2002: Islam for Dum-Dums, Part I

THE FIVE PILLARS OF ISLAM

or

CEREMONIAL OBLIGATIONS

FIRST PILLAR  -  al-Shahadah  -  Bearing Witness

      The most important and most often repeated duty is reciting the testimony to the unity of God.  It has two parts:

(1)     “Ashhadu anna la ilaha illa ‘l-Lah, (2) wa anna Muhammadan rasulu,” (1) “I bear witness that there is no god but God (whatsoever), (2) and Muhammad is the Messenger of God.”

      Shi’ite Muslims add a third line about Ali being the only true successor to Muhammad.

      The average believer repeats the Shahadah at least 20 times a day, and it is a basic part of the muezzin’s call to prayer from the top of the minaret.

      The first words spoken to a newborn infant are those of the Shahadah, which are also used as the Last Rites in Islam.

How to Become a Muslim

      Merely uttering the Shahadah in earnest makes one a Muslim (after the first part, one is a muslim, small “m”, or one who submits to God; after the second part one is a Muslim, big “m” and a member of the religion).  That’s it.  Welcome to the faith.  You now have several obligations, some moral and some ceremonial, to be a Muslim in practice.

      Your moral obligations include, among others:

-          Obedience to God and his Messenger;

-          Kindness to others and to not be boastful;

-          Consideration for others, especially orphans and the poor and needy;

-          Chastity, Restraint and Modesty; and Just Treatment, Consideration, Kindness and Gentleness for men toward their wives;

-          Honesty, Truth in your commitments;

-          Loyalty, Humility, and to be Peace-Loving.

SECOND PILLAR  –  al-Salah  -  Ritual Prayer

      Without rendering this duty, one ceases to be a Muslim in practice.  Islamic prayer is not  “a conversation of the heart with God” as in Christianity.  It is rather a sort of public prayer with readings from the Qur’an, starting with al-Fatihah (The Opening), the first surah of the Qur’an, which goes like this:

               

1.       “In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful,

2.       Praise be to Allah, Lord of the Worlds,

3.       The Beneficent, the Merciful.

4.       Owner of the Day of Judgement,

5.       You (alone) we worship; You (alone) we ask for help.

6.       Show us the straight path:

7.       The path of those whom you have favored; Not (the path) of those who earn you anger nor of those who go astray.”

      This is followed by other short verses, then the Shahadah (First Pillar), the benediction or petition for the Prophet, and then brief praises.  At prescribed moments in the salah there is room for personal invocation of God’s aid and guidance in what is called the du’a’ (invocation or supplication).

      Al-Salah must be performed 5 times a day.  Only physically or mentally ill people are exempt.  The iqama (Call to Prayer) is issued from a balcony at the top of a minaret by a muezzin, sung in a drawn out, almost melancholy way:

“God is great (4x).  I bear witness that there is no god but God (2x).  I bear witness that Muhammad is the Messenger of God (2x).  Come to prayer (2x).  Come to contentment (2x).  There is no god but God.”

      During the call to prayer at dawn, the muezzin adds, “Prayer is better than sleep.”

     

      The prayer is performed wherever you happen to be at the prescribed time, though city dwellers usually gather in mosques (from masjid or “place of prostration”).  The only time a Muslim is obligated to pray with fellow Muslims is at the noon service on the day of al-Jum’ah (“the congregation”), which is Friday in the Christian calendar.  This day is the Muslim Sabbath, but not really a day of rest, simply one of serious prayer.

      In every mosque, there is a semi-circular recess called the mihrab that sets the direction of prayer, which is always towards the Ka’bah in Mecca (in modern day Saudi Arabia).  Up front, his back to the front row, stands the imam, the leader in prayer.

      The times for prayer are fixed as follows:

                subh       - when the sky is filled with light but before actual sunrise, dawn

                zuhr       - immediately after midday

                ‘asr         - sometime between 3 and 5 in the afternoon

                maghrib – after sunset but before the onslaught of darkness, twilight/dusk

                ‘isha’      - any hour of darkness

      The worshipper must approach al-Salah in a state of legal purity or ceremonial cleanliness (taharah).

                “O you who believe!  Draw not near unto prayer when you are drunken, till you know that which you utter, nor when you are polluted, save when journeying upon the road, till you have bathed.  And if you be ill, or on a journey, or one of you comes from the closet, or you have touched a (woman), and you find not water, then go to high, clean soil and rub your faces and hands (with it).  Lo!  Allah is Benign, Forgiving.”  [Qur’an, 4:43]

How to Pray Like a Muslim

      So, you have uttered the Shahadah (and meant it) and now are a Muslim. 

      It is now one of the five times a day to pray, so you must first make sure you are clean and legally pure of body (which implies the soul as well) and also of dress and place.  Prepare ablutions to become clean before addressing God.  This is the only restriction before prayer.

      There are two types of ablutions: ghusl, which is an overall cleansing for after great acts of defilement, such as sexual intercourse, falling down drunk in a mud puddle, etc.; and wudu’, for after small defilements such as satisfying the call of nature (the “closet” line above in 4:43), after sleep, simple contact with the opposite sex, etc.  Dogs are considered especially unclean to Muslims, as ghusl must be performed if you have touched one.

      The wudu’ is the most commonly performed, either at home or in the court of the mosque itself:

A.   First you need water that is “legally pure”;

B.   Wash your face, then your hands and forearms up to the elbows;

C.   Pass your right hand, full of water, over your head;

D.   Wash the top of your feet, starting from toes and going to the ankle and heel.

      Make sure your garments are not stained with blood, excrement, or other nasty things.  If any such defilement occurs during the prayer, the purity and efficacy of the prayer is destroyed; the prayer is considered cancelled, ghusl must be performed, and everything started over.  This is why menstruating women are not allowed into the mosque (accidents happen, after all).

      Now you are ready for prayer.  Select a templum or immediate sanctuary where you may take up a position facing Mecca.  Make sure the ground is not defiled, and it is preferable to mark the area with some visible object (hence the custom of prayer rugs).  Men are to pray in a loud voice, while women pray in a whisper o silently.

i.                     Stand erect, repeat the iqama (Call to Prayer);

ii.             Put into words your intention (niyah) to undertake so many bowings (rak’at, sing. rak’ah) – this intention is important, as is signifies your conscious will in the prayer;

iii.                  Raise your open hands to the level of your shoulders, utter the takbir (magnification) or the formula: “Allahu akbar” (God is the greatest), signifying the beginning of disassociating yourself from the world of earthly affairs.

 Note: a threshold has now been crossed – any word or gesture foreign to the ritual from this point cancels the prayer.

1.       Standing position, left hand placed on right hand - recite the Fatihah (1^st surah, above) followed by a few other short verses, usually from surah 112, al-Tawhid (The Unity):

1.       “Say: he is Allah, the One!

2.       Allah, the eternally Besought of all!

3.       He begets not nor was begotten.

4.       And there is none comparable unto Him”;

2.       Incline upper part of body forward from the hips – recite another takbir; rest the palms of your hands on your knees in a ruku’, or position of obeisance – recite “(I extol) the perfection of my Lord the Great”;

3.       Stand in an erect posture (i’tidal), recite “Allahu akbar”;

4.       Now you are at the highest point of the prayer and the posture of greatest surrender to God: position of prostration (sujud) uttering the same words over and over again:

5.       Kneel on the ground, stretch your hands out in front of you, touch the ground with your brow at the base of your nose;

6.       Raise your body and sit on the base of your heels while still in a kneeling position, stretch your hands along your thighs in a julus or qu’ud (sitting) position;

7.       Prostrate a second time – repeat the takbir.

8.       Back to a julus position – repeat the Shahadah, followed by the intercession for Muhammad – “salla-‘l-Lahu ‘ala sayyidina Muhammad”;

9.       Turn your head over your right shoulder – pronounce the taslim: “al-salamu ‘alaykum wa rahmatu ‘l-Lah” (“May peace and the mercy of God be with you”); turn head over left shoulder – repeat the taslim.

The entire process followed without interruption from the Fatihah to the second prostration (number 7 above) – you have now completed one rak’ah (full prayer cycle).  Each time of the day has a ritual number of rak’at to be performed: zuhr, ‘asr, and ‘isha’ have four each, and subh and maghrib have two each (making 16 total a day).  Steps 8 and 9 are performed after the proper number of rak’at.

Salat al-Jum’ah – The Friday Prayer

      The Salat al-Jum’ah is performed in a mosque, when feasible, and when 40 or more have assembled at the noon service on Friday.  The imam (prayer leader) has no special religious function, and no religious authority as there is no priesthood in Islam.  The imam can come from any walk of life and is chosen by his co-religionists to lead the prayer because of his reputation for knowledge of the faith and piety.

      The prayer is immediately followed by the central function of the ritual, the Khutbah (sermon), delivered by the imam khatib, consisting of a general eulogy according to a fixed formula (khutbat al-na’t) and pious exhortations (khutbat al-wa’z) in which the imam can display his eloquence.  The khutbah often consists of stories of hardship endured and hardship overcome, evoking an intense emotional response in the congregation, among whom there are frequently tears and then a feeling of serenity after this emotional purging.

      The khutbah ends with the khatib invoking the blessing of God upon the community and its leaders.

      In the early days of Islam, the caliph presided over the Friday Prayer either in person or through a representative; later he prayed within a wooden enclosure (maqsurah) for protection.  In the days of Muhammad, women attended prayers standing behind the men.  Later they too prayed behind the maqsurah, and in time fewer came into the mosque because, according to a later prophetic tradition, it was preferable that women pray at home.

      The most striking thing about these prayer rituals is their simplicity and sobriety, “which leaves the maximum of freedom in respect of the most elevated of spiritual functions” (Amer Ali, The Spirit if Islam).

THIRD PILLAR  -  al-Zakah  -  The Poor Tax, Poor-Due or Almsgiving

      While a beneficent, charitable, and moral act, zakah is a required religious observance.  From the habit in the days of the Prophet of bringing alms to the community leader, this process of a type of permanent tax developed.

      The Qur’an specifies for whom the zakah is due and the distribution of alms if prescribed according to fixed categories:

1.       First and foremost to the poor and the needy (furqara), then

2.       Officials (‘amalah, sing. amil) who gather the zakah, determine and levy the precise amount, and arrange for transport, storage and safekeeping of the alms;

3.       “Those whose hearts are to be reconciled” (Qur’an 9:60) – in early Islam the Meccans who were hostile to the religion often had to be bought off;

4.       Slaves to purchase their freedom;

5.       Paying back debts incurred as a result of acts of benevolence;

6.       Arming the mujahidun (fighters) engaged in a jihad (holy war) against infidels – an interpretation of the Qur’anic phrase “…the cause of Allah” (9:60

7.       Supporting institutions dedicated to the service of God – another interpretation of “…the cause of Allah”;

8.       Aiding poor travelers.

      The exact amount was never spelled out, but the average was usually between 2 and 3% of earnings and possessions.  Later in the development of Islam, both the percentage levied and the mode of payment were worked out according to specifically defined rules:

-Products of the soil, chattel, and precious metals and merchandise become liable to zakah when they attained a certain minimum value (nisab).  These are paid in kind, but when the value exceeds the nisab, then the amount is subject to fluctuation;

-When levied on fruits or harvests, the amount is between 1/10 and 1/20;

-There are set rules for cattle, precious metals, and manufactured merchandise, with the basic rule being that these remain in the hands of the same owner for one year.

      Zakah are also given out of guilt for some improper or unpious act.

      The zakah are supplemented by sadaqah (voluntary taxes), which are not defined – the faithful volunteers them according to his or her urge to do good or when Allah moves him to.  They are also given out of gratitude to Allah for being spared from a terrible event or catastrophe.  Sadaqah are also collected and assessed by the amil.

FOURTH PILLAR  -  al-Sawm  -  Fasting

      It was Muhammad’s habit to retire to a cave for one month each year to contemplate things and listen to various scriptures from various religions.  It was at this cave that the Archangel Gabriel first spoke to him and began dictating what would become the Qur’an.  This month is called Ramadan and is marked as one of Islam’s most important rituals - the Fast of Ramadan.  The date varies as reckoned by the Christian calendar because the Muslim calendar is lunar, rather than solar.  The fast begins on the 1st day of Ramadan and lasts the whole month.

      One of the main reasons for al-Sawm is to empathize with people who are hungry.

      During the fast, a Muslim may not eat, drink (even water), smoke, nor have sexual intercourse throughout the entire day – from the time a white thread can be distinguished from a black thread (just before sunrise)- to sunset.

How to Fast Like a Muslim 

      If on a particular day you are able to fast but do not, for whatever reason, you can make up for it by feeding a poor person, but the Qur’an says, “if ye fast it is better for you.”  If you are in full control of your facilities and in good health, yet do not fast, you must pay fidya (expiatory alms).  If you break the sexual prohibition, you must free a slave or fast for 2 months or feed 60 people.

      If you are physically or mentally incapacitated, you are exempt from fasting.

      You break the fast each day immediately after sunset with a futur (light meal).  You may “eat and drink until the white thread becomes distinct to you from the black thread of the dawn” (Qur’an 2:187), and many people party all night.  This culminates at dawn with the suhur (dawn meal) - the time when it may taken at the latest is announced by a town crier called the muwaqqit (time determiner) or musahhir (dawn determiner).  This cycle repeats daily throughout the month of Ramadan.

      The Fast ends on the first day of the month of Shawwal with a great feast called ‘Id al-Fitr in the Eastern Lands and al-‘Id al-Saghir in the Western Lands of Islam.  There is also a solemn prayer, the Salat al-‘Id, and the giving of statutory alms marking the end of the fast (Zakat al-Fitr).  Also, each head of household gives to the poor a prescribed quantity of the customary food of the country.  The Feast and festivities last for 3 full days, during which you rejoice, exhibit new clothing, and exchange embraces.  The Feast of Ramadan is warmly and strictly observed.

FIFTH PILLAR  -  al-Hajj  -  The Pilgrimage to Mecca

      All Muslims who are physically able and can afford to, must perform the pilgrimage at least once in their lifetime.

      The Hajj takes places from the 7^th to the 10^th day of the month of dhu-‘l-Hijjah.  This is partly a hold over from a pre-Islamic ancient Semite tradition that was a journey saying farewell to the harsh sun in the desert lands.  There are 2 types of pilgrimage – the hajj, or major pilgrimage; and the ‘umra, or lesser pilgrimage.

      A number of sites are the target of the pilgrimage.  Two of the most important are:

1.       The Well of Zamzam – the spring around which the city of Mecca is built.  According to legend, Abraham’s wife Hagar and their little son Ishmael were abandoned here and the angel Gabriel answered their pleas for water by causing the Spring of Zamzam to gush forth where little Ishmael kicked up his heels after his mother had run back and forth between two nearby hills, searching for water and generally lamenting their predicament.  Abraham came to the area some time later and, with the help of Ishmael, rebuilt the Ka’bah, the House of God (Bayt al-Lah) on the very spot where Adam of Genesis fame had built it before it was swept away by the Great Flood.

2.       The Ka’bah (The Cube) – located in the middle of a square enclosure surrounded by walls measuring 36x30x18 ft. high.  The façade is undressed stone covered by a vesture called the kiswa, usually made by the sovereign leader of a leading Islamic state (for a very long time it was supplied by Egypt).  The kiswa is of green cotton inset with gold silk girdled by a black band two-thirds up on which are inscribed Qur’anic verses.  It is carried annually to Mecca and the Ka’bah during the pilgrimage season.

-At the SE corner of the Ka’bah, inset in silver, is the Black Stone – a stone of unknown origin, that had been worshipped far before Islam as having come from God (reputedly it fell from the heavens), which many today feel is probably a meteorite.

-Near the Black Stone, on the North side, is an ornamental door that leads into the interior of the Ka’bah, opened on fixed days of the year to the faithful.

-Surrounding the Ka’bah is the mataf, an ellipsoidal roadway on which the faithful make the ritual circuits (tawaf).

-Opposite the Black Stone, on the other side of the mataf, is the little Mosque of Zamzam, which is surrounded by the sahn – a great courtyard measuring 300x180 ft. and bounded by galleries punctured with 22 gates.

      The shrine of Mecca and the city’s environs to the extent that the sanctuary’s lights can be seen, an area marked off by pillars on all sides, constitute the haram or hallowed grounds.  This is another pre-Islamic concept – the area was once consecrated to the various pagan gods of the Arabs and inside the haram animals grazed, the soil yield was respected, and none but those in a state of ritual sanctity could enter.

      Islam has barred all non-Muslims from entering the city of Mecca.

      A woman may also undertake the hajj if the husband allows it and she is accompanied either by him or another person who acts as protector.

      In some cases, the pilgrimage may be delegated to a substitute who will undertake the journey and rituals for a person.  If this is the case, the person still gets credit for it.

      Should a believer die without having performed the pilgrimage, when he could and should have, his heirs, who would receive rewards on the Day of Judgement for performing a pious act, may undertake it.  In some cases, bodies are sent to Mecca for burial.

      Although certain ritual ceremonies commence from the moment the faithful declares his intention to perform the hajj, and at certain prescribed stations called miqat (pl. mawaqit) along the route approaching the haram where the pilgrim performs rites to prepare him to enter the sanctuary, it is at the borders of the haram that the pilgrimage truly begins.

How to Perform the Pilgrimage

                So, you are now at the borders of the haram.  Here you perform ablutions and prayers.  Then you shed your clothes and don two seamless cloth wrappers – one around the loins, reaching to just above the knees (izar), and the other about the shoulders (rida’).  Except for two pieces of leather soles strapped to your feet (na’l), you go without shoes or head covering.  Once within the haram, you do not cut your hair, shave, trim your nails, or anoint your head during the entire ceremony.

      You must accomplish these things before the end of the pilgrimage:

1.       Visit the Masjid al-haram (the Sacred Mosque) and circle on foot (tawaf) the Ka’bah 7 times – 3 times at a run and 4 times at a quick pace;

2.       Go to the SE corner of the Ka’bah and kiss the Black Stone;

3.       Visit the Maqam Ibrahim where there is a sacred stone upon which Abraham supposedly climbed while finishing the upper sections of the Ka’bah;

4.       Ascend Mount Safa and then run back and forth between it and Mount Marwa 7 times, in memory of Hagar’s flight while looking for water;

5.       On the 9^th day of the pilgrimage, you must go to Mount ‘Arafat, a short distance outside the city.  This is where Muhammad delivered his Farewell Message in February of 632 C.E.  Here you perform the culminating point of the entire ceremony, without which the hajj is all for nothing, the wuquf (“station before Allah”).  This takes place in the afternoon of the 9^th day.  You stand erect on the mountain in the hot sun, reciting pious formulae under the leadership of an imam, who also gives a solemn khutbah (sermon), one of the 4 ritual khutbahs in the entire pilgrimage.

6.       Immediately at sunset you proceed to the Muzdalifah Valley, between Mt. ‘Arafat and the town of Mina.  Here there is another wuquf and then, after collecting 7 small pebbles, another ifadah (flight) back to Mina at sunrise.  You spend the tenth and last day of the hajj at Mina, where the final ceremonies take place.

7.       At the edge of a steep slope (‘aqaba), where the road to Mina starts, there is a smooth stone pillar surrounded by a large basin.  This pillar represents Satan, who tempted Abraham at this spot, and is popularly referred to as al-Shaytan al-Kabir (the Great Satan).  Here you stand before the pillar and, while reciting “bism ‘l-Lah, Allahu akbar” (“in the name of God, God is great”), you throw the 7 pebbles from the Muzdalifah Valley at the pillar, which is how Abraham drove Satan off.

8.       The ceremony ends on the 10^th day with the sacrifice of a consecrated animal, usually a sheep or goat.  Part of it you eat and the rest is given to the poor of Mecca – you dry a few pieces in the sun to carry back with you and the remainder of the carcass is processed and canned by the Saudi government for distribution to the poor and needy.

This sacrifice on the 10^th day of dhu-‘l-Hijjah is one of the most important feasts in Islam.  On this day, throughout the Muslim world, the head of each family sacrifices an animal in the same ceremonial manner as followed at Mina.  This feast is known to the Arabs and Persians as ‘Id al-Adha (Feast of Offerings) or ‘Id al-Qurban (Feast of the Sacrifice), to the Turks as Buyuk Bayam, and to the Muslims of North Africa as al-‘Id al-Kabir (the Great Feast).

9.       At the end of the sacrifice ritual, you have your head shaven and your nails cut.  The waste is carefully buried at Mina.  You are now in a state of tahallul al-saghir (partial desanctification).  You remain at Mina a few more days before returning to Mecca.

10.    Back at Mecca, you perform the tawaf al-ifadah – the final circumambulation of the Ka’bah.

     

      Congratulations, you have completed all the ceremonies of the pilgrimage (manasik al-’hajj) and are fully desanctified.  You are now entitled to be called “Hajji,” which is used in lieu of a title like “Mister” or “Miss” (example: Mr. Smith can now call himself Hajji Smith).  

   

      The next step is a visit to Medina.  Here you stand before the tomb of the Prophet and contemplate his life and deeds.  You may also visit Jerusalem, site of the Mi’ra (Muhammad’s nocturnal ascent to Seventh Heaven on a horse), and home of many prophets, especially ‘Isa (Jesus).

      Upon reaching home again, you perform the same ceremonies you underwent before your departure.  You then distribute souvenirs, water of Zamzam, and pieces of the kiswa to family and friends, who greet you with your new title: Hajji.

2002: Legends of the Exodus

Dateline: Sinai  - The Books of Moses, Deuteronomy

I.

Egypt

        The Book of Genesis ends with the Twelve Tribes living fairly well off in the Land of Goshen in Egypt, east of the Nile Delta, and with the death of Joseph.  The Twelve Tribes keep pretty much to themselves and grow into a large subculture living in Egypt.

        A pharaoh came to power “who knew Joseph not” (and whose name is not mentioned) and who worried that the Hebrews would betray Egypt to its enemies, so he enslaved them – forcing them to build the cities of Pithom and Raamses, among other things.  They still did not assimilate and, concerned with their growing numbers, Pharaoh ordered all male Hebrew children drowned.

        A child from the tribe of Levi was not drowned but set adrift on the Nile in a basket, which was found by Pharaoh’s daughter.  The child was adopted, given the name Moses (from a Hebrew root meaning “to draw up” as in from the water), and raised in the royal court.

        When he was an adult, Moses saw an Egyptian taskmaster flogging a Hebrew slave, which enraged him – he killed the Egyptian and buried the body in the sand.  Word got out about his crime anyway and he fled to the wilderness, in the land of Midian {somewhere in Southern Sinai}.

       

        Here he met a group of people living at the base of Mount Horeb and married the daughter of Jethro.  While wandering with his flocks on the mountain, Moses encountered God in the form of a bush that burned but was not consumed.  God revealed Himself to be the god of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and of their descendants – the enslaved Hebrews, and revealed his mystery name – YHVH, or “I am that/who I am.”  Yahweh told Moses to go to Pharaoh and demand the release of his people.  Moses and his brother Aaron (whom God has commanded find his brother in the desert) returned to Egypt to confront the Pharaoh.

       

        Pharaoh refused and Yahweh inflicted terrible plagues upon Egypt.  First the Nile turned to stinking blood.  Then frogs erupted out of the Nile and the land.  Then animals and people were attacked by lice.  Then swarms of flies plagued the countryside.  Then a disease afflicted the livestock.  Then mysterious boils erupted on the surviving animals and the people.  Then hail mixed with fire rained down and destroyed the crops.  Then a plague of locusts finished off the remaining plant-life.  Then a deep darkness “which could even be felt” descended over the land.  But Pharaoh still would not relent.

        Finally, a spirit of death was loosed upon Egypt to kill the first born of every household, man and animal alike.  The Hebrews were instructed to smear their doorposts with blood so the angel would know them and pass them by [this is what the Jewish holiday of Passover (Pesah in Hebrew) celebrates]; they were also told to prepare unleavened bread in expectation of a sudden departure and journey.

       

        Pharaoh granted the Hebrews’ release, and 600,000 men, women and children, plus their animals, set out on foot for the Promised Land, led by Moses and his brother Aaron.  Yahweh wanted to spare his people the possibility of getting involved in a war, so he had them avoid the easier northern route through the land of the Philistines, and instead they were to go south along the west coast of the Gulf of Suez.  Pharaoh reconsidered his decision and dispatched 600 chariots to bring the Hebrews back.  Yahweh parted the waters of the Gulf of Suez, the Hebrews ran to the other side, and then the waters came crashing down on the Egyptian pursuers (an event celebrated in the Song of the Sea – Ex.15: 1-18).

                {The parting of the Red Sea, and the drowning of the pursuing charioteers, is widely believed to have occurred at Hammam Far’aun – “The Pharaoh’s Bath” – on the Western Sinai coast.}

II.

Sinai

        Moses leads his ragtag group around the wilderness of the Sinai Peninsula, and finally takes them to Mount Horeb* to meet their God.  He ascends the mountain to speak with Yahweh, and comes down with the laws his newly liberated people will live by – including the Ten Commandments (Ex. 20) as well as a complex series of worship, purity, and dietary laws (almost the entire remainder of the Books of Moses – Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers).  The only thing marring the occasion is that Moses is gone so long that his people revert back to idol worship (the golden calf) (as they were to do so many more times in their history) and he, in anger, breaks one of the tablets.  The Ark of the Covenant is constructed according to Yahweh’s instructions, the tablets of the Ten Commandments are placed inside, and Yahweh enters it to dwell within.

        {*Mt. Horeb (which just means Mountain of God) is better known today as Mount Sinai (Gabal Mussa in Arabic – literally Mount Moses – though some refer to it as Gabal Iti – or (the) Mount of Losing (Yourself), a reference to the Hebrews losing themselves in worship of the golden calf while Moses was talking with God).  Nearby is St. Catherine’s Monastery – considered the oldest example of unrestored Byzantine architecture in the world.  Inside this complex there is an extensive library with 3,000 ancient documents, 5,000 books, and the oldest known translations of the Gospels (5^th century); in the Church of the Transfiguration there is the Chapel of the Burning Bush – which is difficult to get permission to see but if you are lucky enough to, please remove your shoes, as the holy roots grow under the floor; there is also a mosque, an ossuary, and a gift shop.  St Catherine’s futbol team is the champion of Egypt - they keep in shape by running up the 2285 meters to Mt. Sinai’s bleak summit twice a day.}

        Yahweh continues with them on their journey, in the form of a cloud by day and lighting their way as a pillar of fire by night.  After 40 years of wandering, they camp at Paran and send spies to gather intelligence about the Canaanites they will have to overcome.  The spies return with information about great armies and huge fortifications – so formidable that the Hebrews become afraid and rebel against Moses, demanding to go back to Egypt where they were at least safe.  Yahweh sees this and decides that the generation that has seen slavery in Egypt is unfit for the tasks ahead and will not enter the Promised Land – it will be their offspring that will fulfill the Hebrews’ destiny.

        The Hebrews wander some more, through Kadesh-barnea {identified as Ein el-Qudeirat in Eastern Sinai near the Israeli border, probably named for the small spring nearby called Ein Qadis}, and across the lands of Edom and Moab (descendants of Lot, Abraham’s nephew), east of the Dead Sea.  It is there on the plains of Moab that the now elderly Moses reveals the full terms of God’s Law, detailed in the Book of Deuteronomy (from the Greek word “deuteronomion,” meaning “second law”).  Joshua, son on Nun, is appointed to lead the Israelites into Canaan, and Moses ascends to the summit of Mount Nebo**.  There God shows him the land he has brought his people to but cannot himself enter (being part of the older generation).  Moses sees it all in a vision, and then dies.  The Israelites, now a nation, mourn for 30 days, and then cross the River Jordan, ready to claim the land promised them by their God.

                {**Mt. Nebo is near Madaba in Western Jordan near the Israeli border.  While the Bible claims that no one knows where Moses is buried, guides will tell you there are rumors of his grave being in a cave near Ain Musa.  There is a Memorial to Moses on the higher Mt. Siyasha – the next peak over.}

III. (Interlude 1): A Boy and His God – The Law-Giver and the Genie       

        What of Moses himself – was there such a person?  The religion today called Judaism is largely his creation, in much the same way that Christianity is the religion of St. Paul – Abraham and Jesus being the originators of the message, while Moses and Paul codified it and set down the tenants of a practical method of ritual, worship, and lifestyle.  They both impressed these new religions with their own personalities.  Judaism follows the laws of the god Yahweh, but just who or what was this Yahweh?

        The Roman Catholic Douai Bible says that the name Moses does not mean “drawn up out of (water)” but actually just meant “born of”.  It required another named prefixed to it, such as Ramesses (born of Ra) or Thothmoses (born of Thoth).  Somehow the family name got dropped, much like taking the “Donald” from “MacDonald” and just leaving “Mac.”  Some have suggested that, if this is true, his original name was Hapymoses, or Born of the Nile.

        The idea that a pharaoh ordered all Hebrew children thrown into the Nile is impossible to believe as a historical event – first it would be totally against the Egyptian idea of Ma’at, or justice; second, it would be a very foolish idea to have thousands of tiny bloated corpses clogging up your people’s only water supply; third, there is no evidence of any such thing happening, either in records or from archaeological digs.  So the story of Moses birth must have some meaning other than historical fact.

        In fact, the birth story of Moses is almost identical to that of Sargon I, king of Babylon and Sumer several centuries before the reign of Ramesses II.  Some scholars suggest that the story is an archetypal tale around the theme of creation from the waters – the kingdoms of Sumer and Babylon and, later, the Kingdom of Judah, as told through the story of Moses.  It also conveniently explained how a Jewish child came to be raised as an Egyptian.

        We are told that Moses is of the tribe of Levi, who were the priests and scribes of the Israelites.  Most likely Moses was thought to have been a priest or scribe (thus the written Commandments, in a time when few people could write) and the authors of Exodus assumed he must be from the tribe of Levi (he had to become a Jewish hero, after all, since this is a Jewish tale.)  Perhaps he was a Habiru (a derogatory term for the wandering nomads form the east, regardless of ethnic or cultural background - possibly where the word Hebrew comes from) or other Asiatic who was adopted by an Egyptian family (a not uncommon practice at the time), possibly he was a high-born Egyptian who found it necessary to change his identity, or possibly he was a Semite general in the army of the last Hyksos king and was expelled with the rest of the Hyksos by the Theban monarchy.

        Whatever the case, he killed a man and had to run – so he hid out in the Sinai wilderness, finally marrying into the main family of a group of Semites living at the base of Mt. Horeb. These people worshipped a god of storm and war who lived on the mountain, and wore a symbol on their foreheads shaped like the Hebrew letter Tau (a stylized letter “T”).  Interestingly, inscriptions from the 16^th and 15^th centuries BCE describe the work of Habiru slaves in turquoise mines – very dangerous work with no ventilation and flames burning up the available oxygen, and a high death rate among workers – not far from Mt. Horeb and some scholars have raised the intriguing possibility that this group of slaves may be the ones Moses freed and led into Canaan - which would explain how there could be people called “Israel” in Canaan before the Exodus; the story would have to be that this group of Habiru slaves, led by Moses, brought the god Yahweh to Canaan and mixed with the people there, who were already known as “Israel.”. 

        Since tracing back any definitive information of the racial background of the people we today call Jews is all but impossible, we must go to the other definition of a Jew – a person who follows the customs and laws of the god Yahweh.  But who was this Yahweh?

        Gods seldom spontaneously pop into existence, but come from other deities.  The god living at the summit of Mt. Horeb probably came from Mesopotamia, undergoing various changes as time passed (thus the story of Abraham bring Yahweh to Canaan).  At that time, it was believed that if you knew the name of a god you had power over it.  Moses asks the god of the burning bush for his name, and the god sidesteps the question with the rather smart-assed reply “Ehyeh asher ehyeh”, or “I am what I am”, basically deflecting the question.  YHVH then asserts his power by commanding that Moses remove his shoes and to keep back because the ground is holy.  Moses complies, and their relationship begins.

        Yahweh then makes Moses a deal – I will give you a people and laws to form a nation with, if you and they worship me.  But what kind of god was Moses agreeing to serve?

        A harsh one, by all accounts.  First Yahweh inflicts awful plagues upon the Egyptians.  Then, when Moses leads the freed slaves back to Mt. Herob and they start worshipping another god, Yahweh commands Moses to have as many of these sinners killed as possible.  The Bible reports of three thousand being put to the sword.  Then Yahweh leads His people into conquest after conquest, all of them bloody – with whole towns being killed and razed (see Deuteronomy 2, 3, etc.).  Yahweh warns his people that they must obey him or perish (Deuteronomy 8:19-20).  Yahweh even plots to kill Moses at one point for marrying an Ethiopian woman, but changes His mind and kills someone else.  Moses constructs the Ark according to Yahweh’s instructions, out of fine metals and materials, and the god enters it to use as a home, much like a genie in a bottle.  And so a small, localized being gets promotes Himself to full-fledged god status, living in style, and eventually becomes known as the only God – creator of the world – through a bargain struck with an Egyptian citizen on the lam for murder.       

IV. (Interlude 2): The Hyksos

        The Egyptian historian Manetho, writing in the third century BCE, describes a brutal invasion of Egypt from the east, and subsequent domination, by a group of chariot riding Semites he calls the Hyksos (a Greek translation of an Egyptian word that he thought meant “shepherd kings” but which actually meant “rulers of foreign lands”.)  He went on to describe how a virtuous king drove them off, pursuing them north into Syria, and how the survivors went on to found the city of Jerusalem and build a great temple there.

        The Hyksos were indeed of Western Semitic origin and ruled Egypt from their city of Avaris (today’s Tel ad-Daba) in the eastern Nile Delta.  They are identified as the rulers of the 15^th Dynasty (about 1650 to 1560 BCE – possibly as early as 1780 BCE). They had very distinctive trappings, such as the braided beard we commonly associate with the pharaohs today, and the chariot – a device not seen in Egypt before the Hyksos, and were hated by the Egyptians.  They were finally driven off by one of the always-scheming princes of Thebes – Ahmose of the Eighteenth Dynasty, who sacked Avaris and chased the Hyksos to their main citadel at Sharuhen, in Southern Canaan near Gaza.  He went on the found the Egyptian New Kingdom (1560 – 1075 BCE).

        Excavations at Tel ad-Daba show a gradual increase in Canaanite occupation, with pottery, tombs, jewelry and the like showing Canaanite influence as early as 1800 BCE and by 1650 the city was overwhelmingly Canaanite.  There is no evidence of an invasion  - rather a gradual increase in Western Semitic influence and what was most likely a peaceful takeover of power.  Tel ad-Daba was abandoned in the mid-16^th century BCE.

        Egyptologist Donald Redford argues that the memory of a time of ascendancy in Egypt and a sudden violent expulsion and return to Canaan echoed through the ages as a powerful cultural memory.  This memory would greatly color the Exodus narratives, now believed to have been written in the 7^th century BCE.

V. (Commentary): Did They Stay or Did They Go?

A note on the various archaeological ages: the generally accepted scheme is:

Early Bronze Age                   - 3500 - 2200 BCE

Intermediate Bronze Age   - 2200 - 2000 BCE

Middle Bronze Age                - 2000 - 1550 BCE

Late Bronze Age                    - 1550 - 1150 BCE

Iron Age I                                - 1150 – 900 BCE

Iron Age II                               - 900 – 586 BCE

Babylonian Period                - 586 – 538 BCE

Persian Period                      - 538 – 333BCE

        Historical writings from ancient times are notoriously unreliable.  We saw that the various sources that make up the Book of Genesis were most likely complied in the 8^th or 7^th century BCE to further the idea of a unified nation under the auspices of the Kingdom of Judah.  But what of the story of Moses and the Exodus?  When did the Exodus take place, if at all?

        The Book of Exodus describes the use of Hebrew slaves to build the cities of Raamses and Pithom (Ex. 1:11).  The first Egyptian king with the name Ramesses took the throne in 1320 BCE, more than 100 years after the traditional dating of the Exodus.  His son, Ramesses II (1279-1213 BCE) is known to have built the Pi-Ramesses, or House of Ramesses and to have used Semites in its construction; his capital was Pithom, which was greatly expanded during his reign.

       

        The Merneptah stele (Merneptah was the son of Ramesses II) describes a campaign against a people in Canaan who were known as “Israel.”  This is the first known written reference to a people called “Israel” and they were already in Canaan in the 12^th century BCE.

        Exodus also tells of the dangers of going to Canaan by the northern way, and Moses takes them south through the Sinai desert instead.  The way along the north coast from the Nile Delta to Canaan and beyond was known as the Way of Horus and was dotted with forts a day’s ride apart.  Any group of people escaping this way would surely have been caught, or at least their passage would have been recorded.  There are no records of any group of freed Semitic slaves heading to Canaan this way, though there are records of people traveling between Egypt and Canaan (which was under Egyptian domination).

        There is no evidence of a large group of people camping in the Sinai.  Even if one assumes the figure of 600,000 in Exodus is exaggerated, there is no archeological evidence whatsoever of a sizeable group of people wandering about the Sinai at this time, nor do other sources from this time show such a thing as happening.  It could be that the group of freed slaves was much much smaller, perhaps workers from the nearby turquoise mines.

        Other locations mentioned in Exodus also exhibit dating problems.  At the site of Kadesh, the remains of an Iron Age fort has been discovered, but nothing at all before that.  There is a story of the king of Arad+ attacking the Israelites and taking some of them captive (Numbers 21:1-3) and while Arad was a large city in the Early Bronze Age, and an Iron Age fort has been uncovered there, there is absolutely nothing from the Late Bronze Age.  In fact, the entire Beersheba Valley was all but deserted in the Late Bronze Age.

                {+The town of Arad, 35 km east of Beersheba, was built in 1961, and is home of the Hebrew Music Festival each July.  The site of the ancient Arad is at nearby Tel Arad.  Arad was destroyed around 2700 BCE and never rebuilt, so it boasts the most complete Bronze Age city ruins anywhere today.  The Early Bronze Age site is over 25 acres.}

        In addition to no evidence for anything like the Exodus at any time, let alone during the reign of Ramesses II and after, there are a number of references in the Books of Moses that only make sense when seen from the perspective of the 7^th century BCE.

        The Pharaoh Psammetichus I (664-610 BCE) and his son Necho II (610-595 BCE) (their capital was at Sais in the western Nile Delta, and so “Saite” is an alternative name for the 26^th Dynasty) both engaged in extensive building projects using large numbers of foreign builders - including immigrants from Judah, who had formed a rather large community in the eastern Delta by the early 6^th century BCE (Jeremiah 44:1, 46:14).  A site called Pithom is mentioned in the 13^th century BCE, but the much larger and more important city of Pithom*** was not built until the late 7^th century BCE.  While the site was occupied in the Middle Bronze Age, it was not really settled until the 26t^h Dynasty.  Migdol (Ex. 14:2) was a term for any of the many forts that lined the Way of Horus, but was also the name of a specific and very important site in the eastern Delta in the 7^th century BCE.

                {***Pithom is identified with Tell Maskhutba in the eastern Nile Delta, from Pr-Itm (House of the God Atum), which was in Succoth (the Hebrew name for Tjkw in the eastern delta.}

        In the story of Joseph in Genesis four specific Egyptian names are mentioned that gained great popularity in the 7^th & 6^th centuries BCE (Zaphenath-paneah – Pharaoh’s grand vizier, Potiphar – the royal officer whose wife tries to seduce Joseph, Potiphara – a priest, and Asenath – Potiphar’s daughter).  Joseph lives in Egypt during a time of paranoia of invasion from the East, and even accuses his brothers of being spies (Gen.42:9).  Yet Egypt was never invaded from the east until the Assyrian invasions in the 7^th century BCE.

        Kadesh-barena, mentioned in Exodus, was never occupied until the 7^th century BCE.  Edom is mentioned as a kingdom, yet achieved statehood only under the Assyrians in the 7^th century BCE, before that it was a strictly nomadic culture (Edom was destroyed by the Babylonians and not reoccupied until Hellenistic times.)  Clearly, these references are from the 7^th century BCE – the time Exodus was written.

VI.

Conclusion

       

        The settings of the Exodus somewhat correspond with the reign of Ramesses II in the 13^th century BCE, yet there are greater correspondences with the 26^th Dynasty of Necho II.  And let us not forget the Merneptah stele, which quite clearly mentions a people known as Israel living in Canaan in the 12^th century BCE.  Probably the story of the Exodus is a combination of both realities, much like how medieval European pictures of Jerusalem showed turrets and battlements that were familiar to the European eye, or how pictures of Moses holding the Ten Commandments with Hebrew characters on them (Moses would only have known how to write in Egyptian hieroglyphics, being raised from infancy in the Egyptian royal court.  The Egyptian word for hieroglyphics, in fact, means “words (letters) of god,” a phrase repeated throughout the Bible.)

        Donald Redford and other scholars have suggested that memories of the Hyksos occupation and subsequent expulsion from the Nile Delta, combined with legends and the realities of the Levant in the 7^th century BCE, are what gave the Moses narratives their form.  The 7^th century BCE was a time of great revival in both Egypt and in the Kingdom of Judah - Egypt was recovering from the Assyrian assaults and Judah was not only the only Jewish kingdom left but was finally free of the Egyptian yoke.  Judah’s King Josiah (639-609 BCE) was keen to expand into the territory formerly occupied by the Kingdom of Israel (destroyed in 720 BCE by the Assyrians) and to unite the people of both kingdoms into a single political entity, worshipping the same god in a single temple in his own capital of Jerusalem, ruled by a single king of the Davidic lineage.  To this end he commissioned the writings we now know as the Pentateuch, written in Iron Age II about that time as well as earlier Bronze Age periods, to achieve a political purpose.

        The story of the Exodus is neither fact nor fiction.  It is, in the words of, authors Israel Finkelstein and Neil Asher Silberman, in the book, The Bible Unearthed:

“…a powerful expression of memory and hope in a world in the midst of change.  The confrontation between Moses and pharaoh mirrored the momentous confrontation between the young king Josiah and the newly crowned Pharaoh Necho.  To pin this biblical image to a single date is to betray the story’s deepest meaning.  Passover proves not to be a single event but a continuing experience of national resistance against the powers that be.”

2002: Legends of the Patriarchs

Dateline: Canaan  -  Book of Genesis 

I.

Abraham

        A man named Abrahm left the city of Ur in Southern Mesopotamia along the western bank of the Euphrates River with his beautiful (and barren, alas) wife Sarai to resettle in his family town of Haran on one of the upper tributaries of the Euphrates.  While there, he encountered God, who commanded him to travel to Canaan, which he did with his wife and nephew Lot in tow.

        They wandered with their flocks around the central hill country of Canaan, mainly moving between Sechem* and Bethel*** in the north and Hebron**** in the south, though they also wandered into the Negev Desert from time to time.  Abrahm built altars to his god at various sites along his wanderings, and God promised him and his descendants the land from the Nile to the Euphrates (Genesis 15:18).  He changed his name to Abraham, and his wife’s name to Sarah, to signify their new status as God’s chosen people.

                (All this wandering took place in the present day West Bank.)

                {Haran is today called Eski Harran (Old Haran) in southern Turkey on the Syrian border).

                *Sechem (Shekhem in Hebrew) is today known as Nablus (Jabal an-Nar, “Hill of Fire,” in Arabic).  63 km from Jerusalem, it is the largest city on the West Bank outside of East Jerusalem, with a population of around 150,000, of which 400-500 are Samaritans - Nablus contains two-thirds of the world’s Samaritans.  Nearby Mount Gerizim to the southeast is quite holy to the Samaritans – they feel this is where Isaac was almost sacrificed by Abraham and where the tablets of the Ten Commandments are buried; also that this mountain is older than the Garden of Eden, that the dust God used to create Adam came from its peak, and that it remained above the waters in the Great Flood.  The area around Shekhem was probably originally settled by chalcolithic people around 4000 BCE and the city was founded in the 19^th to 16^th century BCE.  It was quite a major city by Abraham’s day.}

        Abraham and Lot’s shepherds quarreled, so they decided to partition the land – with Abraham and his folk staying in the Western Highlands and Lot and his family moving east to the Jordan Valley to settle in the city of Sodom** near the Dead Sea.  The people of Sodom and neighboring Gomorrah – two great cities – were so wicked that God destroyed both cities in hails of fire and other wrathly manifestations.  Lot and his family were spared, though Lot’s wife looked back at the burning city when she was told not to and was turned into a pillar of salt.

        The now wifeless Lot and his daughters and shepherds went further east into the Transjordan desert, where he fathered the Moab and Ammon peoples.

                [The daughters were desperate for children and, with no husband prospects in the dusty wastes, got their father drunk and then took turns lying with him, eventually giving birth to two sons – Moab and Ammon.]

                {**The ruins of Sodom (Sedem in modern Hebrew) are thought to lie under the water in the southern Dead Sea, south of Masada, in the very north of the Negev Desert.  On Mount Sodom, tourists can see the pillar of salt that is Lot’s wife.  Sodom is also the home of the Dead Sea Works, a company that extracts minerals from the Dead Sea for export.}

        Abraham and Sarah could not conceive, so he slept with Sarah’s Egyptian maidservant Hagar, who gave birth to Ishmael.  God then renewed his covenant with Abraham, and Sarah miraculously had a child, Isaac.  Abraham then abandoned Hagar and Ishmael near Beersheba+ in the Negev.

                [Ishmael, who settled in Havilah (probably in modern Jordan), is considered the father of all the Arab tribes (12 tribes in all).  His son Nabath fathered the Nabateans – an Arab tribe that grew to prominence in the region with the spice trade and built an extensive and sophisticated civilization in the Negev and Jordan, with the capital at Petra.  Muslim tradition has Abraham traveling to Mecca on the Arabian Peninsula, where he repaired the temple originally built by Adam, and where he abandoned Hagar and Ishmael.]

        God commanded Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac to prove his loyalty.  On a mountaintop in the land of Moriah {no idea where that is}, he was just about to when an angel stayed his hand and the covenant with God was renewed, with circumcision being required of all descendants to show the pact with God.

II.

Isaac and Jacob (Israel)

        Isaac grew to manhood and wandered with his flocks down to Beersheba, where he married Rebecca, a woman from the north.  Sarah died and Abraham bought the Machpelah Cave in Hebron to bury her in.  Isaac and Rebecca had twins – Esau and Jacob – in an encampment in the Negev.  Esau, born first, was a big outdoor type noted for the thick mat of hair covering his body as he gets older and was Isaac’s favorite, while Jacob was smaller, thin, and sensitive, and was Rebecca’s favorite.  When the boys grew up, Esau was to get his father’s blessing and inherit the mantle of the family, but Rebecca devised a trick.  Knowing her husband was now blind, she covered Jacob in sheepskin so Jacob thought it was hairy Esau, and conferred his blessing on him.  Esau was enraged when he found out about the trick, and Jacob escaped to his Uncle Laban’s house in Haran, somewhere in the north {probably in Aramea – in the Golan Heights/Southern Lebanon/Northern Syria/Southern Turkey - possibly the same Haran Abraham’s forefathers came from.}  Esau became the father of the Edomites, southeast of the Dead Sea in Jordan.

                {+Beersheba (“Well of the Seven” in both Hebrew – Be’er Sheba, and Arabic – Bir As-Sabe) is the gateway to the Negev Desert.  Most of the 165,000 inhabitants are new immigrants from Ethiopia and the former USSR.  It was the southernmost limit of the Israelites’ territory as promised by God (“from Dan to Beersheba” – Judges 20:1 and onwards).  9 km west of the city is the Hatzerim Israeli Air Museum, with displays of Israeli air victories in the various wars since 194.  5 km east of the city there is the Neratim Cochin Community Center – they were Jews from Cochin in Kerala, Southern India; when the last family left in 1996, they ended 2,000 years of settlement.

        The Negev is still home to some 65,000 Bedouins, of whom about one-third live in five Israeli-built settlements near Beersheba.}

        On his way to his Uncle Laban, Jacob stopped in the town of Bethel, where he dreamt of a great ladder rising up to Heaven, with angels ascending and descending; God stood at the top of the ladder, and reaffirmed Jacob’s birthright as conferred by Isaac.

                {***Bethel (Bittin in Hebrew) is in today’s West Bank, off Route 449, east of Ramallah.  It was the headquarters of the Israeli civilian administration that governed the West Bank until Palestinian self-rule.}

        Once safely with his uncle, Jacob married his two daughters, Leah and Rachel, and with them and their two maidservants, he fathered twelve sons, who later became the Twelve Tribes of Israel.  They were Rueben, Simon, Levi, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Zebulum, Issachar, Asher, Judah, Joseph, and later Benjamin was born to Rachel.  God then commanded him to return to Canaan, and en route, after crossing the River Jabbok, he wrestled with either an angel or with God, but anyway his name was then changed to Israel (which means “He who struggled with God.”).  He built an altar in Bethel at the place he had had his dream.  Jacob’s father Isaac died, and was interred in the family plot in the Machpelah Cave in Hebron.

                {****Hebron (Hevron in Hebrew, al-Khalil in Arabic) lies in the southern West Bank.  The Machpelah Cave, or Tomb of the Patriarchs (Haram al-Khalil in Arabic) is revered by Jews, Christians, and Muslims alike, as Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob/Israel are all buried there as well as their wives.  Muslim tradition also has it that Adam and Eve lived here after their expulsion from Eden and may also be buried there.}

        Joseph had prophetic dreams in which he had power over his brothers, which annoyed them so they sold him to a caravan heading west and told their parents that he was killed by an animal.  Joseph rose to prominence in Egypt, becoming the Pharaoh’s Grand Vizier and preparing Egypt for an upcoming famine.  When famine struck, Egypt was the only place with food stored up.  Jacob sent his sons to get food from the Pharaoh and Joseph revealed himself to his brothers.  All was forgiven and the whole family traveled to Egypt to live together, re-united after all this time, in the land of Goshen.  On his deathbed, Jacob conferred the family birthright to his son Judah, who was given authority over all Twelve Tribes.  When Jacob died, his body was brought back to Canaan and placed in the family tomb in Hebron.  Joseph later died as well and was buried in Egypt.  The family continued to live in Goshen and over the next 450 years grew into something more than a tribe, but still not quite a nation.

                {Goshen was an area on the Eastern Nile Delta, where today the Suez Canal enters the Mediterranean, and where the towns of Suez, Port Said, and Ishmailiya are.  The ruins of the city of Tanis are also in this area, which is popularly known from “Raiders of the Lost Ark.”}

Commentary

        This is the first installment in a new series titled Legends.  Each one will detail the biblical stories in brief chronological form, and then discuss the archaeological evidence and scholarly theories about those stories.  This first one is about the Patriarchs in the Book of Genesis, the mythical founders of the Jewish people and faith – subsequent installments will go over the Exodus, the Conquest of Canaan, the Period of Judges (the kings Saul, David, and so on) and the Two Kingdoms (the northern kingdom if Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah).

        I have chosen to use the Pentateuch – the first five books of the Old Testament – as well as other parts of what are known as the Hebrew Bible rather than Koranic sources because most of those who read this are at least somewhat familiar with the Judeo-Christian mythology and the Bible stories are arranged more or less chronologically, which make them much easier to use as structemplate sources.  The Koran contains many of the same stories, as well as additional ones that are not in the Hebrew Bible, but they are scattered around the Koran and a pain in the neck to research.  Perhaps I will include them at a later date.

        Why write such a thing?  The answer is in two parts – first off, to show just how impossible it is to really say what a Jew is and what a Palestinian is.  They are both Semitic peoples who claim the same root heritage.  Secondly, I hope to encourage the reader to try to understand and empathize with the people who live in this region today and see it through their eyes – what was it like to be an Israeli working in the civilian administration of the West Bank in the town of Bethel, where Jacob had his vision of the ladder?  What was it like for a Palestinian to have Jews administrating the West Bank in that town?  Who lives in Be’er Sheba and what does that are mean to them?  In order to do this, a certain amount of interactive imagination is required on the part of the reader – simply passively reading what I have written will probably seem a bit dry.  To many people living in Israel and the Occupied Territories, these stories are very real and very immediate – they go and buy milk and bread and have coffee and give birth on the same land where they believe Abraham and all the rest walked and laughed and loved and died.  Perspective is my goal here, and with that perhaps a little understanding.

        There are three sources identified by scholars from which the Biblical narratives are drawn.  These are known as the E source (from the northern kingdom of Israel, capital at Samaria, composed before the Assyrian conquest of 720 BCE), the J source (from the southern Kingdom of Judah, capital at Jerusalem, composed in the 8^th and 7^th centuries BCE after Israel was destroyed and Judah became the only Jewish Kingdom) and the P source (composed over a long period of time from various priestly scribes and historical chroniclers.)  Martin Noth, a German biblical scholar, thinks that many of the stories found in Genesis and Exodus were localized regional stories, sometimes to explain a local landmark or some other aspect of the local scene.  The heroes of the Patriarchal Narratives have local qualities to them – Abraham and Isaac are southern heroes, Jacob/Israel is a northern hero, and the Joseph stories have elements of the south as well as the west.  Most likely, these were all separate tales of localized figures that got stitched together in sometime after the Assyrians sacked the Kingdom of Israel.

        The land of Canaan was divided into two separate Jewish kingdoms after the conquests of Joshua, et al – Israel and Judah.  Israel was by far the more powerful – the land was far more fertile, and they had a greater economy and military than their poorer southern cousins.  The Judaic capital of Jerusalem was little more than a small provincial town high up on a ridge but which also contained the largest Temple to the Jewish god in all the land, which made the Judaens feel morally and religiously superior to their northern brothers.  The two kingdoms frequently clashed and schemed against one another.

        The Assyrians invaded Israel and destroyed the capital of Samaria in 720 BCE.  Judah leapt at the chance to fill in the power vacuum.  Suddenly, Judah was the only game in town for the Jews, and a cohesive social fabric had to be woven together to gather the scattered survivors from the north and the wandering southern people under the same banner – one in which Judah and Jerusalem played the key role.

        To this end, the work we now call the Hebrew Bible was written.  From a multitude of sources, an extraordinary work that redefined the unity of the people of Israel was crafted in beautiful prose that has continued to capture the imaginations of people for over 2700 years.

        So tales of the Patriarchs are not so much historical chronicle as a tapestry of archetypes and heroes that were indeed related, by the nature of their spirits if not actually by blood, and that defined the Jewish kingdom of Judah, written as if with one voice, the voice that would give them a common identity through all the hard times that followed, up to the present day  – the voice of their God, who told them that they are His people, and that this is their land.

        The next section is the more spectacular one, that of the time of miracles, and of the Exodus – led by an extraordinary figure named Moses, who forges the descendants of the man who wrestled with God into a nation, and leads them back to the land of their forefathers.