EXODUS

exodus, the, the name given to the journey (gr. [greek: exodos]) of the israelites from egypt into palestine, under the leadership of moses and aaron, as described in the books of the bible from exodus to joshua. these books contain the great national epic of judaism relating the deliverance of the people from bondage in egypt, the overthrow of the pursuing pharaoh and his army, the divinely guided wanderings through the wilderness and the final entry into the promised land. careful criticism of the narratives[3] has resulted in the separation of later accretions from the earliest records, and the tracing of the elaboration of older traditions under the influence of developing religious and social institutions. in the story of the exodus there have been incorporated codes of laws and institutions which were to be observed by the descendants of the israelites in their future home, and these, really of later origin, have thus been thrown back to the earlier period in order to give them the stamp of authority. so, although a certain amount of the narrative _could_ date from the days of moses, the exodus story has been made the vehicle for the aims and ideals of subsequent ages, and has been adapted from time to time to the requirements of later stages of thought. the work of criticism has brought to light important examples of fluctuating tradition, singular lacunae in some places and unusual wealth of tradition in others, and has demonstrated that much of that which had long been felt to be impossible and incredible was due to writers of the post-exilic age many centuries after the presumed date of the events. the book of genesis closes with the migration of jacob's family into egypt to escape the famine in canaan. jacob died and was buried in canaan by his sons, who, however, returned again to the pastures which the egyptian king had granted them in goshen. their brother joseph on his death-bed promised that god would bring them to the land promised to their forefathers and solemnly adjured them to carry up his bones (gen. 1.). in the book of exodus the family has become a people.[2] the pharaoh is hostile, and yahweh, the israelite deity, is moved to send a deliverer; on the events that followed see exodus, book of; moses. it has been thought that dynastic changes occasioned the change in egyptian policy (e.g. the expulsion of the hyksos), but if the israelites built rameses and pithom (ex. i. 11), cities which, as excavation has shown, belong to the time of rameses ii. (13th century b.c.), earlier dates are inadmissible. on these grounds the exodus may have taken place under one of his successors, and since mineptah or merneptah (son of rameses), in relating his successes in palestine, boasts that _ysiraal_ is desolated, it would seem that the israelites had already returned. on the other hand, it has been suggested that when jacob and his family entered egypt, some israelite tribes had remained behind and that it is to these that mineptah's inscription refers. the problem is complicated by the fact that, from the egyptian evidence, not only was there at this time no remarkable emigration of oppressed hebrews, but bedouin tribes were then receiving permission to enter egypt and to feed their flocks upon egyptian soil. it might be assumed that the israelites (or at least those who had not remained behind in palestine) effected their departure at a somewhat later date, and in the time of mineptah's successor, seti