The Exodus

Examine the Plagues handout: describe what you see. What do you find curious about these passages and how you understand the differences in them?

Each of these passages shows the chronological aspects of the Plagues. They each seem to have a relatively similar time line. The passages begin around God or his servants performing or displaying signs and ends with the death of all the first born in Egypt. What is notable though about these passages is that throughout the time of the plague, the events that occur differ in order or occurrence in each passage. Some passages, like the J version, mention the cattle plague occurrence being followed by hail then locusts while others like Psalm 78 mentions the cattle plague occurrence after the locusts and hail. The P version also includes gnats and boils in its passages which are not mentioned in the J version. These relative differences can be explained by the translation of the original text. When translating the original documentation of this occurrence, the translation of each one could not have possibly been exact thus leading to slight differences in each. Also misunderstanding and miscomprehension of what was trying to be said in the original version could of lead to different events being documented or different order being established. The P version probably has a few addition materials and events in it like the gnats and boils due to deuterocanonical scriptures influencing the writing while still maintaining the protocanonical scripture from the J version.

From the Reed Sea handout, how would you describe, individually, the Yahwist, the Elohist and the Priestly accounts of the parting of the Reed Sea.

The Yahwist account of the Deliverance at the Sea deals a lot more with a more emotional God. This account personifies God in pillars of file and cloud. This account calls God ‘Lord’ or Yahwah. It really expresses how God expressed himself to the aid of the Israelites and cursed and devoured the Egyptians....