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A review by jspeight49
Exodus for Normal People: A Guide to the Story—and History—of the Second Book of the Bible by Peter Enns
5.0
I honestly never thought that I'd be interested in reading a book analyzing Exodus, but E4NP made for a good read thanks to the interesting perspective and sarcastic wit of the author.
In his simple explanation, Pete uses the concept of mythicized history to explain this book of the Bible and made some observations and asked several questions that I had never thought about, three of which are below:
1) Exodus gives us the names of midwives but leaves the Pharaoh anonymous so that history remembers the women while the divine king is forgotten and shamed).
2) God rewards the midwives for lying to the Pharaoh. Pete observed that marginalized people had to be "courageously clever" to combat absolute power.
3) The Book of Exodus clearly endorses slavery, from which Pete concludes "theology can never rest on Bible verses. In fact, it never has. Theology has always been more than cutting and pasting passages into our lives. It has been about building a discerning connection between ancient and modern times."
In his simple explanation, Pete uses the concept of mythicized history to explain this book of the Bible and made some observations and asked several questions that I had never thought about, three of which are below:
1) Exodus gives us the names of midwives but leaves the Pharaoh anonymous so that history remembers the women while the divine king is forgotten and shamed).
2) God rewards the midwives for lying to the Pharaoh. Pete observed that marginalized people had to be "courageously clever" to combat absolute power.
3) The Book of Exodus clearly endorses slavery, from which Pete concludes "theology can never rest on Bible verses. In fact, it never has. Theology has always been more than cutting and pasting passages into our lives. It has been about building a discerning connection between ancient and modern times."