THE ALLEGED DISCONTINUITIES IN THE TEXT
OF THE BOOK OF EXODUS 1–18
Introduction
Reading the book of Exodus is not an easy task – it is the word of God himself. It is therefore necessary to prepare for this serious contact with the Creator and Savior of mankind. A basic condition, unfortunately not being fulfilled by many modern Biblicists, is the obedience to teaching of the Magisterium of the Church.
The church, however, has warned many times in serious documents [1] that it is not allowed to shift fragments of Bible – the original Hebrew, Aramaic or Greek text is inspired, that is, written according to the intention of the Holy Spirit.
When reading the Book of Exodus, many biblical scholars perceives discrepancies between particular fragments – some next elements of this presentation will be devoted to their discussion.
[1] See Pope Pius X,
Encyclical Pascendi Dominici Gregis.
The Pope warned against the “scientific” shifting of fragments of Bible by modernist exegetes, writing about their rules in point 34 (
How the Bible is Dealt With):
“The traces of this evolution, they tell us, are so visible in the books that one might almost write a history of them. Indeed this history they do actually write, and with such an easy security that one might believe them to have with their own eyes seen the writers at work through the ages amplifying the Sacred Books. To aid them in this they call to their assistance that branch of criticism which they call textual, and labour to show that such a fact or such a phrase is not in its right place, and adducing other arguments of the same kind. They seem, in fact, to have constructed for themselves certain types of narration and discourses, upon which they base their decision as to whether a thing is out of place or not
”.