Between Moses and the Ancestors: Israelite Religion in Egypt

THE JEWISH MUSEUM, NEW YORK / ART RESOURCE, NY

Within the Hebrew bible, there is a stark difference between Israelite religion in the ancestral period of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs, described in Genesis, and that of the Mosaic period across the rest of the Pentateuch. In the ancestral period, God was generally referred to by epithets that begin with El, which was the general Hebrew word for “god.” These epithets included El-Shaddai, El-Elyon, El-Roi, El-Olam, El-Elohe Israel, and sometimes simply El. The ancestors were very free in their worship, which could be carried out at a variety of sacred sites without the assistance of priests, and which might include: building altars (Genesis 12:7, 8); setting up stones and pouring libations over them (Genesis 28:18); and planting trees (Genesis 21:33). There does not seem to have been an emphasis on holiness and its maintenance.

Mosaic religion was very different and included: the revelation and broader usage of the divine name Yahweh (Exodus 3:13–15); the restriction of worship to selected sites (Deuteronomy 12); the facilitation of sacrifice by priests (Exodus 29; Leviticus 1–7); the prohibition of standing stones and trees (Leviticus 26:1; Deuteronomy 7:5; 12:2); and an emphasis on holiness (Leviticus 11:44). Clearly, the system of worship established as part of the covenant and enshrined in the Torah of Moses was something new.

But what about the period between the ancestral and Mosaic periods? Genesis ends by recounting that the Israelites migrated to Egypt during a time of famine (Genesis 42:1–47:12). And Exodus begins by recalling that, while there, the original 70 migrants were “fruitful and prolific” and “multiplied and grew exceedingly strong, so that the land was filled with them” (Exodus 1:7). The Bible indicates that the Israelites lived in Egypt for 430 years (Exodus 12:40–41).¹

According to the biblical tradition, therefore, there was a period of centuries between the conclusion of the ancestral period and the start of the Mosaic period. What were the religious beliefs and practices of the Israelites during this time? Did they continue to observe ancestral practices, or did they succumb to the influence of Egyptian religion? Let’s consider the evidence from the Book of Exodus that suggests the Israelites maintained various aspects of their ancestral religion.

The first piece of evidence may be the Hebrew midwives’ fear of God. When the Hebrews grew numerous, Pharaoh worried that they might “increase and, in the event of war, join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land” (Exodus 1:10–11). He enslaved them, “but the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread, so that the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites” (1:12). He increased their workload and treated them ruthlessly (1:13–14). Finally, he commanded the Hebrew midwives Shiphrah and Puah to allow female Hebrews to be born, but to kill any baby boys (1:15–16). These midwives, however, “feared God” and “did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but let the boys live” (1:17). As a result, the Hebrews continued to multiply (1:20). Pharaoh summoned the midwives and demanded to know why they had allowed baby boys to be born (1:18). They claimed that the Hebrew women were more vigorous than Egyptian women and that they would simply give birth before a midwife could arrive (1:19). As a result, the text says that God “dealt well with the midwives; and the people multiplied and became very strong. And because [they] feared God, he gave them families” (1:20–21).

In this episode, the text twice refers to the deity using the common noun elohim without a definite article (Exodus 1:20, 21). In these cases, the text is probably referring to a “deity” in a general way. In one instance, however, it is used with a definite article, meaning “the deity.” Although this could be an editor’s observation that they had a general fear of the numinous, it is probably meant to identify the deity as that of the Hebrews.

The second piece of evidence is found in the story of the burning bush, when God calls to Moses, saying, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob” (Exodus 3:6). In a classic study, Albrecht Alt observed that the phrase “the God of your fathers” is a formula that refers to the ancestral God.² Since the formula connects the deity with the ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the word “fathers” is always in the plural. In God’s call to Moses from the burning bush, however, it is in the singular: “I am the God of your father” (Exodus 3:6). Could this be a clue that Moses’s immediate family had maintained faithfulness to Yahweh?

A third piece of evidence may be that the divine name YHWH, often rendered in English as “the Lord,” had already been known since ancestral times. When God spoke to Moses from the burning bush, Moses asked God how he should answer the Israelites if they were to ask the name of the deity who sent him (Exodus 3:13). God answered Moses, “the Lord, the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob” (3:15). Several chapters later, according to a typical translation, God said, “I am the Lord. I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as God Almighty but by my name ‘The Lord’ I did not make myself known to them” (6:2–3). This pronouncement has led to the view that God speaking his name to Moses was a new revelation.

In 1973, however, G.R. Driver argued that this conventional translation of Exodus 6:3 fails to recognize a common Hebrew colloquialism called the “emphatic interrogative,” in which a negative particle is used to express affirmation.³ There are numerous examples of this in the Hebrew Bible (e.g., 1 Samuel 14:30; 2 Samuel 5:23; 2 Kings 5:26). The translators of the King James Version understood the idiom and rendered it accordingly: “And God spake unto Moses, and said unto him, I am the LORD: And I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of God Almighty, but by my name Jehovah was I not known to them” (Exodus 6:2–3). If Driver is correct, the translation of Exodus 6:3 as an emphatic interrogative could mean that the ancestors knew the name Yahweh.⁴

A fourth piece of evidence may be the appearance in Exodus of theophoric names that include a form of the name Yahweh. Jochebed (Yokebed), the name of Moses’s mother, is a compound of Yah (here shortened to Yo) and “glory” (kabod) meaning “Yah[weh] is glory.” The etymology of the name Joshua (Yehoshua) is less clear, but it probably means either “Yahweh is victory” or “Yahweh is salvation.”

This is not a tremendous amount of data, but it may be enough to suggest that the ancestral religion persisted among the Israelites who lived in Egypt during the long sojourn between the ancestral and Mosaic periods.

In a future article, Ralph Hawkins will consider additional evidence from Exodus and later biblical and postbiblical traditions that suggests the Israelites at least partially abandoned their ancestral religion during their sojourn in Egypt.—ED.