Introduction and Index for the CPCC Bible Study - Exodus: in depth.
Background through the 5 W's and chapter study links.

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Posted on CCPC's website 2026

"he was put in a coffin in Egypt."
- (the last few words of Genesis)

      The consensus of the regular attenders of the Tuesday Morning Bible Study was to go back from the end of the Bible... The Revelation / Apocalypse of John, to the second book from the Beginning in Genesis, which we had just finished before that about a year ago.
      So, here we go.

      We could dust off the introduction to Genesis and simply change the name of the book. But that would be cheating.
      So we'll go through those Five W's again, with an eye to the Second Book of Moses, and see what we see.

WHO:
      There's several "who"s in play here. We'll start with the two obvious stars and go from there.
      The Lord GOD is the first and, arguably the most important actor in Exodus. While HE was the driving Force in the beginning of Genesis (pun intended), His role later in the drama, especially when dealing with the self-inflicted nonsense of the Patriarchs, almost took a back seat. Now, from the moment Moses is told to take his sandals off.... "I AM WHO I AM"... GOD, the Power and the Will of God to establish His Nation, is the central focus of the book.
      The first five books of the Bible have always had authorship attributed to its primary human star: Moses, and there is very little dispute that he at least dictated the bulk of the books during the time when Israel was wandering around in the desert, during the period covered in this book and thereafter. Which we'll come back to in a moment. Moses is also considered the most important figure in Jewish history, even outshining the founder of the people: Jacob / Israel, and the nation's most important kings: David and Solomon, due to his role as the Lawgiver.
      The third 'who' is the Pharaohs of Egypt that ruled through the life and death of Joseph and then 'forgot about him' when Moses comes on the scene. There's always speculation as to who the Pharaohs in the story were. Just as in the stories of Abraham and Joseph people mention the name of Ramses the Great because a Biblical Figure of such stature couldn't talk to a king nobody has ever heard of, right? We'll come back to them in a second.
      The next group is related to "Abe and Joe". The 'seventy' people Jacob brought to Egypt, as well as Joseph and his own people. The reason we put that number in quotes is that, in reality, it was probably more if employees, servants, and assorted hanger's on and camp followers were taken into account of the number that moved in the middle of Genesis 46. And certain ancient Jewish histories put the number at 75 that moved south with Jacob.
      In any case, the "Children of Israel", the Israelite people, now number in hundreds of thousands (of men, we'll come back to that in the study), and become both an annoyance and a threat to the Egyptians, and central to the rest of the story when they decide to leave town.
      The others cast as supporting actors in the drama of this book range from the royal court officials and various household members (which we'll see in a moment), Moses's relatives, and a handful of others.

WHAT:
      The Hebrew name for it is "Shemot" (names), which is a reference to the subject of the first verse. The English name for it is actually based on the Greek word "exodos" which means "departure / going out"
      After that, the book comes to a series of dramatic climaxes with the standoff and contest of wills between God and Pharaoh, then it turns into a religious source document that winds up with the building of the tabernacle.
      Most people focus on the life of Moses, leading Israel while leaving Egypt, with the climax of that sequence at the Red Sea, which is, effectively, the first half of the book. We're not going to stop at Mt. Sinai for longer than it takes to get a replacement copy of the Commandments in chapter 32. Then we'll take on the rest of the story.

WHEN:
      There's a couple of factors in play here. The first is when did the events outlined in the story with the plagues happen, and when was the text written down in the form discovered in the caves north of the Dead Sea? And yes, numerous copies of Exodus, although none of them were completely intact, were discovered in several of those hiding places.
      IF, and that's a big if, if Moses lived and worked somewhere around 1400 BC, give or take a human lifetime, it is possible that the Pharaoh he challenged was Amenhotep II. There's also a chance that the king was Thutmose the Third, his father, who ruled just before Amenhotep the Second, and like him, was on the throne a long time. And it is possible that Moses may have been the adopted grandchild of Thutmose III and knew Amenhotep II as his 'adopted' uncle. And while the former is usually passed over when the tour guides talk about the period, some histories label him Thutmose the Great because of the power and success Egypt enjoyed under his leadership. Again, this is all speculation, but it does make some sense given the scenes beginning in chapter 5 as Moses had immediate access to the presence of the King.
      There's another possibility in the sequence from just before this period that brings Hatshepsut into play, which we'll look at when the "daughter of Pharaoh" finds a boat in the river.
      It's worth mentioning here that while Ramesses II is a candidate, it may not be him, because, while he did rule for over fifty years, he was Pharaoh in around 1200 BC, which is probably long after Israel had vacated, even though one of the cities they worked in is named after him. This city is known to have been established by Seti I as the 'weekend and holiday' capital northeast of Cairo almost to the coast. Then it was probably enlarged by the work force mentioned in chapter one before Ramesses took the throne, he just renamed it. He was king, he could do that. And that's the name Moses used in the narrative.

WHERE:
      Well, Ancient Egypt, along the Lower Nile, of course. The area Israel occupied is just downstream (north and east) of Cairo in the area of the Nile Delta on the Mediterranean known as Goshen.
      After that it gets more interesting.
      Part of the discussion is centered around where was the capital of the kingdom during this time. It was probably the ancient city of Memphis, which has now been mostly swallowed by modern Cairo. But depending on who the Pharaoh was, it could have been any of several other administrative centers. But, for our purposes, Memphis works just fine.
      As to where they spent most of the time during their journey in the wilderness, we can say with reasonable certainty that it wasn't in the Sinai Peninsula. While they may have passed through there in their travels, most likely the majority of their time was spent in the Arabian Desert, and there are some good archaeological and geological reasons to say that, which we'll look at as we travel with them for awhile.
      And the Sasquatch in the room is the question, "where did they cross the Red Sea?" And the answer is... we don't know, but some interesting artifacts have been found further south than the usual tour bus stop along the coast, and we'll look at that as well.

WHY:
      There's several "why"s here.
      Why did Israel stay in Egypt after the famine of Jacob's day had passed? Why did it take four hundred years for them to get their act together and leave? And why did GOD put Egypt through the Plagues, tormenting and killing innocent Egyptians when His primary beef was with the King? Those are among other factors that we'll look at in the study.
      We'll hit the first two of them here, and then talk about the third during that section of the book.
      More than likely, with the fertile land and plentiful water supply in the river delta, they could farm and raise their herds, which we see referenced in the last two chapters of Genesis, which was something the Egyptians weren't very good at, so the Hebrews thought they were better off there than in the relatively arid regions back home.
      The second 'why' is simple. It took that long for the people to become a powerful nation that could take, and hold, the Promised Land. They increased from less than a hundred at the death of Jacob, to probably between two to three million people all told at the time of Moses.
      As to trying to guess the motivations of GOD... we'll leave that for later.

HOW:
      How did all this unfold? That's the narrative of Exodus.
      How will we go through it?
      The way we've done the others. Verse by verse, sometimes word by word. With the occasional tangent into ancient mythology and everything else. Of course, with this outing, there will be a special focus on various Egyptian gods, and now, we're able to go back to our study of the Apocalypse of John to see a curtain call by several of them.
      And as has been the way of things, there will be references to obscure traditions, random references to an epic movie, and even a discussion of a queen-regent who declared herself a man to rule as Pharaoh. And that's just the first few chapters.

      Ready? Let's go.....