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Protestant Apologetics

Exodus 12:38

OT Law
Exodus 12:38
38And a mixed multitude also went up with them, along with great droves of livestock, both flocks and herds.
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JW Usage

The Watchtower typically reads the Exodus narrative as establishing a strict covenant boundary around ethnic Israel, which supports the two-class framework for the new covenant: only spiritual Israel (the 144,000) are parties; the Great Crowd, like OT alien residents, are merely beneficiaries.

Protestant Usage

opens a quiet hole in the "strict ethnic boundary" reading. "And a vast mixed company also went up with them, as well as flocks and herds, a very large amount of livestock." Non- Israelites — Egyptians, other nationalities, the slave-class of empire — walked out of Egypt with Israel under the Passover blood. The exodus itself was not a single-nation event. And verse 48 makes the implication explicit: foreigners circumcised to covenant were to participate in Passover equally. The OT boundary was more permeable than the "only spiritual Israel" reading requires. then says the new covenant is a better covenant — not a more restrictive one. And describes its scope: "from the least of them to the greatest." The "mixed company" of the first exodus is the template for the "great multitude out of every nation" of Revelation 7 — one people redeemed by one Passover blood, not a two-tier salvation.