The Ten Plagues

[Kendy]

I am taking a scripture course, and the professor said that all of the plagues could be explained by natural causes. I don’t necessarily have a problem with that but I felt she wanted to strip it of its miraculous nature. Also, she said, that Israelites saw this as God fighting for them, we should not read it this way because, Egyptians are God’s children too. Of course, they are but does that not mean that God allow this to happen? Does anybody have any information about how catholics are to understand this passage?

Kendy

 

[runandsew]

Scott Hahn spoke about this in his audio series, Our Fathers Plan, (you can listen on EWTN radio archives). He said that the plagues were against the Egyptian Gods, They worshipped the Nile, which is turned to bood, they worshipped some frog god, ect. I can’t remember them all, but you might want to listen to this series.

 

[Gottle_of_Geer]

I am taking a scripture course, and the professor said that all of the plagues could be explained by natural causes. I don’t necessarily have a problem with that but I felt she wanted to strip it of its miraculous nature. Also, she said, that Israelites saw this as God fighting for them, we should not read it this way because, Egyptians are God’s children too. Of course, they are but does that not mean that God allow this to happen? Does anybody have any information about how catholics are to understand this passage?

Kendy

Feelings can be very deceptive - including our feelings about other people’s intentions ​

Whether or not the plagues were miraculous in the sense in which Catholic theological discussions (such as those in St. Thomas) understand the concept of miracle, they were regarded as such in the OT - and that is the important point. It is what they were for Israel that matters, not what they are for us.

A mighty act of God on behalf of His people, by which he brings about their liberation from oppression, is a mighty act of that kind, whether or not it can be explained by natural causes. He does not stop being God the Saviour, just because His saving acts can be adequately
accounted for by causes within the power of nature. It is, after all, this saving God, who created nature & all things, and equipped nature with its abilities.

About the Egyptians - she’s not by any means entirely wrong, for God is the creator of all men; but, the Psalms see in the action of God the humiliation of the gods of Egypt. The golden calf, which may owe something to the divine Apis-bull, is ridiculed as “a calf that eateth hay”. By turning the divine Nile to blood, God was humiliating the gods associated with it. By parting the Sea of Reeds with His breath, He was humiliating the god Yamm, who personified the sea. He was not fighting the Egyptians, so much as their gods. The serpent of Moses gobbled up the serpents of the magicians; there is probably a reference to the serpent-gods of Egypt. The plagues, because they are the work of one God, are a clear hint that the one God of the children of Israel is vastly superior to the 2500 or so gods of Egypt.

As well as Exodus, read the Psalms which look back to the Exodus.

Hope that helps ##

 

[Liberian]

Kendy,

While it is easy to claim that the plagues of Egypt could be explained by natural phenomena, it is a much more difficult thing to demonstrate that they were. Depending on how important the subject is to you, you might want to ask the professor for the details of exactly how each plague–as described in Exodus, without changing the text–would have resulted from natural causes.

A professor in Israel a year or two ago explained how Jesus’ walking on water could have a natural explanation. Apparently there is a phenomenon that happens a few times per century in which the water in the Sea of Galilee gets just cold enough that the fresher water (from inflowing streams) freezes while the saltier water (from other streams and in the sea itself) remains liquid. (The Sea of Galilee does not usually freeze at all.) Thus Jesus would have been walking on the ice while the disciples’ boat was in the liquid section. Of course, this explanation neglected the facts that the “ice” was strong enough to support a man, that Peter got out of the boat and walked towards Jesus, and that this happened in the springtime rather than in the dead of winter.

I find that many “natural” explanations leave out important facts like this.

• Liberian

 

[Kendy]

Kendy,

While it is easy to claim that the plagues of Egypt could be explained by natural phenomena, it is a much more difficult thing to demonstrate that they were. Depending on how important the subject is to you, you might want to ask the professor for the details of exactly how each plague–as described in Exodus, without changing the text–would have resulted from natural causes.

A professor in Israel a year or two ago explained how Jesus’ walking on water could have a natural explanation. Apparently there is a phenomenon that happens a few times per century in which the water in the Sea of Galilee gets just cold enough that the fresher water (from inflowing streams) freezes while the saltier water (from other streams and in the sea itself) remains liquid. (The Sea of Galilee does not usually freeze at all.) Thus Jesus would have been walking on the ice while the disciples’ boat was in the liquid section. Of course, this explanation neglected the facts that the “ice” was strong enough to support a man, that Peter got out of the boat and walked towards Jesus, and that this happened in the springtime rather than in the dead of winter.

I find that many “natural” explanations leave out important facts like this.

• Liberian

She gave a few possible natural explantations, like red algae causing the river to become red. She did not say that they had been proved, only that she would be very suprised if the account in Exodus is how it happened. But she added that that’s not the important issue.

Kendy

 

[Jennifer_G]

There is a theory now about the Santorini Volcano contributing to the 10 plagues.

Even if it was through natural causes, how would you expect Moses to know what would happen one after another when no one really knew about Volcanos then? (much less about gases)

 

[aleks]

There is a theory now about the Santorini Volcano contributing to the 10 plagues.

Even if it was through natural causes, how would you expect Moses to know what would happen one after another when no one really knew about Volcanos then? (much less about gases)

I agree on that.Besides,if there’s a natural explanation for the plagues,there’s still not a logic explanation for at least for me,the ten plagues fell of Egypt almost together,but the Israelites were spared from them.If the plagues were natural causes,then why none affected the Israelites?

Cheers,
Aleks.

 

[Kendy]

I agree on that.Besides,if there’s a natural explanation for the plagues,there’s still not a logic explanation for at least for me,the ten plagues fell of Egypt almost together,but the Israelites were spared from them.If the plagues were natural causes,then why none affected the Israelites?

Cheers,
Aleks.

Well, I am not sure that she thinks that all the plagues even happen. For example, I don’t think she believes that God would really kill all the first born of Egypt.

Kendy

 

[Jennifer_G]

I agree on that.Besides,if there’s a natural explanation for the plagues,there’s still not a logic explanation for at least for me,the ten plagues fell of Egypt almost together,but the Israelites were spared from them.If the plagues were natural causes,then why none affected the Israelites?

Cheers,
Aleks.

Exactly. Everything seemed to happen in one small area, with Israel being spared.

Now, I’m pretty sure someone’s gonna come along and say that it happened elsewhere, just that there was no one to record it. Granted, the chances of such a series of events occuring in the exact same order elsewhere would be very slim. (not all cultures are going to just so happen to have gas vents in their cities, or frogs and locust in their ecosystem).