The theory of the Levites does not re-tell the Exodus that was one national migration. It re-identifies the tradition as a memory which might have started with a smaller group of priests, and then has extended to the shared origin story of Israel.
In this framework, the path is traced using the early biblical poetry, patterns of names and the irregular manner in which Egyptian themes are manifested in the various literary strands within the Torah. The outcome is not a judgment but an eye: an eye that makes it clear why certain books will sound as having a close approach to Egypt and why others will look in the same direction hardly at all.
1. The antiquest of victory songs says not Israel
One of the key points in the Levites theory is that the earliest poetry in Exodus talks of a people leaving Egypt, but does not refer to them as Israel. Richard Elliott Friedman puts emphasis on the fact that the name Israel does not appear in the Song of the Sea, but rather the phrase am is being directed towards a sacred place. The climax of the poem talks about coming to a godly shrine as opposed to a national homeland, which is more primitively poetically language befitting a priestly agenda than a tribal itinerary. In the theory, such concentration resembles the definition of a group of cultic service and sacred space. It is also useful to describe how an Exodus memory might be historically based and then also become nationally inclusive.
2. The tribal roll call of Deborah does not include Levi
The Levites theory approaches the Song of Deborah (Judges 5) as an antidote to the poems in Exodus. The tribal inventory of the song is interesting in the reading by Friedman since Levi is not even mentioned whilst other tribes are called and valued to be part of the song. The later lack can be explained by the fact that Levites were not always operating as a traditional land-owning tribe when the poem was being composed, or were not yet part of the same political bloc. In any case, the offstage position of Levi is included in the cumulative argument that the identity of priests took another path into the history of Israel than did that of the other tribes.
3. The Egyptian styles of names are concentrated in Levites and priesthood
Names have the ability to maintain the cultural memory in a manner that stories smooth out. Friedman points out that Levites contain names of characters with an Egyptian association, such as Moses, Phinehas, Hophni, Hur, Merari, and Mushi but not the names of the rest of the tribes. Another list of examples claims examples of biblical Hebrew names of Egyptian etymology throughout the Torah and later as well, such as Moses (who is often suggested to have Egyptian ms name-forms) and Miriam (who has often been suggested to have an Egyptian etymology meaning beloved). The Levites theory does not suppose that all the carriers of an Egyptian name were Levites. It does, however, regard the concentration of such names in the genealogies of priests and in Levite situations as one of the most readily visible indications of greater inoculation with Egypt.
4. The Tabernacle resembles an Egyptian war pavilion in the priesthood
Exodus debates are elusive of material culture and as such this theory relies on textual accounts of objects and institutions. The fact that the Tabernacle is most strongly stressed in priestly levels and is practically non-existent in non-priestly narrative is of importance in the Levites theory. Friedman cites scholarship that the Tabernacle has architectural similarities with the battle tent of Pharaoh Rameses II. It is not that Israel aped an Egyptian tent in a simple manner but that the writers who belonged to the priesthood maintained a sacred architecture that is speaking an Egyptian language of design. Such a cultural echo suits a group whose introductory experiences were in Egyptian settings and institutions.
5. The image of the Ark is similar to the Egyptian ceremonial barks
The Ark of the Covenant is mobile, consecrated, and transported by appointed men-aspects that can be compared to the Egyptian ritual transportation. Friedman singles out work that advances the similarities of the Ark with the Egyptian barks, the holy boats that were used in procession as shrinks. In the Levites theory, this dissimilarity becomes empowered, as the administration of the Ark is enforced by priests and Levites, and the concept of Egyptian influence is the strongest, when the identity of the priests is the strongest. Instead of establishing one historical episode, the comparison of the ark contributes a texture to a cumulative case: Israel in its sacral technology recalled Egypt.
6. Circumcision is set up as a priesthood duty with Egyptian tones
A second similarity is that certain emphasis of rituals seems to be more dominant in priestly literature than in others. When we talk of the Levites theory, circumcision is commonly discussed as a sign: it is a covenant mark in Israel, but also a familiar practice in Egypt. It does not lie in the inner logic of the theory that the practice is borrowed, but that familiarity of Egyptians assists in understanding why it is emphasized by some authors and becomes a part of identity formation. Unless a small group took Egypt-shaped memories to the highlands of Canaan, ritual boundary-marks would be a natural means of maintaining differentiation and at the same time assimilating to a broader population.
7. Never forget your alien Do not ill treat him
Ethics are also read as ethics of culture in the Levites theory. Friedman holds that the directives to treat the resident alien justly reoccur both in priestly and Deuteronomic strands and in association with the refrain because you were aliens in Egypt, and he points out their frequency as being a characteristic feature of Levite-composed material. This opinion does not regard the ethical program as generic humanitarianism; it is biography applied to law. When Levites (or their forebears) had gone through Egypt as foreigners, whether as slaves, or forcibly recruited, or as social outcasts, the insistence of the law upon precautions to the alien will become permanently imprinted into the stamp of the experience.
The Levites theory finally leaves the question of Did it happen just as they told me? and goes to the question of How did the recollections of a group of people turn into a charter of a people? It permits poesia antiqua, the poetry of priests, the meanings of names, to be placed side by side with archeological doubt, without compelling them to a single yes or no.
It is a strategy of reading as to why Egypt appears most vivid in those places where priests are addressing us, why a few early songs are more sanctuary-focused than nation-focused, and how a less well-established tradition of departure can become the narrative of the founding of Israel and yet retain some of the older seam.
