The Invention of Religion

Faith and Covenant in the Book of Exodus

Jan Assmann, Robert Savage

• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9781400889235
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Biblical Criticism & Interpretation

A groundbreaking account of how the Book of Exodus shaped fundamental aspects of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam The Book of Exodus may be the most consequential story ever told. But its spectacular moments of heaven-sent plagues and parting seas overshadow its true significance, says Jan Assmann, a leading historian of ancient religion. The story of Moses guiding the enslaved children of Israel out of captivity to become God's chosen people is the foundation of an entirely new idea of religion, one that lives on today in many of the world's faiths. The Invention of Religion sheds new light on ancient scriptures to show how Exodus has shaped fundamental understandings of monotheistic practice and belief.Assmann delves into the enduring mythic power of the Exodus narrative, examining the text's compositional history and calling attention to distinctive motifs and dichotomies: enslavement and redemption; belief and doubt; proper worship and idolatry; loyalty and betrayal. Revelation is a central theme--the revelation of God's power in miracles, of God's presence in the burning bush, and of God's chosen dwelling among the Israelites in the vision of the tabernacle. Above all, it is God's covenant with Israel—the binding obligation of the Israelites to acknowledge God as their redeemer and obey His law—that is Exodus's most encompassing and transformative idea, one that challenged basic assumptions about humankind's relationship to the divine in the ancient world. The Invention of Religion is a powerful account of how ideas of faith, revelation, and covenant, first introduced in Exodus, shaped Judaism and were later adopted by Christianity and Islam to form the bedrock of the world's Abrahamic religions.

PART ONE

GENERAL FOUNDATIONS

CHAPTER ONE

THEME AND STRUCTURE OF THE BOOK OF EXODUS

Incomprehensibilis voluit comprehendi—the ungraspable one wanted to be grasped.

—Pope Leo the Great¹

The Christian faith contends that the inscrutable God emerged from his concealment to reveal himself in history, once and for all time.

—Jan-Heiner Tück²

THE FOLLOWING OVERVIEW of the Book of Exodus skips over many details that will be dealt with more thoroughly in later chapters. On the one hand, it aims to clarify how the biblical book is structured; on the other, it seeks to draw attention to certain “primal scenes” that have played a key role in how the book has been read and taken up.

Exodus (Chapters 1–15)

The first part of the book begins with an exposition before the drama of revelation gets underway in chapter 3. This exposition, in turn, is divided into two sections. The first section (chapter 1) recalls the suffering of the Israelites, while the second (chapter 2) tells of the birth and upbringing of Moses, their future liberator. The afflictions of the children of Israel in Egyptian captivity are depicted in the darkest possible colors, indelibly imprinting the image of ancient Egyptian culture in the memory of Islam and the West as the epitome of inhuman oppression. At the very moment when this oppression takes on genocidal dimensions with Pharaoh’s decree that all male Israelite children be cast into the Nile, a son is born to a Hebrew couple. Placed in an ark and fetched from the waters by an Egyptian princess, he receives from her the name of Moses and is raised at court as her own child. Years later, having witnessed with his own eyes the cruelty inflicted on a Hebrew, Moses slays the overseer and flees abroad, to the land of Midian. In Midian, which we are to understand as lying in the north of the Arabian Peninsula, east of the Gulf of Aqaba, Moses marries the daughter of a priest and tends to his flocks.

In this short exposition, we can already see several points emerging that were to be of the utmost significance for the reception history of the Exodus story; I will return to them in the first section of chapter 4. They include the uncanny affinity of the Egyptian ordeal to the later fate of the Jews, particularly in the era of National Socialism, and the anticipation of anti-Semitic clichés like “foreign infiltration” and a “fifth column” (the idea that “they might support our enemies in time of war”). In the second part of the exposition, recounting the birth, rescue, and flight of Moses, it is above all the elided story of his childhood as a prince at the pharaonic court and as an initiate into the Egyptian mysteries that has fueled people’s imagination since classical antiquity.

With this two-part exposition, the groundwork is laid for the great theme of the Book of Exodus: revelation. The idea that the gods disclose their will to mortals in portents, dreams, and oracles is nothing new and can be found in different forms in all religions. This form of continuous revelation is part of the existing world and demands that humans cultivate one quality above all others: attentiveness. In order to stay in contact with the gods, they need to develop finely tuned techniques of observation and interpretation. However, none of these divine revelations and declarations even remotely resembles the definitive, founding, and binding event that is the Exodus revelation. The revelation narrated in the Book of Exodus does not belong in the world as it actually exists; rather, it intervenes in that world, remaking it from the ground up. It does not continually recur in various forms as an accompaniment to the everlasting processes of the universe; it happens once and for all time. What it requires of mortals, more than anything else, is that it be remembered. On no account is this revelation to be forgotten. On the contrary, it must continually be brought to mind in its world-changing, radically innovative significance. The Book of Exodus does not just tell of this revelation, it also establishes an indestructible monument to its memory. We have here a story that is destined never to be forgotten, one that will captivate and transform the lives of all who read and hear its “good news”—indeed, the entire New Testament stands wholly under the spell of the Book of Exodus and represents a decisive phase in its reception history.

The grand revelation that dominates the Book of Exodus proceeds in six steps:

1. Ch. 3–6	Revelation of the name (prelude). YHWH manifests himself to Moses in his true name and announces his plans to him. This first step consists in an intimate form of revelation addressed only to Moses and has no other witnesses.
2. Ch. 7–15	Revelation of power. YHWH reveals his overwhelming power to Pharaoh and the Egyptians in ten plagues and the miracle of the Red Sea. This second step, in contrast to the first, takes place on a cosmic scale; it is addressed to Pharaoh and witnessed by both Egyptians and Israelites.
3. Ch. 19–24	Revelation of the covenant. YHWH reveals himself to his chosen people as the one who redeemed them from Egyptian bondage and gives them the laws as the basis and condition for the covenant he offers them. The people are the addressees and witnesses of this third, crucial step.
4. Ch. 25–31	Revelation of the Tabernacle as model and its description. Here Moses is again the sole addressee of the revelation, which takes place from within a cloud on Sinai, hence under conditions of the utmost seclusion.
5. Ch. 33–34	Revelation of the divine being. Finally, YHWH reveals himself once again to Moses alone, when Moses succeeds in pacifying him after the crisis of the Golden Calf. In the process, the prophet’s appearance is so drastically transformed that, from then on, he can communicate with his people only with a veil over his face.
6. Ch. 35–40	Institutionalized divine presence. After the Tabernacle is built, YHWH descends in his “glory” (kābôd) in a cloud settling above and within the sanctuary in order that he now may dwell among his people. This culminating step in the revelation process should not itself be understood as an act of revelation, however, since it leaves behind a lasting presence.

God Reveals His Name

The first step of the revelation is in two parts. The first part (3–4:17) relates in four sections the actual revelation that Moses experienced at the burning bush. I will return to this narrative kernel, which was destined to exert a far-reaching influence in the reception history, in chapter 5. The second part (4:18–6) deals with Moses’s attempts to communicate this revelation to his compatriots and also, above all, to Pharaoh.

1. Leading his flocks one day beyond their usual pasturelands to Horeb, the “mountain of God,” Moses sees a bush that is burning without being consumed by the flames. Intrigued by the sign, he steps closer and is granted a revelation. God becomes audible as a voice from the burning bush, solemnly identifying himself as the God of his forefathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Moses demands a name and receives the famously enigmatic reply, “I am that I am” (ʾehyeh ʾăšer ʾehyeh), an answer that plays on the name YHWH (3:1–14).

2. God makes known to Moses his plan to free the children of Israel from Egyptian bondage and lead them to the land flowing with milk and honey he had promised their forefathers. Acting as God’s emissary, Moses is to convey the good news to the Hebrews while also petitioning Pharaoh to let them journey three days into the wilderness to sacrifice to their God. However, God knows that Pharaoh will refuse the request. This gives him an opportunity to use his miracle-working power to compel the release of his people (3:15–22).

3. Moses, doubting his own credibility, is equipped by God with three magic skills that will establish his credentials as divine emissary: the ability to transform staffs into snakes, water into blood, and healthy into leprous skin (4:1–9).

4. In the face of the continuing reluctance shown by Moses, who pleads his “slow tongue,” God assures him of his support and sends him an assistant in the form of his brother, Aaron, who will speak on his behalf to the people and to Pharaoh, just as Moses will speak on God’s behalf to Aaron (4:10–17).

The tale of Moses’s departure for and arrival in Egypt is oddly punctuated with new directives and appearances from God. These make clear that, from now on, God is steering the course of events, without there being any need for each of his interventions to be once again heralded by an epiphany and ceremonious self-introduction. He has revealed himself and is now “there,” just as he had announced with the formula “I will be what I will be” (ʾehyeh ʾăšer ʾehyeh). Moses bids farewell to his father-in-law, Jethro, and God reminds him of what he has to say to Pharaoh. Here the fateful words appear: “Israel is my son, even my firstborn.” If Pharaoh refuses to let him go, God will slay Pharaoh’s firstborn son (4:18–23). On the way to Egypt, Moses meets with a puzzling incident: God tries to kill him and Zipporah saves him by quickly circumcising her son—the trace of an archaic legend that was probably inserted here by association with the death of the firstborn (4:24–26). God then makes another appearance and sends Aaron ahead to greet Moses. The rest is quickly and succinctly told. Moses confers with Aaron, who passes on God’s message to the assembled elders; Moses performs “the signs in the sight of the people. And the people believed” (4:27–31).

At this point, the story could go straight on to Moses and Aaron’s audience with Pharaoh and their display of magic tricks, but first the action is slowed down by an interpolation that takes up a further two chapters (5 and 6). The brothers appear at the court to pass on God’s command: “Let my people go, that they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness.” Yet Pharaoh knows nothing of this God, requires no miracles attesting to his power, and dismisses them out of hand. Instead of negotiating with them further, he aggravates the Hebrews’ labor conditions by canceling the supply of straw they use in making bricks. Now they will have to “scatter throughout the land of Egypt to gather stubble instead of straw” for their bricks. This unfortunate turn of events makes the people lose faith in Moses’s God-given mission. Moses, too, grows despondent and turns again to God, who reassures him that he will vanquish Pharaoh “with a strong hand” (5:1–6:1).

On the one hand, this interpolation anticipates the actual moment when the brothers will demonstrate their magic before Pharaoh and thus usher in the cycle of “signs and wonders” by which God compels the release of Israel. On the other hand, it duplicates the story of the Israelites’ afflictions by adding a new degree of punitive intensity to the slavery depicted at the outset. The interpolated episode could end here (6:1), but God once again launches into a solemn self-presentation that reprises his revelation in the burning bush. “I am YHWH,” he declares, “and I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of El Shaddai, but by the name YHWH was I not known unto them.” Then God once again recalls the covenant he made with the forefathers and his pledge to give them the land of Canaan. He explains that he has seen how the Israelites suffer “under the burdens of the Egyptians” and has decided to free them “with outstretched arm, and with great judgments,” that they may be his people and he their God. The motifs of the covenant and God’s promise emerge even more clearly here than in the scene at the burning bush. With that, the character of this revelation as “good news” entrusted to the bearer of that news, Moses, also becomes clearer. All the more disappointing is the reaction of the Israelites, who “hearkened not unto Moses for anguish of spirit, and for cruel bondage.” Once again Moses turns to God, who once again dispatches him and Aaron to the people and to Pharaoh.

At the end of chapter 6 our text takes up the thread where it had been dropped in verse 12. There, Moses had once again broached the problem of his heavy tongue, a problem that God had long since solved by appointing Aaron to help him. Here it is repeated a third time (6:30) and God again calms the prophet down by explicitly appointing Aaron to be his spokesman before Pharaoh (7:1–2, cf. 4:16). Once again, God initiates Moses into his plan to harden Pharaoh’s heart in order to force him to free the Hebrews by sending him as many “signs and wonders” as possible. The multiple repetitions and redundancies show that we are dealing here with a text worked on by many hands. I will discuss the textual history in chapter 3.

God Reveals His Power

The second step in the revelation, which becomes ever more grandiose and terrifying as it unfolds, begins when Moses and Aaron appear before Pharaoh to repeat their demand. This section of the story, which extends over some eight chapters, can only be understood when it is grasped as divine revelation. Traditionally it has been summarized under the heading of magnalia Dei, the mighty acts of God, a term that brings together the aspects of revelation and salvation. The same aspects also define the Christian concept of revelation that builds on the events in Exodus. On a narrative level, in terms of their function within the parameters of the narration, the plagues of Egypt make little sense: why does the story dwell on them at such length when only a single terrible plague—the pestilence, for example—should have been enough to punish Egypt and liberate Israel? The chief concern of the story at this point, however, is to demonstrate God’s transcendent, aweinspiring power as comprehensively as possible. As God himself says to Pharaoh: “If I had raised my hand to strike you and your people with disease, you would have been completely destroyed. But to show you my power I have let you live so that my name might be declared throughout all the earth” (9:15–16).

When Moses and Aaron present their credentials to Pharaoh with the miracle of the snake, Pharaoh summons his wise men and sorcerers to match the feat. They do so but are humiliated when Aaron’s staff, in serpentine form, swallows their own. Pharaoh still refuses to budge, so God sends Moses to Pharaoh the following morning as he is walking by the water. The magic contest now expands to a cosmic scale, since Moses, by performing his next miracle at the Nile, transforms the entire river and all the drinking water in Egypt into blood. His second demonstration of his magical powers thus becomes the first of the ten “plagues” visited by God on Pharaoh and Egypt to compel the release of Israel, his “firstborn son.”

The first nine plagues, grouped in threes with the aid of tags like “tomorrow” and “go forth,” reveal a certain internal order. The first three plagues perpetuate the sorcery competition contested by Aaron with his staff. “Nile” and “frogs” belong together, and just as the waters of the Nile teem with frogs, so the dust (dried Nile mud) brings forth clouds of gnats. The second group of three has a common denominator in the theme of sickness. The vermin unleashed in the fourth plague are obviously more dangerous than the merely bothersome gnats; together with the pestilence and boils of the fifth and sixth plagues, they threaten the bodies of both livestock and human beings. The final group of three is distinguished by the cosmic-meteorological character of the plagues. This is evidently true of the hail and darkness caused by the seventh and ninth plagues, respectively, and it is indirectly true of the locust swarm of the eighth, which is brought to Egypt by the east wind and carried away again by the west wind. These...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• List of Illustrations
• Foreword
• Introduction
• Part One | General Foundations
• Part Two | The Exodus
• Part Three | The Covenant
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Illustration Credits
• Index