Exodus and Biblical Theology: On Moving into the Neighborhood with a New Name -- By: Stephen G. Dempster
Journal: Southern Baptist Journal of Theology
Volume: SBJT 12:3 (Fall 2008)
Article: Exodus and Biblical Theology: On Moving into the Neighborhood with a New Name
Author: Stephen G. Dempster
SBJT 12:3 (Fall 2008) p. 4
Exodus and Biblical Theology:
On Moving into the Neighborhood with a New Name
*Stephen G. Dempster is Professor of Religious Studies and Stuart E. Murray Chair of Christian Studies at Atlantic Baptist University in New Brunswick, Canada, where he teaches Old Testament, Ancient Near Eastern History, and Hebrew. He has published a number of scholarly articles and is the author of Dominion and Dynasty: A Biblical Theology of the Hebrew Bible (InterVarsity, 2003) in the New Studies in Biblical Theology series.
“To know God’s name is to know his purpose for all mankind from the beginning to the end.”1
“The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood” (John 1:14a, The Message).
Introduction: The Importance of the Exodus
The story of the Exodus is the central salvation event in the Old Testament. The account of the liberation of a band of Hebrew slaves from horrific oppression in Egypt is the event that shaped virtually everything in the biblical imagination. One scholar remarks, “There are over 120 explicit Old Testament references to the Exodus in law, narrative, prophecy and psalm, and it is difficult to exaggerate its importance.”2 Another writes, “This act of God, the leading of Israel out of Egypt—from Israel’s point of view, the march out of Egypt, the Exodus, is the determinative event in Israel’s history for all time to come.”3 In many ways it provided the ground floor of that imagination for the majority of ancient Israelites, for thinking not only about faith but history, the future, nationhood, law, and ethics. It shaped the essential grammar that articulated Israel’s language of experience. “To go down” would often have negative connotations while “to go up” had positive associations. The first book of the Hebrew Bible presents the descent into Egypt (Gen 37-50).4 The last word of that Bible is the verb “to go up” (2 Chron 36:23).5 A short Israelite creed could be reduced in essentials to the words: “I am Yahweh, your God, who brought you up from the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage” (Exod 20:1). This language could even be used to interpret Abraham’s much earlier departure from Mesopotamia (Gen 15:6). Because Y...
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