STUDY QUESTIONS
HUMANITIES CORE COURSE
WEEK 3
13-14 OCTOBER 2010

1

Consider Pharaoh’s action against the Israelites in the light of the current American immigration crisis. What verse of Chapter 1 would Pharaoh quote if he wanted to argue that he had to do something, even if mass infanticide was going a bit far?

Have we had in our readings any indication that God had foreseen this development and had long since been planning his response? If Pharaoh had not intervened against his expatriate Israelite population, would Israel still be in Egypt?

How does covenant affect the course of these events?

3

Considering God’s behavior to this point in the Tanakh and, just ahead, in Exodus 7-11, comment on the appropriateness of the burning bush as a symbol for him.

God announces himself voluntarily (3:6) as “the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” Why is the noun repeated each time? Who does Moses think is his father? Who does he think is his mother? (Read Exodus 2 online for a clue.) Who does he think is his parents’ God? Before this theophany, whom has he been worshipping? Do we know?

Having apparently already heard God identify himself, Moses asks God for his name (3:13). Why? Does God answer or evade the question? In what way may 3:16-22 be regarded as a continuation of the answer to Moses’ question.

11

How does God’s punishment fit Pharaoh’s crime? But, then, is justice actually God’s goal in Egypt?

Compare the successive acts of creation in Genesis 1 with the successive acts of destruction in Exodus 7:8-10:29 (read online).

12

“This day shall be for you as a memorial, and you shall celebrate it as a festival” (12:14). What is being celebrated?

15:1-21 plus 17:1-16: Compare-and-Contrast Exercise

Contrast the Israelites’ attitude as covenant partner for God in these two passages.
Compare and contrast God’s long-term intentions for Amalek with his long-term intentions for Egypt.

19: Continuity Exercise

Characterize the pattern or trajectory discernible in God’s manifestations of himself to Abraham in Genesis 15, to Moses in Exodus 3, to Pharaoh in Exodus 11, and to Israel in Exodus 19.

20

The Ten Commandments are the first articulation of God’s expectations of Israel within his covenant with them. What sort of tribute or acknowledgment do these commandments, taken as a group, require of Israel? What other kinds of acknowledgment might have God have required rather than this one?

20:2: Continuity Exercise.

The first clause of the Ten Commandments--“I am the Lord, your God, Who took you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage”—is actually not a commandment, is it. What is it doing on this list then? Clue: Exodus 3:16-22.

24: Compare-and-Contrast Exercise.

Compare and contrast the covenant ratification ceremony in this chapter with the one in Genesis 15. What is the same? What is different?

How do we know (or why does Prof. Miles say) that Mount Sinai is a volcano?

31

Who will be meeting in the Tent of Meeting? Clue: God’s mention of Sabbath observance in the same speech. What is the “ark of the testimony”? What’s an ark anyway? Do you know? When a practiced close reader comes across a phrase like “ark of testimony” or “ark of the testimony” in an ancient text and can make no sense of it, what does s/he do? Clue: Jewish Publication Society translation renders this phrase “Ark for the Pact”? In Bible readings to this point in the course, has the work ark ever come up? Do the phrase “Ark for the Pact” bring any other half-remembered phrase to mind? What kinds of question can be fruitful at such a moment?

Is the Tent of Meeting a sacred place? What does “the Holy” refer to in verse 11? God? The Tent of Meeting itself? The Ark? Clue for the Few: push the Rashi button on the website and read his gloss on “the Holy.” (Miles footnote to the Rashi gloss: Heikhal is a Hebrew word for “Temple.”)