The so-called exodus of the Jews from Egypt is described in the Second Book of Moses. It says that once a group of Jewish nomads - about 70 people - in distress due to a prolonged drought, turned to the Egyptian pharaoh with a request to allow their cattle to graze in the Nile Delta in the meadows of the land of Goshen.
The hospitable pharaoh let them into his lands, and out of politeness did not even stipulate the length of stay of the "guests". They say, live as long as you want. Alien nomads took advantage of this invitation, so to speak, to the fullest. They stayed in the land of Egypt for 430 years.
But it all ends someday. Pharaoh's patience was also over. The next ruler of Egypt, fearing that the "guests" would not hit him in the back in the event of an attack by external enemies, began to oppress them.
The Jews realized that it was time for them to leave. However, the pharaoh also opposed this - he did not smile at all that people who were well acquainted with the orders of the Egyptian state, leaving it, then united with the opponents of the pharaoh and returned again as conquerors.
The litigation required a lot of time and effort, until, finally, Pharaoh, terrified by ten Egyptian executions, agreed to let the Jews and their leader Moses go to all four sides.
But then “the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and he pursued the children of Israel” …
And since, as it is said in the same Bible, in this case it was important for the Almighty to prove his superiority over everyone, he immediately switched over to the other side and decided that “I … will show My glory on Pharaoh and on all his army; and the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord."
Promotional video:
As a result, the wonders of irrigation were demonstrated. First, the sea parted and let the people of Israel pass, and then it closed again and "covered the chariots and horsemen of the entire army of Pharaoh … and not one of them remained."
It would seem like a miracle of wonders, but current researchers believe that under some meteorological conditions a strong wind could drive the water away from the coast for some time. But as soon as the wind died down, the sea returned to its original boundaries.
Therefore, it is not surprising that historians have been able to calculate an almost exact date when the exodus took place. This happened in 538 BC, when the Persian king Cyrus allowed the Jews, who were driven away in 587 BC. into Babylonian captivity by the Assyrian king Nebuchadnezzar, to return to his homeland - to Palestine.
But if this is so, I should probably find a rational explanation and the riddle of the ten deadly sins … Epidemiologists from the University of Connecticut (USA) are convinced that they managed to explain all 10 Egyptian executions without any mysticism.
In the biblical book "Exodus" events are set out accurately and consistently, scientists say. You just need to interpret them correctly. Moses and Aaron ask to let their people go. But Pharaoh doesn't want to hear about it.
Then Aaron lifts the rod and strikes the river water with it. And the water in the river turns to blood. “And the fish in the river died out, and the river stank, and the Egyptians could not drink the water from the river; and there was blood throughout all the land of Egypt."
This was the first execution. But Pharaoh was not impressed by it, and he does not heed the requests of the Israelites. And then God sends a second plague on the Egyptians - the whole river revived with frogs, which began to enter houses, and in bed, and in the oven, and into the dough.
Both executions are connected with each other, the researchers believe, the second follows from the first. And both are easily explained by natural causes. The bloody water in the river is a well-known microalgae, really dangerous for all living things. They suck oxygen out of the water and release poison that kills all living things.
The fish had nowhere to go, they died and began to stink. Amphibians, including frogs and toads, crawled out of the river and spread throughout the surroundings in search of other water, because without it they too would have died. So they climbed anywhere, including into the dough.
Seeing all this, the frightened Pharaoh ordered Aaron to remove the frogs. Then he, they say, will let the people of Israel go. Aaron stretched out his rod, the toads died out. But Pharaoh did not fulfill his promise.
Then the Lord sent myriads of midges on people and cattle. “This is to be expected,” the researchers say. "The midges multiplied among the decaying toad remains …"
Moreover, there is one detail in the Bible by which you can determine exactly what kind of midges they were. When Aaron struck the earth with his rod, the dust turned into midges.
“There is no doubt,” says Professor M. Mar, “that we are talking here about midges of the species of kulikoids. These are unusually evil little mosquitoes that lay eggs in the dust. And their larvae feed on the mineral remains of decaying organisms.
There were other insects of the same origin, which in the Bible are called dog flies. That was the fourth plague, and after it, since the pharaoh resisted everything, the fifth followed - the pestilence killed all the cattle.
Dr. Mar rummaged through all the reference books in search of a disease that would be carried by the culicoid mosquitoes. And I even found two of them - African equine disease and "blue tongue" - a serious viral disease that affects the circulatory system in sheep and cattle.
Egyptian cattle died from these diseases. The Israelite survived, but not because the Lord so wanted, but simply he grazed in another place, and the infection was not transmitted to him. The land of Hessem was located 150 km from the land of the pharaoh, and the mosquitoes on their tiny wings simply could not cover such a distance.
As the pharaoh continued to be stubborn, his state was attacked by the sixth execution, which was an inflammation with abscesses that struck the remaining cattle, and then spread to people.
“It was a glanders well-known to everyone,” the researchers believe. - This infectious disease can be obtained from flies, carriers of microbes, and from dirty water or food. Glanders were first described by Aristotle in 330 BC. He was known in those days and earlier in the Middle East and Africa."
The seventh execution is not connected with the previous ones. But there is nothing supernatural about her either. The hail, which has beaten the crops, from time to time falls on the ground to this day. Moreover, the Bible contains an interesting detail - the hail broke only the early crops, which managed to drive out the ears. Late crops, which had just hatched out of the ground, were practically not affected by the hail. So, the laws of nature are not violated here either.
The next, eighth execution - an invasion of locusts that destroyed the crops that survived the hail. In it, too, there is nothing so unusual - locusts to this day fly to the southern lands, bringing considerable losses to farmers.
The ninth execution is a thick darkness that lasted three days throughout the land of Egypt. Scientists suggested that the Egyptian darkness could be caused by a grandiose explosion of a volcano somewhere nearby, say, on the island of Santorini in the Aegean Sea.
The explosion actually took place 3500 years ago and covered the entire eastern Mediterranean with fine ash. However, Mar suggests a different explanation - a sandstorm. It is this darkness that is mentioned in the ancient papyrus dating back to that time.
It remains, therefore, to explain only the tenth execution - the death of all the firstborn from the son of Pharaoh to the son of a slave - and all the original cattle. Researchers are taking on this task as well. They recall the sudden death of eight children in Cleveland a few years ago. The children died because a black poisonous fungus had grown in the damp basement of their house.
A similar incident could have occurred in Egypt. Hungry for three days, people made their way to the barns, and the fungus, which had multiplied during this time in the darkness, was already waiting for them there. He struck first of all the weakest - babies, and, of course, not only the firstborn. This is already human rumor, the legend has highlighted such a feature.
However, can so many troubles befall one state in a relatively short period of time?
It turns out that there is historical evidence of this. The old Russian word "povetrie" directly indicates the connection between natural disasters and epidemics. It is the winds that carry microbes and other pathogens.
Let's say in the 5th century BC. in Africa, plagues raged, accompanied by earthquakes and floods, as well as droughts. "All the forces of the world united then against man," wrote Fogdit about this. The year 427 was especially difficult, when volcanoes revived on the islands in the Aegean Sea, causing a tsunami on the sea and flooding the entire coast with water. And in Athens, many houses collapsed from fluctuations in the soil.
In general, if desired, all ten Egyptian executions and other similar incidents can be explained without the help of the Lord. However, this does not mean at all that he has nothing to do with it. After all, all these calamities could be, according to the same Bible, sent to them.