A friend and I were discussing Jewish polytheism when the Exodus came up. He wrote:

Like, here’s the thing. It’s not even comparable to Passover. Middle Eastern deities fight all the time and the Exodus narrative never says that the Egyptian Gods are unworthy of worship. It’s just a victory for Yahweh. Not to mention, Passover as a festival predates the Exodus narrative. You could totally celebrate Passover without the Exodus narrative. Might look a little different but it’s obviously something that’s possible.

To which I replied:

And yeah, the Jews and Samarians at the Elephantine fortress celebrated Passover without any reference to the Exodus. They even got instructions from the Jerusalem priesthood on the proper way to observe it at their current location and there’s no mention of the Exodus. Now either this part of the tradition was added later (which is really late) or was omitted because they lived in Egypt. And read the text again. It’s a theomachia with Yahō demonstrating his power (or Yahō and his comrades Deber and Qeteb who are frequently depicted together in the Tanakh) over the Egyptian Gods. Each of the plagues represents a different God, from Heqet (frogs) to Osiris (death of the firstborn. Some put Horus there, but it works either way.) And that’s assuming the theomachia theory is correct. I’m not sure I buy it, especially since there’s a strong indication that the nameless Pharaoh of Exodus was a member of the Hyksos dynasty who not only enslaved the Jews, but the Egyptians too, and committed atrocities against the temples and priesthoods of the indigenous Gods, not to mention aligning themselves with Apophis. Though I haven’t seen any scholars arguing in favor of this theory I suspect the plagues may have originally been sent by the Egyptian Gods working alongside Yahō to liberate the country from Hyksos rule. A later redactor (most likely E or J, or even Josiah) removed direct references to the Netjeru but didn’t know enough about Egyptian religion to conceal the nature of the plagues, which reveal their power in action. I like it because it makes Exodus an Avengers-style team-up rather than a dick-waving contest.

Everything is different when seen through polytheist eyes. I want to see a polytheist Exodus movie so bad (as long as it’s not directed by Christopher Nolan.) And seriously, fuck the Hyksos. Those guys were jerks.