Texts in Conversation
In Exodus the sea floods over Pharaoh’s chariots and army so that none of them survive. Eleazar’s prayer in 3 Maccabees recalls that drowning of the Egyptian forces as the first of God’s past rescues of Israel.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Exodus 14:28
Hebrew Bible
27 So Moses extended his hand toward the sea, and the sea returned to its normal state when the sun began to rise. Now the Egyptians were fleeing before it, but the Lord overthrew the Egyptians in the middle of the sea. 28 The water returned and covered the chariots and the horsemen and all the army of Pharaoh that was coming after the Israelites into the sea—not so much as one of them survived! 29 But the Israelites walked on dry ground in the middle of the sea, the water forming a wall for them on their right and on their left.
Date: 750–400 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
3 Maccabees 6:4
Deuterocanon
3 look at the seed of Abraham, at the children of the sanctified Jacob, your sanctified inheritance, O Father, now being wrongfully destroyed as foreigners in a foreign land. 4 You destroyed Pharaoh with his army of chariots when that lord of this same Egypt was uplifted with lawless daring and loud-sounding tongue. Shedding the beams of your mercy upon the race of Israel, you overwhelmed him and his proud army. 5 When Sennacherib, the grievous king of the Assyrians, exulting in his countless army, had subdued the whole land with his spear and was lifting himself against your holy city with boastings grievous to be endured, you, O Lord, demolished him and displayed your might to many nations.
Date: 100 BCE – 70 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
... Like the prayer of Simon, Eleazar's petition rehearses prominent events in Israel's salvation history, beginning with Pharaoh, the archetypical example of Gentile arrogance (compare also Psalms 105, 106). Pharaoh did not come first in Simon's prayer but he did receive the most extensive treatment (2:6-8). By describing Pharaoh as 'the former ruler of this Egypt,' the author makes an explicit connection between the present crisis and Israel's past. Pharaoh and his army are portrayed in stock terms: lawless, boastful, and arrogant. ... But the emphasis 3 Maccabees 6:4 is as much on God's act of deliverance as on Pharaoh's insolence (compare Exodus 14:26-31). This deliverance was the foundation of the covenant relationship between Israel and God (Exodus 20:2; Deuteronomy 5:6). ...
N. Clayton Croy, 3 Maccabees (Leiden: Brill, 2006), 99.
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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