Oolon Colluphid

Okay, I'll play. Where did that figure come from? Are you trusting those same incompetent archaeologists who can't even find evidence for the desert wanderings?

TTFN, Oolon

sidewinder

As far as I know, there is no evidence outside the Bible that these events ever took place. It's likely that the writer(s)/editor(s) of Exodus wrote these narratives based on some older oral and perhaps written traditions.


I think it's important to understand that these narratives were written long after when they are supposed to have happened. The author(s)/editor(s)are making points about God's relationship to the people of Israel. It is probably trying to show the living Israelites that even their ancestors had doubts about God.


The fact that several times in the Hebrew Scriptures God is portrayed as commanding the Israelites to conquer and kill other peoples is a difficult problem for Christians (and probably even for Jewish believers.) For Christians, it's hard to reconcile this God with the God of Jesus of Nazareth but apparently they are same God.

I think it's again important to understand that these narratives were written long after these events are supposed to have happened. They were written to show the Israelites (alive at the time of the writing)that their ancestors struggled with their trust in God.

I'm sure there is more to the interpretation of these narratives. The point is that the narratives are written to make certain points about God and His relationship to His people.


[ January 04, 2002: Message edited by: Storm and Stress ][/QB][/QUOTE]

gravitybow

...and the situation would not improve if Disney were to make a sequel to The Prince of Egypt. It would be almost impossible to reconcile the two stories, as I mentioned in another thread.

In the first film, Moses is horrified to discover that his Pharaoh father commanded the killing of infants. But a sequel would completely reveal the hollow nature of Moses shock as the new God-inspired Moses commands the slaughter of his defenseless civilian Midianite captives, old and young. This command came with a great anger, because Moses' captains had shown a compassion that countered God's will. What a horrific transformation from the original film this would be. And don't forget, there'll be a couple of wisecracking Disney characters to add color while the Israelites drench themselves in blood. "Ouch! That's gotta hurt!" Of course the virgins get spared for a decidedly non-Disney purpose.

The point to all this flippancy is that the Jews learned nothing from the misery of captivity and instead visited a gross horror on their neighbors far and above what Egypt ever did. And Moses, who went from a son of Egypt to a slave, who finally saw what it was like to have the shoe on the other foot, becomes one of the greatest monsters in literature. Apparently, Pharaoh's heart wasn't the only one that was hardened.

The strange case of Moses. Indeed.

Perhaps the Israelites were to learn something of their relationship with God, but I'm not sure trust is part of it. Trust that comes with the threat of sword and plague is no trust at all.