August 03, 2007

The Ten Plagues of Egypt : A Scientific Approach.

Have you ever thought as to how exactly did the plagues of Egypt originate? The incident occurred around 4000 - 5000 years ago. Archeology can barely find evidence of the Great Exodus of the Children of Israel. Scientists have now found out means of explaining the 10 plagues of Egypt and the crossing of the Red Sea.

The ten plagues of Egypt followed kind of in a continuous sequence each as a consequence of the earlier. Pharaoh had commanded all the male children born to the Jews to be destroyed and cast into the river Nile. This could have resulted into extreme contamination of the river resulting into the death of many fishes too. This could be the reason for the river turning into blood all of a sudden. This incident could have forced the frogs from the river to come out of the river and hence lead to thousands of frogs pestering the Egyptians. The next two plagues could have been to the mysterious death of all the frogs. The plague of the lice and the plague of the swarm of flies would have been responsible for the next two plagues i.e. the sudden death of all the livestock of the Egyptians and the plagues of the grievous boils on the Egyptians. Since insects are an excellent carrier of diseases, it could have resulted in the quick spreading of the disease.These were just one phase of the ten plagues. Six done...four more to go. The Lord then sent heavy hailstones followed by a plague of locust that devoured everything organic on the land and then followed by complete darkness for which some experts do comment that it could have been due to a great sandstorm. Well the tenth plague is one the most baffling one. Only the firstborn of the Egyptians died all at once and not even one Israelite was harmed. One of the possible explanations to this is, the 9 plagues that devoured Egypt earlier could have taken a great toll on the Egyptians. The severe hail and darkness can have serious effect on the mental structure of one's body. Egyptian customs insisted that before a famine or a natural calamity the firstborn should be fed twice his normal diet. The Egyptians didn't have any cleanliness rituals as compared to the Jews. All these could have resulted into the death of the firstborns of the Egyptians.

Then came the crossing of the Red Sea. There are four theories to it.

First: It could have just happened the way it is written in the Bible..i.e. a strong east wind came and separated the Red sea. scientifically proved that such kind of a thing can happen. But the kind of weird thing in this theory is the strong wind...never was such a strong wind seen before.

Second: A possible tsunami could have receded the water making a pathway for the Israelites to pass through. but the weird part of this theory is the exact timing of the tsunamis. They hit the shores as soon as the Israelites crossed the waters....!!!

Third: A possible volcano could have created a temporary pathway for the Israelites to pass through.

Fourth: The English Bibles misinterpret the Sea as the Red Sea....but it is actually the Reed sea...such a sea could be a lake or a shallow river bed making it possible for the Israelites to pass through.

Other questions that arise are, 'why did Pharaoh harden his heart?' , 'How many people actually left Egypt?' , 'Did Pharaoh really release the Israelites or did they flee?'

Egypt was one of the most advanced countries during that times. Pharaoh could have had a number of scholars advising him from time to time about the plagues of Egypt and giving him a scientific explanation to those events. Taht is why he could have hardened his heart.

The number of people that actually left Egypt in the original translations are written as 600 'elphs' (if I am right??). An 'elph' could mean 'a thousand' or 'a clan'. the word could have been misinterpreted as 'a thousand'. Archaeologists states that if there were truly 600 thousand people, there would have been remains left behind in their footsteps. but to date, no such evidence was obtained.

Egypt was constantly under pressure to a strong Mediterranean group that threatened Egypt and warred with Egypt during the times of the plagues. This greatly could have weakened Egypt due to which the Israelites could have possibly escaped.

The 10 plagues of Egypt are one of the most baffling incidents in science. Though science cannot give that convincing explanations to the events but they help us to look at the plagues of Egypt in a different way and well for me, it makes me once again think of God's greatness and omniscience.

17 comments:

  1. The info for this I got form National Geographic channel.....It had come in the television on the 2nd of August.
    Hope its good enough...you can also check out other stuff on "the riddles of the bible" on NatGeo....

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  2. as far as the theory about the isrealites crossing the Reed Sea instead of the Red Sea. I honestly believe that is bogus. If one is to believe that said crossing actually happened then you would invariably have to believe the part about the Egyptians drowning after running in after them. How would they have drown in shallow waters that the people they were persuing supposedly just strolled through? As for the Bible misprinting Reed Sea as Red sea: easily disproved by the fact that the account was originally written in Hebrew and not English so such a misprint wouldn't have happened because the word for Reed in Hebrew is not even close to the word for Red. I don't know, sounds pretty common sensical to me.

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  3. the killing of the male israelite babies and the turning of the red sea into blood is separated by decades. didn't happen one after the other

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  4. agreed...!

    I'm not claiming that this theory or scientific approach is right...
    I'm just trying to put out another view, that which others claim as a possible explanation of the Ten
    Plagues.

    Nice to see you reply. Keep in touch. :)

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  5. In 1400 B.C., a group of nervous Egyptians saw the Nile turn red. But what they thought was blood was actually an algae bloom which killed the fish, which prior to that had been living off the eggs of frogs. Those uneaten eggs turned into record numbers of baby frogs who subsequently fled to the land and died. Their little rotting frog bodies attracted lice and flies. The lice carried the bluetongue virus, which killed 70% of Egypt's livestock. The flies carried glanders, a bacterial infection which in humans causes boils. Soon afterwards, the Nile River Valley was hit with a three-day sandstorm otherwise known as the plague of darkness. During the sandstorm, intense heat can combine with an approaching cold front to create not only hail, but also electrical storms which would have looked to the ancient Egyptians like fire from the sky. The subsequent wind would have blown the Ethiopian locust population off course and right into downtown Cairo. Hail is wet, locusts leave droppings spread both on grain, and you have got mycotoxins. Dinnertime in ancient Egypt meant the first-born child got the biggest portion which in this case meant he ate the most toxins, so he died. Ten plagues. Ten scientific explanations.

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    1. Did you literally copy this from the movie "The Reaping" wow. Good job must have taken forever.

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  6. Dear Anonymous

    You seem to have explained pretty much everything. I have a question for you though, how is that that the Isralites children were spared since these were plagues happening across Egypt. Is there historical evidence supporting the toxins theory? I mean, I'm pretty sure other people would have been affected even if they did not die. The exodus is not explained. How is it that the Egyptians drowned soon after the Isralites had crossed?

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  7. hahahahahah thi is soooooo funny

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  8. The Pharaoh wanted to kill all the male babies who were born that time. And Moses was born that time but his mother put him in a basket and sent him flowing in the nile river. And so the princess of Egypt took him as his own son.

    Moses liberated the Israelites when he was already old.

    The bible said that all first borns are to die whether they are old or young or even an animal.

    And if the english bible misinterpret the "Reed sea" as Red sea. Why does the bible state that: "After the Israelites crossed the sea, the water came back and drowned all the Egyptians who came after them."

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  9. Kids what you seem to have misunderstood is.. Thai god made these plages so that it would look like miracles not like scientific bool shit.. If it was so normal to have all of these happen one after the other.. Why did it happen straight after moshe spoke to pharow?? N just to burst your lil bubble of misbelief, and your devil Arab worshipers who disprove miracles - all the plages happen in different stages of time.. The first plage continued till the last one! N the second one lasted a month., some say there were a few stages in the darkness plage and it too lasted about a month.. N it's obvious theres no scientific proof to any of the plages.. Because the Torah ( the Jewish bible wich is king to all other bibles.. "new testament" , "Koran") has a whole different order, and if I'm not mistaken the plages are different too! (the Torah is about the Israelites.. So they probably know best;) so next anyone wants to give scientific reasons about holy historical facts/miracles.... THINK AGAIN!!!!!

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  10. The anonymous person who had ten scientific explanations for ten plagues, are you aware that quoting a movie without referencing is kind of wrong?

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  11. God set it up like that. God is the ultimate scientist.

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  12. god is the greaat one.

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  13. Maybe you should all just realise that as human beings we are all unique, whether that be in looks,race or religion. The fact that you dissaprove all scientifically proven facts show your childish unimaginative beliefs. Im atheist but stull have respect for all religious backgrounds whether that is christian,hindu or even islam. Open your mind for once 'guy with braines' maybe the world might just start looking a little rosier.

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  14. Science is failing changing phenomenon...don't base you r life on it Athiest

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  15. Here it is,although I'm sure I'll be called a demon:The three greatest shams of all time which also happen to be the greatest ponzi schemes of all times are
    religion,insurance,and banking.This is not to say the're unecessary or not,but with religion the burden of prove is always on it's fantastic claims which all come from ancient times when no scientific methods were available(suspiciously convenient as is the bible being devinely inspired).If there is a god he/she gave us a brain and as long as I'm able I will investigate all fantasy sequences.I would rather live in the mystery than accept something unworthy of the sentient creature that I am.God is infinitely larger than any religion or theory.Thank you for this forum!

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  16. Scientists will always look for ways to explain the greatness of God. Always.. From the big bang theory to humans evolving from chimps. But its awesome that not everything can be explained. How come all these happened when it did? coincidence? I think not. So a tsunami blew the sea for the Israelites to pass and then just as the Egyptians were passing, it blew it back and they drowned? Seems the tsunami was in love with the Israelites!!

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