Exodus 1-14. This Will Include

¶ … Exodus 1-14. This will include an the following: An indication of the settings (temporal, physical, cultural) of the passage An indication of the main conflicts that drive the plot An analysis of the extent to which those conflicts find resolution by the end of the narrative An analysis of the main characters in the narrative in terms of their function, thereby indicating the protagonist, proponents, antagonists, and foils in the passage.

This author will identify which of these characters they identify with and why? Provide a short commentary on the point of the narrative, including what the Exodus author is most interested in, what the main themes of the narrative are and how the passage impacts on the author. We must return to the Jewish roots of Christianity if we are to understand where we came from. If we do not understand Judaism, we will not understand ourselves.

One of the classic Jewish translations and commentaries on the Jewish Torah is the Soncino edition. The title is Exodus in English. This is close to the original Hebrew title which was "the Book of the Going out of Egypt." However, early on, it became know to the Jewish people as "Shemot" after "Ve-eleh Shemot"("and these are the names") (Hertz, 1966, 205). Exodus begins by describing the fear of the Egyptians that the Israelites were out breeding the Egyptians. For this reason, the Pharaoh ordered that the Israelite boys be killed.

Moses survives and is placed by his mother in a basket and left in the Nile River. Pharaoh's daughter Batya finds him. The narrative then follows with God choosing Moses to lead the Israelites and teaching him how to lead and express himself to Pharaoh and the Jewish people. After God destroys Egypt in the plagues, the Israelites flee Egypt towards the land of Canaan, and he destroys the entire Egyptian army (ibid).

As laid out above, the conflicts are between God, Pharaoh and Egypt, Moses and Pharaoh and the Jewish people and Egyptian society. The conflicts were not fully concluded as the Israelites had not yet made it to the promised land. However, they are free of Egyptian rule so they are part of the way there. Obviously, the main protagonist is Moses. Aaron, Moses' mothers Batya and Yocheved and his sister Miriam play important support roles as proponents. The antagonist role is played by Pharaoh.

The narrative presentation of Pharaoh is as a foil for God. While there is no mention of the Exodus in the Egyptian records, this is not unusual. Like every piece of propaganda, Egyptian records do not mention defeats, or mask them as victories or draws. For instance, one of the primary candidates for the Pharaoh of the Exodus (the text does not mention the Pharaoh by name) is Ramses II.

A strong leader in the mold of Sadaam Hussein, he fought a life and death struggle with the Hittite leader Muwatalli II at Kadesh in Syria in 1274 B.C.E. While the battle resulted in a draw, it was just barely so and resulted in a peace treaty between the two empires. Egyptian inscriptions portray it as a great victory ("Ramses ii: the," 2007). This author identifies most with Moses.

He is great but is also the typical "everyman" in that he is an ordinary man caught up in extraordinary circumstances who aspires and achieves his greatness through humble service to his nation. The narrative does not seem to be interested in Egypt or the Pharaoh per se. For instance, we do not even know who the Pharaoh is. For the author of Exodus, this is not important.

Even the relation of the Exodus narrative itself is only told because it offers an example of faith to inspire the Jewish people and humanity as a whole in the future. Thematically, this narrative relates the choice of the Jewish people as the vessel for God's interaction with humanity since a general approach via Adam and his descendants failed. Now, God focuses on the people of Israel and builds a nation to be the divine embassy to planet Earth. This narrative has had a great impact upon the author.

While God now focuses upon the national religion of the new nation of Israel, he has not lost interest in humanity. Even Egyptians can be considered among the righteous of the nations as we see in the case of Pharaoh's daughter. Even though Pharaoh and much.