The Kernel

In the earliest version of the Five Books of Moses we discover that Abraham may actually have sacrificed Isaac, or that Jacob may have had only seven sons instead of twelve. Without these tools, there would be no way for us to know that the Israelites’ sojourn in Egypt lasted only a few generations, not 430 years, and that when they escaped from Egypt, they numbered just 3,000, not 3,000,000. We would not know that according to the original story, the ancient Israelites escaped from Egypt immediately after the plague of darkness, or that only seven commandments were given at Mount Sinai, not ten.