Abraham, the Exodus and Sinai
In the Torah's telling, God makes a covenant with Abraham, and his descendants are freed from slavery in Egypt and receive the Torah at Mount Sinai.
- Tanakh: The Holy Scriptures (the new JPS translation) — Jewish Publication Society, Jewish Publication Society (1985)
- Jewish Literacy: The Most Important Things to Know About the Jewish Religion, Its People, and Its History — Joseph Telushkin, William Morrow (1991)
- The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology's New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Its Sacred Texts — Israel Finkelstein and Neil Asher Silberman, Free Press (2001)
- Jewish People, Jewish Thought: The Jewish Experience in History — Robert M. Seltzer, Macmillan (1980)
The Torah begins the Jewish story with a call. Abraham leaves his father’s house in Mesopotamia for an unknown land, Canaan, trusting a single, unseen God, who promises that his descendants will become a great nation and a blessing to all peoples. His son Isaac and grandson Jacob, renamed Israel (“he who wrestles with God”), carry the covenant on. Jacob’s twelve sons become the twelve tribes, which is why Jews have called themselves the “children of Israel” ever since.
- Tanakh: The Holy Scriptures (the new JPS translation) — Jewish Publication Society, Jewish Publication Society (1985)
- Jewish Literacy: The Most Important Things to Know About the Jewish Religion, Its People, and Its History — Joseph Telushkin, William Morrow (1991)
Famine brings the family to Egypt, where their descendants are enslaved. God sends Moses to confront Pharaoh, brings ten plagues and parts the sea. Seven weeks later, at Mount Sinai, the people receive the Ten Commandments and the Torah and enter a covenant with God. Forty years in the wilderness follow before they reach the edge of the Promised Land.
- Tanakh: The Holy Scriptures (the new JPS translation) — Jewish Publication Society, Jewish Publication Society (1985)
- Jewish People, Jewish Thought: The Jewish Experience in History — Robert M. Seltzer, Macmillan (1980)
Historians and archaeologists have found no direct evidence for these events, and most see the Israelites emerging gradually within Canaan itself. But the story’s power does not depend on that. A God who sides with slaves, a people formed by a law rather than a king, and the repeated command to love the stranger “for you were strangers in the land of Egypt” became the moral centre of Judaism. The story later inspired Christians, enslaved Africans in America and freedom movements far beyond them.
- The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology's New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Its Sacred Texts — Israel Finkelstein and Neil Asher Silberman, Free Press (2001)
- Jewish People, Jewish Thought: The Jewish Experience in History — Robert M. Seltzer, Macmillan (1980)
- The Story of the Jews: Finding the Words, 1000 BCE–1492 CE — Simon Schama, Bodley Head (2013)
God called Abraham to leave Mesopotamia for Canaan and promised the land to his descendants. Jacob's family went down to Egypt, was enslaved, and was redeemed by God through Moses. At Sinai the whole people received the Torah and bound itself to God in a covenant.
- Tanakh: The Holy Scriptures (the new JPS translation) — Jewish Publication Society, Jewish Publication Society (1985)
- Jewish Literacy: The Most Important Things to Know About the Jewish Religion, Its People, and Its History — Joseph Telushkin, William Morrow (1991)
No direct evidence for the patriarchs or a mass Exodus has been found. Many scholars think the Israelites emerged largely from within Canaan in the hill-country villages of around 1200–1000 BCE, perhaps joined by a smaller group with memories of Egypt. An Egyptian inscription of about 1208 BCE, the Merneptah Stele, is the first mention of a people called "Israel".
- The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology's New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Its Sacred Texts — Israel Finkelstein and Neil Asher Silberman, Free Press (2001)
- Jewish People, Jewish Thought: The Jewish Experience in History — Robert M. Seltzer, Macmillan (1980)
Why it matters today
This is the founding story Jews retell every year at the Passover Seder, where each generation is told to see itself as if it personally came out of Egypt. Freedom from slavery, covenant and law, and the idea of being one extended family descended from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, still define Jewish identity, whether or not someone reads the story literally.