God's punishment, by definition, should be a hundred times more sophisticated and more terrible than any execution invented by people. Earthly rulers could execute hundreds, thousands of people, and heavenly rulers could execute entire nations. This is exactly what the Almighty did in relation to the Egyptians when their Pharaoh refused to let the Jews out of Egypt.
However, scientists doubt that the terrible troubles that befell Egypt were caused by the will of heaven, and explain them completely earthly reasons.
According to the biblical Book of Exodus, the ancient Israelites suffered under the yoke of the Egyptian Pharaoh and did not know how to get out of him. And then the Lord appeared to Moses in the form of a burning bush (a flaming thorn bush) and commanded him to free his people from slavery and lead them to the Promised Land. Moses and his brother Aaron came to Pharaoh and demanded in the name of the Lord to release the Jews from Egypt. Pharaoh had his own gods, whom he worshiped, so he only laughed at the threat of punishment from some Christian God. And he refused the petitioners. Found a scythe on a stone. The Christian God sent 10 terrible executions on the Egyptian people before Pharaoh yielded to him.
The secret of the papyrus
Modern scientists have not only established that the disasters that befell Egypt are not fiction, but also found out when they happened. Thanks to the translation of an ancient papyrus written by an Egyptian named Ipuver and kept in the Leiden Museum in Holland, it was established that the Egyptian executions took place during the reign of Pharaoh Ramses II and his son Merneptah.
But the main thing is that scientists have proved that they were caused by completely natural reasons. A group of climatologists who studied the weather conditions of antiquity found that under Ramses II, there was a sharp change in climate from warm and humid to cold and dry, which could lead to a number of natural disasters.
First, in front of Pharaoh's eyes, "the water in the river turned to blood, and the fish in the river died out, and the river stank." But Pharaoh decided that the reason for this was not the punishment of the Lord, but only witchcraft, and did not let the Jews go. In the Book of Exodus, the Egyptian Magi Jan-ny and Jambres were the bad counselors who proved to Pharaoh that the troubles that befell Egypt were not the wrath of God, but witchcraft.
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Modern scholars are sure that the case was done without witchcraft. One of the types of cyanobacteria, when dying, stains the water red and lowers the oxygen level, which is why everything in the water dies and it becomes unfit for drinking.
The second execution is associated with the invasion of toads: "The frogs came out and covered the land of Egypt." Moreover, they did not just go out, but acted as promised to Pharaoh: “They will go out and enter into your house, and into your bedroom, and onto your bed, and into the houses of your servants and your people, and into your ovens, and into your pastries. yours. " Scientists justified this by the fact that after a lack of oxygen was formed in the Nile due to cyanobacteria, the tadpoles' survival system was activated. Their thyroid gland secreted a large amount of growth hormones, and the tadpoles turned into frogs twice as fast. This led to the invasion of frogs.
Another execution was associated with a large number of gnats: "All the dust of the earth became gnats throughout the land of Egypt." The Magi retreated and asked Pharaoh to release the Jews to all four sides, but he remained adamant.
Spawned frogs could not feed themselves and died, even earlier because of cyanobacteria the fish died. As a result, in the absence of natural enemies, midges began to multiply intensively. And right there it says: "A multitude of hound flies flew into the house of Pharaohs, and into the houses of his servants, and all over the land of Egypt: the land was destroyed by the fly flies."
Who these fly dogs were is not known for certain. It is generally accepted that these were insects that combined the properties of flies and dogs. They flew like flies, but attacked with dog fury. Most likely, the dogflies were meant gadflies.
Their invasion was due to the same reasons as the massive attacks of midges on people and animals. Moreover, in some sources, midges and flies acted together during the third execution, and the fourth execution was the invasion of wild animals and birds of prey that tried to enter the homes of the Egyptians and did not allow them to go out into the street.
Continued misery
In the list of Egyptian executions, it is also mentioned that the livestock that were in the field died out among all Egyptians, only the Jews did not touch the attack. This can be explained quite simply: the livestock pestilence was caused by the invasion of midges and dog flies, carriers of diseases. Along with this, there is also a mention of how the bodies of the Egyptians and their animals were covered with terrible ulcers and abscesses. But here, too, this was due to skin diseases in humans, which were also caused by the bites of midges and dog flies.
The seventh Egyptian execution was hail. It is said about it this way: "And the hail struck in all the land of Egypt everything that was in the field, from man to cattle, and the hail destroyed all the grass of the field, and broke all the trees in the field."
Scientists believe that the culprit for this trouble was the eruption of the Santorini volcano in the Mediterranean Sea, when a huge cloud of dust was blown towards Egypt. Water, combining with particles of volcanic dust, turned into hailstones, which fell to the ground.
It is not surprising that soon after this the locust overpowered the country, “And the locusts attacked all the land of Egypt and lay down throughout the land of Egypt in great multitudes … and ate all the grass of the earth and all the fruit of the tree that had survived the hail, and there was no greenery left on the trees nor on the grass of the field in all the land of Egypt,”the Bible says about it.
Locusts are known to love the humid atmosphere they need to lay their eggs. Therefore, it is not surprising that after a rain of hail, she rushed to Egypt.
The following execution became a proverb: “There was thick darkness throughout the land of Egypt for three days; they did not see each other, and no one got up from their place for three days."
During excavations in Avaris (Egypt), stones of solidified lava, similar to pumice, were found. And the scientist Max Bichler proved that these stones are from a volcano on the island of Santorini. So after the eruption of this volcano, dust and ash could well have covered the sun for three days.
The death of the firstborn
The death of Egyptian children - the eldest sons in the family - can also be explained by completely material reasons. This is stated as follows: "At midnight the Lord smote all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh, who sat on his throne, to the firstborn of the prisoner who was in prison, and all the firstborn of livestock."
Scientists explained this by natural reasons, namely, the effect on the firstborn of the toxins of the fungus Stachyborys atra, which got into the granaries from the excrement of the locust and bred in the upper layer of grain reserves. From the toxins of this fungus, a strong poison was formed - mycotoxin.
According to Egyptian tradition, the eldest sons ate first and received a double portion. And among the livestock, the strongest older animal usually makes its way to the feeder. As a result, the firstborn among humans and livestock were the first to be poisoned.
All ten plagues look terrible, but the tenth surpasses them all in sophistication. Moreover, in some way it resembles St. Bartholomew's Night. According to legend, the Lord commanded every Jewish family to slaughter a lamb, mark the entrances to their houses with blood and feast at home all night.
The only difference from St. Bartholomew's Night is that the Jews marked their houses with crosses, and not the houses of supporters of another religion, and did not kill with their own hands. At night, the angel of death came down to earth and went through Egypt, killing the first child in every family whose house was not marked with blood. Including the heir of the pharaoh was killed by him.
After that, the pharaoh surrendered - he allowed the Jews to leave Egypt, taking all their property. The actual Exodus began. According to experts, more than three million Jews left Egypt. Moses led them to the Promised Land, which turned out to be Palestine. And in memory of the feast during the tenth Egyptian execution, which preceded the liberation from slavery, the holiday of Pesach was established (from the word "pesach" - bypass, bypass).
Oleg LOGINOV
