The first episode of the third season of the Retelling the Bible Podcast is posted today (January 30, 2019). You can listen to the episode and subscribe to the podcast by following one of these links or by searching for the podcast on your favourite platform:

SHOW NOTES

This episode is based on Exodus 1:8-21 in the Old Testament of the Bible. (Click the references to read the original story). Any direct biblical quotations in the episode are taken from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible.

Here are a few of my thoughts on the episode.

The Exodus and History

The epic story of the salvation of the children of Israel from slavery in Egypt, told in the books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy, is very difficult to reconcile with known history. The story as it is told in the Bible — with a mass exodus of slaves from Egypt followed by the migration of a huge nation of men, women, children and livestock through the Sinia region that lasted over a generation is the kind of thing that you would expect to leave some traces. There ought to be references to such traumatic event in the ample historical records and monuments of Ancient Egypt. There are none. There should have been archeological remains of such a remarkably large numbers of nomadic wanderers through the desert; there are none. This total lack of evidence has led the vast majority of historians to conclude that the exodus didn’t happen, at least not the way that it is described.

I accept these historical conclusions. And yet I do believe that there must be some important historical kernel behind this remarkable story. The ancient people of Israel strongly and persistently identified themselves as a formerly enslaved people. Their whole relationship with their remarkable God was founded on the idea that he had given them freedom. What people would identify for themselves an identity and origin in servitude if it were not based on something that they had actually experienced? Surely some powerful event had taken place that had cemented their understanding of themselves and their God.

Yes, that event probably did not happen on the grand scale that is described in Exodus. Perhaps there was a much smaller group in Egypt that revolted against their slavery and made their escape by running across the Sea of Reeds where the chariots could not follow them. Eventually, they made their way to the land of Canaan where they mingled with the Hebrew tribes in the hill country, bringing their compelling stories with them.

Or maybe it happened in some other way. Egypt’s power actually extended over all Canaan throughout the period envisioned in the Exodus story, so it is quite possible for the ancient Israelites to have been enslaved in their own homeland. Perhaps they found their freedom from Egyptian oppression closer to home.

The idea that the Israelites were slaves to an evil Pharoah who ruled in Egypt is, in any case, hardly farfetched. Nor, in my opinion, is the idea that some midwives might have defied such a pharaoh who sought to interfere with them carrying out their duties of protecting mothers and their children.

Midwifery in Egypt

Midwifery as a female occupation is first attested in Ancient Egypt and so it is perhaps fitting that the only biblical story about midwives takes place in Egypt. The Ebers Papyrus which dates from 1900 to 1550 BCE has been discovered and deciphered and tells us a great deal about various ancient Egyptian medical practices.

A woman in ancient Egypt gave birth in a crouching position. She would be supported by two midwives, likely assistants or apprentices, who held her by the arm on each side while another midwife crouched between her legs to monitor her progress and catch the child. Her feet would rest upon to bricks or stones. There were obviously practical reasons for why the Egyptian midwives used such a position, but there were also magical and religious reasons. The birthing stones would be engraved with the images of various gods who would protect the woman, speed the birth and preserve the life of the child. Midwives used tried and true practical methods to assist the birth, while they were also there to invoke the gods, pray for protection and use magical amulets and charms and potions.

The typical Egyptian birth practices seem to be understood in the Exodus story; the Hebrew women are described as giving birth on birthing stones or bricks. This is somewhat hidden in many English translations which translate the Hebrew words that mean “two stones” as “birthing stool.”

Puah and Shiphrah

There is no question that the two Egyptian midwives, Puah and Shiphrah are very compelling characters in the Exodus story. It is a shame that’s so little has been made of them. They are perhaps better known in the Jewish tradition than in the Christian. Some Jewish stories identify them as Jews and even as close relatives Amram and Yokabed, the parents of Miriam, Aaron and Moses.

It is also quite possible, however, to see them as outsiders to the Hebrew community. This is particularly evident in the way that they speak of the Hebrew women to the Pharaoh. They do not seem to identify with them but see them as foreigners in terms of culture and practices. And so I chose to tell the story from that angle.

I see Puah and Shiphrah as midwives who may not be Egyptian themselves, but are certainly trained in the Egyptian medical methods and, since those methods were inseparable from their theological underpinnings, they would have been taught to serve the Egyptian gods who preserved women and their children through the traumatic events of childbirth.

What I learned from this retelling

The story of the Exodus is often told with an us-versus-them mentality. The struggle for freedom seems to take place in a world where the Hebrew people are pitted against the great power of Egypt and practically every other nation that they encounter. The Hebrews have no allies apart from the God who has chosen them.

In some ways, this is not very surprising. Any people who are struggling for freedom or independence will naturally cast the others who surround them as “the enemy.” It may be understandable, but it’s not always the best way to think under such circumstances. When we reduce the world to only two categories (those who are with us and those who are against us), when we choose to focus only on the needs of our own tribe (however we find that tribe), we tend to rule out the possibilities of long-term peace and stability for ourselves and for the world.

But telling this story in the way that I have been led to tell it has given me a different perspective. It does seem possible to me that the midwives could have chosen to put their own lives on the line for the sake of the Hebrew women and their children despite not identifying themselves as Hebrew. That makes this story a story of solidarity between women despite what religious and cultural differences they may have. It is a story of human solidarity and that is a concept in which I find much hope.

Media in this episode

Thanks to Gabrielle McAndless for her contribution to this episode. To find out about Gabrielle’s music projects, go to gabriellemcandless.bandcamp.com

“AhDah” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

“Air Prelude” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/