Minor Thoughts from me to you

Today we're starting our amateur exegesis of the Book of Exodus (Shemot), with W. Gunter Plaut's famous The Torah: A Modern Commentary as our guide to various Jewish perspectives on the passages we'll read. I see Plaut's book starts out with an essay by William H. Hallo, but for now let's just skip his general discussion of Exodus's themes. We'll encounter the points Hallo makes later anyway.

The Book of Genesis ended with Joseph dying at the ripe old age of one hundred and ten, having successfully moved his family down into comfortable digs in Egypt. At the end of Genesis, that family has seventy members - or seventy-five, if you count Joseph's grandkids and great-grandkids.

Not for long.

Exodus 1:7: "But the Israelites were fertile and prolific; they multiplied and increased very greatly, so that the land was filled with them."

The Church of God Daily Bible Study: "Although there is no record of the precise number that left Egypt in the Exodus, a military census taken not long after [the Jews left Egypt] listed the number of men 20 years of age and older who could serve in the army as 603,550 (Exodus 38:26). From that number, the total Israelite population of that time has been estimated at approximately 2 to 3 million."

This may seem like a lot of spawning to have accomplished within roughly 400 years, but hey, to quote Joe: "What else are you going to do after a hard day of slavery?"

I can't think of anything either, but even assuming Ancient Israel was a nation of nymphomaniacs, there are obviously a few seemingly insurmountable problems of logic with the rate of reproduction Exodus records. Especially when you consider that Exodus 6:13-30 lists only four generations between the time of Joseph's death and Moses' birth (in fulfillment of the prophecy laid out by God in Gen. 15:16, that "they shall return here in the fourth generation").

Now 1 Chron. 7:20-27 gives God's People a little more breathing room, recording ten generations' worth of slaves in Egypt, and this is, if not probable, at least mathematically feasible.

Assuming that each Jewish family had, on average, ten children, each generation would be five times as large as the one preceding. If each generation lasted, on average, 40 years (a generous number), then in 200 years a single pair of parents would result in a generation numbering 5x5x5x5x5 or 3125 persons. In 280 years the 7th generation would have increased by an additional factor of 25 (5x5) to an impressive 78,125 persons. Under these conditions the first generation sons of Jacob, with their wives, would multiply to a generation consisting of between 37,500 (12 x 3125) and 937,500 (12 x 78,125) individuals in the time frame ending 200-280 years from when the twelve brothers first entered Egypt in 1876 B.C. Those numbers would necessarily be inflated to perhaps twice their values allowing for prior generations still living at the time." - From "Displaced Dynasties".

The writers of the Hebrew Midrash, always game for adding an inane comment to any Bible verse, suggest that all the Jewish women had sextuplets during this period (and if this is so, all I can say is that those ancient women really raised the bar, and I demand to know from the safety of my remote location behind this computer screen why our women today whine so much about passing just one).

And Plaut himself, for the record, would like you all to know that "The Hebrew word [for 'multiplied'] is related to 'swarming creature' (Gen. 1:20), suggesting that the Israelites proliferated like animals."

Thanks for that, Gunther. As if I didn't feel dirty enough already writing about all this. I'm changing topics.

It is noted in the Midrash that "the roster of the names of Jacob's sons appears here in an order different from other passages. This is to teach us that the sons of the handmaidens... were not inferior to their brothers." I've heard elsewhere that the list is jumbled for stylistic purposes. Regardless, I can't see how it matters; even if you read anything into those lists other than convenient categorization of the children by their respective mothers, Joseph and Benjamin are the last sons Jacob blesses in Gen. 49:22-27.

That's it for today. Tomorrow's the day of rest for the majority of us Christians, too, so there may or may not be a post. Enjoy your Sunday without me, though, if such a thing is possible.