Tag: Pharaoh
-
The Exodus times Three
In its final form, Exodus, like the Bible’s other opening books, was a well-crafted compilation using a variety of oral and written source materials. These had originated, and then been expanded upon, for at least five centuries, in different locations, at diverse times, by numberless story tellers and writers. The final editors had exemplary respect…
-
The Enigmatic Moses
Was there a Moses? The most likely answer is, yes ! All the Hebrew Bible sources, from the earliest onwards, while often reflecting different perspectives, are in agreement here. Since there are details in their contributions which are rather ‘awkward’, this makes it unlikely that Moses was ‘custom built’ by the writers/editors, and more likely…
-
The Birth of Moses (i)
There was a time when it was taken for granted that Moses wrote the first five books of the Hebrew Bible – the ‘Torah’ if you’re Jewish, the ‘Pentateuch’ if you’re not. These books, however, don’t say that he did. They’re written from a third person perspective; and it’s hard to imagine Moses describing, in…
-
Joseph and his Coat of Many Colours
Whereas the earlier stories in Genesis, from Abraham to Jacob, seem stitched together by assembling individual tales to suggest a chronological narrative, the Joseph Story seems more like a brief, carefully constructed novel, described by Prof. John Collins of Yale Divinity School, as “a superb example of early prose fiction“. It’s built around a number…
-
‘Once Upon a Time’ (v) Egypt and the Sun
As I noted in my 1st post on this theme, the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament contains many echoes of far older, interesting and amusing creation myths, flood stories and epic poems which, because used to train scribes, were widely spread in location and time across the ancient near east. The Hebrew writers/editors used a number of…
RAY'S VIEWS ONLINE 