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Written by: Marc A. Krell

The final narrative point on the biblical timeline is that of redemption, which begins with the Israelite redemption from slavery, traverses the midpoint of revelation, and continues indefinitely through the intertribal conquest of the land of Israel, the ensuing monarchy, and the recapitulation of the exile. This narrative segment involves the fulfillment of four divine promises in Exodus 6 in which God will "bring out," "deliver," "redeem," and "take" the Israelites to be God's people. Yet there was a fifth promise of God to "bring" the Israelites to the land of Israel, which was only temporarily fulfilled because of the resumption of the exile after the destruction of the First and Second Temples. It is this unfulfilled promise of redemption that Jews commemorate during the holiday of Pesach by reenacting the Israelite exodus from Egypt as a paradigm of future redemption for themselves and the world.

Study Questions:
1.     Where does Jewish sacred narrative originate?
2.     What are the major themes within the book of Genesis? How is it a story of creation and destruction?
3.     When did revelation occur within Jewish scripture? What was revealed?
4.     What does Jewish sacred narrative reveal about redemption?