“For You Were…in Egypt”: The Rhetoric of Remembering Egypt in the Hebrew Bible

Abstract

This dissertation explores the various ways in and purposes for which Israel’s time in Egypt prior to the exodus is invoked in biblical literature. The topic of Israel’s experience in Egypt is first situated in the cultural interactions between Egypt and the inhabitants of southwest Asia in the Late Bronze Age in Chapter One, and I suggest that the biblical authors’ and scribes’ preoccupation with Egypt may have its roots in this period of interaction in the distant past. In Chapter Two, I consider the possible Northern origins of Israel’s earliest traditions about leaving Egypt, concluding that emphasis on a departure from Egypt in the prophetic texts of Hosea and Amos reveal an interest in Egypt as an origin point for Israel’s unique relationship with YHWH. Chapters Three and Four then examine the two most prominent motifs used to describe Israel’s time in Egypt: that of enslavement in Egypt and of residing in Egypt. In Chapter Three, I build on the work of other scholars who have identified enslavement in Egypt with Deuteronomic ideology and discuss how Deuteronomic texts employ this motif to motivate the observance of YHWH’s laws or the worship of YHWH alone. In Chapter Four, I investigate the possible referents for the motif of residing in Egypt, situating this theme among other texts concerning the treatment of gērîm, especially in biblical law. I show how the characterization of the gēr in biblical law is largely distinct from how the patriarchs are depicted when they reside in Egypt and argue that there is no clear narrative precedent for the Israelites as a whole residing in Egypt. I conclude by suggesting that the prevalence of this motif in the Holiness Code, in particular, is best understood in light of the experience of exile. In the final chapter, I survey other traditions about Israel’s time in Egypt that differ from these two major motifs and argue that the preservation of multiple, differing “memories” of Egypt in the final form of the Hebrew Bible should be understood as a snapshot of a process of negotiation, not competition.