THE LIFE OF MOSES (EXODUS 1-3)

                           Exodus (collage, 1989)

 

The above collage was constructed by me on one side of a wooden box, inside of which was a maze representing the wanderings in the wilderness. This particular collage contains allusions to the first part of Moses' life up to the encounter with the burning bush. Chapters 1 and 2 of Exodus can be diagrammed as two parallel cycles carrying us from the time Moses was born to the events soon after he fled into the wilderness away from Pharaoh's wrath.

Figure 1: Organization of Exodus 1-2

Introduction (1:1-7)

A. Egyptians afflict Jews (1:8-14)

B. Attempt to Kill Jewish Children Fails (1:15-22)

C. Moses Drawn out of Water by Pharaoh's Daughter (2:1-9)

D. Moses becomes her Son (2:10)

A'. Egyptians afflict Jews (2:11-14)

B'. Attempt to Kill Moses Fails (2:15a)

C'. Moses draws Water for Jethro's Daughter (2:15b-21)

D'. Moses has a Son (2:22)

Conclusion (2:23-25)

The final three verses above are included in this section in agreement with Childs and contra NEB and NAB.

This structure emphasizes Yahweh's personal overseeing of all the events in Moses' life. The parallelism shows this to be true in the relatively mundane events of A'-D' as well as in the more spectacular way in which his life was preserved at birth. (Units A-D are also treated as a unity by Childs.) Moses' close identification with his people is, of course, directly portrayed in Exodus 2:11-14 and will become even more evident when later he leads them out of Egypt just as he had left. However, the same point is made in a more subtle manner by the parallelism between units B and B'.

An interesting contrast between the two cycles in this section occurs in the varied usages of the key word “fear” in these passages. In the first cycle, the midwives are twice said to fear God (1:17, 21). By contrast, Moses feared for his life in 2:14. The play on these two definitions will occur again in the central passage of Exodus 19-24.

Additional evidence for the two-cycle arrangement of this section is found in Greenberg's observation that the verses in the first cycle contain seven appearances of the word “child” plus one use of the plural “children” while the second cycle contains seven occurrences of “man” plus one of the plural “men.”

Moving on from this point in Moses' life we come to chapters 3-7, actually consisting again of two parallel story cycles. Only the first cycle is pictured in the collage above, while the second cycle prepares us for the ten plagues, which will be the subject of another post. Each of these two parts begins with Yahweh revealing himself to Moses using almost identical phraseology and ends with a confrontation between Moses and Pharaoh. The body of each cycle contains the same elements, although their order of appearance varies: Yahweh's charge to Moses, Moses' objections, Yahweh's answers to these objections, and passages dealing with Moses' kinsmen. When all these elements are mapped out, the resulting pattern looks as follows:

                                            Figure 2: Organization of Exodus 3:1-7:13

A. First Cycle

1. Revelation (3:1-9)

2. Charge (3:10)

3. Four Objections/Answers (3:11-4:17)

                                                4. Moses' family (4:18-31)

                                                    a. Moses & kinsmen (4:18-20)

                                                        b. Passover (4:21-23)

                                                        b'. Circumcision (4:24-26)

                                                    a'. Moses & kinsmen (4:27-31)

                                                                5. Confronting Pharaoh (5:1-6:1)

B. Second Cycle

1. Revelation (6:2-5)

2. Charge (6:6-11)

3. Objection/Answer (6:12-13)

                    4. Moses' family (6:14-25)

2. Charge (6:26-29)

3. Objection/Answer (6:30-7:7)

                                                                5. Confronting Pharaoh (7:8-13)

(a) Aaron only serves as Moses' spokesman in the last “Answer” section of Cycle I and the only such section in Cycle II.

(b) The above limits for Cycle 1 are I agreement with Driver's division.

(c) The parallels between the two call narratives (A1-3 and B1-3) is well recognized by others. These include Moses' rod turning into a snake, Moses' objection that he was not an eloquent speaker, the hardening of Pharaoh's heart, and God's promise that He would “stretch out” His hand to strike Egypt with plagues.

(d) The covenant phrase “my people” appears at the start (3:7,10) and conclusion (5:1) of Cycle 1.