Much of the biblical narrative relating to the bondage and exodus of the Israelites and the conquest of Canaan is clearly mythological. If there wasn’t a historical Exodus, as the archaeological evidence suggests, is there a possible allegorical meaning to the story? Allegory is after all the lingua franca of mythology and religion. A possible metaphorical interpretation of the Exodus story is the ancient belief that the soul is of divine origin and is trapped in the body and exiled in the material world.
The soul was seen as being exiled in bondage, just like the Israelites, and could be freed by the salvation offered by a saviour or god. In the biblical story of the Exodus, the figure who eventually leads the Israelites into the Promised Land is Joshua, whose name literally means ‘Yahweh saves’ or ‘Yahweh delivers’.
Joshua is also the Hebrew name from which the Greek name Jesus is derived, so linking the redeemer figures of both Judaism and Christianity. I suspect this was the reason the name Jesus / Joshua was chosen for a new saviour figure, this new Joshua would return believers to the heavenly realm after death.
In ancient Greek, the word for saviour was soter (ΣΩΤΗΡ), and this derives from the same root as the word soteria (ΣΩΤΗΡΙΑ), which translates as both ‘spiritual salvation’ and ‘a safe return home’. Saviours could be looked at quite literally as figures who facilitated the return home of exiled souls.
The first century Jewish philosopher Philo appeared to interpret the story this way. He wrote,
‘All the wise men mentioned in the books of Moses are represented as sojourners, for their souls are sent down from heaven upon earth as to a colony…They then subsequently return back from thence to the place from which they set out at first, looking upon the heavenly country in which they have the rights of citizens as their native land, and as the earthly abode in which they dwell for a while as in a foreign land.’ (On the Confusion of Tongues XVII)
Elsewhere he similarly noted,
‘The soul of the wise man, descending from above the sky, comes down upon and enters a mortal and is sown in the field of body, it is truly sojourning in a land which is not his own. The earthly nature of the body is wholly alien from pure intellect, and tends to subdue it and drag it downwards into slavery, bringing every kind of affliction upon it.’ (Questions and Answers on Genesis III)
The Christian writer Origen (184 – 253 CE) made it clear that he believed the Exodus was an allegorical story, and the Promised Land was the heavenly realm, not the land of Judea. He wrote,
‘If the whole earth has been cursed in the deeds of Adam and of those who died in him, it is plain that all parts of the earth share in this curse, including the land of Judea. So the words, “a good and large land, a land flowing with milk and honey,” cannot apply to it…that pure land, goodly and large, [is] in the pure region of heaven.’ (Against Celsus 7.29)
We also find this theme in Greek philosophy and religion. The Pythagoreans promoted the belief that the soul was a fallen divinity imprisoned within the tomb of the body, and could only be freed through philosophy. This belief was also central to Orphism, a mystical religion based around Orpheus and Dionysus. Plato (428 – 348 BCE) taught the same doctrine, and wrote of the pious soul’s recollection of its divine source,
‘Pure was the light that shone around us, and pure were we, without taint of that prison-house which now we are encompassed withal, and call a body, fast bound therein as an oyster in its shell.’ (Phaedrus 250C)
Plutarch likewise noted,
‘We know that the soul is indestructible and should think of its experience as like that of a bird in a cage.’ (A Letter of Consolation)
Cicero wrote that the dead ‘have escaped from the prison house of their bodies.’ (The Dream of Scipio 6).
The Neoplatonic philosopher Porphyry noted that Mithraism taught a similar belief, ‘Thus the Persians, as mystagogues, instruct the initiate by teaching him the descent of the soul and its exodus back.’ (On the Cave of the Nymphs 5)
Plato was a hugely influential philosopher, and Platonism influenced both Judaism and Christianity. Plato made clear references to the concept of the soul as prisoner in the material world in several of his works. Perhaps the best example is in the so-called Simile of the Cave, which appears in his most famous work, The Republic. The cave was often used as a metaphor for the universe in the ancient world, and Plato used this image to describe the nature of human existence,
‘I want you to go on to picture the enlightenment or ignorance of our human conditions somewhat as follows. Imagine an underground chamber, like a cave with an entrance open to the daylight and running a long way underground. In the chamber are men who have been prisoners there since they were children.’ (Republic 514)
Later on in the simile, Plato makes the metaphor of the prison cave perfectly clear when he states ‘the visible realm corresponds to the prison’ (Republic 517). Plato claims that only the philosopher can free people from this bondage, just as Moses does for the Israelites in the Exodus story. He calls these philosopher kings ‘lawgivers’ (Republic 519), exactly the same title that’s given to Moses in the Old Testament. Plato taught the same doctrine in the Phaedo,
‘The lovers of knowledge are conscious that when philosophy first takes control of their soul it is entirely bound and glued to their bodies: the soul is only able to view existence through the bars of a prison, and not in her own true nature.’ (Phaedo 82d-e)
The second century Hermeticists were heavily influenced by Platonism, and they taught that human souls had been imprisoned in flesh by God as punishment. One of their texts reads,
‘The ruler and master of all thought good to fabricate the human organism, to the intent that in it the race of souls might suffer punishment…make bodies out of which the souls may be imprisoned.’ (Strobaeus XXIII)
The same allegory could also underpin the story of The Odyssey. At its most basic level, The Odyssey is the story of the return home of an exile. Odysseus is kept prisoner by Calypso on her island for seven years, and the goddess Athene informs his son Telemachus,
‘He won’t be exiled long from the native land he loves, not even if iron shackles bind him. He will contrive a way to journey home at last, he’s a man of many devices.’ (The Odyssey 1.203-6)
The name of Calypso’s island, Ogygia, was the oldest Greek name for Egypt, as well as literally meaning ‘the navel of the sea’.
In the Old Testament, the story of the exodus isn’t the only place we find this metaphor possibly being used. Isaiah 61 reads,
‘The spirit of the lord Yahweh is upon me
because the lord has anointed me;
he has sent me to bring good news to the humble,
to bind up the broken-hearted,
to proclaim liberty to captives
and release those in prison.’ (Isaiah 61.1)
Psalms also contain a recurrent theme of Yahweh redeeming imprisoned Jews from Sheol, the Jewish equivalent of Hades – a gloomy underworld of the dead. Psalm 6 asks Yahweh to ‘set my soul free’ (Psalm 6.4), psalm 49 states, ‘God will ransom my life, he will redeem me from Sheol’ (Psalm 49.15). Psalm 86 similarly states, ‘You have delivered my soul from the depths of Sheol’ (Psalm 86.13). Psalm 102 states,
‘Yahweh looks down from his sanctuary on high,
from the sky he views the land
to listen to the groaning of prisoners
and set free men condemned to death.’ (Psalm 102.19-20)
and Psalm 142 invokes Yahweh with, ‘Set me free from my prison so I may praise your name’ (Psalm 142.7).
Elements in the biblical narrative of the exodus story might also represent ancient Jewish cosmology. Egypt could have represented the material world and the sea that Moses parts to help the Israelites escape might represent the water that the Jews believed existed above the firmament. This water is mentioned in the Psalms, ‘Praise him highest heavens, and the waters that are above the sky’ (Psalm 148.4). The pillars of cloud and of fire that guided the Israelites might have represented the world axis.
The book of Isaiah links the exodus and the story of Moses parting the sea to to the (celestial) waters of the abyss, along with the serpent Leviathan that Yahweh fought (using its alternate name Rahab),
‘Wake up! Wake up! Clothe yourself with strength, O arm of Yahweh.
Wake up as in former times, as in antiquity.
Was it not you who hacked Rahab into pieces?
Who pierced the dragon through?
Did you not dry up the sea, the waters of the great abyss?
Did you not make a path through the depths of the sea,
so those delivered from bondage could cross over?
Those whom Yahweh has redeemed will return,
they will enter Zion with shouts of triumph.’ (Isaiah 51.9-11)
The pharaoh in the exodus story may be nameless because he originally represented Leviathan / Satan, who in turn may have represented the constellation Draco.
We find the allegory of exile and bondage used in other religions linked to Judaism. Mandaeism dates from around the same time as Christianity, and is centred on the concept of the soul being an exiled captive on earth. The Mandaeans believe their religion offers salvation that will allow the soul to leave the world after death and return to its divine source. These doctrines fit in perfectly with this allegorical interpretation of the exodus story. Many Mandaean sacred texts use the metaphors of exile, imprisonment, bondage and eventual release.
Manichaeism was a strongly dualistic religion based on the teachings of the Persian prophet Mani (210 – 276 CE) which also shared these ideas. In Manichaeism, the material world and the body were seen as evil, whereas the soul was believed to be made of light, which had been imprisoned in the world.
The allegory was also used particularly heavily in Gnostic Christian scripture. Gnosticism was a zeitgeist from the first few centuries CE that permeated Christianity, Judaism and Greek philosophy. Gnostics took these ideas to an ‘anti-cosmic’ conclusion, and believed the whole universe was an evil prison full of suffering. They came to the conclusion that such a faulty world couldn’t have been created by God (who was deemed to be both perfect and good), so instead must have been fashioned by a false god called the Demiurge (from the Greek for ‘craftsman’).
Gnostic thought was heavily influenced by Platonism. Plato had taught that God had to be both good and perfect, and Plato had a Demiurge create the world in The Timaeus. Christian Gnostics often equated this Demiurge to the Jewish god Yahweh. Many Gnostic Christians didn’t see Jesus as the son of the Jewish god, but as a redeeming saviour who had come in direct opposition to him. They believed Jesus had come to free people from the false world and prison of the Demiurge.
The Nag Hammadi library is a collection of early Christian Gnostic texts discovered in Egypt in 1945, and several of the works deal with this topic. The Acts of Thomas is a third century text that contains a hymn called The Hymn of the Pearl, which describes the descent of the soul into the world, its exile and bondage there and its eventual salvation through a saviour sent by God. Just like the Book of Exodus, The Hymn of the Pearl uses the metaphor of a real life person descending into Egypt, then returning triumphant.
In the hymn the central figure is sent out from his fathers house (the divine realm), and descends to Egypt. He is told he must bring back the one pearl, which is guarded by a serpent in the middle of the sea. Unfortunately, he forgets his task and becomes like the Egyptians, being described as asleep and living a life of slavery. His father (called the king of kings) sends an eagle with a letter to wake him up, and he duly steals the pearl from the serpent and returns to his father’s house victorious.
The Exegesis on the Soul is a third century Gnostic work that’s also found in the Nag Hammadi library. In this treatise the soul (represented by a woman) falls into the world where she suffers as a prostitute. God sends her a messenger in the shape of a bridegroom, and she regains her former state. The Exegesis on the Soul quotes from the Old Testament, the New Testament and The Odyssey and treats all three as holy scripture. This work depicts the allegory of captivity and release perfectly,
‘Now it is fitting that the soul regenerate herself and becomes again as she formerly was. The soul then moves of her own accord. And she received the divine nature from the father for her rejuvenation so that she might be restored to the place from where she had been. This is the resurrection that is from the dead. This is the ransom from captivity. This is the way of ascent to the father.’ (Exegesis on the Soul 134.7-15)
It isn’t unreasonable to suggest that the exodus story could be an allegory for the belief in the bondage and release of the soul. Remember that the myth is nowhere near as old as it was traditionally believed to be. If one accepts that the exodus story derives from the mid first millennium BCE, as the evidence suggests, it could possibly be an allegorical tale. The book of Exodus would then fit in with much Greek religious and philosophical thought from the same period.
The Bible and Mythology 