5 Exodus in Historical Perspective (Jewish History Lab)

Online Courses:

Biblical Jewish History: From Abraham to Bar Kochba

A Thousand Years of Ashkenaz!

[gregcollins]

Thanks Henry. This West Texas gentile is really enjoying these lectures.

[aleksklax]

Dr. Abramson, two great anecdotes from your youth. You transported me to both a timeless story and a personal story..I can still taste the horseradish! Chag Sameach!

[johnbecay]

thank you for the personal remembrances. It adds a depth to this lecture.

[laurenannkattner]

This is a fantastic presentation! It provides me with new insight that I can share with my history students.

[MaryamMaqdisi]

So many great points on Exodus, thank you for this

[bettymaines]

Darn, no Red Sea - and it made such a great movie scene. On a serious note, it is important to dispel these falsehoods.

[An_Economist_Plays]

Fascinating, indeed, especially on linking the tabernacle to Pharaoh's camp. I will have to read more on that, for sure!

[tomsuiteriii]

You make some great points. One aspect of the Bible that you touched on—and that is rarely mentioned—is that it is the first instance of objective “history” even before the Greeks invented the formal discipline in the 5th century. It is far from Israelite propaganda; the Hebrews are displayed in a negative, disobedient light more than in a positive one (hence the prophetic call to repentance). Other ancient Near East and Mediterranean cultures didn’t have “history”—they had imperial propaganda, creation mythology, and heroic epics (Gilgamesh, Iliad, Aeneid, etc.).

[Jsmith]

Thank you again for another excellent video. I enjoy the history and the light-heartedness throughout.

[omeryugenkorat]

Loved hearing the personal experiences you shared. Its very different to growing up in Israel

[lordemed]

To us jews "The Exodus" is the Greatest Story Ever Told.. We will never know for certain "what really happened" as no written documetation from this period exists, and archeological artifacts are very few. We are left with our own imaginations. The sages had powerful imaginations.

[jlupus]

This is very refreshing after watching a black Hebrew Israelite argue that the real Exodus happened in Arizona

[bennettbullock]

One thing that I always found interesting was the name Moses, mosheh. In Egyptian, ms means "son", and it is often used in theophoric names such as Ramses -> ms ra -> "son of Ra", or Thutmose -> ms djhut -> "son of Thoth". The reason we put the god's name first is that in Egyptian you *wrote* the god's name first, and then wrote the rest, but you pronounced it in the reverse. So Moses is the son of whom? Is he the son of nobody - delivered in a basket - or if he is the son of a God, why is that God not named? I subscribe that it's an inter-linguistic play on words, of the kind you see all through Genesis.

[DonYoung-zigw]

To archeologist, their understanding of biblical chronology is written in stone and not to be questioned. They will say that when Joshua encountered Jericho, it had not been inhabited for 300 years, although the city was destroyed exactly as described in the Bible. David Rohl uses the real destruction date as one of the points in history to count back to the exodus to correct the timeline. Ramses II could not be the pharaoh of the exodus because during his reign Egypt was rich and powerful. His army didn't drown, his economy was not decimated as that of the pharaoh of the exodus. You can begin to find the biblical events when you fix the timeline! See the book ' Exodus-Myth or History?" by David Rohl.

[joelwateres]

I really enjoy your teachings
Have been bar mitvahed unpleasant Hebrew classes, my grandmother lit Shabbat candles, Passover and was forced to synagogue for the two high holy days we kept 3 sets of dishes meat dairy and paper for Chinese takeout and when grandma was up in the Catskills typical Brooklyn Jew I think . At age 50 I decided to go to temple on the holy days it was very reformed and was a turn off. At age 64 I bought a complete set of Rashi Torah saperstein edition. And try to read it and get great satisfaction. I pray every day My own prayer to the creator and master of the universe I face east and I don’t know a word of Hebrew other than those words everybody knows since many Jews argue over what’s correct, I say my way is correct for me I know no other way. I once heard you say that some group of Jews say pray this way some say that way so who’s right ? I say “The person who has faith their prayers are being heard “
I find praying very personal and rewarding I learn much from YouTube and really enjoy your talks just thought I would thank you

[alexanderhuzau]

Relatively recent discoveries (1973) consider that Jebel Musa is located in Saudi Arabia and is named Jabal al Lawz.
Some biblical texts shows that mount Sinai is located in the land of Midian which is actually Saudi Arabia. The people conducted by Moses reached the Red Sea coast at Nuweiba when the Egyptian army was already very close to them. Check the net for "The real Mount Sinai "

[txvoltaire]

Even back then, men wouldn't stop and ask for directions!

[mortglazer]

RE: Exodus Story, I recently viewed a podcast about the drowning of the Egyptian army chasing the Hebrew people as they fled Egypt…only one survivor…of the Egyptian army..it happened to be Pharaoh..who would later to testify to his people the Exodus story as it is told in the scriptures. Your comments, Dr. Abramson.

[Hellbender]

Interesting short presentation. Thank you

[NullStaticVoid]

About the 600k.
In studying early Buddhist texts, we often see similar very high numbers. The Buddhist texts are of a similar antiquity. Such that math as we know it was not a common skill. So any very large number, in Buddhist terms we take to be expressing infinite. Or at least it is appealing to a sense of so large as to be uncountable.
So we have an uncountable/infinite large sum, but with a leading digit such as 7 or 5 or 6 which holds some other meaning as well, depending on the tradition we are talking about.
In my studies of Buddhism I came across this a lot. Since the parables and other stories passed through the filter of oral tradition before being written down (same as with Islam and Judaism). I think it is important to recognize that any color, number, animal or flower etc is there for a symbolic reason. These symbols are not the same as what they mean now. I think in these oral traditions these symbols loomed larger. Communicating more than our modern, easily taken for granted words.