Statesmanship & Founding

Readings:

• Xenophon, The Education of Cyrus, Book 1; Book 2, Chs. 1–2

Discussion Questions:

1. What did Cyrus learn from his education in Persia? And in Medea?
2. What are the strengths and weaknesses of each of the two different political systems in Persia and Medea?
3. What are Cyrus’s greatest skills as a leader?
4. At different times, we see Cyrus’s mom and his dad each worried about Cyrus. Are they right to be worried in this way, or are they being too cautious?

Readings:

• Xenophon, The Education of Cyrus, Book 2, Chs. 3–4; Book 3; Book 4, Chs. 1–2

Discussion Questions:

1. Do you agree with the way that Cyrus treats the Armenians?
2. What qualities in Cyrus have allowed him to succeed so well so far? How has he won the loyalty of his men?
3. At the end of this reading, Cyrus has already achieved the stated goals of his military campaign, but he is nonetheless preparing to carry it further. Is he justified in doing so?

Readings:

• Xenophon, The Education of Cyrus, Book 4, Chs. 3–6; Book 5

Discussion Questions:

1. How does Cyrus win the loyalty of the deserting Assyrian noblemen Gobryas and Gadatas?
2. We have now seen Cyrus make several statements about his own motivations and concerns. Are these statements honest, or are they manipulative? What do you think Cyrus’s motivations are?
3. Is Cyaxares justified in his criticisms of how Cyrus has treated him?
4. What, if anything, makes Cyrus a different kind of person from the various other characters we meet in this story?

Readings:

• Xenophon, The Education of Cyrus, Books 6 and 7

Discussion Questions:

1. Does the (spoiler alert) tragic end of Panthea and Abradatas result from any mistakes made by them and/or by Cyrus? Should their story affect how we evaluate Cyrus’s leadership?
2. How would you have evaluated Cyrus’s overall leadership if either of the two big battles (depicted in this reading) had happened to end unsuccessfully?
3. What are the similarities and differences (if any) between the human qualities that Cyrus and his Persians needed in order to win their empire, and the human qualities that they will need in order to maintain it?

Readings:

• Xenophon, The Education of Cyrus, Book 8

Discussion Questions:

1. Is Cyrus as good a king in peacetime as he is a general in wartime?
2. Does Cyrus’s life end well?
3. To what extent, if at all, should we blame Cyrus himself for the way the Persian Empire degenerated after his death?

General Questions:

We will return to these questions repeatedly in our discussions. Please consider them carefully.

• Why did God choose to make His nation out of an enslaved people, assuming he could have done otherwise?
• In Exodus, Pharaonic Egypt represents the fundamental alternative to the Hebrew republic. This story of the birth of a free and flourishing people from the womb of a technically advanced despotism has never felt more potent and hopeful than now. What are the distinctive characteristics of these two antithetical regimes (politeiai, in Greek), or ways of life?
• How does Moses acquire on-the-job training as a leader? What has he learned over the course of the readings assigned for each session?

Readings:

• Exodus, Chs. 1–6

Discussion Questions:

1. What does the fact that the Israelites “were fruitful and swarmed and multiplied”—even in the face of abuse—suggest about them? What do Pharaoh’s “shrewd” responses to this situation, including birth control, tell us about him—and about Egypt? Is it relevant that the five people who resist Pharaoh’s orders in Chs. 1 and 2 are all women?
2. Does Ch. 2’s echoes of the Creation and Flood stories in Genesis shed light on the significance of what is happening in Egypt? Why don’t the Israelites cry out to God in Ch. 2? What do we learn about God in this chapter?
3. How would Moses’ experience and education in Pharaoh’s court have differed from that of his Israelite kin? Is he in some ways more Egyptian than Hebrew? What does his behavior in Egypt and Midian reveal about his character?
4. What is suggested about Moses by the names he gives his sons (cf. 18:4)? Is it significant that he is now a lowly shepherd?
5. What might it say about Moses that he drives his flock so far into the wilderness? What do we learn about him through his encounter with the burning bush? What does he learn about God and His plan for the Israelites? Why does Moses want to know God’s name, and what does God’s response imply about Him?
6. Why is Moses so hesitant to obey God in Ch. 4? Why does Moses complain that he isn’t a good speaker? What more do we learn about God in this chapter?
7. Why will Moses need to use signs and wonders to win over the Israelite elders in Ch. 4? Is it relevant that he doesn’t scrupulously follow God’s instructions in speaking to Pharaoh in Ch. 5? Why wouldn’t Pharaoh agree to let the Israelites sacrifice to the God who has just announced Himself to them?
8. Is the accusation of the Israelite overseers at 5:21 a just one? What political problem does it anticipate? Why does Moses turn it into an accusation against God? What does he still have to learn in order to become an effective leader?
9. What new information does God communicate to Moses in his opening declaration at 6:2–8? Why aren’t the Israelites encouraged by that declaration?
10. What does “uncircumcised of lips” imply (6:12; cf. Gen. 17:10–11)?

Readings:

• Exodus, Chs. 7–15

Discussion Questions:

1. What does it mean that God “hardens” Pharaoh’s heart? To what extent is Pharaoh responsible for his stubborn resistance to Moses? He persists in his resistance as the plagues destroy Egypt: does this show that he lacks power, or does it confirm his extraordinary power—or both?
2. What is implied by the Egyptian magicians’ (ultimately unsuccessful) imitations of the plagues? Alter notes that the ten plagues collectively reverse the Creation. Might this reversal serve, among other things, to illuminate the aspirations of Egyptian civilization?
3. In Ch. 9, what reason does God give for sending his plagues? Does the story of Babel in Gen. 11 illuminate what is going on here? What does God reveal to Moses in Ch. 10 about his purposes in inflicting the plagues? How do the plagues in these chapters advance God’s aims?
4. What powers does God demonstrate in and through the series of plagues? What is meant by “a darkness one can feel” (10:21)? What does it mean that the Israelites enjoy light while the Egyptians are in darkness? What does Pharaoh’s warning at 10:28 imply?
5. Why would the Egyptians lend valuable ornaments to the Israelite women (cf. 3:22)? How might the tenth and last plague furnish a negative example of the egalitarianism of the Hebrew republic that will be founded at Mount Sinai?
6. What politically foundational work does God accomplish in Ch. 12? What does it mean that “a motley throng also went up with them” (12:38)?
7. How does Moses, in addressing the people in Ch. 13, expand on the theme of memory that God introduced in the previous chapter? Why is memory so important in the Jewish tradition, and how does it differ, in form as well as content, from Egyptian memory?
8. Why does God lead the Israelites out of Egypt the long way? What do the people’s complaints tell us about the work Moses will have to do as their leader?
9. What is the significance of the Egyptians’ final word (14:25)? What does Moses’ decision to lead the Israelites in song at the Sea of Reeds tell us about his leadership?

Readings:

• Exodus, Ch. 16–23

Discussion Questions:

1. What do the Israelites learn about God in Ch. 16? Why does manna that is gathered in excess of the measured amount rot? How does Moses’ interpretation of God’s instruction that the Israelites should gather double on the sixth day connect the people with Him?
2. How do the Israelites manifest their slavishness in Ch. 17? Might Moses’ difficulty in controlling them be partly his fault? What will they need in order to transcend their slavishness? Do they and Moses make any progress in doing so in this chapter?
3. What is the significance of Amalek for the emerging Hebrew republic? How does the business of Moses’ raising and lowering his hands convey the ambiguity of God’s involvement in human affairs?
4. What is significant about Jethro’s response to the achievement of the Israelites? Why are the reforms he introduces so necessary for the health of the community?
5. Why must Moses repeatedly go up to God and down to the people in the course of the giving of the Law? (Are there analogies in the Greek philosophical tradition?) What do the Israelites learn about their potential from God’s promises at 19:5–6? How would they be inclined to understand a “kingdom of priests”?
6. What is a covenant, and how does it differ from a contract? What does it mean that the people agree to God’s covenant before they know its terms?
7. Why does God set lethal boundaries around the mountain? Is his deadly, unapproachable power essential to the meaning of the sacred? Is it necessary for the authority of the Law? In general, why does God employ awesome pyrotechnics in giving the Law at Sinai?
8. How do the “Ten Commandments” establish the defining principles of a new way of life for the Israelites? Is it significant that God communicates His commandments in the second-person singular? Why does God begin with idolatry? What do we learn about Him at 20:5–6?
9. What astonishing new deal does God offer the Israelites in the commandment to keep the sabbath? (Carefully consider 20:8–11.) Why is the commandment to honor one’s parents especially important for the Hebrew republic?
10. Why do the ordinances of Chs. 21–23 begin with laws regarding slavery? How do these ordinances differ in scope and aim from contemporary American law? In what ways do they serve an educational function as well as a regulative one?

Readings:

• Exodus, Chs. 24–32

Discussion Questions:

1. In Ch. 24, why does Moses, on his own, engage in a bloody act of sacrifice for “the people”? What is behind the human desire to sacrifice to God or the gods? How does blood sacrifice as a way of connecting with God differ from the way of “the elders,” and from that of Moses?
2. Why does the Bible talk about the Tabernacle at such length? Why is it important that God “abide in [the] midst of the Israelites” (25:8; cf. 29:45–46)? How will the Tabernacle accomplish that goal?
3. Why is it important that the people themselves build the Tabernacle and furnish the materials for it by donation? Will that work change them in some important ways? Where did the Israelite slaves obtain the materials to make the Tabernacle?
4. The Israelites will march, arranged by tribe, surrounding the Tabernacle (Numbers 2), at the center of which is the Holy of Holies, where the Ark is located and where God will speak with Moses. Why does God want the tablets of the Covenant to be placed in the Ark, at the physical, political, and spiritual center of the nation? How do the other arks we have encountered in the Bible (Gen. 7, Exodus 2) inform our understanding of this one? What is the theological and political significance of an inner sanctum where trespass incurs death?
5. Why does God tell Moses to install Aaron and his sons (rather than some others) as the first of what will become a sacerdotal caste of priests? Why must they wear lavish garments, made by the people (28:1–3, 41)?
6. If the Tabernacle is consecrated by sacrificial rituals (cf. 29:36), why does God say that it is consecrated “through My glory” (29:43)? Can you explain this contradiction?
7. Why is the story of the Golden Calf inserted in between the chapters dealing with God’s plan for the Tabernacle and the making of the Tabernacle by the Israelites?
8. Why do the Israelites compel Aaron to make them “gods”—and why does Aaron comply? Why do they not heed God’s clear warnings against idolatry? What is the meaning of the Golden Calf for the Israelite mob? (Why is it gold, why is it a calf?) Does Aaron show some special understanding in fashioning this god for them? Is it relevant that the mob engages in a bacchanalian and orgiastic celebration following the making of the Calf?

Readings:

• Exodus 32–40
• Joshua Mitchell, “Wither the Reformation in America?”, American Reformer, March 27, 2026

Discussion Questions:

1. How do Moses’ speech in convincing God to refrain from destroying the people, and his later pleas on their behalf (32:9–14, 31–32) show his growth as a leader? God says he will wipe the offenders from “My book.” Why a book—and what is this book?
2. What does Moses’ reply to Joshua at 32:18 suggest about the condition of the people? What does Moses’ smashing the tablets indicate about the political situation he faces? Why does he melt the Calf, grind it up, and make the people drink the water on which the gold dust is scattered?
3. Was Moses’ violent and indiscriminate punishment of the people really necessary? Could he have found some way to separate the guilty from the innocent? What did he accomplish by having “each man kill his brother and each man his fellow and each man his kin”?
4. Why does Moses want to see God’s “glory”? God chooses instead to show his “goodness.” In what does that goodness consist (cf. 34:6–7)? What does it mean that God will show Moses only His back—not His face—as he passes by?
5. Why does Moses’ face glow after speaking with God? Why does he veil his face in between his meetings with God? Is this an act of political restraint?
6. God warns the Israelites against “whoring” after other gods (34:12–17)? What does this suggest about God’s understanding of idolatry, and how he hopes the Israelites will relate to Him? Is there an analogy in the philosophical tradition?
7. What does Exodus teach us about why we need God to enter into human existence? In what sense does human history start with this act? Are we incomplete without God? (Is God incomplete without us?) What essential pillars of a decent and elevated life are revealed in Exodus?
8. The Israelites have a moral/spiritual/political mission before they have the conditions of political life, including a land, an economy, an army. What larger lessons can all people—not just the Jews—learn from this fact?
9. Ben Franklin and Thomas Jefferson argued about which episode from Exodus should be depicted on the National Seal (in the end, neither won out). What does Joshua Mitchell’s article reveal about the importance of Exodus—in the form of “Hebraic Christianity”—to the historical self-understanding of Americans? In what ways does idolatry, as dramatized and depicted in Exodus (although not necessarily as seen from the strict perspective of the Hebrew Bible), appear in the story Mitchell tells in his article?