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but when the fourteenth day was come, and all were ready to depart they offered the sacrifice, and purified their houses with the blood, using bunches of hyssop for that purpose; and when they had supped, they burnt the remainder of the flesh, as just ready to depart1. Whence it is that we do still offer this sacrifice in like manner to this day2, and call this festival Pascha which signifies the feast of the passover; because on that day God passed us over, and sent the plague upon the Egyptians; for the destruction of the first-born came upon the Egyptians that night3, so that many of the Egyptians who lived near the king's palace, persuaded Pharaoh to let the Hebrews go4. Accordingly he called for Moses, and bid them be gone5; as supposing, that if once the Hebrews were gone out of the country, Egypt should be freed from its miseries6. They also honored the Hebrews with gifts; some, in order to get them to depart quickly, and others on account of their neighborhood, and the friendship they had with them.7

 

 

 

HOW THE HEBREWS UNDER THE CONDUCT OF MOSES LEFT EGYPT.

1. So the Hebrews went out of Egypt8, while the Egyptians wept, and repented that they had treated them so hardly9. - Now they took their journey by Letopolis10, a place at that time deserted11, but where Babylon was built afterwards, when Cambyses laid Egypt waste: but as they went away hastily, on the third day12 they came to a place called Beelzephon, on the Red Sea; and when they had no food out of the land, because it was a desert, they eat of loaves kneaded of flour, only warmed by a gentle heat13; and this food they made use of for thirty days; for what they brought with them out of Egypt would not suffice them any longer time; and this only while they dispensed it to each person, to use so much only as would serve for necessity, but not for satiety14. Whence it is that, in memory of the want we were then in, we keep a feast for eight days15, which is called the feast of unleavened bread. Now the entire multitude of those that went out, including the women and children, was not easy to be numbered, but those that were of an age fit for war, were six hundred thousand (Exodus 12:37).

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1 Josephus mentions nothing at this point about the laws concerning unleavened bread to be eaten during the festival of Passover (Exod. 12:15-20).

2 Josephus here omits the details of the sacrifice (Exod. 12:3-11), which he includes in his systematic summary of the commandments ( Ant. 3.248-49). Philo ( De Specialibus Legibus 2.27.146) asserts that for these sacrifices a priest is not necessary, and Josephus seems to imply the same here. The Rabbis ( Mekilta de-Rabbi Ishmael Pisha 3-4 on Exod. 12:1-5 [ed. Horovitz, pp. 11, 13, 16]), however, note the difference between the manner in which the sacrifice was made at the time of the Exodus and the later celebration.

3 Whereas Exod. 12:29-33 presents a detailed and vivid picture of the effect of the plague upon the first-born of the Egyptians Josephus is much briefer, presumably because he sought to emphasize the good neighborly relations of the Egyptians and the Israelites. In particular, Josephus omits the statement (Exod. 12:30) that there was not a house among the Egyptians where there was not someone dead.

4 Whereas previously Pharaoh had failed to listen to his servants (Exod. 10:7), he finally here does, in Josephus’ addition, listen to his people and returns to his senses and orders the Israelites to depart.

5 Josephus omits the statement (Exod. 12:32) that Pharaoh, when finally permitting the Israelites to leave, asked Moses and Aaron to bless him also.

6 The manuscripts read “would have ceased.” Here, at the conclusion and summary of the plagues, Exod. 11:10 states that Moses and Aaron performed all these wonders before Pharaoh, but in Josephus it is Moses alone whose role is mentioned.

7 A similar statement is found in the rabbinic tradition ( Berakot 9b, Mekilta di-Rabbi Ishmael, Pisha 13 [ed. Horovitz, p. 47]). One of the incidents that would appear to contradict the Israelites’ reputation for honesty and presumably Moses’ reputation for integrity was Moses’ permitting the Israelites to “borrow” jewelry and clothing from the Egyptians. A pagan writer, Pompeius Trogus ( ap. Justin, Hist. Phil. 36, Epitoma 2.12-13), who is generally friendly to the Jews, states that the Jews carried off by stealth the sacred vessels of the Egyptians. One might well assume that the Israelites must have practiced deceit in order to obtain these objects, though such theft might perhaps be justified in view of the way in which the Israelites had been treated by the Egyptians for so long. So Philo ( De Vita Mosis 1.25.141) and Jubilees (48:18). In Berakot 9b the rabbis emphasize that the Israelites did not want to “borrow” from the Egyptians and were satisfied merely with regaining their freedom; but God insisted that they do so in order to fulfill the promise that he had made to Abraham that they would leave Egypt with great substance (Gen. 15:13-14). In one biblical passage God tells Moses that before leaving Egypt the Israelites are to ask for jewels and clothing from the Egyptians, “and when you go, you shall not go empty...; thus you shall despoil the Egyptians” (Exod. 3:21-22). Before they actually depart from Egypt God repeats similar instructions to Moses (Exod. 11:2-3). Obviously, the Israelites had no intention of returning these “gifts.” Josephus resolves the problem by omitting all reference to the first passage; and in his paraphrase of the second it is not the Israelites who approach the Egyptians but rather the Egyptians themselves who here take the initiative in honoring the Israelites with gifts, some to speed their departure, others to show their neighborly feelings toward old acquaintances.

8 Josephus omits mention of the mixed multitude that joined the Israelites in their exodus from Egypt (Exod. 12:38).

9 That Jews, according to Josephus, are not prejudiced against gentiles is clear from the fact that he differentiates between Pharaoh and the Egyptians, carefully noting, in an extra-biblical addition here, that when the Israelites departed from Egypt the Egyptians lamented and regretted the harsh treatment that they had inflicted on the Israelites.

10 The city of Leto, Letopolis, has been identified as Usim, ten miles north of Old Cairo and about ten miles south of Heliopolis, where Jacob and his family settled ( Ant. 2.188). Josephus identifies it with Sukkoth (Exod. 12:37), which is identified with Thukke in Egyptian inscriptions.

11 Josephus here indicates that the route of the exodus was more to the south.

12 This corresponds to Moses’ proposal to Pharaoh during the fourth plague to allow the Israelites to go on a three days’ journey into the wilderness in order to sacrifice to God. Artapanus ( ap. Eus., Pr. Ev. 9.27.34) also, in an extra-biblical addition, says that the Israelites came to the Sea of Reeds in three days. Goudoever (1961) calls attention to the Samaritan Marqah’s Commentary on Exodus, which states that the Israelites arrived at the Sea of Reeds in three days but that they actually crossed it on the second feast (that is, on the seventh day of Passover); but the Samaritan Asatir asserts that they crossed it three days after their departure from Egypt.

13 Josephus does not give the Bible’s explanation (Exod. 12:39) for the short period of baking, namely that the Israelites had been thrust out of Egypt and did not have enough time to prepare any provisions for themselves. He is apparently troubled by the fact that Moses had told the Israelites (Exod. 12:3-28) to prepare for their departure (Ant. 2.311).

14 This statement is Josephus’ addition, presumably based on the fact that a month after they had left Egypt the Israelites complained about their hunger to Moses and Aaron (Exod. 16:1-3).

15 According to the Torah (Exod. 12:18-19, Lev. 23:6, Num. 28:17), the Passover is to be observed for seven days; and Josephus himself elsewhere says so ( Ant. 3.249). Here he is apparently referring to the fact that in the Diaspora the holiday, like the other pilgrimage festivals, was observed for an extra day. Philo, however, though he is living in the Diaspora, gives the length of the holiday as seven days ( De Specialibus Legibus 2.28.156).