The Meaning of the Bible by Douglas A. Knight

Author:Douglas A. Knight
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins

From Slavery to Liberation

The story of the exodus both reflects other biblical narratives and addresses other biblical themes, including life under evil or callous rulers, diaspora existence, theodicy, charismatic leadership, and communal sin. The story is both eternal and specific to Israel’s story. In Chapter 1, we discuss the historicity of the exodus; here we focus on the narrative.

The book of Exodus begins with the appearance, in the language of the KJV, of “a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph” (1:8). As with the various Egyptian rulers of Genesis, from the one who took Sarai into his household (Gen. 12:15–20) to the one who elevated Joseph over the kingdom (Gen. 40–50), this one goes unnamed. That Exodus opens with a reference to “a new king” rather than a “new pharaoh” allows the chapter to speak across the generations. This king can stand for all rulers, whether benevolent, pragmatic, or despotic. The Bible’s general stance is distrustful of any human ruler. As each earthly government, whether headed by Israel’s own rulers such as Saul, David, and Solomon or the nameless pharaohs along with Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, Ahasueros of Persia, and Antiochus IV Epiphanes of Greece, fails to establish universal peace, Israel increasingly looks to divine rule.

The term “Pharaoh” appears first in Exodus in 1:11, the note that the Egyptians set taskmasters over the Israelites to “oppress them with forced labor. They built supply cities, Pithom and Ramesses, for Pharaoh.” The verse connects the title not only with oppression but also with the quest for permanence; the cities are monuments to the king’s immortality. The term “Pharaoh” itself speaks to this need as well. Derived from two Egyptian words meaning “great house,” it referred initially to the palace complex. With Thutmose III in the early fifteenth century BCE, the name becomes a metonymy (as in the expression, “The White House says . . .”). By the tenth century, it is a title, as in Pharaoh Hophra (589–570; Jer. 44:30) and Pharaoh Neco (610–595; Jer. 46:2).

In Egyptian theology, Pharaoh is divine, the son of the sun god, Ra (or Re). Thus Exodus depicts a theomachy: the lordship of Pharaoh, who enslaves, versus the lordship of YHWH, who liberates. Exodus 7:1 makes the point explicit. YHWH tells Moses, “I have made you like God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron shall be your prophet.” The two pharaohs of the Exodus—the one who “knew not Joseph” and enslaved the Israelites and the one who contested with Moses—show that although human rule is transient, divine rule is permanent. The pharaoh of Exodus 1 does not remember Joseph, but Israel’s God “remembered his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob” (2:24; cf. 6:5).

The contrast between God and Egypt’s rulers is made even starker by the first pharaoh’s ineptitude. Not only does he not know his own history, which is never a good sign, but also his proclamations, as the Bible recounts them, indicate at best a lack of political savvy. He begins with the observation: “The Israelite people are more numerous and powerful than we (atzum mimmennu).

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