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Loading...In my previous post I talked about Constantin von Tischendorf and his discovery of the Codex Sinaiticus in St. Catherine’s Monastery on the Sinai peninsula in 1844 and then 1859. I have a personal anecdote to relate about the manuscript, one of the most interesting things every to happen to me on my various travels hither and yon.
To make sense of the anecdote I need to provide some background information. As I indicated in my previous post, when Tischendorf discovered the codex Sinaiticus (as it was later called), he considered it to be the most ancient biblical manuscript then known to exist. He was right. It was.
Tischendorf claimed that the manuscript was gifted to him by the head of the monastery. The monastery later claimed, and still claims to this day, that he stole it from them.
The manuscript consists of…
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Wow – what a cliffhanger! Can’t wait to read what will come next. But I have a question, for whenever you get around to it…
“This was also allegedly the spot where, years earlier, Moses had seen the “burning bush” in Exodus 3, where God called him to go into Egypt and demand the Pharaoh to “set my people free,” that is, to release the enslaved children of Israel; this is what started the entire sequence of events that led to the Exodus and the choosing of Israel as the people of God.”
Weren’t they supposedly “chosen” long before that, when God (also “supposedly”) revealed Himself to Abraham?
While I’m asking questions…is it known, beyond doubt, that they really were “enslaved” in Egypt, and not just drafted to provide labor on the Pharaohs’ construction projects, in the same way ordinary (non-noble) Egyptians were? No more “slavery” than a *military* draft? (Though I assume no one, in those days, was actually “paid.”) I remember having read, years ago, that Egypt never had true slavery.
Different strands of the Hebrew Bible present different moments in the history of Israel in which they were chosen to be God’s people: was it under Abraham (Genesis 12) or at the Exodus (Exodus 1-12)? Or both? My view is that all of these stories are legendary, not historical accounts (includin ghte story of the exodus)
Still thinking about this. Do you mean that it was only after a group of Jews left Egypt and made their way back to the region that had been home to some of their ancestors that they not only made up the details of the “Exodus” story, but *also* made up the story of a tradition going back to Abraham? That they hadn’t believed they were “God’s chosen people” *until* then?
My view is that Israel emerged from a group of people living in Canaan; there may be *some* basis in thinking that some people had come out of Egypt, but the exodus traditions themselves are later legends. I discuss all this in my textbook: The Bible: A Historical and Literary Introduction.
“Hook ’em Horns!” That is my university.
A lot of people fail to realize just how close of neighbors Canaan and Egypt were. Long before the first king of a united Egypt, the first Pyramid, or the Heiroglyph, there is evidence of wine coming to Egypt from Canaan. There were many instances of Semitic tribes intruding on Egypt proper. Even up to the days of Jesus, when Herod made Joseph and Mary a little nervous about their baby’s safety, where did they go? Egypt!
The only miracle of any Semites leaving Egypt to get to Canaan was that they somehow wandered in a desert for 40 years in the process!!
Ever wonder if Moses was a legendary leader of the Shasu? So much of the thrust of the invading Hebrews was that they came from the south east. Yet it seems archeologists find the beginnings of the Yahweh cult in the hills of Samaria. So much is unknown and unconnected.
Never thought about it! I myself am not sure Moses ever lived.