Calvin Theological Journal 36 (2001): 251-269
Copyright © 2001 by Calvin Theological
Seminary. Cited with permission.
The Coherence of Exodusl
Narrative Unity and Meaning
Arie C. Leder
Until the rise of modern criticism,
studies of the Pentateuch focused on
problems in
the reading and understanding of the received text Although
incoherence
in the biblical text had been noted before, it was the serious devel-
opment of
the historically oriented critical methodologies in the eighteenth
century and
beyond that gave birth and support to a consistent skepticism
about the
historical, literary, and theological unity of this part of the Christian
Scriptures. Enthralled by the inelegance of the
pentateuchal text, criticism's
identification
of the four underlying, primary sources of the Pentateuch left no
doubt about
the incoherence of the received text. Nevertheless, the critical
approaches
also suggested the means for recovering a coherent message:
Disentangle
the primary sources from the secondary accretions, identify their
historical
and social location, and let these recovered primary sources speak.
Furthermore,
by analyzing the relationship of the secondary and later editor-
ial
additions to the identified earliest level of the text, scholars argued that it
was not only
possible to recover the compositional process of the text but also
to
understand the interplay of the different ideological positions represented
by the
sources and the various additions. Thus,
by identifying the composi-
tional
history of the received text, locating the underlying primary sources
within their
sociopolitical and religious contexts, and understanding the inter-
play of the
various layers, the historical critical methodologies sought to explain
the
contradictions they identified and to support scientifically the continuing
meaningfulness
of the received biblical text.
The individual books of the Pentateuch,
however, disappeared from view,
including
from the textbooks that introduced theology students to the
Pentateuch
because they were redistributed among the underlying sources.
Literary-critical
excavation of the so-called primary documents of the
Pentateuch
also reshaped pentateuchal theology and the studies of personages
of the Old
Testament.2
1 This article completes the
study of Exodus begun in Calvin Theological Journal 34 (1999):
11-35.
2 See, for example, Robert H.
Pfeiffer (Introduction to the Old
Testament [
Harper &
Brothers, 1941], 129-292) who, although he acknowledges that the Pentateuch
"is a
single work in five volumes and not a collection of five different books"
(129), studies
the
Pentateuch in terms of
251
CALVIN
THEOLOGICAL JOURNAL 252
Although the critical students of the
Pentateuch held to the incoherence of
the received
text, they held firmly to the coherence of the primary sources--to
the point of
distinguishing clearly among the linguistic gifts and peculiar the-
ologies of
their authors.3
Historical-critical studies, it was thought, would yield
a fuller comprehension
of the text by integrating the results of these studies
into an
understanding of the received text. In
some sense, then, a coherent
understanding
of this ancient literature was the ultimate goal. Nevertheless,
the
academy's failure to integrate the results of historical critical exegesis into
a fuller
understanding of the received text would leave Scripture fragmented
and, to a
large extent, silent in the church.4
"documents."
Otto Eissfeldt (The Old Testament: An Introduction, trans. Peter R
Ackroyd
[
Ernst Sellin
and George Fohrer, Introduction to the Old Testament, trans. David E.
Green
(Nashville:
Abingdon, 1968), 103-92, and Artur Weiser, The Old Testament and Its
Deveiopment
(New York: Association Press, 1963), 70-142.
Contemporary introductions continue in this vein.
See Norman K
Gottwald (The Hebrew Bible: A Socio-Literary Introduction [
Fortress,
1985], 135-48), who introduces his readers to “The Great Traditionists of
Ancient
(Maryknoll:
Orbis, 1992), 52-71. This approach has
also influenced the study of OT personalities;
see Rudolf
Kittel, Great Men and Movements in Israel (New York: KTAV Publishing,
1968), 175-99
and his
review of the "Great Narrators."
F1eming, James (Personalities of the Old Testament [New
and
"The Priestly Writers." For a
brief description of the characteristics of the primary sources,
see Raymond
B. Dillard and Tremper Longman III, An Introduction to the Old Testament
(Grand
Rapids:
Zondervan, 1994), 40-42. For an extended
discus-
sion, see
Antony F. Campbell and Mark A O'Brien, Sources of the Pentateuch: Texts,
Introductions,
Annotations (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1993).
3 See, for example, Walter
Brueggemann and Hans Walter Wolff, The Vitality of Old Testamen
Traditions (Atlanta: John Knox, 1975); the discussion
in R. N. Whybray, The Making of the
Pentateuch:A
Methodological Study (
description
of the Yahwist (Personalities of the Old Testament, 196): "About me
time when Elijah
and Elisha
were doing their work in the northern kingdom there lived in the
remarkable
man, who, though his name is nowhere mentioned in the Bible, stands out today
as
one of the
supreme thinkers of ancient
He was in
all probability a single personality.
Many scholars, it is true, find two or more strands
of
narrative. . . . But the J narrative taken as whole is so vivid and
colourful, so fresh and full of
power, that
we can hardly go far wrong in believing it to be the work of single great
mind."
4 See for example, James D.
Smart, The Strange Silence of the Bible in the Church: A Study in
Hermeneutics (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1970). Whether such integration would have been
possible is
another matter, as James A. Wharton indicated (See below, footnote 5). The
academy's
separation of the Bible from the church continues in its contemporary claims
that
the interpretation of biblical documents has
no validity beyond "the assent of various interest
groups." Such interest groups may, of course, include the
church, but typically the reference
is to groups
determined by ethnic, cultural, gender, or sexual-orientation interests. David J. A
Clines, for
example, writes: there are no 'right'
interpretations, and no validity in interpretation
beyond the assent of various interest groups,
biblical interpreters have to give up the goal
of
determinate and universally acceptable interpretations, and devote themselves
to producing
interpretations
they can sell-in whatever mode is called for by the communities they choose
to
serve. This is what I call 'customized'
interpretation." In his "A
World Established on
Water (Psalm
24) ," in The New Literary Criticism
and the Hebrew Bible, ed. David J.A Clines
and Cheryl J. Exum. (Sheffield: JSOT, 1993), 87.
THE
COHERENCE OF EXODUS 253
In 1974, Brevard S. Childs addressed this
failure in his critical theological
commentary
on Exodus.5 In it he argued
that the critical methodologies
should, and
attempted to show how they could, contribute to an understand-
ing of the
canonical text. Thus, while he
acknowledged the importance of his-
torical
critical exegesis, he required this exegesis to enlighten the received,
canonical
text. And, when he declared the
commentary's purpose to be theo-
logical and
"directed toward the community of faith which lives by its confes-
sion of
Jesus Christ,"6 he acknowledged and argued that the present
shape of
Exodus,
although a composite narrative, was the text to be explained, not the
reconstructed
sources, traditions, or forms. Although
Childs did not argue for
the
coherence of the received narrative, by subordinating critical exegesis to
the received
shape of the text, he acknowledged the significance and influence
of the
canonical text. Recent introductions
have begun to refer again to the tra-
ditional
division of the Pentateuch7 and, in conjunction with the emergence
of
the new
literary approach,8 studies have defended the received shape of the
individual
books of the Pentateuch and of the Pentateuch itself.9
Since the eighteenth century, biblical
studies have moved from under-
standing
coherence and meaning as located in the world behind the text, in
which
historical, critical, and compositional issues were crucial, to the world
of the text itself, where historical and
compositional issues are less, and literary
concerns
more, important. Some exegetes, however,
ignore both of these, sometimes
5 Brevard S. Childs, The
Book of Exodus: A Critical; Theological Commentary (
critical,
yet sympathetic, review, "Splendid Failure or F1awed Success?" Interpretation
29
(1975): 266-76.
6 Childs, The Book of Exodus,
ix.
7 Brevard S. Childs, Introduction to the Old Testament as
Scripture (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1979).
Rolf
Rendtorff, The Old Testament: An Introduction (Philadelphia: Forness,
1986). Joseph
Blenkinsopp,
The Pentateuch: An Introduction to the First Five Books of the Bible (
Doubleday, 1991), but he does not employ the
fivefold division.
8 Distinguished from
historical-critical literary readings, the newer approach focuses on the
text as we
now have it, not on the reconstruction of the history of the text in
conjunction with
the
reconstruction of the history of the social context that produced the
text. See, for example,
Jean Louis
Ska, "Our Fathers Have Told Us." Introduction to the Analysis of Hebrew
Narratives
(Roma:
Editrice Pontificio Instituto Biblico, 1990), andJ. P. Fokkelman, Reading
Biblical Narrative:
An
Introductory Guide,
trans. Ineke Smit (Louisville, Ky.: Westminster John Knox, 1999).
9 For example: Dennis T. Olson,
The Death of the Old and the Birth of the New: The
Framework of
the Book of Numbers and the Pentateuch, Brown Judaic Studies, no. 71 (
Commentary
for Teaching and Preaching
(Louisville: John Knox, 1991), 6, 8; Arie C. Leder,
"An
Iconography of Order: Kingship in Exodus. A Study of the Structure of
Exodus" (Th.D.
diss.,
Pentateuch, Interpreting Biblical Texts [
strategy
that unifies the Pentateuch and its subunits.
See also Thomas W. Mann, The Book
of the
Torah: The Narrative Integrity of the Pentateuch (Atlanta: John Knox, 1988).
CALVIN
THEOLOGICAL JOURNAL 254
completely,
to argue that the world in front of the text is the locus of coherence
and
meaning. That is, where Childs
relativized the historical issues and linked
coherence
and meaning to the canonical text, reader-response readings, even
those
working with the received text, locate them beyond the text: in the reader
or the
interest group to which the reader belongs.10
In this article, I will argue for the
coherence of Exodus from the point of
view of the
text itself. I will begin with a brief
discussion of the nature of plot and
its
conflictual aspect, demonstrate how Exodus is shaped by three major con-
flicts, and
finally argue that these conflicts cohere within a larger conceptual
framework-the
kingship pattern.
Narrative and Plot
In its simplest form, narrative has a
beginning, middle, and end. It moves
from
beginning to end by means of emplotted events, complications, and con-
flicts, to a
resolution of the initially defined narrative problem. "Plot," reasons
Fokkelman,
determines the boundaries of the story as
a meaningful whole. These
boundaries. . . in their own way, draw the
horizon of our correct under-
standing of the story: within it, the
reader is looking for the connections
between everything and everything else. . . .
The full-grown story begins by
establishing a problem or deficit; next it
can present an exposition before
the action gets urgent; obstacles and
conflicts may occur that attempt to frus-
trate the denouement, and finally there is
the winding up, which brings the
solution of the problem or the
cancellation of the deficit.11
I will
briefly illustrate with a brief overview of the entire biblical narrative.
Adam and Eve's sin in the garden of Eden
defines the narrative problem, or
deficit--refusal of divine instruction and
the consequent exile from the divine
presence--that initiates a series of
events, complications, and conflicts between
the Creator and humanity that come to a
certain resolution with God's selec-
tion of Abram. This selection of Abram begins another series
of events, com-
plications, and conflicts that concludes
just before
10
[
focuses on
the women of the Pentateuch; and also David J. A Clines, "A World
Established
on Water
(Psalm 24),” 87. Fretheim (The Pentateuch, 22-36) provides a brief
review of the
world behind, of, and in front of the text.
11 Fokke1man,
Fathers.
Studies on the Patriarchal Narratives [
that "a
narrative gives literary form to a sequence of events leading from tension to
its
resolution." Wesley A. Kart (Story,
Text, and Scripture. Literary Interests In Biblical
Narrative [
narrative as
a primary form provides biblical material with its particular coherence within
which
"other forms take their places or produce their particular kinds of
tension."
THE
COHERENCE OF EXODUS 255
Promised Land
(Genesis-Deuteronomy).
yet another
sequence of events, complications, and conflicts that concludes
with the
destruction of
(Joshua-Kings). Genesis through Kings, then, begins and ends
with an exile;
but the
narrative problem defined in Genesis has not yet been resolved. Not
even the
narrative directed at the postexilic community, Ezra through
Nehemiah,
brings about a resolution; only a return to the land and a repetition
of the old
problems (Neh. 13). A Christian reading
of the Old Testament nar-
rative
understands that Jesus Christ's coming solves the problem of exile from
the presence
of God, for he is "God with us" (Matt. l:16, 23; John 1:14), but
Christ's ascension
complicates the narrative again for he is no longer with us as
he was
during his earthly ministry. Even though
the Holy Spirit indwells the
body of
Christ, the ecclesial community experiences much conflict John
16:33) as it
awaits the anticipated resolution (1 Thess. 4: 13-18; Rev. 21).
The entire biblical narrative, then,
develops the problem of humanity's
refusal of
divine instruction and the consequent exile from the presence of
God and
emplots a sequence of events, complications, and conflicts that bring
God's people
into his presence again, there to be instructed for life in that
divine
presence. Within this larger narrative,
the Pentateuch develops a plot
that depicts
a particular community, Abraham's descendants, on the way to the
presence of
God, i.e., the Promised Land and the place the Lord chose for his
name to
dwell. Although
divine
instruction at Sinai, the Pentateuch ends without complete resolution,
for
tributes to
this narrative uniquely, even Leviticus.13 In the rest of this article,
I will
examine Exodus' contribution to the pentateuchal narrative, in particu-
lar, the
development and coherence of its plot from the statement of the nar-
rative
problem at the beginning to its resolution at the end.
12 On me shape and theme of me
Pentateuch, see David J. A. Clines, The Theme of the
Pentateuch, 2d ed. JSOT Supplement Series, no. 10
(Sheffield:
1997), and
J. Severino Croatto, "Una promesa aun no cumplida: Algunos enfoques sobre
la
estructura
of Severino
Croatto's article is summarized in his 'The Function of the Non-fulfilled
Promises:
Reading the
Pentateuch from the Perspective of the Latin-American Oppressed People,"
in The
Personal Voice in Biblical Interpretation, ed. Ingrid Rosa Kitzberger (
Routledge,
1999), 38-51.
13 Although apparently a
collection of laws, Leviticus' laws are set within a narrative
framework
that begins with a reference to the Tent of Meeting (Lev. 1:1) from which the
Lord instructs Moses what to say to
(Grand
Rapids: Eerdmans, 1979), 5. James W.
Watts, ("Public
Law," Vetus
Testamentum 45, no. 4 [1995], 543) argues that "laws were intended to
be
heard in the
context of other laws and narratives surrounding them . . . Unlike law,
narrative
invites,
almost enforces, a strategy of sequential reading, of starting at the beginning
and reading the
text in order to the end. The placement
of law within narrative conforms
(at least in
part) the reading of law tothe conventions of narrative." For more on the
reading of
law within a rhetorical strategy see James W. Watts, Reading Law: The
Rhetorical
Shaping of the Pentateuch
(Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1999).
CALVIN
THEOLOGICAL JOURNAL 256
Plot in Exodus
In my discussion of plot, I will account
for the entire Exodus narrative from
the point of
view that conflict and its resolution is central to the understanding
of plot,
though not its only feature.14
Thus, I will argue that Exodus is com-
posed of
three major conflicts, each of which sets the stage for a subsequent
conflict. Together, and in their sequence, these
conflicts take the reader to
Exodus'
resolution of the narrative problem defined in Exodus 1-2.
The
Narrative Problem of Exodus
Pharaoh's enslavement of
store cities
(Ex. 1:8-22; 5:1-23), constitutes the narrative problem, or deficit, of
Exodus. As depicted in Exodus 1-2, the problem
prompts the questions,
"Whom
will
The answer
at first appears to be clear from Exodus 15:21; after crossing the Sea
of Reeds,
do not yet
know what it means to be with God as their new master. These mat-
ters are
addressed in the rest of the Exodus narrative.
The narrative problem defined in Exodus
1-2, however, should also be read
as an
integral part of the narrative problem of the Pentateuch, defined in the
opening
chapters of Genesis. Briefly stated,
Genesis defines the problem as
humanity's
exile from the presence of God, an exile caused by Adam and Eve's
refusal of
divine instruction and the consequent human defilement of the pres-
ence of God
in the Garden of Eden. The narrative
depicts God himself initiat-
ing the
resolution of this problem by instructing Abram to leave his land and
to go
"to the land which I will show you" (Gen. 12:1).
God's address of this problem includes the
promise to increase Abram's
descendants;
a promise intended to fill the earth with those who acknowledge
the Lord
(cf. Gen.1:28), not those who fill it with violence (Gen. 6:11, 13). Those
14 In his brief discussion of
plot in Exodus, for example, Kort argues for three major
characteristics. First, a complexity defined by three
patterns: "an almost formulaic pattern
of
repetition" between Moses and Pharaoh, the plagues, and the responses of
Pharaoh;
a pattern of
conflict and competition; and a melodic pattern that moves the narrative
forward. The
second characteristic of plot is the
juxtaposition of divine description with
action. The
final characteristic of plot in Exodus is "that it effects
change." Although Kort
mentions the
wilderness and the mountain, his illustrations of these characteristics for the
most part fail to take account of the
narrative beyond the crossing of the
Kort, Story,
Text and Scripture, 27. Another
study that limits the discussion of plot in
Exodus to
chapters 1-14 is David M. Gunn, "The 'Hardening of Pharaoh's Heart': Plot,
Character,
and Theology in Exodus 1-14," in Art and Meaning: Rhetoric in Biblical
Literature, eds. David J. A Clines, David M. Gunn,
and Alan J. Hauser (
JSOT, 1982),
72-97.
15 On the role of Exodus 1-2
and the question that the Exodus narrative answers,
see Charles
Isbell,
"Exodus 1-2 in the Context of Exodus 1-14: Story Lines and Key
Words," in
Art and
Meaning: Rhetoric in Biblical Literature, 37-61.
THE
COHERENCE OF EXODUS 257
who fill the
earth with violence are the nations, the descendants of Adam16 who
desire to
make a name for themselves in the earth (Gen. 11:4, 5). This desire for
a name the
Lord makes possible, but, at this time in the biblical narrative, and
only among
the descendants of Abram does the LORD say: "I will make you into
a great
nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be
blessing"
(Gen. 12:2; cf. Gal. 3:8-9). When this
blessing begins to take historical
shape in
ple into his
building projects. Because the language depicting
ticipation
in Pharaoh's building program echoes
humanity's
problem independently of God,17 the text also evokes ancient
solution to
the human problem. It is from that human
solution that God had sep-
arated
Abraham, and provided him and his descendants with another building
program,
although that is not explicit in Genesis 12:1-3.
The narrative problem of Exodus, then, is
rooted in the fundamental
human
problem as depicted in the opening chapters of Genesis. Within this
larger
narrative context Pharaoh's hostility to
be read as
opposition to God's promised resolution of the fundamental human
problem by
means of a uniquely created human community, whose unique
role among
the nations, especially its unyielding and undeflectable growth,
summons up
fear and opposition.18 Stated
simply, Pharaoh’s actions embody the
nations'19
desire to gather against the Lord and his anointed (cf. Ps. 2:2). The
narrator
uses three major conflicts to arrive at his resolution of the narrative
problem
stated in Exodus 1-2.
The First
Conflict: Pharaoh, the Lord, and Absolute Power
Exodus 3:1-15:21 narrates the contest
between Pharaoh and the Lord, medi-
ated by
Moses, the Lord's messenger to
characters,
unwilling
participants (Ex. 5:20, 21; 6:9). Two clusters
of keywords define this
struggle: the two nouns (rb,f,, hdAbof<) and one verb (dbafA) describing
servitude
and the verbs describing Pharaoh's hardness of heart.20 God repeat-
16 "The men" (NIV)
translates the phrase MdAxAhA yneB; in which MdAxAhA
surely recalls the
Adam of the
opening chapters of Genesis.
17 The materials used in the
construction of Pithom and Rameses, brick and mortar (Ex. 1:13)
recall those
used for the city and
18
See especially Ex. 1:12, 20. Compare
this episode with Acts 12, which narrates the
persecution
of the church after the Passover, thereby recalling the Exodus experience,
and shows
how persecution could not stop the spread of the word of God (12:14; cf.13:49-50).
19 Balak's fear of
20 For more on these keywords,
and others in Exodus, see my article "Reading Exodus
to Learn and
Learning to Read Exodus," Calvin
Theological Journal 34, no. 1 (1999): 11-35. For
the
discussion of the two above-mentioned clusters, see p. 27.
CALVIN
THEOLOGICAL JOURNAL 258
edly demands
that Pharaoh let
10:3), but
he refuses. Pharaoh does urge
once before
the final plague (10:24), and then after the death of the firstborn
(12:31). He repents of these words, however, and
pursues
and with his
army is swallowed by the earth at the command of the Lord (15:7;
cf.
7:12). It is only when
it fears the
Lord and puts its trust in him and in Moses (14:30, 31). Thus, the
conflict
between Pharaoh and the Lord is resolved.
The resolution of the first conflict
begets
reminds the
reader of the wider perspective of the biblical narrative: the
nations who
will tremble at the passing of God's people (15:14-16), and the
establishing
of the Lord's dwelling place (15:13, 17).
The trembling of the
nations
indicates that
with
that
building, especially royal construction (cf. 15:18), is within the scope of the
narrative's
address of the problem defined in Exodus 1-2.
Identification of this
dwelling
place with a particular mountain anticipates both the building pro-
ject, which
will enable the Lord's presence in
where its
design will be revealed, thereby also furthering the resolution of the
fundamental
conflict between God and the nations stated at the beginning of
Genesis. Although Pharaoh's death and
the end of
the story. Rather, it occasions the second conflict of Exodus.
The Second Conflict:
With the conflict between God and Pharaoh
resolved, the narrative begins
to develop
the relationship between
characterized
by complaints against Moses.
water at
Marah and food in the
(Ex.
16:3). In answer to Moses' mediation,
God provides
food with
the result that, after Exodus 17:7,
its
sustenance in the desert. These
provisions, however, do not resolve the con-
flict
between God and
expectation that
attention to
his voice, his commandments, and decrees (Ex. 15:25-26). Later,
after
Moses:
"How long will you [pl.] refuse to keep my commandments and instruc-
tions?"
(Ex. 16:28). Thus, the narrative links
its
submission to God's instructions. In the desert pericope (Ex. 15:22-18:27)
the question
to be answered is not: "Who is
THE
COHERENCE OF EXODUS 259
"What
is the nature of
will
mands and
decrees (Ex. 15:25-26; cf. Lev. 18:5; Deut. 8:321).
Although
15:22-17:7,
legal vocabulary clustered at the beginning and ending of the
desert
pericope create a frame (A-A')22 within which the entire
A A'
to judge (FpawA) 18:13, 16, 22:2, 26:2
judgment (FPAw;mi) 15:25
to command (hUAci) 16:16, 24, 32, 34 18:23
commandment
(hvAc;mi) 15:26
decree (qHo) 15:25,
26 18:16,
20
law (hrAOT) 15:25
(hrAyA) 16:4, 28 18:16,
20
to obey (lql;
lqoB; fmawA) 15:26 18:19,
24
desert
episode takes place and within which it should be read.
whether they
need food and water, is oppressed by their enemies (17:8-16), or suf-
fers
internal problems (18)--depends on conformity to the instruction of the
Lord.
Submission to the Lord's instruction in
the desert pericope, however, does
not bring
the conflict between the Lord and
gests an
answer to the question: "How will
in the land
[cf. 3:8, 17]) survive?" The final
resolution to the conflict in the
desert is
found in the Lord's covenant offer and
Exodus
19-24. At Sinai, confronted with the good things the Lord has done for
it (19:4),
sequence of
the Lord's terrible descent, his presence and declaration of the
law, seals
their submission with a self-maledictory oath (24:3, 7). This act of vas-
sal
submission brings the conflict between the Lord and his people to a legal
resolution
and answer the question posed by the first conflict--"Whom will
the special
people he freed from the terrible bondage to Pharaoh (cf. 20:1-2).
After
God's
presence, he receives instructions23 for the construction of a
building in
21 For a crucial wordplay that
points to the importance of law, see Raymond C. Van Leeuwen,
“What Comes
Out of God's Mouth: Theological Wordplay in Deuteronomy 8,” Catholic Biblical
Quarterly 47, no. 1 (1985): 55-57.
22 Leder, "
23 These instructions do not
solve the narrative problem of refusal of instruction as defined in
Gen.2-3 (see
p. 255 above); that function belongs to Leviticus. The instructions in Exodus
are limited
to establishing a vassal relationship between the Lord and his people and to
the
construction
of a building where the Lord will be enthroned amidst his people.
CALVIN THEOLOGICAL
JOURNAL 260
which the
Lord would dwell in the midst of this special people.24 It is while
Moses
receives these instructions that the third conflict arises.
The Third
Conflict:
struction of
the golden calf, the antitabernacle project25 by which it defiles
the
presence of
God, compromises the covenant, and exposes itself to destruction
(32:10). Such divine destruction Pharaoh experienced
because of his stub-
bornness,
and
have been
consumed by God's anger were it not for the mediator God himself
appointed
(32:11-14).
(32:27-29,
35), but God relents of his anger, forgives their sin, and renews the
covenant
(34:27-28). God's forgiveness brings
this conflict to resolution.
This resolution, however, does not constitute the end of the
narrative.
Divine
forgiveness only makes possible what God intended for his people: par-
ticipation
in the construction of the sanctuary (Ex. 35-39). God's grace makes
possible the
construction of the building central to the expression of God's
kingship on
earth: "
picked up
the pieces."27 Because
God forgave his erring and faithless people,
the fire
that dwells28 in their midst did not consume them (40:34-38; cf.
3:3,
24:17), but
it could have, and later did so (See Lev. 10:1-3 and Num. 11:1-3.).
24 The text reads, "have
them make a sanctuary for me, and I will dwell among them"
(emphasis
added). The building itself has a
secondary importance, it facilitates the
Lord's dwelling among his people.
25 For a brief discussion of
this construction as an antitabernacle project, see Fretheim, Exodus,
280-81. The verb hWAfA occurs 323 times in Exodus, 236 times in Ex. 25-40, a keyword in
the
instructions for the tabernacle and the
description of
"makes"
the tabernacle (Ex. 35:10), they "make" the golden calf (32:1, 4, 8).
26 One of the words that
describe
of verbs
that
describe Pharaoh's stubbornness (dbeLA, qzaHA, jwAQA).
27Childs, The Book of Exodus,
580. For more on the role of Ex. 32-34
in its canonical
context, see
Childs, Introduction to the Old Testament as Scripture, 175-76.
28 Read in isolation from
Genesis, Exodus provides no hint that the theme of the Lord's
dwelling
with
problem
defined by Genesis (exile from the presence of God), and its initial resolution
with the
call to Abram (move toward the land, i.e., the place where the Lord would
dwell), the
appearance of this theme at Ex. 25:8 is not a problem. References to the
land in Ex. 3:8, 17 can then be read as part
of the larger trajectory that will bring
into the
Lord's presence. That
it gets to
the land is also important: God's presence and the disclosure of Torah are
preland
realities that are crucial for life in the land. It is in the desert, at Sinai, that God
brings about
a partial solution to the human problem:
He ends the exile of Adam's
descendants
(those elected through Abraham) and teaches them to live by his word.
In this manner,
resources to
effect such a resolution (Lev. 18:1-5), claims of the local religions to the
contrary.
THE
COHERENCE OF EXODUS 261
The third conflict, and its resolution,
also answers a question. This time
it is: "Who determines
conflict
indicated that Pharaoh had no authority to make
and Raamses;
the conclusion of this conflict is that
such
determinations either. God's design
would be followed (Ex. 25:9).
Summary
Closely linked together, these major conflicts
move the Exodus narrative
from one
master and one construction project to another.
The close relation-
ship and
special purpose attached to the relationship between the Lord and
struggle
Pharaoh forced
from
Pharaoh's construction project led to
nance in the
desert. The Lord's resolution pointed
After
his covenant
people by means of a building he wants his vassals to construct
according to
his own design. Later, after God forgives
antitabernacle
construction project,
tabernacle (NKAw;mi), Moses assembles the tabernacle, and the
Lord's glory
cloud dwells
in it.29
Narrative and Coherence
The Exodus narrative moves
embodied in
the forced building of Pharaoh's store cities, to social orderliness,
embodied in
the construction project of a building that would be central to
store cities
forms the deficit, with which the full-grown story begins, and the
construction
of the tabernacle solves the problem by cancelling the deficit.30
The
cancellation of the deficit, together with the overcoming of the obstacles
depicted in
the three conflicts, presents the reader with a unified, coherent
narrative.
The building programs, then, provide the key for a coherent reading
of Exodus.
They also provide a link to a conceptual pattern that reinforces the
29 The intimate links between
the conflicts, and the move from one master and building project
to another,
argues against the suggestion that chapters 1-15:21 form the climax of the plot
of
Exodus and
that, as such, these chapters generate meaning for the whole of the Pentateuch,
as
Severino
Croatto suggests ('The Function of the Non-fulfilled Promises,"
49-50. This thesis is
worked out
in detail in his "Exodo 1-15: Algunas claves literarias y teologicas para
entender
el
pentateuco," Estudios Biblicos 52 [1994]: 167-94.). Chapters 1:1-15:21 generate meaning
within the
Pentateuch only as they contribute to the entire plot of Exodus. Moreover, his
failure to include chapters 15:22 through
40:34 excludes Exodus' solution to the narrative
problem
stated in its opening chapters.
30 Fokkelman, Reading
Biblical Narrative, 77.
CALVIN
THEOLOGICAL JOURNAL 262
coherence of
Exodus:31 that of a king's doing battle against the threat of disor-
der in the
realm. In the remaining part of this
article, I will refer to this con-
ceptual
pattern as the kingship pattern.
Narrative
Coherence and the Kingship Pattern
The kingship pattern depicts a king who,
when confronted with disorder in
his kingdom,
seeks out the enemy, defeats him, and upon his return to the
imperial
capital builds a structure emblematic of his victory. The pattern is
most clearly
demonstrated in the extra biblical Enuma elish and Baal epics and
other
accounts of royal victory and temple building.32 The abundant evidence
of this
pattern suggests it is a well-known literary configuration with central, cos-
mological
significance. Biblical studies has
recognized the importance of this
conceptual
pattern and has applied it to the Genesis account of creation,
Exodus 15,
Psalms 74 and 89, and Isaiah 40-55,33 but its relevance for the entire
31 Enrico Galbiati, La Struttum Letteraria dell'Esodo: Contributo
allo studio dei criteri
stilistici
dell'A.T. e della compasizione del Pentateuco, Scrinium Theologicum, III (
Edizione Paoli, 1965), 307-17, suggests the
Hittite treaties and ancient temple building
documents as
literary genres useful for understanding the genre of Exodus, but he does
not develop
the thesis. James Plastaras, in his The God of Exodus: The Theology of the
Exodus
Narratives (Milwaukee:
Bruce Publishing, 1966), 49-57, suggests
the lamentation
liturgy as
the pattern for Ex. 1-15 with following correspondences: lamentation (Ex. 1-2),
salvation-oracle
(Ex. 3:1-7:7), thanksgiving oracle (Ex. 15:1-21) with the latter two bracketing
Ex.
7-14. C. Westermann, Praise and
Lament in the Psalms, trans. Keith R Crim and Richard
N. Soulen
(Atlanta: John Knox Press, 1981), 260, also applies the lament form to Ex.
1-15.
32 The temple for Shamash built
by Yahdun-Lin after defeating rebel vassals, in James B.
Pritchard,
ed. ANETSup (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1969), 120-21; the
temple
built by
Innana, at
(Baltimore:John
Hopkins University Press, 1983), 51, 11.1-9; and the
the defeat
of
Pre-Sargonic
Inscriptions (New Haven:
The American Oriental Society, 1986), 43, 45.
See
also Hayim
Tadmor, "History and Ideology in the Assyrian Royal Inscriptions," in
Assyrian
Royal
Inscriptions: New Horizons in Literary, Ideological; and Historical Analysis",
Orientis
Antiqui Collectio, no. 17, ed. F. M. Fales (Rome: Instiuito Per L'Oriente,
1981), 13-33;
and A. S.
Kapelrud, "
The argument
is not one of material literary dependence but of literary convention or
similarity
of sequence.
33"The cosmogonic myths of
kingship and salvation through the work of the divine warrior
have. . .
profoundly molded the conceptual pattern of early
Patrick D.
Miller, The Divine Warrior in Early
1973),
117. Bernhard W.
Symbolism in the Bible (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1987), 11-42;
Peter C. Craigie, “The Poetry of
Apocalyptic:
The Historical and Sociological Roots of Jewish Apocalyptic Eschatology
(Philadelphia:
Fortress, 1979), 292-334; William R Millar, Isaiah 24-27 and the Origin of
the
Apocalyptic (Missoula: Scholars Press, 1976), 71-81;
Tryggve N. D. Mettinger, "In Search
of the
Hidden Structure: YHWH as King in Isaiah 40-55," Svensk Exegtisk Anbok 51-52
(1986-1987):
153.
THE
COHERENCE OF EXODUS 263
Exodus
narrative has not yet been explored.54 The elements of the pattern
appear in
the epics as follows.55
Enuma elish Baal
and Yamm
1. The
occasion for the conflict: 1. The occasion for the conflict:
a. Tiamat's revenge for Apsu's death a. Yamm's messengers demand Baal's
I:I09ff. tribute CTA 2, i: 11, 22, 32-38
b. Marduk will fight for supreme author- b. Ashtarte urges Baal to seize the
ity III:65-66 eternal kingship CTA 2, i: 40ff.
2. The
kingship: 2. The battle:
a. Kingship is bestowed IV: 14 a. Baal battlesYamm CTA 2, i:11-17
b. Baal defeats
Yamm with a club
CTA 2, i:18-31
3. The
battle: 3. The kingship:
a. The battle IV:33-120 a. Baal's kingship is proclaimed CTA
i. Marduk defeats Tiamat with a war- 2, i:34
bow IV:101 b. The victory banquet CTA 3 A
ii. Salvation of the gods IV: 123-46 c. Complaints: no house for
Baal
b. The creation of man VI:1-44 CTA 3 C, E i:46
d. Baal travels to Mt. Zaphon CTA 4,
iv:19
4. The
palace: 4. The palace:
a. Building of the temple Esharra VI:45-
77 a. A dwelling for Baal
requested
i. bricks made for one year VI:60 CTA 4, iv:50
ii. erected at beginning of second
year b. Let a house be built CTA 4,
iv:61
VI:61-62 i. the mountains will bring gold
iii. Marduk sits down in majesty VI:65
and silver CTA 4, iv:80
iv. a victory banquet VI:71-77 ii. lapis lazuli CTA 4, iv:81
b. Marduk' s rule VI:78-81 c. Anat brings news of permission to
c. Praise of kingship and proclamation of
Mt. Zaphon CTA 4, iv:88
the fifty names VI:104ff. d. House of Baal will be the size of
Mt. Zaphon CTA 4, iv:119-20
34 M Frank M. Cross, 'The Song of
the Sea and Canaanite Myth," in Canaanite Myth and Hebrew
Epic (Cambridge: Harvard University Press,
1973), 142, 165, suggests the following as the mythic
pattern: the
combat of the divine warrior and victory at the sea, the building of a
sanctuary on the
mount of
possession, and God's manifestation of eternal kingship. He applies the return of the
divine
warrior to take up kingship to the revelation at Sinai. Craigie applies the pattern
"conflict/order,
kingship,
conflict, temple, kingship" to Ex. 15 in his 'The Poetry of Ugarit and
Grayson,
"Assyria and
form number
three as having the following format subject, temporal clause, narration of
conquest,
and the
description of building activities. See also Jon D. Levenson, Creation and
the Persistence
of Evil: The
Jewish Drama of Divine Omnipotence (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1988), 75-76.
35 For Enuma elish see
Alexander Heidel, The Babylonian Genesis. The Story of Creation, 2d ed.
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1969).
For the Baal and Yamm story, A Herdner, Corpus des
tablettes en cuneiformes alphabtitiques,
decouvertes a Ras Shamm-Ugarit de 1929 a 1939 (
Impr. nationale, 1963). Cited as CTA.
CALVIN
THEOLOGICAL JOURNAL 264
e. Built by Kothar and Hasis CTA 4, vi:I7
i. to
vi: 19-21
ii. fire turns silver and gold into
bricks on the seventh day CTA 4,
vi:31-34
f. A victory banquet CTA 4, vi:39-55
g. Baal's rule CTA 4, vii:7, 9-12
h. A window is built in Baal's palace CTA
4,
vii: 13-28
i.
Palace is the place from which Baal
speaks CTA 4, vii:29-55
Although both epics employ the same major
elements in similar patterns,36
there are
some differences: Marduk's kingship is
proclaimed before the battle,
and the
description of Baal's palace construction is more extensive. Extant
royal
inscriptions recall the king's heroic deeds but do not regularly mention
conflict as
an antecedent for the building of a temple. Nevertheless, Tadmor
has shown
that when such inscriptions do change their format, they continue
to function
as ideological expressions of royal rule.37 Later inscriptions extol
the king's
might through his building accomplishments alone; his heroic deeds
are not
mentioned.38
Thus, although these literary-historiographical conven-
tions were
not strictly limited to a particular sequence they were continually
used to
communicate the image the king wanted to project.39
An examination of Exodus discloses a
similar general pattern.
1. The occasion for conflict:
a. Pharaoh's oppression Ex. 1-2:25
b. The Lord's messengers demand
Pharaoh's submission Ex. 3:1-7:7
36 See also Hanson, The Dawn, 302-3, who also suggests that
this pattern is found in the
Apsu-Ea
conflict in tablet 1: Threat (37-58), Combat-Victory (59-70),
Millar, Isaiah
24-27 and the Origin of Apocalyptic, 71-81, discerns the Baal-Yamm, Baal-
Anat-Mot,
and Baal-Mot cycles. The Baal-Mot cycle includes a threat to consume humanity
if Baal does not turn over one of his brothers to satisfy Mot's
rage (CTA 6v, 20-25).
37 Tadmor, "History and
Ideology," 14, 29. When justifying an irregular assumption of the
throne the
document following the apology would conform to the typical narration of royal
achievements. See his, "Autobiographical Apology in
the Royal Assyrian literature," in History,
Historiography
and Interpretation, ed.
H. Tadmor and M. Weinfeld (Leiden: Brill, 1984), 37.
Carl
Nylander writes of the "iconography of power" in his "Achaemenid
Imperial Art, " in
Power and
Propaganda: A Symposium on Ancient Empires Studies in Assyriology, no. 7,
ed. Mogens
Trolle Larsen (Copenhagen: Akademisk Foriag. 1979), 356.
38 Tadmor, "History and
Ideology," 24.
39 Ibid., 14. The pattern does not need to be copied
slavishly, as Hanson, The Dawn, 303,
argues in
his discussion of judges 5. Later (pp. 308-11), he discusses the prophetic
abandonment
of the
(royal) pattern and its reemergence in the exilic and postexilic eras.
THE
COHERENCE OF EXODUS 265
2. The
battle:
a. The conflict Ex. 7:8-11:10
b. The exodus Ex. 12:1-13:16
c. Pharaoh'sdefeat Ex. 13:17-14:31
3. The
kingship:
a. The Lord's victory and proclamation
of kingship Ex. 15:1-21
b. The Lord takes
c. The Lord makes
4. The
Lord's palace:
a. The Lord will dwell among
b. Building instructions Ex.
25:10-31:18
c.
d. Tabernacle and furniture crafted Ex. 35-39:31
e. Moses inspects the work and
blesses the people Ex.
39:42, 43
f. Moses instructed to set up NKAm;mi on
first day of second year Ex. 40:1, 2
g. Moses sets up the tabernacle in seven
acts Ex. 40:17-33
h.
The Lord dwells in the NKAw;mi Ex. 40:34-38
There are significant differences between
Exodus and the nonbiblical
stories. The
Lord builds his own palace; Baal needs El's consent.40 The
Lord's
people craft the tabernacle and contribute the gold and silver
themselves;
in the Baal epic the gods' craftsman, Kothar wa Hassis, does
all the
work, and the materials were generally brought in from the mountains.41
Finally,
where in the ancient Near East temples were considered a resting
place for
the gods,42 in Exodus the NKAw;mi is only the temporary means for
the Lord's
dwelling in the midst of (Ex.
40
Cross, Canaanite Myth, 142.
41 Gudea brought the materials
from the Cedar mountain, having made paths and quarries
where none
had gone before. "Cylinder A, " xv-vxi 24. Eanatum brought white cedar from the
mountains
(Cooper, Sumerian and Akkadian Royal Insripiptions, 49). Bringing in such materials
and the
finest crafts from the periphery to the cosmic center represents the
completeness of
creation at
its center: "at the center of the world there is everything, all is known,
all is possessed-
creation is
complete." Mario Liverani, 'The
Ideology of the Assyrian Empire," in Power and
Propaganda,
(Copenhagen:
Akademisk Forlag, 1979), 314. See also
Pritchard, ANETSup, 275-76 on
Tiglath-Pileser
I and Assurnasirpal II's journeys to get cedar from the mountains.
42 See CTA 6 iii, 18 and also
Weinfeld, "Sabbath,
the Problem
of the Sitz im Leben of Genesis 1:1-2:3," in Melanges bibliques et
orientaux en
l'honneur de
M. Henri Cazelles, ed.
A. Caquot and M. Delcor (Neukirchen: Neukirchener
Verlag.
1981), 502, note 2.
CALVIN
THEOLOGICAL JOURNAL 266
25:8; 1
Kings 8:27-30), and later for leading, his people. Nevertheless, the gen-
eral
coincidence of the pattern allows a reflection on its usefullness for under-
standing the
coherence of Exodus.
The kingship pattern does not structure but
underscores the coherence of
the
narrative and provides a key to its meaning.
It underscores the coherence of
Exodus
first, not only because Exodus employs all the elements of the pattern in
telling its
story but also because the pattern accounts for the entire narrative,
unlike the
lamentation liturgy suggested by Plastaras and Westermann, which
accounts
only for Exodus 1:1-15:21.43
Second, because the pattern reaches its cli-
max in a
building project, it reinforces the literary frame of the narrative: the
building of
Pharaoh's store cities in Exodus 1 and the construction of the Great
King's
earthly dwelling place in Exodus 35:4-40:33.
In this connection, it is
important to
recognize that the Hebrew hdAbofE is
used to describe
on the tabernacle
(NKaw;mi 39:32, 42) and its work on the store
cities (tOnK;W;mi,
1:14
["slavery," 2:23, 6:9]). The difference between the two projects is
that
Pharaoh
forced
voluntarily
(Ex. 35:21; 36:6b) to participate in the construction of the taberna-
cle. In addition, and related to the former, the
fourth element of the pattern,
the building
project, coincides with the narrative's cancellation of the deficit.
The
cancellation of this deficit is supported by the wordplay between tOnKW;mi
(Ex. 1:14)
and NKAw;mi (39:32,33,40; 40:2, 5, 6,9, 17, 18, 19,
21, 22, 24, 28, 29, 33,
and esp.
34-38). Third, the elements of the
pattern link the tabernacle section,
both
covenant and tabernacle instructions, naturally to the preceding events
that took
place in
ent
narrative. In a cultural context where
the kingship pattern was prevalent, it
would only
be natural to read, after consolidating the victory at Sinai, that the
victorious
king engaged in a construction project to memorialize the event in
some
way. In these ways, the kingship pattern
supports the coherence of the
narrative
discerned in its plot structure and development.
The completion of the kingship pattern in
Exodus 40 also brings us back to
the deficit
with which the biblical narrative begins in Genesis: Adam and Eve
expelled
from God's presence in the Garden of Eden for refusal of divine
instruction. In Exodus, when the glory cloud fills the
newly constructed taber-
nacle, God
dwells in the midst of the descendants of Adam and Eve through
Abraham and
Sarah. Adam's descendants are in God's
presence not because
they found
their way back but because God has brought them to himself (Ex.
19:4). Moreover, they are not in his immediate
presence;
requires a
distance (Ex. 19:13; cf. Num. 1:53) that can only be overcome by a
specially
appointed priesthood (Ex. 29:1; Num. 18:1-7; cf. Heb. 9:19-25). The
43 See footnote 31.
THE
COHERENCE OF EXODUS 267
elements of
the text that point us in this direction are the phrases in Exodus 39
and 40 that
recall the creation narrative:44
Thus the
heavens and the earth So
all the work on the tabernacle
were completed.
was
completed. (Ex 39:32)
By the
seventh day God had finished And so Moses finished the work.
the work
he had been doing (Gn 2:1-2) (Ex 40:33)
God saw
all that he had made, and Moses inspected the work and saw
(behold, [hn.ehi]) it was very good. (behold, [hn.ehi]) they had done it
(Gn 1:31) just as the Lord had commanded.
(Ex
39:43)
And God
blessed the seventh day. . . And Moses blessed them. (Ex 39:43)
(Gn2:3)
and made it
holy. . . (Gn 2:3) . . . consecrate (the tabernacle and
the altar) (Ex 40:9,10)
This
evocation of Genesis 1 and 2 suggests that a proper understanding of the
coherence of
Exodus is linked to the exposition of the fundamental conflict
between God
and humanity depicted in Genesis 1-3.
With that fundamental
conflict in
mind, Exodus resolves, tentatively, the problem of humanity's exile
from God's
presence but does not provide the instruction that safeguards life
in the
divine presence. Leviticus provides that aspect of the solution to the
problem.
The kingship pattern also lends conceptual
coherence to Exodus by ren-
dering
explicit the meaning implicit in the royal metaphor that shapes Exodus
throughout. The noun king is applied consistently
to Pharaoh but never to the
Lord; his
royal status is acknowledged only in the clause "The LORD will reign
"
(j`lom;yi
hvhy, Ex. 15:18). The Lord's kingship does not, of course,
depend on
the title;
his actions disclose who he is. Only a Great King could have done to
Pharaoh and
the conflict
with
vival in the
desert where God's divisions travel to
44 Moshe Weinfeld,
"Sabbath,
between
Genesis and Exodus are widely recognized.
Erich Zenger, Gottes Bogen in den
Wolken
(Stuttgart:
Verlag Katholiscbes Bibelwerke, 1983), 170-75; Nehama Leibowitz, Studies in
Shemot,
part 2, trans. Aryeh Newman (Jerusalem:
Haomanim Press, 1983), 477-79.
CALVIN
THEOLOGICAL JOURNAL 268
the return45
to the empire's center,46 its capital, of the great armies of an
ancient
overlord
such as Shalmaneser III or Assurnasirpal; the solemnization of
suzerain-vassal
covenant between the Lord and
final
construction of a royal dwelling place.
The Meaning of Exodus
As a "royal inscription" of a
Great King's victory over disorder in his empire,
Exodus not
only recalls the fundamental conflict between God and humanity
and
proclaims the Lord's victory over it at the Sea but also witnesses to the con-
struction of
a concrete historical monument that proclaims his cosmic47 rule
from a
historically particular building: the tabernacle in the midst of
a coherent
royal inscription, Exodus must be heard as a whole--not from the
perspective
of one of its subplots, such as the victory at the Sea48--or even
that
of the Sinai
covenant legislation but from the viewpoint of the cancellation of
the
narrative deficit: the "incarnation" of the triumphant King in the
midst of
his vassal
people in the tabernacle. Neither victory at the Sea,
sion to the
covenant, nor the Lord's forgiveness of
ally or
together--can express the full meaning of the Exodus narrative for they
do not
resolve the fundamental narrative problem of the Pentateuch that
Exodus' plot
structure develops: disobedient humanity's exile from God's pres-
ence. That resolution only occurs with the glory
cloud's indwelling of the taber-
nacle. From this building
life in
God's consuming fire presence (Lev. 1:1-2).
45
Shalmaneser
III and Assurnasirpal where itineraries depict royal military marches with
river
crossings,
problems of finding water, military exploits, hunting, and the receiving of
tribute. See
Graham I.
Davies, "The Wilderness Itineraries: A Comparative Study," The Tyndale Bulletin 25
(1974):
58. In the same article, Davies argues
that "the itineraries comparable to Numbers 33:1-49
from the
Ancient Near East relate exclusively, so far as our evidence goes, to royal
military
campaigns. It may therefore be due to the conception of
the wilderness period as a military
expedition
that an account of it in the form of an itinerary was composed," 80. For further
studies on
these itineraries as royal military marches see George W. Coats, 'The
Wilderness
Itinerary,"
Catholic BiblicalQuarterly 34 (1972): 147-48; Graham
Itineraries
and the Composition of the Pentateuch," Vetus Testamentum 33
(1983): 1-13; Albrecht
Goetze,
"An Old Babylonian Itinerary," Journal of Cuneiform Studies 8
(1954): 51-72.
46 On temples, mountains as
cosmic center, see Othmar Keel, The Symbolism of the Biblical
World:
Ancient Near Eastern Iconography and the Book of Psalms, trans. Timothy J. Hallett
(New York:
Seabury, 1978), 113-20. Jon D. Levenson, Sinai and
Bible (Minneapolis: Winston Press, 1985),
111-76.
47 On the theology of creation
in Exodus, especially in the plagues' narrative, see Terence E.
Fretheim, Exodus. Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for
Teaching and Preaching (
John Knox,
1991),105-132, and his "The Plagues as Ecological Signs of Historical
Disaster,"
Journal of
Biblical Literature 110
(1991): 385-96.
48 So J. Severino Croatto, see
above footnote 29.
THE
COHERENCE OF EXODUS 269
It is this building, the place the Lord
chose for his name to dwell, especially
in its
subsequent transformation as the temple on
is central
to the Lord's administration of his rule over
The nations
will also stream to
instruction,
will flow to them (Isa. 2:2-4; cf. Isa. 19 with respect to
instruction. However, when
departs from
the temple (Ezek. 8-10), God permits his servant Nebuchad-
nezzar Jer.
25:9; 27:6; 43:10) to destroy
removes
According to
the New Testament, the body of Christ becomes the temple of
God's
presence John 1:14; 2:20-21; 1 Cor. 3:16) and
trality: The Lord's disciples move from
1:8) with
the good news of the gospel, the torah of the LordJesus.49 Thus, the
building
project begun in Exodus continues until a temple is no longer neces-
sary and all
the nations enjoy the presence of the Great King and walk by the
light of the
Lamb in the New Jerusalem (Rev. 21:22-27), the joy of the whole
earth (Ps.
48:2) .
49 For a fuller treatment of
the temple and Torah as fulfilled by Christ's ministry, see David E.
Holwerda,
"Jesus and the
of
Fulfillment," in his Jesus and
1995),
59-83, 113-45.
This
material is cited with gracious permission from:
Calvin Theological Seminary
Grand Rapids
www.calvinseminary.edu
Please
report any errors to Ted Hildebrandt at: