The Evolution of the Exodus Tradition

The Exodus from Egypt is the climax of Israel's prehistory as related in the Pentateuch. It may be subjected to two types of historical inquiry, the one focusing on Israel's national history, the other on the history of its traditions. The work concentrates on the second type of inquiry. In a comprehensive literary analysis, the narrative in the book of Exodus is compared not only with its parallels throughout the Bible, but also with the later, post-Biblical accounts found in the Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha and in the Hellenistic and Midrashic literatures.