St Andrews Encyclopaedia of Theology

The Exodus Motif in the Christian Bible

Bryan Estelle

First published: 16 November 2023

https://www.saet.ac.uk/Christianity/TheExodusMotifintheChristianBible

Citation
Estelle, Bryan. 2023. 'The Exodus Motif in the Christian Bible', St Andrews Encyclopaedia
of Theology. Edited by Brendan N. Wolfe et al. https://www.saet.ac.uk/Christianity/
TheExodusMotifintheChristianBible Accessed: 16 November 2024

Copyright information
Copyright © Bryan Estelle CC BY-NC

ISSN 2753-3492
The Exodus Motif in the Christian
Bible
Bryan Estelle

The book of Exodus and the exodus event are reactualized and recontextualized in
subsequent biblical books. Indeed, the Israelites developed a virtual ‘exodus grammar’
when talking about their liberation from the Egyptians. The New Testament literature
appeals to the founding event as well; in fact, of the numerous references in the New
Testament to Old, the exodus event is the third most frequently cited, trailing only behind
the prophet Isaiah and the Psalms. This is no mere repetition, no base recapitulation.
Rather, the exodus event is taken up, transformed, eschatologized, and ultimately
repackaged.

Keywords: Bible, Israel, Exodus, Moses, Covenant, Eschatology, Intertextuality, Old

Testament, New Testament, Allusion, Motif

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Table of contents
1 Introduction: the book of Exodus and the exodus motif

1.1 The structure and content of the book of Exodus

1.2 The central role of the Song of the Sea

1.3 Composition of Exodus and historicity of the event

1.4 Prolegomena: key themes/definitions and allusion competence

2 The past is prologue: creation and exodus

3 The exodus motif in the historical books

4 The exodus motif in the Psalms

4.1 Book 1: Psalm 23

4.2 Book 3: Psalms of Asaph

4.3 Book 4: Psalms 104–106

4.4 Book 5: Psalms 114 and 118

5 The exodus motif in Isaiah and the introduction of the Isaianic new exodus (INE)

5.1 Isaiah 40–55

6 The exodus motif in the exile and post-exilic period

6.1 Jeremiah

6.2 Ezekiel

6.3 Ezra-Nehemiah

7 Exodus in the Second Temple period and the introduction of the new exodus in
New Testament theology

7.1 Mark and Matthew

7.2 Luke/Acts

7.3 John

7.4 Paul

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 7.5 The Petrine Epistles

7.6 Hebrews

7.7 John/Revelation

8 Conclusions

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1 Introduction: the book of Exodus and the exodus
motif
This article will address two goals: first, a discussion of the book of Exodus, with special
attention given to the ‘Song of the Sea’ (15:1–21), and then the use of the exodus motif
in the Christian Bible. In recognition of the fact that there are no neutral perspectives,
perhaps especially in an area such as this one, this article is written from a conservative
Christian viewpoint. This perspective will tend to be more willing than others to affirm the
historical accuracy of the biblical account, to be generous in its interpretation of dubious
or contentious claims, and to see the biblical books as divinely authoritative. More liberal
Christian approaches – as well as secular interpretations or interpretations from other
religious perspectives – will be more likely to question the biblical account’s accuracy, to
seek alternative explanations for miraculous or contentious claims, and to analyse the
biblical text as a purely human artefact. Where disagreements are common, it will be
endeavoured to make this variety of opinion clear.

The name ‘exodus’ is a latinized form of the Septuagint’s (LXX) exodus, and refers to the
second book of the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Bible). The book tells the story
of the enslavement of the Hebrews in Egypt, of God’s miraculous rescue of them and
punishment of Egypt through successive plagues, and their escape through the Sea of
Reeds from the army of Pharaoh. The end of the book, which recounts the construction of
the tabernacle and the journey through the wilderness, prepares the reader for the main
themes found in next two books of the Pentateuch, Leviticus, and Numbers. ‘Exodus’
also refers to a motif, found first in the book of Exodus but then also, as this article will
show, throughout the rest of the Bible. The motif, variations notwithstanding, is the basic
story of the book of Exodus – miserable enslavement, divine rescue and demonstration
of power, a dramatic rescue, and the subsequent journey out of the place of slavery into a
wilderness in expectation of arriving in the promised land. The ‘exodus grammar’ created
by the Israelites to talk about their escape from Egypt is reused throughout the Bible to
describe other situations.

1.1 The structure and content of the book of Exodus

The main topics in Exodus are the events leading up to the Hebrews’ time in Egypt and
those following their flight from Egypt. Chapters 1:1–12:36 cover: their time in Egypt,
including the birth of Moses and his early life and the conditions in Egypt; the call of Moses
by God in the wilderness and his return to Egypt, including the revelation of the ‘divine
name’ (3:14); the audience Moses and Aaron have with Pharoah; the rejection of the
request to let the Hebrews go; and the narratives of the plagues, ending with the climactic
slaying of the firstborn. Chapters 12:37–15:21 narrate the events of God’s liberation of the
Hebrews from the power of the Egyptians. This includes: the institution of the Passover

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ritual; the march from Raamses to Succoth; the beginning of the wanderings towards
Canaan with a pillar of cloud and fire attending the pilgrims; the safe passage of the
Israelites through the Reed Sea and the subsequent drowning of the pursuing Egyptian
military force; and the Song of the Sea, a celebration of God’s rescue of the Hebrews
in the preceding events (Exod 15:1–18, or vv. 1–21, if Miriam’s song is included). The
Song of the Sea played an important role in the life of the Israelites, and in subsequent
reflections in scripture.

The wilderness wanderings, in which the Hebrews are led by the presence of God through
the desert before they are allowed to enter the promised land, are narrated in 15:22–
18:27. First, there is a shortage of water in the wilderness of Shur, about which the people
complain before the undrinkable ‘bitter’ waters are miraculously cured (15:22–27); then
there is a trek through further wilderness into the region of Zin, which occurs one month
after the exodus, at which point there is a shortage of food for which God provides manna
and quails; again there is a water shortage, this time at Rephidim (17:1–7), which is
followed by a war against the Amalekites (17:8–16); this is followed by Moses’ father-
in-law Jethro’s visit to the Hebrews’ camp where he advises the creation of a group of
tribal elders which will alleviate some of the burden of legal responsibility belonging to
Moses (18:1–27); at the end of the wanderings, preparations are made for a theophany, an
appearance of God (19:1–25).

The wilderness wanderings (15:22–18:27) have received a significant amount of scholarly

attention. Martin Noth (1960: 51) argued that the wilderness theme was not part of the
original composition of the Pentateuch. Thomas B. Dozeman (1996) similarly argued
that the wilderness/pilgrimage theme was only added later, by editors known in scholarly
circles as ‘Deuteronomists’. Others read the wilderness/pilgrimage motif as an orderly
and unified story, from the beginning of the deliverance out from the land of Egypt to the
culmination in the conquest of the land of Canaan.

The Sinai experiences, where God appears to the Hebrews upon Mount Sinai, are
narrated in 19:1–40:30. Most important here is the long narrative about the ‘inauguration
of a covenant between Yahweh and Israel that is mediated by Moses’ (Longacre 2022: 8).
In chapter 19, the people encamp ‘facing the mountain’ and preparations are made for the
communal theophany. In chapter 20, God gives the Ten Commandments, then the book of
the covenant (21:18–23:33), which is a complex series of civil, moral, and ritual laws.

In 24:1–18, the covenant between God and the Hebrews is reaffirmed by the people, and
Moses ascends the mountain. There, he receives the two tablets of stone on which the
laws are written. Chapters 25:1–31:18 contain a large section describing instructions for
the building of the tabernacle, along with instructions to the priest for the maintenance
of the rituals. Chapters 32:1–34:35 narrate a scene in which the people, blinded by

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idolatry, fashion a golden calf as a ‘god’, risking God’s punitive anger until Moses acts as
a mediator and the covenant is renewed. The tabernacle is then erected, according to
the detailed directions (35:1–40:34). Finally, a short epilogue ensues (40:36–38) which
describes God’s continued protecting presence with the Israelites during their journeys
towards the promised land.

1.2 The central role of the Song of the Sea

The structure of the book of Exodus is reflected in the Song of the Sea (Exod 15:1–21).
The first half of the book narrates the many ways in which God exercised his strength to
free his people from Egyptian tyranny, through the leadership of Moses. Then, in Exodus
19–40, Israel’s Sinai sojourn is a meticulously organized textual unit that culminates with
the descent of the spirit of God upon the tabernacle. The triumph hymn, known as the
‘Song of the Sea’ (Exod 15:1–18, or vv. 1–21, if Miriam’s song is included), has been
considered by many biblical scholars to be the very centre of the book (Cross 1973;
Smith 2014: 496–514). The Song of the Sea reflects a backward-looking and forward-
looking structure in its centralizing function: verses 1–12 and 19–21 reflect back on the
events surrounding Israel’s liberation from the Egyptians, and verses 13–18 anticipate the
pilgrimage through the wilderness (Russell 2007: 45–55). In this way, the Song of the Sea
reflects the whole book of Exodus. Additionally, some important themes are introduced in
the Song.

First, the goal for God’s newly freed people is to reach the holy abode of God (Exod
15:13, 17). In the Song itself, this was probably originally conceived as Mount Sinai, but
its meaning is extended in other biblical books to be inclusive of other Yahwistic shrines.
For example, it was later adapted to mean Gilgal in Joshua 3–5, then later still the poet of
Psalm 78 would understand it to refer to Shiloh, and even Jerusalem, or Zion.

Secondly, there are only two places where God is referred to as a warrior in the Hebrew
Bible: Exod 15:3 and Isa 42:13. This theme of God as warrior is related to the theme of
God as king (Longman and Reid 1995). Incorporated in this larger divine warrior theme is
a subtheme called the ‘combat myth’, which is pervasive throughout the Bible. A common
pattern is visible in texts from the ancient Near East (ANE), and in the Bible: some force,
such as a monster or tyrant (variously called ‘the Sea’, Death, Leviathan, or Tannin),
threatens the cosmic and political order. The forces of chaos (often represented by the
waters) are defeated by the divine warrior and created order is restored, after which the
king or divine warrior takes his throne on the mountain and builds his palace. This theme
is pervasive in the Psalms and the Prophets, and also extends into apocalyptic literature.
In another example of connections between ANE literature and the Bible, there is some
kind of relationship between the laws given by God at Sinai and the code of the Laws of

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Hammurabi, though what precisely that relationship is has become a focus of debate in
biblical studies (Wright 2009; and articles in Maarav 24.1–2 [2020]: 85–136).

The third important theme introduced in Exodus is the wilderness or pilgrimage theme.
This wilderness/pilgrimage theme emphasizes the important state of ‘betweenness’
memorialized by the Jewish people in the festival of Sukkot, also known as the Festival of
Booths. But it also becomes a strong trigger for subsequent biblical books which reflect
backwards upon the exodus motif (Mauser 1963). Thus, based on subsequent reflections
throughout the Bible, when this article refers to the exodus event it has in view not merely
the liberation from Egypt but the wilderness wanderings all the way up into the entrance of
the land of Canaan.

Finally, it should be noted that the many archaic features of the poem lead several
scholars to think that a reasonable date for the Song of the Sea is the twelfth century
BCE, although there continues to be a lively debate (Smith 2014). One reason to prefer
an earlier date is that the Song of the Sea (and the exodus motif) reverberate in the
subsequent books of the Bible, suggesting that the Song and the motif are known to the
writers of these texts.

1.3 Composition of Exodus and historicity of the event

The final form of the book of Exodus has forty chapters. Most scholars think that the end-
product was the result of centuries of composition, and it is still common to divide up the
existing text of Exodus by means of the classic ‘documentary hypothesis’, which claimed
three different strands of pre-existing material identifiable through diverse literary genres
and topics, doublets, apparent inconsistencies, and interpolations (Driver 1913: 22–42). In
recent times, this model has undergone many revisions in the study of the book of Exodus,
with attempts to subdivide sources and even discover new ones (Sarna 1992).

Trying to discern the historical accuracy of the Exodus account is not easy, partly
because the ‘meaning of history’ is a complex and difficult question for biblical scholars.
In mainstream biblical studies, scepticism about the historical reliability of the biblical
stories is common. This collapse of confidence in historical reality of the biblical story has
challenged believers’ understanding of the biblical text and of major salvation events like
the exodus (Perdue 1994: 40–41). Many archaeologists have come to the consensus
that the exodus and the conquest of Canaan are not truly historical events, and have
consequently given up efforts to recover material that would verify such events (Banks
2006: 213–214). One example of this is William G. Dever, who has been one of the main
critics of the movement of ‘historical minimalism’ which questions the historicity of ancient
Israel as recorded in the Bible. Alongside this critical attitude towards extremely sceptical
approaches, Dever also questions the historical veracity of the exodus from Egypt. He
writes that there is little actual history in the books of Exodus and Numbers, although there

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may be some vague memories of actual events: ‘the miraculous, larger-than-life story of
the Exodus as it now stands in the Bible cannot be corroborated as factual history’ (Dever
2003: 232). Nevertheless, not all scholars have gone in this direction (Hoffmeier 1996;
Provan, Longman and Long 2003: 125–137; Longman 2009: 50–92; Hoffmeier, Millard and
Rendsberg 2016).

Some scholars have suggested that the accounts in the Bible – and the exodus event in
particular – are remembered history. Ronald Hendel is a good example of this approach
(see also Davies 2008: 105–123). For Hendel, the plague narratives may reflect collective
memories of real plagues during the period of the Egyptian empire. Indeed, he notes that
there is ample evidence for a devastating outbreak of disease during this era (Hendel
2001: 610). Hendel then traces several extra-biblical records, including letters from Byblos,
Megiddo, Ugarit, Hittite, and Egyptian Royal Inscriptions, to support his point. This has
been called ‘mnemohistory’ (Hendel 2001: 603). Hendel is alluding to the term used by
Egyptologist Jan Assman (1997). However, Hendel’s view is not entirely sceptical, for he
says:

The memory of the exodus is not just a memory of historical events, but a conflation of
history and memory that suits the conditions of different qualities of time. To view the
exodus with an eye to only one of these – whether to historical events, social functions,
or enduring themes – is to misjudge the complexity and multiplicity of the whole. (Hendel
2001: 622)

Even a maximalist (one who argues for a large overlap between the biblical account and
actual history), like K. A. Kitchen, concedes the point of complexity in history writing when
he asks, ‘How, then, shall we regard the Exodus? The foregoing survey indicates the
nature of the available background. None of it can prove that the Exodus took place, or
as narrated’ (Kitchen 1992: 707). While this may be true, it is also the case, as Nahum
Sarna says, that ‘[i]t should be stressed that neither the theocentric nature of the biblical
presentation nor the hypothetical lateness of the sources used would necessarily preclude
the possibility that they may rest on a sound historical foundation’ (Sarna 1992: 696). In
other words, neither a neutral perspective nor a conclusive consensus is possible.

1.4 Prolegomena: key themes/definitions and allusion

competence
A motif in biblical literature is similar to a musical theme, but it accomplishes more.
Generally speaking, the Bible is not inclined to make abstract claims but rather
communicates using narrative. Although the original motif may be rooted in an historical
situation, a biblical motif represents the original occurrence literarily, without merely

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reiterating it. It functions as a kind of repristination of the original situation, with a view
towards a heightened or intensified representation (Talmon 1993: 225–226).

The term ‘intertextuality’ was first coined by Julia Kristeva (b. 1941), whose goal was to
mediate the ideas of the Russian literary thinker Mikhail Bakhtin (1895–1975). Bakhtin,
and Kristeva after him, were concerned to emphasize that a number of influences
(cultural influences, previous and contemporary texts under consideration) inform our
understanding of what a text means. Intertextual allusion can be broken down into four
different categories: direct quotation, subtle citation, allusion, and echoes. This article is
focusing on allusions to the exodus, meaning not just deliverance out of Egypt, and the
wilderness wanderings, but also entry into the promised land.

Quotation has been the category or term that has been primarily recognized and
discussed in scriptural intertextuality and inner-biblical studies. A quotation usually
contains some kind of citation formula (e.g. ‘it is written’ or ‘for’). It may be defined ‘as a
passage that reproduces a portion of text with a degree of verbal similarity and minimal
contextual modification’ (Marcar 2022: 164). By contrast, a ‘subtle citation’ is a quotation
that does not have an introductory formula. This category may encompass a fairly literal
citation without an introductory formula, or even suggest a citation, with some alteration of
the word order of the cited text.

An allusion is usually defined as a tacit or indirect reference to another text. Allusions are
usually more fragmentary or periphrastic (i.e. paraphrasing) than quotations. Allusions in
general merely make indirect reference to known facts. Literary allusion is an activation of
two texts. Most literary theorists today would maintain that allusions are intentionally made
by an author or narrator.

Echo is the last important concept, if also the most abstract (Porter 2006: 109). Some
maintain that echoes are less explicit than allusions, just as allusions are less explicit than
quotations – whether subtle or direct (Beetham 2008: 20). However, the discussion of
these categories has moved beyond explicit versus implicit towards intertextual relational
categories, which are not relevant to this discussion.

2 The past is prologue: creation and exodus

The exodus out of Egypt is one of the great stories of the liberation of a downtrodden
captive people. The tyrant Pharoah gets his comeuppance and the true king, Israel’s God,
takes his rightful throne after winning back his people. Not just an earthly battle, this victory
occurs along cosmological lines: it is actually a work of new creation (Morales 2012: 195).
It is also construed along legal lines (Daube 1963) and relational lines: God is the great
King, and Israel will become his subjects in a special covenantal arrangement.

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Moreover, the goal is not merely to achieve God’s presence with his people, it is also to
place his people in the promised land (see Exod 6:6–8, which is a veritable programmatic
statement). In many respects this recapitulates the original objective at creation: just as the
anticipated goal in the garden of Eden was for a people to be confirmed in holiness and
dwell in confirmed righteousness with God, so also now the anticipated goal of the exodus
event is the deliverance of a people with the ultimate objective of planting them in the
land of Canaan as their home. Their recalcitrant disobedience to God, once in that land,
rendered the land forfeit: the ultimate punishment was exile. God graciously restored his
people to the land, but that did not meet the expectations set by the words of the prophets.
The final anticipated goal, according to the New Testament book of Hebrews (cf. Heb 3–
4), was to encompass something even greater than Canaan. There are also more specific
individual connections between Exodus and the creation stories, as Moses becomes a
new Adam figure: whereas Adam was barred from communion with God at the glory-filled
summit of the garden of Eden, and consequently descended the mountain in the garden,
Moses is the great ascender who enters the ‘new paradisical Presence of God’ (Morales
2012: 246).

3 The exodus motif in the historical books

Alastair Roberts and Andrew Wilson have argued that there are echoes of the exodus
motif in Joshua, Ruth, 1 and 2 Samuel, and 1 and 2 Kings (Roberts and Wilson 2019). In
Ruth, they claim that the hoped-for results of the exodus (entry into the land) have gone
awry. Although the ark is captured by the enemies of Israel (the Philistines), the book ends
– they claim – where exodus stories often do, ‘with the successful conquest of the Land
and the driving out of God’s enemies’ (2019: 90–91). In 1 Samuel through 2 Samuel 24,
they argue that the figure of David provides messianic hope in ways reminiscent of the
exodus, especially the hope for building of the house of God. Furthermore, they argue that
the end of the exodus occurs with the downfall of the monarchy and the destruction of the
kingdom; however, there is hope for an answer to this chaotic destruction: God will raise
up a ‘mini-Moses’ and a prophet from Judah, namely a messiah-king six hundred years
after Josiah (2019: 102).

4 The exodus motif in the Psalms

C. S. Lewis, in a book called Reflection on the Psalms, wrote: ‘If any writer may say more
than he knows and mean more than he meant, then these writers will be especially likely
to do so. And not by accident’ (Lewis 1958: 116–117). This is precisely what the Psalter
does with the exodus motif. In this section of the article, some examples will be given from
the Psalter.

4.1 Book 1: Psalm 23

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Psalm 23 is one of the best-known psalms. Veiled to a thin reading, a rereading of
this psalm uncovers that it too makes use of the exodus motif. Although the psalm
lacks a direct reference to the exodus motif, scholars have demonstrated that the new-
exodus theme is recognizable there (Freedman 1976; Barre and Kselman 1983). David
Noel Freedman had noted the significance of the verb ‘to pursue’ in 23:6. Here and
elsewhere in the Bible, that word is intended to communicate divine accompaniment
(Freedman 1976). Michael L. Barre and John S. Kselman, building on Freedman’s work,
note further that the language of ‘goodness and mercy’ in 23:6 is new-covenant language
that demonstrates a reversal of the covenant curses laid out in Deuteronomy 28 (Barre
and Kselman 1983: 104–107). In addition to other evidence from the ANE, they argue
that the psalm has to do with a new exodus, a new march through the wilderness, and
ultimately a new covenant. The psalm’s ultimate goal is settlement in the land of promise.
In the canonical context, this means the final outcome is hope for renewed settlement in
the world-to-come with renewed relationship with God.

4.2 Book 3: Psalms of Asaph

One theme that unifies many of the Asaphic Psalms is that Israel’s sacred history is
repeated again and again. This is especially the case with Psalms 74, 77, 78, 80, and
81 (Ackerman 1966). It is clear that some of these Asaphite Psalms and the Song of the
Sea are clearly moving in the same orbit in the use of similar vocabulary and conceptions.
It has been argued by Brian Russell (2007: 113–130) that the Song of the Sea is the
source text for the Asaphites. It may be that the Asaphic Psalms, which reflect an exodus
influence, are doing so because the question of divine silence and absence receives a
partial answer in continual recitation of God’s past deeds, especially the exodus tradition
(Burnett 2005: 215–235, especially 232–233). The recalling of mighty deeds performed
by God could create an awareness of present divine absence, but could also elicit
a movement to ask for Godʼs presence and actually create an anticipation of divine
presence. As examples, this article will consider Psalms 77 and 78.

It does not seem that Psalm 77 uses the exodus tradition in any obvious manner
(Gillingham 1999: 31). The first half of the psalm presents a lament, while the latter half
moves in the direction of a hymn (Barre and Kselman 1983: 51–58). The influence of the
exodus in the lament section of the Psalms is often neglected (Stevenson 1997: 227),
and it is best to view the psalm as an organic whole, the product of a single poet drawing
on the book of exodus (Barre and Kselman 1983: 57). In the first half of the psalm, the
psalmist remembers the wondrous deeds of the past; however, in verses 7–10, at the
very heart of the lament, the psalmist wonders if God has forgotten to show his mercy and
power in the present circumstances (verse 10). Then, in verses 11–20, the tone changes
as events are described from the perspective of the victory hymn (the Song of the Sea,
Exod 15) in verses 11–20. Here one can find many dictional links between the words of the

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psalmist and the Song of the Sea. Ironically, the presence of God recedes here, through
what is called the dry-shod motif (cf. 77:19). Although God’s path lead through the sea, his
footprints were not seen.

Psalm 78 ‘offers the most explicit combination of the exodus and David/Zion tradition in the
Psalter’ (Gillingham 1999: 30). Compare 78:13, for example, with Exod 15:8, or 78:14 with
Exod 14:19–20. Psalm 78 is thick with irony throughout: though God has been constantly
gracious to his people by protecting them and blessing them, yet they have failed to serve
him (especially verse 32).

4.3 Book 4: Psalms 104–106

Psalms 105 and 106 complement and balance each other as historical psalms. Psalm 105
tells the story of Israel’s redemption, and its tone is basically positive, while Psalm 106
emphasizes the constant rebellion on the part of Israel. In Psalm 105, the exodus motif
is prominent, especially with the history of the plagues (albeit in a different order). God’s
covenantal faithfulness is recorded in order to awaken new obedience (Kraus 1989: 312).
Psalm 106 picks up where Psalm 105 left off, and verses 7–12 have the longest treatment
of the exodus tradition in the entire Psalter (Allen 1983: 49). Psalm 106, in contrast to
105, has a tone of constant admonishment, and the priest Phineas who punished sinful
Israelites is presented as a model of piety in verses 28–31.

4.4 Book 5: Psalms 114 and 118

Psalms 114 and 118 begin and end with a formula called the Hallel, and were sung during
the celebration of Passover. Psalm 114 begins with ‘When Israel came out of Egypt’,
clearly placing it in the ambit of the exodus. In this psalm, God is portrayed as one who
subdues the chaotic waters, which are personified. The psalm then invokes the creation to
rejoice at the victory.

In Psalm 118, there are straightforward references again to the exodus event. This
psalm’s genre is a gate liturgy, and its likely original context was entering the temple
and proceeding to the altar in order to give thanks to God for a military victory (Brunson
2003). There are clear references here to the Song of the Sea (compare Exod 15:6 with
Ps 118:16). There are as many as thirty-five citations or allusions to Psalm 118 in the
New Testament, and especially significant is the reference to Psalm 118 in John’s Gospel
(12:12–19), in his description of Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem, shortly before his
death.

5 The exodus motif in Isaiah and the introduction of

the Isaianic new exodus (INE)

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The book of Isaiah, especially chapters 40–55, provides a bridge between the exodus
motif as developed in the Hebrew Bible and as it appears the New Testament. As Claus
Westermann says, ‘The place which Deutero-Isaiah gives to the Exodus is so conspicuous
that all the other events in Israel’s history recede into the background’ (Westermann 1969:
22). In the passages that follow, this new development of the exodus motif will be referred
to as the ‘Isaianic new exodus’, or INE. Fundamental to the INE in these chapters is the
prophet’s use of the ‘way’ (mostly the Hebrew word derek) motif and its relation to the
INE. Here, the original exodus has become the means for encouraging the Jews exiled
in Babylon: the same God who acted powerfully in the first exodus will now powerfully
perform a new ‘way’ in rescuing the exilic community; however, he will provide a way
through the desert – not through the Sea – to return to the promised land.

5.1 Isaiah 40–55

Isaiah 40:1–11 plays a paradigmatic role for the rest of the passages describing the INE.
Here, God prepares a royal road through the desert, verse 3 says: ‘A voice rings out:
“Clear in the desert a road for the Lord! Level in the wilderness a highway for our God!”’

Isaiah 41:17–20 is a trial scene. Here, salvation is clothed in exodus garb. Just as God
had led his people through the desert by Moses, now he will enact a second exodus which
will end Israel’s distress. Creation language is used here to signify that this exodus will be
another creation; the exodus theme is ‘eschatologized’ (projected forwards into the future)
since a new creation will emerge through a transformation of the wilderness.

Isaiah 42:14–17 reiterates similar themes but now God is portrayed as a warrior (verse
13). Here, figurative allusions to the exodus abound but, rather than simply referring
backwards, they suggest a forward-looking anticipation of a new exodus. God will lead his
people along new ways (derek) they have not known, enabling them to walk the obedient
path.

Isaiah 43:1–7 also abounds in creation language, as God delivers through waters and fire,
a literary merism (opposites used to express totality, like ‘heaven and earth’ as shorthand
for all creation). There are references here to the original exodus out of Egypt; however,
rather than being simple references to past events, these instances expand the original
events: now, people from all nations – not just the Israelites – will be gathered by God.

Isaiah 43:14–21 is one of the most significant of INE passages: God will provide a
way back through the sea and the desert to usher in a new creation. This is expressed
in paradisiacal terms, and clearly has the exodus in view. Here, the former things
are compared to the future things that God intends to do: the past becomes a solid
encouragement for hope in the future. In the process, God will tame unruly forces.

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Isaiah 48:15–21 extends the exodus motif further: the prophet urgently exhorts the people
to leave Babylon, in a departure patterned after (and using much of the same vocabulary
from) the original exodus event. This is legal terminology, as the Lord almighty is a king
who releases and liberates his ransomed people. The author looks back not just to the
exodus but also to creation. This passage serves as a literary foil to Isaiah 49, which is the
beginning of the so-called servant songs.

Isaiah 49:6–13 marks a major turn in the rhetoric of the exodus motif. Whereas chapter 48
focused on Israel’s rebellion, this chapter begins to focus on the call and commission of a
faithful servant. Again, the servant is like a new Moses, providing deliverance through a
new exodus; however, in this passage God is portrayed as gathering his people from the
farthest reaches of the world. This ‘servant-prophet’ will be a light to the nations (49:6).

Isaiah 51:9–11 continues the theme of the divine warrior conquering cosmic and human
adversaries. ‘Rahab’ (rahab) is used as a poetic name for Egypt here and in Ps 87:4. The
sea serpent (tannin) here and in Exodus figuratively embodies evil powers against which
the divine warrior displayed powerful liberating freedom in the past for God’s people, and
the divine warrior can do likewise again in their present plight.

Isaiah 52:11–12 shows clear dictional links to Isaiah 48, and both passages recall the
exodus event. In Isa 52:12, there is a clear textual link to Exodus 12, since the same word
‘in haste’ echoes Exod 12:11. However, there is also a clear contrast between the two
passages: the Israelites coming out of Egypt had to eat the Lord’s Passover ‘in haste’ but
the exiles are told that they will not have to depart ‘in haste’. In this second exodus it is the
Lord himself (Isa 52:12) who will lead them (cf. Isa 63:8–9).

Isaiah 55:6–13 forms the conclusion to the Book of Consolation (chapters 40–55) in which
the INE is seen. This section provides a grand climax to the INE, and makes frequent
use of derek (‘way’) to provide a contrast between God’s ways and Israel’s ways. The
pinnacle of this section, in verses 12–13, focuses on the second exodus. But this passage
also shows an undoing of the conditional elements attached to the Sinaitic covenant
which was so intimately connected with the first exodus event: this second exodus will be
accomplished apart from mere human efforts. Isaiah 55:5, ‘For the sake of the Lord your
God, the Holy One of Israel who has glorified you’, signals that God alone will accomplish
what the Israelites were unable to do. As Westermann says, ‘[t]he covenant is altogether
an act of God’s grace towards Israel; there is no suggestion of Israel’s being laid under
any obligation’ (1969: 285). The result will be creation itself breaking forth in praise so that
nature itself will exult in festal celebration.

6 The exodus motif in the exile and post-exilic

period

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6.1 Jeremiah
Jeremiah, known as the ‘weeping prophet’, who reveals his inner anguish perhaps more
than any prophet, is a good example of how the books of the biblical prophets contain
links to the exodus. Jeremiah 23 is a pertinent example of the Lord’s promise to replace
bad shepherds (i.e. leaders) with good ones (see especially 23:4–8). In Jeremiah’s
famous passages on consolation (especially in chapters 30–33), the readers will note how
Jeremiah promises a new covenant in the future that will be better than the old Sinaitic
covenant which the people persistently break (see especially 31:31–34). These categories
all are drawn from the exodus event and Moses, but that first redemption is here emerging
into a future redemption that far outstrips the former. Jeremiah extends this retrospective
use of exodus-salvation language to reach beyond the old exodus to include an implied
return in a second exodus (Bellis 2001).

6.2 Ezekiel
Ezekiel, like his contemporary Jeremiah, also develops many themes of the exodus
(Idestrom 2009: 489–510), and many parallels may be drawn between Moses and Ezekiel
(DeLapp 2014: 56–60). Reading the book of Exodus alongside the book of Ezekiel may
bring to light many citations and allusions, especially given the frequency of the use of the
so-called ‘recognition’ formula (i.e. ‘that they may know that I am the Lord’) in both books
(cf. Evans 2006).

Throughout Exodus, as well as Ezekiel, divine action in judgment and salvation lead to
a knowledge of God. In fact, a second exodus motif is introduced in Ezek 11:14–21. The
central concern is with the exiles; God says that he will stand in for them during the exile,
to be what the temple had previously been for God’s people (Block 1997: 346). However,
it is especially Ezekiel 20 that brings together two concepts: a new exodus promise, and a
theme of covenant renewal (Idestrom 2009: 500). Here, as Walther Zimmerli recognized,
‘the tradition of the exodus dominates the theology [of the chapter]’ (Zimmerli 1979: 41).
Michael Fishbane observed that the sarcastic use of the exodus motif in chapter 20 was
not lost on the first audience (Fishbane 1979: 133).

6.3 Ezra-Nehemiah
Assigning a firm date to Ezra-Nehemiah is a controverted and difficult topic, let alone
discerning their chronological relationship to one another. Nevertheless, one needs to
understand the message and missions of Ezra and Nehemiah against the backdrop of
Achaemenid imperial history. From the beginning of the book of Ezra, the language of
the people ‘going up from Babylon to Jerusalem’ is deliberately meant to echo being
‘brought up from the land of Egypt’ and viewing the restoration from exile as a kind of
second exodus (Williamson 1985: 111). As K. Koch has demonstrated, ‘Ezra’s march

15
from Babylonia to Jerusalem was a cultic procession which Ezra understood as a second
Exodus and partial fulfillment of prophetic expectation’ (Koch 1974: 84), though this action
was ‘a sign of a coming fulfillment and not the eschatological fulfillment itself’ (1974: 201).

Nehemiah 9, the theological high point of the two books, is a masterpiece of inner-biblical
exegesis, encapsulating what this article has described as the essence of the exodus
motif: liberation from Egypt, wilderness wanderings up to Sinai and beyond, and finally
crossing into the promised land. The prayer demonstrates that the remembrance of the
exodus is wholly integrated into the thought and writing of later biblical authors.

7 Exodus in the Second Temple period and the

introduction of the new exodus in New Testament
theology
During the Second Temple period, the transmission and reception of the book of Exodus
was rich and complex. (Longacre 2022). For example, nineteen copies of parts of Exodus
have been recovered from the Judean Desert at Qumran, all fragmentary (published in the
Judean Desert series [DJD] by Oxford University Press; see the table in Longacre 2022:
15). Given this widespread availability, and the influence of the book of Exodus on the
Hebrew Bible, it is no surprise that, in the New Testament, the ‘exodus and new exodus’
grammar is applied to the burgeoning church. As Augustine Stock explains:

The coming of Jesus is the new definitive Exodus – this is the burden of the Gospels’
message. The New Testament used the Exodus, the decisive divine act of the Old
Testament period, to set forth its own meaning. It remained for St. Luke and other later
writings of the New Testament to apply the usage to the period of the Church. The Church
itself is explained by the Exodus theology and other still more vivid usages of the Exodus
theology are elaborated. (Stock 1969: 48)

7.1 Mark and Matthew

As Richard Hays has written, the ‘full impact of Mark’s Christology can be discerned only
when we attend to the poetics of allusion imbedded in Mark’s intertextual strategy’ (Hays
2014: 28). In Mark’s prologue, the wilderness theme becomes a unifying theme (Mauser
1963). This prologue provides the framework for interpreting the entirety of Mark’s Gospel.
The baptism of Jesus, with the heavenly voice breaking through from heaven proclaiming
the Father’s approbation, demonstrates that Jesus is the true son of Israel who will fulfil
all righteousness, thus fulfilling the INE of the latter part of Isaiah the prophet: Jesus is
the true Israel. He is the one who is ‘called-proven-obedient’ (Thompson 1960: 1–12). M.
G. Kline (1975) argued previously that the gospel genre had its origin in the exodus motif
and, given the many subsequent studies that proved this point, the claim was prescient.

16
Nevertheless, more recent studies have pushed back on this notion (Brown 2022: 32).
Jeannine K. Brown also demonstrates that care should be exercised not to claim too
quickly that Jesus is the new and better Moses – Israel, or a complex intertwining of Israel
and Moses, may instead be behind the typology in Matthew’s Gospel (Brown 2022). It
may be that Mark’s ‘way theme’ in Mark 8:27–10:52 is meant to be a cohesive section
demonstrating the fulfilment of the INE.

There is good reason for the canonical position Matthew holds: he intends to write the
concluding chapter of the complex Hebrew Bible with which he was intimately familiar
(Kennedy 2008). In many respects, Matthew’s use of the exodus motif is meant to show
that the ministry of Jesus is a recapitulation of the history of Adam in the garden, but also
re-exhibition of the history of Israel (see Beale 2011; Crowe 2012). Matthew 2:15 quotes
Hos 11:1: ‘Out of Egypt I have called my son’. Significantly, Matthew does not follow the
Greek Septuagint reading but rather a tradition that seems to follow more closely the
Hebrew Masoretic text: instead of saying, ‘Out of Egypt have I called his children’ (ta
tekna autou), Matthew says ‘I have called my son’ (ton huion mou). Matthew transcends
the choice between the corporate son or the individual: the manner in which Hosea had
expressed himself puts theological pressure on Matthew’s construal. Here it is observed
that the original words of Hosea are tethered to the exodus story through the calling of a
person belonging to God out of Egypt, and so the latter parts of history are unified with the
earlier (Beale 2012: 710). Moreover, it is clear that Jesus undergoes his own temptation in
the wilderness, an experience echoing that of Moses on top of Mount Pisgah in the Nebo
tradition (Allison 1993: 166). Thus, the second exodus outstrips the first, just as Jesus –
the second Moses – does with regard to the ministry of Moses himself. Recent studies
relying on the rabbinic document m. ’Abot have noted the importance of the number ten
with connections between the ten plagues in Exodus and the ten wonders of the messianic
age (Brown 2022: 37).

7.2 Luke/Acts
In Luke’s two-part work (Luke/Acts), he picks up and develops the ‘way’ terminology from
Isaiah (derek in Hebrew, hodos in Greek). In the book of Acts, it takes on a technical
meaning as a name for the early burgeoning movement of Christianity. Luke uses the
passage discussed above (Isa 40:3–5) to announce Jesus as the new exodus, then
the temptation narrative in Luke 4 and the programmatic sermon of Jesus found there
(4:18–19) also demonstrate that Jesus has come to fulfil the new exodus. Additionally,
the transfiguration scene of Luke 9 (especially verses 31 and 51), in which Jesus speaks
with Moses and Elijah about his own exodus (exodon in Greek), is not only a comment
about his imminent departure. Rather, Jesus sets his resolve towards Jerusalem in order
to demonstrate that he is bringing a deep, spiritual salvation: liberation from the bondage
of Satan and sin and release from the curse of death. Or, as Brian Tabb and Steve Walton

17
assert, it ‘is not his journey to Jerusalem but more likely denotes his “departure” from this
world at death and subsequent ascension (cf., v. 51)’ (2022: 67). The number of allusions
and clear quotations in Acts to the book of Exodus is striking. As Tabb and Walton also
note, the United Bible Societies’ Greek New Testament ‘identifies twelve quotations plus
32 allusions and verbal parallels, which is more both numerically and proportionately than
any other NT [New Testament] book’ (Tabb and Walton 2022: 72), and these scholars also
compare dictional links between Stephen’s speech in Acts 7 and language from Exodus
(2022: 75–83).

7.3 John
John’s Gospel is unique among the gospel accounts. As stated by Christopher R. Seitz,
‘John is not a single Gospel only but a Gospel in a distinct literary position – vis-à-vis the
three preceding Gospels’ (Seitz 2001: 91–94). Mauser (1963) finds hardly any exodus
themes in John, but T. Francis Glasson sees frequent references to the exodus themes in
John’s Gospel, with increasing attention paid to Jesus in terms of a new exodus (Glasson
1963: 10). Glasson argues that a reader must be willing to follow up on hints and pointers,
a more poetic and subtle way of evoking OT images (1963: 36). As Hays puts it, this is
John’s tendency for ‘low-volume’ scriptural allusions (2016: 293–294). A robust view of the
unfolding influence of the exodus theme on John’s Gospel is presented in a recent study
by Andreas J. Köstenberger (2022: 88). As Hays eloquently states:

If Luke is the master of the deft, fleeting allusion, John is the master of the carefully framed,
luminous image that shines brilliantly against a dark canvas and lingers in the imagination.
(Hays 2016: 284)

Köstenberger defends the position that Jesus is the typological fulfilment of the bronze
serpent in the wilderness during the exodus (Köstenberger 2022: 93–96). Stock had
described the same fulfilment (Stock 1969: 117–118), and Köstenberger contends that
Jesus’ body is the typological fulfilment of the manna in the wilderness (Köstenberger
2022: 97–100). Jesus is also identified as the ‘I Am’ who was revealed to Moses in the
wilderness (2022: 101), and is presented by John as the one who fulfils the Passover
(2022: 106). Stock had already noted that the imagery of ‘the lamb of God’ appears in
various places in John (e.g. John 1:29, 35), and the source of the imagery seems to be the
Servant of the Lord passages (e.g. Isa 53), and Passover symbolism (Stock 1969: 112–
113). According to John, Jesus is crucified at the same time the Passover is being offered
in Jerusalem. However, something occurring on the occasion of a significant ritual is not
the same as that thing being the fulfilment of that ritual. Jesus is not merely the fulfilment
of the Passover but of the entire sacrificial system by his perfect oblation and merit (contra
Morales 2020: 160).

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For John, dictional and conceptual links to the exodus are not merely quotation or allusion
– they are representative of the whole state of mind created by these Old Testament
texts on John’s audience (Morgan 1956: 28). For example, although there is only one
unequivocal citation of Psalm 118 in John, Andrew Brunson argues that the psalm is
more extensive in its influence than has been previously recognized (Brunson 2003:
21), and that when John does allude to the psalm, he intends to send the reader back
not merely to the verses cited but the entire psalm (2003: 186–187). John’s use of the
psalm is more subtle than the other gospels in the way he engages with it (2003: 397).
The deeds and words of Jesus are intended to demonstrate that the proclamation of
salvation, the sacrificial system, the formation of a new people of God, the end of exile, all
the signs and works together ‘announced that a new exodus would take place in his own
person and ministry’ (2003: 380). A careful analysis of John’s use of the psalm indicates
that he believes that a radical reinterpretation of what the messiah is and has done is
necessary, allowing a ‘complete identification of Jesus with Yahweh in the Johannine New
Exodus’ (2003: 387–388).

For John’s Gospel, all the Old Testament types and shadows, especially the use of each
reference to the festivals of the Old Testament, find their realization in the person and work
of Christ (Brunson 2003: 45): Jesus is the true feast of tabernacles (2003: 121–125; Stock
1969: 129–30), the pillar of fire (Stock 1969: 133), the fulfilment of the feast of dedication
(Morgan 1956: 46–49), and even Yahweh himself, as seen in many subtle allusions to the
divine name revealed in the Old Testament (Stock 1969: 141–142). John’s prologue could
be called a recapitulation of the Old Testament (Stock 1969: 139), the very purpose of the
Hebrew foundations of the Logos (1969: 53).

7.4 Paul
Paul and his writings were undoubtedly influenced by the story of Israel, particularly
the exodus event itself, the Isaianic new exodus, and their subsequent iterations in the
literature of Israel.

The exodus event also informs Paul’s claims in Galatians (Scott 1992; Morales 2010).
For David M. Westfall, Paul’s most explicit use of the exodus theme in Galatians serves
a ‘decidedly negative purpose, substantiating his claim that God’s promises to Abraham
drastically relativizes the Torah’s place in God’s redemptive economy’ (Westfall 2022: 110).
Paul is concerned about his beloved Galatians returning to a form of slavery (4:1–7), and
therefore, as Westfall notes, Paul’s appropriation of the exodus story ironically turns a

central theme of its source material on its head: whereas in Exodus, God’s covenant with
Israel at Sinai is the sequel to Israel’s redemption from slavery, the narrative goal toward

19
 which they journey out of their servitude, in Paul’s implied narrative Sinai represents the
narrative point of entry into slavery of a new kind. (Westfall 2022: 112, original emphasis)

William David Davies has demonstrated the influence of the exodus event on 1 Cor
10:1–10 (see Evans and Talmon 1997: 444–445). Through a remarkable pivot, Paul’s
christocentric reading strategy allows him to achieve ‘admonitory purposes’, and provides
him with the opportunity to ‘establish a remarkable degree of continuity between the
exodus generation and the Corinthians’ (Westfall 2022: 114). The exodus backdrop is also
written large all over the book of Romans, especially 8:14–23, where the new exodus is
pronounced, even if only in the underlying ‘backstory’ (according to Wright 2008; 2016).
Westfall has argued that, in Romans 9–11, the book of Exodus – particularly the golden
calf episode of chapters 32–34 – gives Paul ‘the canvas on which to paint his sobering
analysis of Israel’s spiritual condition as well as his hope for their future’ (Westfall 2022:
122–126).

7.5 The Petrine Epistles

In 1 Pet 1:13–21, Peter describes the scene in exodus terms. In verses 22–25, he claims
that demonstrable acts of love must follow in the lives of those who have placed their hope
in the new exodus redemption. In the second chapter (2:9–10), which has been called the
‘fundamental indicative for the entire epistle’ (Pryor 1986: 3), Peter says that Christians
are living stones, built into a spiritual house. Katie Marcar has noted that this section of
the epistle is ‘the theological crescendo of the letter’ (Marcar 2022: 176). Peter makes a
subtle citation of significant passages from Exodus and Hosea, creating an intertext that
would have caught his audience’s ear, to make the simple and yet profound point that
Christians are now the new people of God. Peter also alludes here to the Isaiah passage
already commented on above (Isa 43:20–21). He is also simultaneously citing Hos 2:23
(a passage in which the exodus motif is present): ‘But you are a chosen race, a royal
priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people [...] Once you were not a people, but now you
are God’s people.’

7.6 Hebrews
The exodus motif is used in Hebrews more subtly than many other biblical books. There
are only two clear citations from the book of Exodus, but the exodus event plays a major
role for the author’s theological reasoning (see Moffitt 2022: 146–163).

The first explicit reference is the Heb 8:5b citation of Exod 25:40 (LXX); here, the
differences between the two texts are very minor. The second explicit reference is the
Heb 9:20 citation of Exod 24:8b (LXX), where the relationship between the two texts is
more complex (Moffitt 2022: 150). Aside from explicit citations, the book of Hebrews is

20
in some ways unique in how it treats the exodus motif in comparison with the rest of the
Bible (Stuart 1973). In numerous verses in Hebrews, the exodus is presupposed but not
explicitly mentioned (Stuart 1973: 59–62). If the recipients of this letter (or sermon) had a
knowledge of sacred Israelite history, we ‘may assume that as soon as the author alluded
or referred directly to any part of the history recorded in the OT, it was understood and
placed in the correct historical setting’ (Kistemaker 1961: 114). The writer of Hebrews uses
the exodus as a foundation of his presentation (Kistemaker 1961: 151). In chapters 3–4,
the disobedience of the wilderness generation of the exodus becomes universalized, and
‘the disobedience and failure of that generation became likened to the disobedience and
failure of any generation’ (Kistemaker 1961: 153). As Moffitt has contested, the ‘[e]xodus
provides narrative elements that help to structure the main contours of the author’s
argument, particularly in the first four chapters of Hebrews’ (Moffitt 2022: 147).

For example, Heb 3:1–6 is an allusion to Num 12:1–7 (especially verse 7), the story in
which Aaron and Miriam became jealous of Moses and God rebukes them. These factors
‘all suggest that Exodus plays a foundational role in give narrative form and shape to the
author’s theological reflection of what Jesus has done for God’s people’ (Moffitt 2022:
155). Moses was called ‘faithful’ in that passage, and this is the only allusion to that
faithfulness in the New Testament; however, the early church fathers often and repeatedly
refer to this attribute of Moses, so it is safe to assume that it was circulated in the early
church (Kistemaker 1961: 34). The ‘house’ of God is (for Moses) the theocracy of God – or
the divine economy – in which Moses was faithful as a servant within the house, whereas
Christ was faithful over the house as a son who inherits.

The author of Hebrews continues with a direct quote of Psalm 95. The psalmist probably
has in mind Exod 17:1–7 and Num 20:2–13, which have to do with the people quarrelling
with Moses about the shortage of water. By quoting Psalm 95, the author of Hebrews
probably is also alluding to Numbers 14, since it is there that God swore that the people
would never enter his rest. The next section (Heb 3:12–19) gets into the author’s
commentary on the psalm, which is clearly in the ambit of Numbers 14. Therefore,
although the writer of Psalm 95 probably had a different historical event primarily in mind
(Rephidim in Exod 17 and grumbling about water at Massa and Meribah in Num 20), the
writer to the Hebrews is clearly thinking of Numbers 14 and the rebellion at Kadesh, when
the spies reconnoitered the land and brought a (false) bad report, except for Joshua and
Caleb. Each verse in Heb 3:16–18 refers first to Psalm 95 then to Numbers 14:

Heb 3:16a = Ps 95:7–8; Heb 3:16b = Num 14:13, 19, 22

Heb 3:17a = Ps 95:10; Heb 3:17b = Num 14:10, 29, 32
Heb 3:18a = Ps 95:11; Heb 3:18b = Num 14:30, 33, 43

21
Hebrews 4 takes up the same theme. The text emphasizes the spiritual dimension,
or becomes ‘eschatologized’, through an allusion to Gen 2:2. Again, the author is still
referring back to Psalm 95, and the audience or later readers are meant to think of the
whole psalm and its context; however, the writer now modifies his citation by interjecting
a subtle reference to Gen 2:2. In this move, the author of Hebrews takes a psalm which
dealt with a curse and punishment but now extracts a blessing from it by demonstrating
that there is a final rest to which those who are faithful can enter.

There are probably two reasons for the author choosing this text of Gen 2:2. First, there
is the dynamic called gězērâ šαwâ, a rabbinic practice of exegesis (probably having
precedent in the Hebrew Bible itself) in which one draws an inference based on an
analogy of words (see Lane 1991: 95). In Gen 2:2, the Greek LXX says that God ‘took
rest’ (κατέπαυσεν, katepausen), a word which is cognate to the term in Psalm 95 (LXX
94:11), which is κατάπαυσι, katapausis. Therefore, according to gězērâ šαwâ: ‘“my rest”
in Ps. 95:11 is properly interpreted in terms of God’s primordial rest following the works of
creation in Gen. 2:1–3’ (Lane 1991: 95).

Second, the choice of Gen 2:2 may have been motivated by the fact that it was coupled
together with Psalm 95 as part of the Friday evening service which began the Sabbath
among the Jews at this time. The writer of Hebrews, and his audience, were probably
aware of this ritual (Kistemaker 1961: 36). The conclusion occurs in 4:14:

Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus,
the Son of God, let us hold on to our confession. (Author’s translation)

This verse (and what follows) conclude the entire argument, as the crucial issue for this
community was whether they will maintain their Christian faith.

7.7 John/Revelation
Like in 1 Peter, allusions to the exodus permeate the book of Revelation. Michelle Fletcher
claims that ‘the theme and narrative of the exodus/the new exodus is undeniably infused
into Revelation’ (Fletcher 2022: 185). However, Revelation’s relationship with Exodus
is unique, compared with the other New Testament books examined thus far. Fletcher
has shown how John alludes to Exodus through the complex interplay of previous texts
in scripture that have already engaged the Exodus. For Jay Smith Casey, the exodus
evocations are irrefutable: ‘John unambiguously points forward to Jesus’ death as that
of the new Paschal lamb, whose blood marks the redemption of God’s people from
slavery’ (Casey 1981: 141). Moreover, Rev 15:1–4 links the Song of the Sea (Exod 15)
with the Song of the Lamb (Beale 1999: 619). Revelation not only includes much of its

22
content under the rubric of the exodus, it also betrays John’s interpretation of the exodus
as both a liberating and despoiling event (Casey 1981: 134).

The climax of exodus typology is observed in John’s description of the new creation in
Rev 21:1–8. Here, Isa 43:14–21 is again evoked, and the reader recognizes that Christ
himself has led his people on a journey: he is the new ‘ascender’ that has led his people
through the chaos water to the true and final mountain, so that they may worship God.
The old order has been replaced with the new, and the new creation has been ushered in
(Mathewson 2003: 243–258).

8 Conclusions
The many examples in this article, both from the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament and the
New Testament, demonstrate the importance of the exodus motif for the Bible’s many
narratives, prophecies, and psalms. The book of Exodus presents the fullest version of this
story, including a condensed version of the narrative in the Song of the Sea. Subsequent
books contain allusions to, or citations and echoes of, the exodus motif, reinterpreting
its characters and events and using them to refer to contemporary contexts, eventually
projecting the exodus motif forwards to describe eschatological concepts. The motif is thus
a thread uniting the entire biblical canon and is an ideal lens through which to view the
unity, the development, and the complexity of scripture.

Attributions
Copyright Bryan Estelle (CC BY-NC)

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Bibliography
• Further reading
◦ Childs, Brevard. 1974. The Book of Exodus: A Critical, Theological Commentary.
Old Testament Library Philadelphia: The Westminster Press.
◦ Ehorn, Seth M. (ed.). 2022. Exodus in the New Testament. Library of New
Testament Studies 663. London/New York: Bloomsbury.
◦ Estelle, Bryan D. 2018. Echoes of Exodus: Tracing a Biblical Motif. Downers
Grove: IVP Academic.
◦ Hendel, Ronald S. 2001. ‘The Exodus in Biblical Memory’, Journal of Biblical
Literature 120, no. 4: 601–622.
◦ Morales, Michael L. 2020. Exodus Old and New: A Biblical Theology of
Redemption. Downers Grove: IVP Academic.
◦ Propp, William H. 1998. Exodus 1–18: A New Translation with Introduction and
Commentary. Anchor Bible 2. New York: Doubleday.
◦ Propp, William H. 2006. Exodus 19–40: A New Translation with Introduction and
Commentary. New York: Doubleday.
◦ Sarna, Nahum M. 1992. ‘Exodus, Book Of’, in The Anchor Bible Dictionary, Vol. 2:
D–G. Edited by David Noel Freedman. New York: Doubleday, 689–700.
◦ Smith, Daniel Lynwood. 2016. ‘The Uses of "New Exodus" in New Testament
Scholarship: Preparing a Way Through the Wilderness’, Currents in Biblical
Research 14, no. 2: 207–243. https://doi.org/10.1177/1476993X14549915
• Works cited
◦ Ackerman, J. S. 1966. ‘An Exegetical Study of Psalm 82’, unpublished PhD
Thesis, Harvard University.
◦ Allen, Leslie. 1983. Psalms 101–150. Word Biblical Commentary 21. Waco: Word.
◦ Allison, Dale C., Jr. 1993. The New Moses: A Matthean Typology. Minneapolis:
Fortress.
◦ Assman, Jan. 1997. Moses the Egyptian: The Memory of Egypt in Western
Monotheism. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
◦ Banks, Diane. 2006. Writing the History of Israel. New York: T&T Clark.
◦ Barre, Michael L., and John S. Kselman. 1983. ‘New Exodus, Covenant, and
Restoration in Psalm 23’, in The Word of the Lord Shall Go Forth: Essays in
Honor of David Noel Freedman in Celebration of His Sixtieth Birthday. Edited by
Carol L. Myers and M. O’Connor. Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 97–127.
◦ Beale, G. K. 1999. The Book of Revelation: A Commentary on the Greek Text.
Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.
◦ Beale, G. K. 2011. A New Testament Biblical Theology: The Unfolding of the Old
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