The Exodus- Contemporary Interpretations

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The Exodus: Truth or Myth? - The Exodus- Contemporary Interpretations

Details: Parent Category: Our Country; Category: Religion; Created on Sunday, 05 April 2015 00:00; Hits: 14925

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The Exodus

CONTEMPORARY INTERPRETATIONS

Figurativism had been put on the Exodus. Commenting on the exhibits above, Aaronson [2] writes that since modern men are not supposed to believe in such things, the Ipuwer Papyrus has been interpreted figuratively by most historians. “The destruction of crops and livestock means an economic depression. The river being blood indicates a breakdown of law and order and a proliferation of violent crime. The lack of light stands for the lack of enlightened leadership. Of course, that’s not what it says, but it is more palatable than the alternative, which is that the phenomena described by Ipuwer were literally true.” And that when the Bible tells us that the ancient Egypt would never be the same after the Exodus, it was no exaggeration. “With invasions from all directions, virtually all subsequent kings of Egypt were of Ethiopian, Libyan or Asiatic descent. When Chazal tell us that King Solomon was able to marry Pharaoh’s daughter despite the ban on marrying Egyptian converts until they have been Jewish for three generations because she was not of the original Egyptian nation, there is no reason to be surprised.”

But as a traditional or modern African mind, you may have, justifiably, some doubts on this. But for our unquestionable reliance on the internet, Facebook and mobile phone, we might hold the belief that every verse in the Holy Biblical is of Western colonial mechanizations and exploitations. But does anything exist without it being created? What do you make out of the Biblical story of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba? The Queen Of Sheba is being described by BBC history reporter Michael Wood [4] as an exotic and mysterious woman of power - immortalised in the world's great religious works, among them the Hebrew Bible and the Muslim Koran. “She also appears in Turkish and Persian painting, in Kabbalistic treatises, and in medieval Christian mystical works, where she is viewed as the embodiment of Divine Wisdom and a foreteller of the cult of the Holy Cross. In Africa and Arabia her tale is still told to this day and, indeed, her tale has been told and retold in many lands for nearly 3,000 years,” says Wood.

From here, we could see the variations and the contestations usually associated with historical accounts- the Turkish and Persian painting, not forgetting the Africa and Arabia perspectives in tracing the true origins of the Queen of Sheba- widely known in Africa as an African. Whatever might be the clues to this, suffice to mention that Ethiopia [Abyssinia] had had an undiluted links with the ancient Israel? As jewishfederations.org [5] [Ethiopian Woman and Baby The Jews of Quara] points out, in 1975, the Israeli Interministerial Commission officially recognized the Beta Israel as Jews under Israel's Law of Return, a law designed to aid in Jewish immigration to Israel, on the basis of a 1973 decision by Rabbi Yossef. The history of Ethiopian Jews cannot be told without reference to ‘Operations Moses and Solomon’. In secret operations beginning in 1980, Israeli operatives were said to have been able to smuggle hundreds of Ethiopian Jews through Kenya to Israel and that by the end of 1982 there were some 2,500 Ethiopian Jews living in Israel and that throughout 1983, 1,800 left Sudan over land [5].

The report has it that utilizing a variety of routes, a total of 8,000 Jews had reached Israel by late 1984. However, it was clear that the large numbers of Jews crossing into Sudan exacerbated the already horrific conditions in the camps. “On November 21, Operation Moses began. Refugees were bused out of the refugee camps to a military airport near Khartoum where they were flown directly to Israel under a blanket of complete secrecy. When news leaks ended the operation in January 1985, 8,000 Jews had been brought to Israel, leaving behind about 1,000 Jews in Sudan and thousands more in Ethiopia. Initiated by Vice President Bush, a CIA sponsored follow-up mission called Operation Joshua brought an additional 800 Jews from Sudan to Israel. Operation Moses separated many from their loved ones and more than 1,600 "orphans of circumstances" separated from their families began new lives in Jewish Agency Youth Aliyah villages, learning Hebrew and becoming acculturated not knowing the fate of their parents, brothers, sisters and loved ones… By the end of 1990, the economic and political situation in Ethiopia had deteriorated with struggles between rebels and government intensifying daily…”

It is said that the Aliyah and aid workers were concerned with the dangers of the transition period if the rebels gained ground. So Representatives of the Jewish Agency, JDC, ministries of the government of Israel and the IDF began secret preparations for an emergency airlift and absorption of more than 14,000 Jews. The BBC [6] writes that in recent years, some Christians have put forward the idea of an 'intelligent designer' (also called neo-Creationism) as an alternative to the science of evolution. Whereas the Evolution theory [7] believes in a gradual process in which something changes into a different and usually more complex or better form, creationists argue that the current state of life on Earth has come about through the actions of an intelligent Designer. Charles Darwin [7] supports the Evolution Theory, stating that animals differentiated into species when the survivors of a changing environment were able to pass their genetic traits to their offspring which can be tested by observations and application of the scientific method based on fossil evidence that has accumulated over geologic history of the Earth?

CONCLUSION

In the case of Kitzmiller v. Dover (USA 2005) the key issue was whether intelligent design was or was not science, because if it wasn't science then it would be a religious theory like creationism, and so could not be taught in US publically funded schools under the constitutional provision of the separation of religion and state. Judge John E Jones III ruled that ID was not science. It is found that the conflicts between Evolution and Creationism occur when evolutionists argue that creationism is not a scientific theory because it cannot be tested by the scientific method. Creationists argue that evolutionists do not take God into account and that evolution is just a theory rather than a fact. Now, let us consider the Akwantu Kese or the Hogbetsotso festivals of Ghana as against the Jews’ faith which holds that the “world was created by God in seven days. This is complex to be understood but with some centuries of struggles and tribulations over who indeed wields the Macht over a divided Jerusalem the history might be comprehensible.