Exodus For Normal People - Pete Enns

⭐ 8.0/10

(Originally written by Beans)

I like Pete Enns a lot and feel like he has good things to say. He’s really smart yet he is able to write in a simple yet concise way for the everyday person to understand. He’s also really educated and I find myself agreeing with him like 99% of the time.

This book was good, and he goes over the big stuff in exodus. Stuff like, the story is perhaps mythicized history, rather than completely one or the other, and that’s ok. It’s an ancient story and we need to read it with ancient eyes. Also, the 10 plagues were coincidentally 10 ways to diminish and belittle the Egyptian gods, and prove that YHWH was superior. Even the idea that other gods existed: the Israelites were not monotheistic, but rather monolatry. And then of course there is the crossing of the Red Sea (most likely a translation issue here, and definitely not the Red Sea we know it to be today), and the laws that indicate who Israel was to be. All part of a larger story that maybe doesn’t make sense to us today but was a vital part of the beginnings of a nation.

He also went over some of the violence and the conquest, which really is some tricky stuff to get through in scripture. I think he has a good explanation, in that it was a warrior culture and they saw God the way the world saw gods at that time, and that’s how they interpreted who He was and how He worked. I don’t believe God acts that way, and I think he reveals himself differently to different people at different times. But I also want to honour scripture and not pick and choose what I like.

Anyway, really great commentary on exodus. While reading this, a lot of what I learned was familiar so I guess I did actually learn something in Bible college.