What do you think?
Rate this book
Founding God's Nation: Reading Exodus
A chapter-by-chapter explanation of the Book of Exodus, revealing its wisdom about nation building and people formation
"Kass draws from Exodus’ record of the founding of Judaism timely—even urgent—universal lessons about twenty-first-century preconditions for human flourishing in any community. Compelling modern reflections on ancient wisdom.”—Bryce Christensen, Booklist (starred review)
In this long-awaited follow-up to his 2003 book on Genesis, humanist scholar Leon Kass explores how Exodus raises and then answers the central political questions of what defines a nation and how a nation should govern itself. Considered by some the most important book in the Hebrew Bible, Exodus tells the story of the Jewish people from their enslavement in Egypt, through their liberation under Moses’s leadership, to the covenantal founding at Sinai and the building of the Tabernacle. In Kass’s analysis, these events began the slow process of learning how to stop thinking like slaves and become an independent people. The Israelites ultimately founded their nation on three elements: a shared narrative that instills empathy for the poor and the suffering, the uplifting rule of a moral law, and devotion to a higher common purpose. These elements, Kass argues, remain the essential principles for any freedom-loving nation today.
"Kass draws from Exodus’ record of the founding of Judaism timely—even urgent—universal lessons about twenty-first-century preconditions for human flourishing in any community. Compelling modern reflections on ancient wisdom.”—Bryce Christensen, Booklist (starred review)
In this long-awaited follow-up to his 2003 book on Genesis, humanist scholar Leon Kass explores how Exodus raises and then answers the central political questions of what defines a nation and how a nation should govern itself. Considered by some the most important book in the Hebrew Bible, Exodus tells the story of the Jewish people from their enslavement in Egypt, through their liberation under Moses’s leadership, to the covenantal founding at Sinai and the building of the Tabernacle. In Kass’s analysis, these events began the slow process of learning how to stop thinking like slaves and become an independent people. The Israelites ultimately founded their nation on three elements: a shared narrative that instills empathy for the poor and the suffering, the uplifting rule of a moral law, and devotion to a higher common purpose. These elements, Kass argues, remain the essential principles for any freedom-loving nation today.
752 pages, Hardcover
Published January 5, 2021
71 people are currently reading
283 people want to read
About the author
Leon R. Kass
32 books58 followers American physician, scientist, educator, and public intellectual, best known as proponent of liberal education via the "Great Books," as an opponent of human cloning, life extension and euthanasia, as a critic of certain areas of technological progress and embryo research, and for his controversial tenure as chairman of the President's Council on Bioethics from 2001 to 2005. Although Kass is often referred to as a bioethicist, he eschews the term and refers to himself as "an old-fashioned humanist.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
January 9, 2024
One of the best commentaries I’ve ever read. Ever. Kass mines the text for civic wisdom that nourishes people of faith and also those who might approach the text from a more secular point of view.
March 1, 2024
this is a serviceable follow-up to Kass's very good commentary on Genesis, but the juice is missing. His readings on Genesis felt like they came from a maze of different perspectives. Wild stuff like "maybe Abraham was actually subconsciously unsure of being a parent" alongside, say, a beautiful rendering of the mission of YHWH and universal salvation. It read like a decade of discussions cut and pasted into a massive book. And there are hints of that in this commentary, but it spends most of the time hugging the shore. This feels more like the book came first, and the discussions were after the fact.
It's a fine introduction to Exodus, but offers little more than Robert Alter's superb translation and commentary
It's a fine introduction to Exodus, but offers little more than Robert Alter's superb translation and commentary
May 2, 2021
This book focuses on what Exodus can teach us about nation-building, but also contains more theological insights. Some of Kass's most interesting ideas include:
*Why does God go through the trouble of creating plague after plague after plague, rather than creating instant liberation for the Hebrews? Kass notes that for future readers, the point of the story is to show God's power over both Egyptian "gods" and human rulers. And the pharaoh's resistance is necessary to show that God rather than the pharoah is the real liberator. Some of the plagues essentially undo creation by eliminating light (a part of the creation story in Genesis) and vegetation (ditto); the point is that only God can restore order out of chaos.
*Why does the pharaoh keep resisting Moses? Kass says that "the last thing a ruler can prudently or decently do is to appear weak and helpless before his suffering people." Like many modern leaders, the pharoah is so afraid of appearing weak that he doesn't know when to give in.
*Why does the Torah make a point of saying Moses is 80 years old at the time of the deliverance from Egypt? Kass points out that human gestation takes 40 weeks, and suggests that Moses is "twice born" (once physically, and once by being saved by his Egyptian stepmother, and less literally by living in the social wombs of Egypt and Midian).
*Why does God order that the first Passover meal be comprised of lamb and bread? One explanation is that the meal combines the products of farmers and shepherds, two groups that have been rivals since Cain and Abel.
*Why does Moses's father in law come visit when he does (Exodus 18)? Kass notes that this occurs right after the Hebrews are attacked by Amalekites, and so maybe this story teaches that not all foreigners are as hostile as Amalek.
*In the Ten Commandments, what's the point of the no-coveting rule? Kass ties this to the book of Genesis: many of the rivalries in that book involve the wounded pride of relatives (e.g. the almost-fratricidal hatred amongst Jacob's sons) and so coveting is a problem not just of craving a neighbor's goods but of a craving a neighbor's place of honor.
*After the golden calf affair, why does Moses try to persuade God to forgive the Hebrews rather than taking God's offer to create a new people? Is Moses just full of unselfish love for his people? Kass suggests that the situation is a bit more complex. He notes that God's alternative plan is (from Moses's point of view) senseless. By this time, Moses has spent a year or two trying to turn a group of slaves into a special people. If Moses takes God's offer, he will at first just be the father of a family - a family that might not become a nation for hundreds of years, and might turn out to be just as wayward as the Hebrews.
*After coming down from the mountain and seeing the golden calf, why does Moses then command the Levites to kill thousands of people? Kass puts on his political-scientist glasses, noting that at this point Moses "is alone and, except for Joshua, without obvious allies" - which means that if he does nothing, there might be more anarchy, which in turn might lead to additional sins and Divine punishment. To restore order, he needs to reunite the camp under his authority. To does this he asks the camp, "Who is for the Lord?" The Levites say yes, and become his police/military, killing three thousand men (who, given their failure to heed Moses's call, may still be on Team Golden Calf).
*Why does God go through the trouble of creating plague after plague after plague, rather than creating instant liberation for the Hebrews? Kass notes that for future readers, the point of the story is to show God's power over both Egyptian "gods" and human rulers. And the pharaoh's resistance is necessary to show that God rather than the pharoah is the real liberator. Some of the plagues essentially undo creation by eliminating light (a part of the creation story in Genesis) and vegetation (ditto); the point is that only God can restore order out of chaos.
*Why does the pharaoh keep resisting Moses? Kass says that "the last thing a ruler can prudently or decently do is to appear weak and helpless before his suffering people." Like many modern leaders, the pharoah is so afraid of appearing weak that he doesn't know when to give in.
*Why does the Torah make a point of saying Moses is 80 years old at the time of the deliverance from Egypt? Kass points out that human gestation takes 40 weeks, and suggests that Moses is "twice born" (once physically, and once by being saved by his Egyptian stepmother, and less literally by living in the social wombs of Egypt and Midian).
*Why does God order that the first Passover meal be comprised of lamb and bread? One explanation is that the meal combines the products of farmers and shepherds, two groups that have been rivals since Cain and Abel.
*Why does Moses's father in law come visit when he does (Exodus 18)? Kass notes that this occurs right after the Hebrews are attacked by Amalekites, and so maybe this story teaches that not all foreigners are as hostile as Amalek.
*In the Ten Commandments, what's the point of the no-coveting rule? Kass ties this to the book of Genesis: many of the rivalries in that book involve the wounded pride of relatives (e.g. the almost-fratricidal hatred amongst Jacob's sons) and so coveting is a problem not just of craving a neighbor's goods but of a craving a neighbor's place of honor.
*After the golden calf affair, why does Moses try to persuade God to forgive the Hebrews rather than taking God's offer to create a new people? Is Moses just full of unselfish love for his people? Kass suggests that the situation is a bit more complex. He notes that God's alternative plan is (from Moses's point of view) senseless. By this time, Moses has spent a year or two trying to turn a group of slaves into a special people. If Moses takes God's offer, he will at first just be the father of a family - a family that might not become a nation for hundreds of years, and might turn out to be just as wayward as the Hebrews.
*After coming down from the mountain and seeing the golden calf, why does Moses then command the Levites to kill thousands of people? Kass puts on his political-scientist glasses, noting that at this point Moses "is alone and, except for Joshua, without obvious allies" - which means that if he does nothing, there might be more anarchy, which in turn might lead to additional sins and Divine punishment. To restore order, he needs to reunite the camp under his authority. To does this he asks the camp, "Who is for the Lord?" The Levites say yes, and become his police/military, killing three thousand men (who, given their failure to heed Moses's call, may still be on Team Golden Calf).
April 12, 2021
If there were a "superlative" category, i.e., more than 5 stars, this book would merit that rating. Along with "The Beginning of Wisdom," (about Genesis) this book is a monumental contribution to understanding the importance of the book of Exodus to the human project. Fine reviews of the content are available elsewhere (Mosaic, for example); instead I'd like to share the epigraph Kass offers at the beginning of the volume:
"An astonishing and truly unique spectacle is to see an expatriated people, who have had neither place nor land for nearly two thousand years...a scattered people, dispersed over the world, enslaved, persecuted, scorned by all nations, nonetheless preserving its characteristics, its laws, its customs, its patriotic love of the early social union, when all ties with it seem broken. The Jews provide us with an astonishing spectacle: the laws of Numa, Lygurgus, Solon are dead; the very much older laws of Moses are still alive. Athens, Sparta, Rome have perished, and no longer have children left on earth; Zion, destroyed, has not lost its children.... What must be the strength of legislation capable of working such wonders, capable of braving conquests, dispersions, revolutions, exiles, capable of surviving the customs, laws, empire of all the nations, and which finally promises them, by these trials, that it is going to continue to sustain them all, to conquer the vicissitudes of things human, and to last as long as the world? .... Any man, whosoever he is, must acknowledge this as a unique marvel, the causes of which, divine or human, certainly deserve the study and admiration of the sages, in preference to all that Greece and Rome offer of what is admirable in the way of political institutions and human settlements. Jean-Jacques Rousseau
"An astonishing and truly unique spectacle is to see an expatriated people, who have had neither place nor land for nearly two thousand years...a scattered people, dispersed over the world, enslaved, persecuted, scorned by all nations, nonetheless preserving its characteristics, its laws, its customs, its patriotic love of the early social union, when all ties with it seem broken. The Jews provide us with an astonishing spectacle: the laws of Numa, Lygurgus, Solon are dead; the very much older laws of Moses are still alive. Athens, Sparta, Rome have perished, and no longer have children left on earth; Zion, destroyed, has not lost its children.... What must be the strength of legislation capable of working such wonders, capable of braving conquests, dispersions, revolutions, exiles, capable of surviving the customs, laws, empire of all the nations, and which finally promises them, by these trials, that it is going to continue to sustain them all, to conquer the vicissitudes of things human, and to last as long as the world? .... Any man, whosoever he is, must acknowledge this as a unique marvel, the causes of which, divine or human, certainly deserve the study and admiration of the sages, in preference to all that Greece and Rome offer of what is admirable in the way of political institutions and human settlements. Jean-Jacques Rousseau
November 14, 2023
Incredible.
A Jewish professor, scientist, and educator takes a philosophical look at the book of Exodus from the Bible.
Kass:
Along the way, Kass is able to offer insights and wisdom regarding those questions asked above—even for this Baptist pastor. Do I agree with everything Kass shares? No, but I have come to a better understanding in many areas of Exodus' connection to the Bible, especially Genesis.
Kass sees the Tabernacle as the pinnacle of God's connection and revelation to man. Christians would see Jesus as the revelation of God to man. The New Testament makes a similar connection:
A Jewish professor, scientist, and educator takes a philosophical look at the book of Exodus from the Bible.
Kass:
I undertook this study mainly to explore basic questions of people formation: What makes a people a people? What forms their communal identity, holds them together, guides their lives? To what do they look up? For what should they strive? Exodus speaks to these questions through two unfolding and intersecting stories: the founding of the Israelite nation via deliverance and command, and the growing knowledge of God via divine revelation.
Along the way, Kass is able to offer insights and wisdom regarding those questions asked above—even for this Baptist pastor. Do I agree with everything Kass shares? No, but I have come to a better understanding in many areas of Exodus' connection to the Bible, especially Genesis.
Kass sees the Tabernacle as the pinnacle of God's connection and revelation to man. Christians would see Jesus as the revelation of God to man. The New Testament makes a similar connection:
And the Word [Jesus] became flesh and dwelt [lit. tabernacled] among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:14Still, I would highly recommend this massive work to anyone who would like to understand what God desires, or even demands (due to his nature) for knowing him.
May 22, 2021
This is Kass’s sequel to _The Beginning of Wisdom_, if that’s the right name for the enterprise of taking the same “wisdom reading” approach he applied to Genesis, there, to Exodus, here.
For much of the work, I would have told you that this one, while interesting, doesn’t have the same kind of payoff in one after another “a-ha!” moments. And maybe it doesn’t, since Exodus is a different kind of book than Genesis. But by the end of this one, he’s again got me deeply grateful for the tour and for the tour-guide, appreciating insights I’d not otherwise encountered into even some of the driest sections of Tanach.
So I’m appreciative and again enthusiastically endorsing. Kass is a favorite super-commentator (if I can apply that term) and I hope you’ll read this.
For much of the work, I would have told you that this one, while interesting, doesn’t have the same kind of payoff in one after another “a-ha!” moments. And maybe it doesn’t, since Exodus is a different kind of book than Genesis. But by the end of this one, he’s again got me deeply grateful for the tour and for the tour-guide, appreciating insights I’d not otherwise encountered into even some of the driest sections of Tanach.
So I’m appreciative and again enthusiastically endorsing. Kass is a favorite super-commentator (if I can apply that term) and I hope you’ll read this.
May 16, 2023
His colorful yet realist imagination brought a refreshing vivid earthiness to a story that can often been overly familiar. Really helped me look at Exodus from a different vantage point. He felt so close at times at getting to the gospel but didn't quite get there!
December 26, 2023
I love Kass's careful reading of the Old Testament text, his depth of consideration even down to individual words. Founding God's Nation by a Jewish author paired well with the series our Baptist pastor was preaching through the book of Exodus.
March 27, 2021
Great insights! Very fun. I disagree with a sentence here and there and that's ok! It's still an amazing book that I've learned so much from!
Read
July 1, 2021Interesting
January 26, 2022
Must read
This book is the best study Exodus for both individuals with in depth knowledge and someone new to the Bible.
This book is the best study Exodus for both individuals with in depth knowledge and someone new to the Bible.
September 11, 2024
Essential reading for Exodus. Fascinating.
February 6, 2025
Verse by verse history analysis philosophy insights into Exodus
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews