Exodus
The primary genre of Exodus is that of a narrative. It is the second book of the Bible and takes place a few hundred years after the deaths of the Pharaoh, Joseph, and his brothers. Feeling that they were vulnerable, the new Pharaoh embarked on a journey to repress the Israelites by forcing them into slavery. Eventually he made a law that all boys that were Hebrew would have to be killed at birth in the Nile River, to which he tried to get Shiphrah and Puah to carry out. By doing this, he would allow all Hebrew women to live and it would solve his problem. Fearing her son (Moses) would be murdered; Jochabed crafts a raft out of papyrus and sends Moses floating down the Nile River. Moses is found by the Pharaohs daughter and raised as her own. Moses is constantly aware of his Hebrew background, and after getting into an altercation with an Egyptian man for beating an Israelite and then flees to Midian. There Moses marries a priest daughter and starts a life as a shepherd. God appears to Moses in the form of a “burning bush” informing him that he wants to return the Israelites back to Canaan, and that he wants him to return to Egypt to do so. Moses initially declines but after some persuasive miracles, he and his brother Aaron return to Egypt. While back is Egypt Moses confront the Pharaoh and turns his staff into a snake, but the Pharaoh is not impressed and initiates the 10 plagues; water to blood, frogs, gnats, flies, disease to livestock, boils, thunder and hail, locusts, darkness, and death of the first born. These plagues are what we hear about in the story of “Passover”. The narrative continues with Moses parting the sea and the drowning of the Egyptian army, and with food from Manna. In order for the Israelites to receive this food, they had to follow the 10 commandments set forth by God. The 10 commandments set the laws that address general practices, as well as guidance on sacrifices, worship, property and justice. A covenant between God and the people are made, but it is broken when they begin to worship an idol; a golden calf. Angered, God tells Moses of his plans to destroy the people, but Moses reminds God of his covenant with the people, and the people renew their faith and covenant in God by building a tabernacle just the way God instructed.

Leviticus
Leviticus like the previous two books is a narrative, however, it also shares a genre of laws. It starts with God appearing to Moses in the Tent of Meeting at Mount Sinai, and he is giving specific instructions for laws pertaining to the Jewish Ceremonies, and how and when they should be presented to him. The unique thing about this text is that God is speaking himself. In these instructions God states that anyone that is bringing an offering, they should slaughter a sheep, bull, bird or a goat, and a priest shall set fire to it. God appears at the altar in a big pile of flames when Aaron and his sons are becoming anointed as Israel’s priests. Two of Aaron’s sons Nadab and Abihu, do not prepare a proper offering, and God sends fire to kill them. Throughout the book of Leviticus, more laws are set in place that must be followed. Most of these laws give specific guidelines for sexual actions (i.e. do not have sex with your neighbors wife), and others give specific orders on what food can be ate (i.e. any animal with a hoof that chews cud, and does not touch a dead carcass.) God informs us that these amongst other things make a person unclean and anyone whom is unclean must undergo a physical cleansing or be exiled. All of the sexual sins were punishable by death, and anyone who committed blasphemes or cursed the Lord, or anyone with leprosy would be banished and forced to live in exile outside of the Israelite camp. To sum up the rest of Leviticus, God states that once a year, an annual day of atonement, where a priest (Aaron) will make a sacrifice for forgiveness for the entire camp. If all of these things are done, God will bless the