Losing Abraham’s Religion: More on Israelite Religion in Egypt

In part one of this two-part article,a we considered evidence from within the Book of Exodus that suggests that, in the view of some biblical authors, the Israelites maintained the ancestral religion of the Patriarchs during their lengthy sojourn in Egypt. In part two, we take into account further material in Exodus, as well as in later biblical and post-biblical traditions, that suggests that they abandoned it, at least in part. The first piece of evidence to consider is the Israelites’ neglect of the practice of circumcision. According to the Pentateuch, circumcision was instituted in and practiced throughout the ancestral […]