THE REFORMATION ROLLS ON:

"No biblical narrative has been more important in US history than the Exodus," writes Stephen Prothero, a scholar of religion and history at Boston University. "In fact, the Exodus story may be the American story -- the narrative Americans tell themselves to make sense of their history, identity, and destiny."

After the Second Continental Congress voted, on July 4, 1776, to approve the final text of the Declaration of Independence, it moved to its next order of business: the designation of an official national emblem. A committee comprising Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson was named "to bring in a device for a seal for the United States of America." Two of them proposed images drawn directly from the Passover story.

Franklin focused on a scene described in Exodus 14. According to his notes, which are in the Library of Congress, he suggested a seal showing "Moses standing on the Shore, and extending his Hand over the Sea, thereby causing the same to overwhelm Pharaoh who is sitting in an open Chariot, a Crown on his Head and a Sword in his Hand. Rays from a Pillar of Fire in the Clouds reaching to Moses, to express that he acts by Command of the Deity." To accompany that image, Franklin drafted a motto: "Rebellion to Tyrants is obedience to God."

Jefferson had a different notion, one inspired by an earlier passage in Exodus. Adams, in a letter to his wife, Abigail, recorded that Jefferson's idea was for a seal showing "the Children of Israel in the Wilderness, led by a Cloud by day, and a Pillar of Fire by night."

Time and again, Americans caught up in great causes invoked the Exodus account of the Jews' redemption from Egypt. To abolitionists and enslaved Africans in the South, the Passover story could not have been more relevant. Harriet Tubman, who personified the heroism of the Underground Railroad, was reverently called "Moses" by her admirers and followers. In aching spirituals like "Go Down, Moses," Black Americans identified their experience with that of the Jews in Egypt and with the biblical assurance that deliverance would come.

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