a border crossing in itself. Sea and desert are spaces of liminality and transit in more than just a geographical sense. Their passage includes a transition to freedom and initiation into a new divine community, an encounter with God and an entry into the Age of law. The volume gathers twelve articles written by leading specialists in Jewish and Islamic Studies, Theology and Literature, Art and Film history, dedicated to the transitional aspects within the Exodus narrative. Bringing these studies together, the volume takes a double approach, one that is both comparative and intercultural. How do Jewish, Christian and Islamic texts and images read and retell the various border crossings in the Exodus story, and on what levels do they interrelate? By raising these questions the volume aims to contribute to a deeper understanding of contact points between the various traditions.

The Way Out of Vassalage – The Exodus Narrative (Ex 1 – 14) and Ancient International Law

Wolfgang Oswald

My contribution to this volume interprets the Exodus Narrative in its historical context from the historical-critical perspective of bible scholarship.¹ However, I will do so in a way that might contradict some expectations, since I will not ponder the historical event of the exodus from Egypt, nor will I discuss its dating or speculate on the historical identities of the Pharaohs appearing in the narrative. Although such speculations are quite popular, mostly among lay people but to some extent also among scholars, they are misguided, as they ignore particular features of the text. The Exodus Narrative does not mention any date for the narrated events and the Pharaohs appearing in the narrative are anonymous. The story is designed in a way that makes it impossible to locate the narrated events in a specific historical context, and the very first task of historical-critical exegesis is to take this aspect seriously. However, although the narrated story is not historical, the narrative itself is a historical datum. It was written by an author or group of authors for a certain purpose and a specific audience. This is this historical dimension of the text I will concentrate on. Hence, in the following I will seek to understand the intentions expressed in the Exodus Narrative.

The title of the second book of the Hebrew Bible in the Christian tradition is intended to convey the content of the first part of the book, namely chapters 1 to 15: “Exodus”, or: “way out”. But where does Israel exit from? The answer should be clear: Egypt. While this seems plausible at first glance, it is problematic upon closer inspection. Viewing the situation in such a simplistic manner would give us a travel story, a sort of adventure novel comparable to the novels of German writer Karl May (“Durch die Wüste” / “Through the Desert”). But this would not be fitting for the text in question, since only few verses describe the departure process. The biblical narrative does not focus on the external circumstances of the journey but rather on something else, indicated in the Book of Exodus itself. It is instructive to learn how the events of the exodus are summarized, for example in the Decalogue (Ex 20:2): “I am Yahweh your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of servitude.” The first definition of the point of departure is geographical-political: the land of Egypt, but without the more precise statement “out of the house of servitude” it would be insufficient and even misleading. It is not a question of leaving a country, but rather of leaving a certain social status. The journey merely illustrates the actual process, which is juridico-political. The issue is not the journey as such, but the legitimacy of this journey, and hence the legitimacy of the change of status. The story deals with the juridical and political circumstances rather than with the physical migration.²

Before turning to discuss this aspect further, I shall first briefly outline the literary history of the Exodus Narrative. There is unanimity among scholars that Ex 1 – 15 was not written by one single author but rather it should be considered as a composite literary work. The minimum consensus is that an older non-priestly narrative should be discerned from a later one indicating a priestly origin. In the following pages, I will focus solely on the older non-priestly part, contained in Ex 1 – 14. It is worth pointing out, however, that the priestly passages of the narrative do not significantly alter the juridico-political constellation prevailing therein, thus there is no need to devote much time to this matter. The distinction between the earlier non-priestly and the later priestly account – when discussing the encounter between Israel and Egypt at the Reed Sea in terms of international law – will be considered in the third part of this paper.

Leaving aside this debate on literary history, the main goal of the Exodus Narrative is to demonstrate that under international law subjected peoples have the right to terminate their vassal status. This concern is only dealt with in the Exodus Narrative as neither the preceding Joseph Narrative nor the following wilderness stories take up this subject. Hence, we shall concentrate on the Exodus Narrative and seek to determine its juridico-political dimension precisely. In particular, this article analyzes the juridical status of Israel at the beginning of the narrative, its change of status, and its juridical status at the end of the narrative.

The Juridical Status of Israel at the Beginning of the Exodus Narrative

Thus far we have used vague terms such as “social status” or “juridical status”. We could also have used the term “dependency status”, but that would require us to explain what kind of dependency we are talking about. In the Ancient Near East, as well as in the Mediterranean Antiquity, there were many forms of social and political dependency, but it is by no means clear which one applies to Israel at the beginning of the Exodus Narrative. Moreover, there was a variety of forms, including transitional ones, and a lack of consistent and unambiguous terminology.

The issue of ambiguity becomes apparent when looking at the use of the Hebrew verbal root ‛bd, which designates the status of the Israelites before the exodus. The First Commandment of the Decalogue cited above uses the Hebrew term beyt ‛abadim. The translations differ to some extent: “house of bondage” (KJV), “servitude” (Luther), “house of servitude” (LXX, Vulgate, Buber/Rosenzweig), “house of slavery” (NRSV, NASB), “house of slaves” (Elberfelder, Zürcher, Einheitsübersetzung).

All nominal and verbal derivations of the root ‛bd express a “dynamische(n) Relationsbegriff”³. An ‛ebed is somebody who has a duty of loyalty and/or duty of work towards somebody else. Israelites deprived of their rights are referred to as ‛abadim of the Pharaoh (Ex 5:15), in the same manner as the high-ranking and influential court officials of the Pharaoh (Ex 8:5). The same is true in the book of Jeremiah, for instance. The slaves to be manumitted (Jer 34:9) and the counselors of the king (Jer 36:24) are equivocally called ‛abadim.⁴ The designation of the Israelites as ‛abadim and of their occupation as ‛abad only purports a relationship of dependency on the Pharaoh. On the other hand, from the commission of Moses onwards it is clear t...