1 / 9

Chapter 3 Exodus & the Covenant of Sinai

Chapter 3 Exodus & the Covenant of Sinai. Historical basis for Hebrew slavery in Egypt Hebrew alphabet was different from Egyptian symbols Original Hebrew word for God was “ El ” “ El ” has been found in a mine dating to about 1,500 BCE in a mine in Egypt

ion
Download Presentation

Chapter 3 Exodus & the Covenant of Sinai

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Chapter 3Exodus & the Covenant of Sinai Historical basis for Hebrew slavery in Egypt Hebrew alphabet was different from Egyptian symbols Original Hebrew word for God was “El” “El” has been found in a mine dating to about 1,500 BCE in a mine in Egypt The words were in Hebrew script in a prayer format “El, save me” indicating slavery conditions Historians believe the slaves lived, worked and died in that mine

  2. Where did the Jews live? • Not all Jews worked in mines • Archaeologists have found a major Hebrew slave city near a major Egyptian city development site at the right timeframe for Exodus • Hebrew slaves were used to cut and move massive stones • The Egyptian city was Pi Ramses was located on a branch of the Nile where water does not flow today • Remains of Pi Ramses can still be seen today

  3. What triggered Exodus? • Conditions for Hebrews in Egypt had changed in the 450 years from the death of Joseph • Israelites had gone from citizens to slaves • Then a Pharaoh issued an order that all Israelite males babies must be killed at birth Moses – Egyptian or Hebrew • Biblical story of Moses, the reed basket and the Pharaoh's daughter to explain how he avoided Pharaoh’s order to kill all newborn Hebrew males

  4. Moses continued • Brought up in his own Hebrew house until an adult • Then introduced to the Egyptian court as a Royal Price – how? • Moses is aware of his Hebrew lineage • He sees an Egyptian overseer hurt a Hebrew slave and kills the Egyptian • Aware that his crime is know and that even his Royal status will not protect him flees to the Eastern desert, home of the nomadic Midians • Meets a priest, marries his daughter and settles down to be a shepherd

  5. Meanwhile back in Egypt • Nothing improves for the Hebrew salves • They forget about their God by and large but continue to cry out to El for help • But their God has neither forgotten nor abandoned them • God appears to Moses in a burning bush not consumed by the flames and orders Moses to return to Egypt to convince Pharaoh to let the Israelites go free & take his brother Aaron along • Moses asks by what name he should refer to God and God reveals His sacred name Yahweh meaning “I am who am”

  6. The Hebrews and Yahweh • The Hebrews in Egypt had degraded into small groups of families and tribes and had lost any cohesion they might have had before in terms of their overall identity as “Jews” • There is no evidence that Yahweh was a name for God among the Jews before Moses’ time • Those Hebrews who adopted Yahweh as God did so but do not seem to have recognized Him as their only God or as the universal God • Yahweh represented the unutterable mystery of God and instead they used the term Adonai, meaning “the Lord”

  7. The Hebrews and Yahweh continued • Only later did Jews come to understand that Yahweh was the one and only God • Yahweh was not the cruel master other Gods had been but was caring and loving • There is no real mention of exactly how Moses introduced Yahweh to the Hebrews • There is no information on when the Hebrews dropped using the term EL and used Adonai instead – they would not say the word Yahweh • Read Exodus 3:1-22 and 4:1-17 in class • Christians used the term Lord

  8. The Hebrews and Yahweh continued • The Israelites are happy when Moses tells them that Yahweh has heard their prayer • But when Moses approaches Pharaoh he gets a cold reception to the idea of letting his slaves go free and accuses Moses of try to convince the slaves not to work, so Pharaoh doubles the salves’ workload! • So the slaves turn instead on Moses and tell him that Yahweh has not protected them and in fact has made their lot worse and wanted nothing more to do with Yahweh • So Yahweh promises to take action

  9. The Hebrews and Yahweh continued • Read Exodus 4:27-31; 5:1-23; 6:1 in class • After 400 hundred years in slavery the Hebrews felt that they no longer knew their God • The Hebrews needed to be convinced of Yahweh’s protection by seeing or experiencing some miracles • But Yahweh still knew them • Before we start talking about the plagues God brought on Egypt to convince Pharaoh to let his people go, let’s read in class: Read Exodus 6:28-30; 7:1-25; 8:1-11; 11:1-10

More Related