BU Blog | Exodus

Three facts support the Jewish tradition that Moses wrote Exodus:

1) The book says so itself, more clearly than do any of the other books of the Pentateuch;

2) Moses grew up and received his education in Egypt and therefore knew Egyptian culture well;

3) Jesus quoted from the book, calling it “the book of Moses.”

Exodus comes from two Greek words meaning “the way out” or “the going out.” The Jews know the book as We’eleh shemoth, from the first words of the Hebrew text, “And these are the names.” Whereas Genesis summarizes many centuries, Exodus covers only about 80 years, the last that Israel spent in Egypt.

Archaeologists have discovered little or no evidence of the Israelites’ presence in or flight from Egypt, probably because the Egyptians recorded only events that showed them in a positive light. According to chronological renderings, Joseph and Jacob would have arrived in Egypt during the time of the Hyksos, a Semitic people who ruled Egypt for about 150 years. Native Egyptians hated the Hyksos despite the fact they ruled justly and worked for the peoples’ best interests. The Egyptian prince Sekenenre and his sons Kamose and Ahomse led several rebellions beginning in 1580 B.C. which eventually led to the expulsion of the Hyksos.

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