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April 2, 2013
The Exodus Story was about Freedom of Religion, Not Slavery
By Barry Brown
A look at the Biblical story of the Exodus from a unique perspective of global history. Excerpted from the coming book, "God Doesn't Belong to Anyone: The World Before Religion & How We Got Here."
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(Article changed on April 2, 2013 at 14:23)
This essay includes excerpts from the forthcoming book series, "God Doesn't Belong to Anyone: The World Before Religion & How We Got Here" (c) Barry Brown, 2011. More information is presented on the website for the book, http://www.shalomaste.com
"The further you look into the past, the further you can see into the future," Winston Churchill.
THE EXODUS STORY WAS NOT ABOUT SLAVERY
By Barry Brown
A Historic View of the story of Passover
For centuries, the Biblical story of the Exodus has been told and re-told in song, movies, plays and stories as one of a people long suffering in cruel slavery who are led to freedom through the power of God and the prophet Moses.
However, this is a complete misunderstanding of the Biblical text. It is because of this misunderstanding that there are many apparent contradictions in the text, and it is because of this historical misdirection that archaeologists and other researchers have found no historical evidence for the traditional telling of the story.
Moses' famous half-sentence
The first words Moses speaks to the Pharaoh (Ex. 5:1) clearly tell us this story is not about slavery, it is about freedom of religion.
Most people remember the first half of what Moses said, "Let my people go," but not the rest of the sentence. "Let my people go so that we may hold a festival to (our) God in the desert."
Moses' statement raises three questions. The first and obvious one is:
1. Moses' statement implies he is only asking for a religious holiday and that his people will return to work afterwards. When does he ask for an end to slavery?
The other two questions are:
2. Why don't they hold their festival in one of the many Hebrew temples in ancient Egypt?
3. Why does Moses ask for permission to leave Egypt to hold this festival, when nothing indicates this is a "desert festival"?
The answers to those 3 questions open the door to understanding the true, historical events of the Exodus and the evidence for it.
Why were there no Hebrew temples in Ancient Egypt?
1. Moses never says anything about slavery because he was not opposed to slavery. The laws of Moses include laws on how to treat slaves. Although the Bible says the Hebrews and Israelites were not slaves in Egypt for generations before Moses, there is no evidence of widespread slavery in Egypt at any time. Further, at the start of Exodus we read that the Egyptian leadership is fearful of being overwhelmed and defeated by their "slaves," particularly if the Hebrews and Israelites side with Egypt's enemies. This fear reflects the turmoil and chaos that existed during the period of religious revolution and religious counter-revolution in Egypt during the time of the Pharaoh Akhenaten and the Exodus around 1500 BC.
2. There were never any temples to the "Hebrew God" in Egypt because the Hebrew people (ancestors of the Israelites and Jews) considered temples and priests to be corrupting influences. Their faith was with the universal God and their teachings were that each person had their own unique relationship with God. This is why Joseph at the height of his power in Ancient Egypt never built a temple to the "Hebrew God," and why none existed at the time of Moses many years later.
3. Moses' people had to leave the country to hold their religious festival because the Exodus dates to the one time in Ancient Egypt's history when it was illegal to worship God in any way other than the state religion. The Exodus took place during the reign of the Pharaoh Akhenaten (c 1500 BC), the world's first religious tyrant.
How do we know this?
To answer that question is to reach back in the history of Ancient Egypt, Ancient India and the Bible to the time of Noah's flood (c 2500 BC), Abraham (2000 BC) and Joseph (c1600 BC). For it is only by understanding the world before the Exodus that we can appreciate what caused the rise of a radical, separatist group called the "Sons of Jacob" (Israelites) and their religious clash with Akhenaten and their fellow Hebrews.
Noah Came From India
Josephus, the Jewish historian of ancient Rome, dates the Exodus to the time of Egypt's Indo-European kings. The ancient nation of Egypt had many rulers. Its first monarchs were African Egyptians, then Indo-European Egyptians, Greek Egyptians and finally the multiracial Semite Egyptians of today. Akhenaten was one of the Indo-European kings. These Indo-European people came from a vast multiracial and multicultural trading empire that had its heart in the Indus Valley of ancient India. For 1,000 years, this Indo-European world spread ancient India's influence across the globe.
This trading empire stretched from India north to include Russia, across Europe to the southern British Isles and Scandinavia, along the north and east coast of Africa and east from India to China, Southeast Asia and the islands beyond.
When the great flood of 2500 BC -- remembered in the Bible as "Noah's flood" -- washed away the Indus capital and surrounding areas, these multicultural Indo-European refugees began settling outside of India. In Mesopotamia (the region of modern Iran/Iraq), some of these settlers were called "Hebrews," a word that means "wanderers who came from east of the Euphrates River." The next culture east of the Euphrates is India.
With the destruction of its global center, India turned inward and many of its people left to resettle in lands that had been part of the Indus trading region in the Middle East and along Africa's coastline. The local Egyptians called these Indo-European people by many names including the Hyksos and the people of Punt.
Why does this matter? It matters because by the time of the Exodus, 1,000 years after the Great Flood, Egyptian society was a mix of Afro-Egyptians and two types of Indo-Europeans -- the Hyksos and the Hebrews. While the Indo-European Hyksos and Hebrews saw themselves as very different, to the African Egyptians these two groups were essentially the same - like Catholic and Protestant Christians.
Abraham, Joseph and "The Promised Land"
About 500 years after the flood, the Bible tells of the first Hebrew - a man called Abraham. His story will inspire billions of people for more than 5,000 years and he will be considered the founding father of modern Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
Abraham was a Hittite, a culture that combined Indian and Persian traditions. When he and his wife began to follow God, they changed their names from the original (and Indian) versions Abram and Sarai to Abraham and Sarah indicating a new western culture was being born in the post-India world.
In the Bible, God promises Abraham he will have a homeland for the many people who will be inspired and "fathered" by him. God says this "Promised Land" will be somewhere between Egypt and the Euphrates River, and it will be a gift. In other words, the Hebrew people expected they would receive their "promised land" as a reward for their righteous behavior and "true faith" ways.
Several hundred years later, the Hebrew Joseph saves Egypt's people from famine and Egypt's King gives the Hebrew people a homeland in the fertile region of northeast Egypt called Goshen. To the Hebrew people of that time, this was God's Hand at work. It was absolute proof of the power of their faith. They had been given a homeland in return for Joseph's great godliness and humanity and it was within the region described to Abraham. The covenant had been fulfilled and it was a time of great rejoicing.
True, they were only a semi-autonomous province of Egypt -- like today's Quebec within Canada, the Basque region of Spain or the Punjab in India --but that didn't matter did it?
Will Somebody Think of the Children?
With their homeland in Goshen, the Hebrews flourished and prospered and, along with the Hyksos, the two groups of Indo-Europeans -- though minorities within African Egypt -- had become the cultural leaders, business tycoons and the aristocracy of the day
For most Hebrews, this was a sign of their continued blessing by God and the Hyksos felt the same way. But the success of these two cultures led inevitably to intermarriage, and with intermarriage came the fear of assimilation and a loss of distinction -- particularly among some Hebrews.
At the end of the Bible's first book, Genesis, we read about the Hebrew Joseph. But in the opening pages of the second book, Exodus, there are still Hebrews but with them is a new group called "the sons of Jacob" or Israelites. These Israelites are, by definition, a separatist group because they are named as a separate, sub-group of the Hebrew people who would likely think of themselves as "sons of Joseph" - the son of Jacob who saved Egypt and gave them their homeland.
When one group decides to separate from a larger community, the inevitable reason has something to do with maintaining some form of ideological "purity," and it was the driving force behind the creation of the separatist, political movement in Egypt the Bible calls the "sons of Jacob."
Imagine the Times
Imagine you are a Hebrew living in Goshen at this time. Most are "modern people" who don't see a certain amount of assimilation or intermarriage as a problem. They live in the "modern world" and still maintain their traditions within the family and in personal worship. This was true of the Hebrews and the Hyksos. But to Moses and the Sons of Jacob, assimilation and intermarriage were huge problems that could only be solved by separating Goshen from Indo-European Egypt and making it an independent nation of God on its own.
However, Hebrew traditionalists would consider Moses a near-heretic. "Who are you to challenge God?" they would ask him. "If God gave us Goshen as a province of Egypt who are you to question the will of God?"
By choosing the name "sons of Jacob" -- the other, jealous sons who sold Joseph into slavery -- the "Israelites" were separating themselves from Joseph who married into Egyptian aristocracy and fathered many children with Indo-European and African-Egyptian wives. In other words, while most Hebrews of Moses' time and many other Egyptians considered themselves "sons of Joseph" by blood or inspiration, the "sons of Jacob" regarded themselves as the "pure line" from Abraham. This is also why Jewish ancestry is traced back only to the immediate family of Moses and not his cousins or those who came before him.
Akhenaten
Moses' Worst Nightmare
Before Akhenaten, all the Hyksos Pharaohs had been careful to celebrate and promote local Egyptian culture and support their many temples, while keeping their traditional practices as family affairs. Akhenaten would change all that, and in doing so he would be the catalyst for three revolutions -- two in Egypt and one in the desert after the Exodus.
Both Akhenaten and his wife, Nefertiti, had a common grandfather through different grandmothers. Their grandfather was man was known as Yu-Ya, and there is evidence to suggest that the man the Egyptians called Yu-Ya is the same man the Bible calls "Joseph."
Yu-Ya
Once again, imagine the times. The Hebrew people in Egypt believe their covenant with God has been fulfilled. They are successful and influential and have no worries. Then, to the throne of Egypt comes Akhenaten who proudly declares himself a grandson of Joseph -- a unifying and popular figure among all Egyptians. The Hebrews must have been ecstatic. They now have a grandson of Joseph on the throne of Egypt! To Moses, this must have seemed like the end of the separatist dream. Though he may have warned that Akhenaten was not a "true" grandson of Joseph and that Akhenaten was a cult leader and threat, few would have taken Moses seriously -- especially at the start of Akhenaten's reign.
What is known of Akhenaten's reign is that he came on the scene as a populist who challenged the "wealthy and corrupt" Egyptian temples and their priests, in the same way Christianity's Protestant revolution was driven to end the dominance and extravagance of the Catholic Church, its temples and priests some 3,000 years later.
It is probably during this initial period that Moses leaves Egypt in fear of his life, thinking his mission will ever be fulfilled. The story of Moses killing an Egyptian for beating a Hebrew, and the Hebrews chastising Moses may be an allegory. It may suggest the idea that Moses tried to kill the Egyptian dream that was keeping his people spiritually enslaved, but they would rather remain as "slaves" and so they attack Moses as a heretic and he flees.
Revolution #1: "One Nation under One God."
But as Akhenaten rolls out his revolution he reveals himself as a delusional tyrant and cult leader just as Moses had warned. At first, Akhenaten opened simple, plain and roofless temples to gather worshipers for his form of "Hebrewism." This worship was based on the ancient Hebrew "sun blessing," a ritual still practiced by many Orthodox Jews.
Within a few years, Akhenaten took the next step -- closing down every other temple and making his religion the only legal religion in Egypt. Those who defied the law faced imprisonment or worse. Soon after, Akhenaten declared himself a Hebrew Messiah or "son of God." He demanded Egyptians worship him and his family. In his final years on the throne, Akhenaten fell back into his Indo-European ways and proclaimed that he was an incarnation of God and one of His Avatars.
The suffering and social hatreds stirred by Akhenaten's revolution were causing traditional Egyptians to turn their anger against Akhenaten, his "foreign God" and his Indo-European people -- the Hyksos and the Hebrews. This draws Moses back to Egypt and marks the beginning of the events that will lead to the departure of the "multitude" of Hebrews, Israelites and the Hyksos from Egypt.
Revolution #2: Ideological Slavery Gets Real
At some point during Moses' confrontation with the Pharaoh, or perhaps immediately after the departure, Akhenaten is overthrown in a counter-revolution that puts the priests back in power. The old temples are re-opened, Akhenaten is labelled "the traitor Pharaoh" and executed, his temples are closed and desecrated and the old order -- before the arrival of the Hyksos and Hebrews -- is restored.
So, when does the slavery happen?
The slavery story told in Exodus and the books that follow offer conflicting and confusing narrative. The Bible portrays the Egyptians as having forgotten Joseph and, for unspecified reasons, they have enslaved the Hebrew/Israelite people not just for work but for brutal, death camp-like work.
Yet, just before the departure the Pharaoh tells Moses his people can take their "flocks and herds" with them. What slave owns flocks and herds? The Pharaoh then asks for a blessing from Moses. In the desert afterwards, many people recall how prosperous they were in Egypt. As the "multitude" is leaving, the Bible says the Egyptians hand over their gold, silver and clothing to these exiting slaves. What people in their right mind would do that?
And that leads to the answer of when and why the Hebrews and Israelites were made slaves.
Execution of the "Traitor Pharaoh"
It is not clear at what point during the Exodus story that Akhenaten is deposed and executed as a traitor. He may have been pressured to do things as the priests gain power over time, or it could be he was replaced before the departure and some of the Exodus story may belong to Akhenaten's successor, King Tut (the boy king) or those who ruled behind the scenes.
In any event, some editions of Rabbi Nathan Greenberg's commonly used 1949 Passover Haggadah (the booklet that guides the annual Passover ceremony and re-telling of the Exodus story), mention a second pharaoh.
What is clear is why the slavery happens.
At one point in the slavery story, the Bible explains that Egypt's rulers increase the suffering of their Hebrew/Israelite slaves by making them scrounge for bits of straw and mud to make bricks for heat and cooking. If Egypt and its merchants had a long-standing slave-based economy, as the Bible indicates, they would not be causing their workforce to starve because it would be bad for business. They might make examples of the "trouble-makers" but they wouldn't throw a huge part of their labor pool into chaos.
The Egyptian rulers would do this if they were in the middle of a religious counter-revolution and the priests told them putting the Hebrews, Israelites and Hyksos in slavery was a necessary punishment to appease the Egyptian gods who had been offended by Akhenaten and his followers.
"Make them work in the fields!"
At the beginning of every ideological revolution -- the communist revolutions in Russia and China, the Islamic revolution in Iran or the Protestant revolution in England -- the same patterns emerge. Professionals such as doctors and engineers along with wealthy merchants who are members of the old "ruling class" are pulled from their positions and sent to work in menial positions while the ideologically pure but incompetent take over.
After the mobs have looted the places of the out-of-favor wealthy and Egyptian society has fractured for the second time, the plagues hit Egypt. Eventually, the new leadership decides that Egypt needs to cleanse itself of all foreign influence and the departure (Exodus) begins. The Roman historian Josephus reports that along with the Hebrews and Israelites, the Hyksos were also expelled in that departure.
Once again, if this was an ideological revolution, it is possible that some Egyptian priests told their people to give back whatever they took from the "foreigners" because it was "evil" and tainted by their "foreign god." In the middle of ideological madness, Egyptians may have thrown such things at the people as they left.
When Akhenaten asks for Moses' blessing, it may have been because Akhenaten knew he would soon die. His illusions of God-like power were gone and Akhenaten knew the priests would kill him for what he had done to them.
Demonizing Egypt
As a final point to consider, it is interesting to note how often -- after Moses -- the Bible hammers down on the idea that things were very, very bad in Egypt and equally condemning the Israelites' "idol worshiping" ancestors, the Hebrews.
The Israelites and later Jews have been oppressed by many different groups at many times in their long history. But in the Bible, the Egyptian experience is constantly recalled and demonized. What this narrative and the evidence for it suggests, however, is that this is another example of Israelite politics at work. When something bad happens, people know that bad thing happened and recalling it once is enough.
But when people have to be taught, over and over, that there is only one way of looking at some event, it is always because there is a strong counterview that is being repressed.
With the end of the covenant of Goshen in Egypt, the multitude had to put their faith in Moses and the idea that God would give them a second gift of a homeland. But many in the multitude must have lost whatever faith they had and deserted Moses over the many years in the desert. This is likely the source of Jewish tradition which says 90% of the people "stayed behind" and died in Egypt after Moses left. It may also explain the sudden rise in the Indo-European population in regions of Mesopotamia at this time.
Two Lasting Ironies
While wandering in the desert, Moses and his supporters tried to keep people focused on the new land of "milk and honey" that lay ahead by demonizing what lay behind. This was the start of the dominance of the Israelites and the suppression of the Hebrew traditions and history. Individual worship and a personal relationship with God were placed under a new structure that included hundreds of religious laws, mandatory temple worship and a tribe of born-priests similar to that of India's Brahmans.
Joseph's older covenant, and the Hebrew ways of individualism and tolerance of other ways of understanding God, would be replaced by the God of Joseph's jealous and suspicious brothers who never apologised for what they did to Joseph but happily profited by his forgiveness and generosity.
Most people think that the story of the Golden Calf - when the Hebrews and Israelites fashion a Golden Cow to be used in their worship while they are in the desert -- is one of "evil" Egyptian influence that is righteously crushed and punished by God. This story is considered pivotal in Jewish history, and some Jewish scholars claim every evil that has fallen on the Jewish people stems from this one, never-to-be-forgotten offence against God.
But a careful reading of the story shows this is not the case.
The Golden Calf
Here are the quick facts presented in the Bible story.
1. While Moses is up on Mount Sinai conversing with God, Aaron (Moses' brother) is told the group on the ground would like to hold a festival to the "God that brought us out of Egypt." It is important to note that they are very clear their worship is directed to the same God who is speaking with Moses.
2. Although some authors compare the Golden Calf to the Egyptian worship of the bull, this Hebrew statue is clearly a cow. Further, cows were long considered signs of wealth -- particularly community wealth -- in the ancient world. The modern words "capital" and "fee," along with the words for wealth and fortune in Gothic and Old English all have their roots in an ancient Indian (Sanskrit) word for cow. The reason Moses' brother Aaron quickly agrees to using this statue as part of their ceremony is because the cow was a common symbol of community wealth and God's blessing.
3. Although there is no indication the people planned to worship the cow statue as "a god," the Hebrew people often used a pair of male and female statues of God in their worship. These were called "Teraphim" and the Bible considers them sacred. Jacob (later called "Israel") has Teraphim with him when he rides off to marry Rachael, and later in the Bible the Israelites bring in a priest and his Teraphim to help them win a battle.
4. Though God is initially angry with this cow statue, Moses talks God out of any punishment and God never again raises the issue of punishment -- everything that follows is Moses' idea.
5. When Moses returns from Mount Sinai there is "singing and dancing" in the camp which Moses' ally, Joshua, describes as a "rebellion." Once again, this can only be seen as an "ideological" rebellion by those aligned with the old Hebrew ways of celebrating God as they had in Egypt when they were wealthy and prosperous. It can almost be seen as a way of invoking the wealthy days of their past as a way of blessing their future.
6. But Moses will have none of this. After burning the golden statue and mixing it with water, he forces the people to drink it.
7. Then, he orders the new priest of the Levite clan to slaughter 3,000 of his own people -- mainly traditional Hebrews - as punishment.
8. Afterwards, God sends a plague down that kills another 3,000 people. There are only two times in the Bible when God sends down a plague specifically on "His people." In both cases, it follows Moses' slaughter of his own people for holding to the old ways or challenging his authority.
So, ironically, it might be said that what the people brought out of Egypt was not the golden calf but the Egyptian priesthood, and with that came a loss of the religious freedom and covenant they once had in Egypt.