Ralph K. Hawkins - Discovering Exodus: Content, Interpretation, Reception

D ISCOVERING B IBLICAL T EXTS

Content, Interpretation, Reception

Comprehensive, up-to-date and student-friendly introductions to the books of the Bible: their structure, content, theological concerns, key interpretative debates and historical reception.

PUBLISHED

Iain Provan, Discovering Genesis

Ralph K. Hawkins, Discovering Exodus

Jerome F. D. Creach, Discovering Psalms

Ian Boxall, Discovering Matthew

Ruth B. Edwards, Discovering John

Anthony C. Thiselton, Discovering Romans

David A. deSilva, Discovering Revelation

First published 2021 in Great Britain by

Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge

36 Causton Street

London SW1P 4ST

This edition published 2021

in the United States of America by

Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.

4035 Park East Court SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49546

www.eerdmans.com

2021 Ralph K. Hawkins

All rights reserved

Printed in the United States of America

27 26 25 24 23 22 21 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

ISBN 978-0-8028-7262-3

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are taken from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, Anglicized edition, 1989, 1995 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version, Anglicized edition, 1979, 1984, 2011 by Biblica. Used by permission of Hodder & Stoughton Ltd, an Hachette UK company. All rights reserved. NIV is a registered trademark of Biblica. UK trademark number 1448790.

Scripture quotations marked WBT are taken from Websters Bible (Wipf & Stock, 2016).

The publisher and author acknowledge with thanks permission to reproduce extracts from the following: On Eagles Wings by Michael Joncas, 1979, OCP. All rights reserved. Used with permission. Every effort has been made to seek permission to use copyright material reproduced in this book. The publisher apologizes for those cases where permission might not have been sought and, if notified, will formally seek permission at the earliest opportunity.

To the blessed memory of

The Revd Dr Donald S. Armentrout

The Revd Dr Reginald H. Fuller

The Revd Marion J. Hatchett

The Very Revd Guy Fitch Lytle III

I would like to thank the excellent staff of the Blount Library over the last several years for their help with this project. Peggy Adkins and Jim Verdini have gone above and beyond the call of duty in helping me secure references. My appreciation goes to the students in my Discovering Exodus classes in 2016 and 2018 who helped me think through many of the issues in the book of Exodus. I am grateful to the School of Theology at the University of the South, which invited me to be a Fellow-in-Residence in 2018, and to Romulus Stefanut, Director of the School of Theology Library, who provided me with an office, secured resources for me and extended his friendship. I would like to thank James Hoffmeier, Gordon Johnston, Paul Lawrence and Gary Rendsburg, all of whom discussed various aspects of the project with me. I appreciate their collegial support, while acknowledging that any deficiencies in the work are my responsibility. I am grateful to my wife, Cathy, and to our children, Hannah, Sarah, Mary and Adam, for their love and support. Finally, I would like to thank Philip Law and SPCK, as well as Andrew Knapp and Eerdmans, for the opportunity to write this volume. My prayer is that it might be a blessing to many. Soli Deo gloria!

Ralph K. Hawkins

Feast day of St Ambrose of Milan

Danville, Virginia

Only abbreviations not currently found in the SBL Handbook of Style are included here.

All translations follow the New Revised Standard Version ( NRSV ) unless otherwise indicated in the text. All transliterations follow the General-Purpose Style presented in the SBL Handbook of Style. The project was completed during the 2020 COVID-19 quarantine, during which time library access was very limited, with the result that some of the references in the volume are to works earlier than their current editions. Finally, in this volume, I follow the NRSV S convention of rendering the divine name as the L ORD .

Exodus is an individual book, but it is not meant to be read alone. Instead, it is a chapter in the broader story of the Pentateuch. Preceding the book of Exodus is the story of Abraham, whom God had called to leave his home and its gods and travel to a land he would show him (Gen. 12.1). God promised that he would build a great nation through Abrahams descendants and that, through it, he would bless all humankind (Gen. 12.23). In order to bring about these promises, God would give Abrahams descendants the land of Canaan, where they would eventually take root and grow into a nation (Gen. 12.47).