The Exodus as a tradition from Northern Israel, under the leadership of El and Yahweh in the form of young bull

Abstract

Exodus is one of Israel´s and Juda’s foundation traditions. However, if Israel as a people emerged in Canaan, how does one understand the liberation from the Egypt tradition? The article tries to show that the Exodus tradition was formed within Northern Israel, maybe during the Egyptian domination of Sheshong I (945-925), a campaign that is registered in the temple of Karnak, in Egypt, that defeated the fragile rein of Saul. The article tries to show also, that in the sanctuaries of Betel, Shechem and Dan there existed a cult to a divinity represented by a bull image, to whom was attributed the liberation from Egypt. At the beginning this divinity was the God El, but later, it passed to be the God Yahweh, who absorbed the attributes of El, including the bull cult. The wandering through the desert is an independent tradition, and it was attached to the liberation tradition only later. It’s possible that this tradition was form in Kuntillet ‘Ajrud, a center for tribute collecting, situated in the desert of Sinai and dominated by Northern Israel, during the reign of Jeroboam II, in the first half of the VIII century a.C.