The Exodus and Biblical Theology

Recent debates about the Exodus have centered on the shape of the story. One such debate concerned von Rad's attempt to separate the Exodus from the giving of the Law. Another concerns the use of the Exodus in Liberation Theology. Scholars who take a canonical approach (Childs, Levenson) argue that the "canonical shape" of the story in the final form of the Torah is decisive. Examination of the way the Exodus motif was used within the biblical tradition itself, however, suggests that the "canonical approach" is not the only permissible way to construe the tradition. The reformulation of the traditio-historical approach by such scholars as J. A. Sanders and M. Fishbane does more justice to the way in which the Exodus was understood by later biblical writers, and in much of Jewish and Christian tradition. The Liberation theologians can claim an authentic biblical basis just as well as the "canonical" interpreters, but neither can claim a monopoly on biblical authority.