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Scientific Evidence for the Plagues

Scientific Evidence for the Plagues

 

Most people are familiar with the ten plagues of Egypt described in Exodus. The plagues precede the very famous account of Moses leading the Israelites out of slavery under the Egyptian Pharaoh. God rolls out the plagues in ascending order – starting with the mildest and building in severity as Pharaoh continues to refuse to grant the Hebrew people their freedom. Now, scientists and archaeologists believe that the plagues are not only genuine accounts, but that scientific discoveries can actually corroborate the stories.

 

Let’s take a look at the scientific evidence available for the plagues depicted in Exodus.

 

Pi-Rameses

Researchers now believe that they have evidence of the plagues outlined in Exodus, suggesting that the plagues took place in an ancient city called ‘Pi-Rameses’ on the Nile Delta. Pi-Rameses was the capital of Egypt during the reign of Pharaoh Rameses the second who ruled Egypt from 1279 BC to 1213 BC.

Evidence that the plagues may have taken place in Pi-Rameses includes an ancient water trough which is inscribed with markings, depicting a period of darkness. Climatologists have also observed a dramatic shift in the climate in Pi-Rameses toward the end of the Pharaoh Rameses’ reign – undergoing a radical move from a warm, wet climate to a dry one. Archaeologists also claim that the city was abandoned around 3,000 years ago – a fact which scientists claim could be attributed to the onset of the plagues.

 

The Ipuwer Papyrus

The Ipuwer Papyrus is an ancient papyrus scroll containing an ancient Egyptian poem called “The Admonitions of Ipuwer”. The Ipuwer Papyrus describes a series of events which take place in Egypt – events which sound uncannily like those of the plagues outlined in Exodus. The events include a river turning to blood, the men of the land behaving as wild Ibises and the land coming under great distress.

The Ipuwer Papyrus is thought by some archaeologists as a reliable corroboration of the Biblical accounts, since the texts appear to witness the events unfolding.

 

A Chain Reaction

Scientists who have sought to understand the nature of the plagues have now come to the conclusion that the plagues came about from a chain reaction of natural phenomena.

According to this theory, the events which take place in Exodus 7 through 11 are natural disasters, which take place in a natural sequence. In other words – the plagues can be attributed to a series of natural events which each in turn, trigger the next. While Moses and the Biblical writers attributed the plagues of Exodus to the miraculous work of God, this idea attributes them to a cause-and-effect concept, starting with the climate shift in Pi-Rameses.

 

First Plague: Water into Blood

 And Moses and Aaron did so, as the Lord commanded; and he lifted up the rod, and smote the waters that were in the river, in the sight of Pharaoh, and in the sight of his servants; and all the waters that were in the river were turned to blood.”

 The dramatic shift in climate in Pi-Rameses meant that the climate in the region suddenly went from warm and wet to extremely dry:

“Pharaoh Rameses II reigned during a very favourable climatic period…There was plenty of rain and his country flourished. However, this wet period only lasted a few decades. After Rameses’ reign, the climate curve goes sharply downwards….There is a dry period which would certainly have had serious consequences.”

  – Professor Augusto Magini, paleoclimatologist.

According to the chain reaction theory, this radical change triggered the first of the plagues we see in Exodus 7. Scientists agree that the rising temperatures of the new, drier climate caused temperatures to rise and dry up the river Nile. This in turn caused Egypt’s primary water source to transform into nothing more than a muddy waterway – conditions which paved the way for the Bible’s description of the Nile turning to blood.

Scientists attribute the red Nile to the manifestation of a toxic, fresh-water algae known as ‘Burgundy Blood”. This bacterium is known to have existed at the time of Pi-Rameses and is known for its characteristic action as it dies: it stains water red.

 

Second, Third and Fourth plagues – Frogs, Lice and Flies

“And Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt; and the frogs came up, and covered the land of Egypt.”

 “for Aaron stretched out his hand with his rod, and smote the dust of the earth, and it became lice in man, and in beast; all the dust of the land became lice throughout all the land of Egypt.”

 “And the Lord did so; and there came a grievous swarm of flies into the house of Pharaoh, and into his servants’ houses, and into all the land of Egypt: the land was corrupted by reason of the swarm of flies.”

The Burgundy Blood algae could have set in motion the second, third and fourth plagues described in Exodus – frogs, lice and flies. Frogs are known to be able to develop from tadpoles into adult frogs very quickly. They are also known to be able to speed up this development in times of distress. Scientists claim that the toxic algae present in the Nile would be more than enough to trigger this speedy development, as well as forcing the frogs from their water home and onto the land.

The subsequent third and fourth plagues are a result of the frogs also. With the deaths of these frogs, other insects would naturally have flourished in the absence of their predators.

 

Fifth and Sixth Plagues – Livestock and Boils

 “And the next day the Lord did it: All the livestock of the Egyptians died, but not one animal belonging to the Israelites died.”

 So they took soot from a furnace and stood before Pharaoh. Moses tossed it into the air, and festering boils broke out on people and animals.”

Insects carry diseases – even today it is possible to contract dengue fever, malaria, lyme disease and many more diseases from an insect bite. After the deterioration of Egypt’s fresh-water source, the death of mass frog populations and the infestation of insects, it is only natural to assume that the next step in the plague ‘chain reaction’ would be disease and epidemics. The livestock first dies, before the people of Egypt break out in boils.

 

Seventh, Eighth and Ninth Plagues –Thunderstorm, Locusts and Darkness

“the Lord sent thunder and hail, and lightning flashed down to the ground. So the Lord rained hail on the land of Egypt;  hail fell and lightning flashed back and forth. It was the worst storm in all the land of Egypt since it had become a nation. Throughout Egypt hail struck everything in the fields—both people and animals; it beat down everything growing in the fields and stripped every tree.”

 “By morning the wind had brought the locusts; they invaded all Egypt and settled down in every area of the country in great numbers…They covered all the ground until it was black. They devoured all that was left after the hail—everything growing in the fields and the fruit on the trees. Nothing green remained on tree or plant in all the land of Egypt.”

 “So Moses stretched out his hand toward the sky, and total darkness covered all Egypt for three days. No one could see anyone else or move about for three days.

A major, natural disaster which took place 400 miles away is used to explain the seventh, eighth and ninth plagues of Exodus – a volcanic eruption.

Thera, a volcano that was near Crete is known to have erupted around the time of Pi-Rameses. Thera’s eruption is one of the largest known eruptions in human history, and its explosion sent forth billions of tons of volcanic ash into the atmosphere. While there are no volcanoes located in Egypt, archaeologists have recovered volcanic rock during Egyptian excavations. Tests confirmed that this rock originated from Thera, substantiating the claim that this eruption reached Egyptian shores.

The eruption of Thera was powerful enough to cause dramatic hail storms all the way to Egypt, atmospheric physicists confirm. This forms another sequence within the chain reaction. From the ash, the temperature would be expected to once again rise, increasing the humidity level with it. These conditions are known to foster the presence of insects, and may account for the locusts which appear in the eight plague described in Exodus. The dense amount of volcanic ash can also be blamed for the darkness which Egypt undergoes – thick ash could be responsible for blocking out the sunlight over a large area of land.

The huge global impact of Thera’s eruption has been documented in an ash layer found in the Nile Delta, as well as in the United States and Greenland. It is not hard to see how its eruption may have caused apocalyptic-style events to unfold in Pi-Rameses.

 

Tenth Plague – Death of the Firstborn

“At midnight the Lord struck down all the firstborn in Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh, who sat on the throne, to the firstborn of the prisoner, who was in the dungeon, and the firstborn of all the livestock as well.

 The cause of the final plague, the death of all the firstborn is unable to be supported by scientific evidence. Some have speculated that the firstborn slept on the floor, inhaling more volcanic dust than younger children while others have suggested that a deadly fungus compromised grain supplies. However, these arguments have all been largely discredited and we may need to accept that God did not action this last plague through natural means, but rather manifested it miraculously.

 

Does Science Support the Plagues?

 While it appears that science does corroborate the accounts of the plagues described in Exodus, explaining them with naturalistic explanations should not be done so at the risk of missing the real point of the story. Exodus serves to show the reader that human history is carried out through the hand of God. God led the Israelites out of slavery and into the land he was preparing…because he is God!

God often acts through His creation – utilising natural law to manifest his miracles. In Exodus alone we see this several times including 10:13 where we are told that God brought the locusts by ‘an east wind that blew across the land all that day and all that night’. In verse 19 we go onto learn that in order to bring the plague to an end, God ‘changed the wind to a strong west wind, which caught up the locusts and carried them into the Red Sea’.

The plagues may have been brought about through natural phenomena, but we must still recognise that it was God who brought them about for his redemptive purposes.

 

 

 

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Locating the Tower of Babel

Locating the Tower of Babel

The Tower of Babel is a story told in Genesis, which depicts the scattering of languages among humanity, by God. The story is meant to explain the origin of language variation present in the world today, and serves as yet another example of competition between humans and God (other stories include the Garden of Eden in Genesis 3).

For centuries, the story of the Tower of Babel has been paid much attention, particularly the location of the transcendent Tower which caused God to scatter humanity and confound the human language. But where is the Tower now?

Many have searched for the mystical tower mentioned in Genesis 11, and some have even found ancient sites which offer compelling evidence for the tower’s location. The accounts found in Genesis do not make any mention of the tower’s destruction, which encourages Biblical archaeologists to believe that the tower is either still in existence, or at least continued to survive for a while after the event took place. While the Biblical accounts do not give us specific information about the location of the tower, they do leave a few solid clues on which to start the investigation.

 

Shinar

The story of the Tower of Babel opens with an explicit clue as to where the tower once stood. Genesis 11 states;

“And as they migrated from the east, they came upon a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there.” (v2)

Since this is the only clue that we have to the location of the tower, we must begin our search here…in Shinar. It was here, in Shinar, that the people began to rebel against God, and set out to construct a tower which would reach the heavens.

The location of Shinar is ambiguous. Wikipedia calls it the geographical location “of uncertain boundaries in Mesopotamia.” However, the name Shinar occurs eight times elsewhere in the Old Testament, and always appears to refer to the wider area of Babylonia. Some have even suggested that the location of Shinar in Babylonia is reinforced by the name of the tower ‘Babel’, which is a play on words for ‘Babylon’. Though the Biblical description of Shinar does not contain much detail, it seems likely that Shinar was within the territorial area of greater Babylonia.

 

Ziggurats

It is commonly believed, among Biblical scholars and archaeologists, that the Tower of Babel was a ziggurat.

A ziggurat is a well-known structure of the ancient world which was often built and dedicated to a God. The most notable of these is ‘Etemenanki’, which was constructed and consecrated by Nabopolssar, King of Babylonia, in the name of the Mesopotamian God ‘Marduk’. Etemenanki was over 300 feet high and was demolished under the reign of Alexander the Great. Historians agree that the descriptions given of the Tower of Babel closely match those to an early ziggurat. A few ziggurats are still in existence today, with the largest surviving one located in Western Iran, in what was once the ancient land of Elam.

Ziggurats usually had a square base with receding level. Because the Tower of Babel was designed to reach up to heaven, we must assume that the base would have been extremely large in order to sustain such a height. It is also interesting to note that the builders of Babel were not only looking to build the tower, but were constructing an entire city – a fact which is mentioned three times in the first verse of the story. Ziggurats in other parts of the world were never built in isolation – they were also accompanied by temples, shrines and other prominent religious and civic buildings. This means that when we are trying to locate the tower, we need to be looking for an entire city, or the remains of one, rather than a lone tower, which is often how the Tower of Babel has traditionally been depicted.

Some sources even indicate that the Tower of Babel was adjacent to the mystical Hanging Gardens of Babylon, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.

 

Building Materials

Another clue to the location of the tower is the building materials, which the text refers to in detail.

The first half of Genesis 11:3 describes the Tower as being made out of burnt bricks, while the second half outlines that they had “brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar.” Modern historians have confirmed that this description of the building materials is in keeping with what we know about ancient architecture in this area, particularly since bitumen was the usual mortar used in conjunction with kiln-fired bricks in the Mesopotamian area.

The choice to use kiln-baked bricks, and to explicitly describe the expensive building materials used is interesting. Firstly, the choice to use kiln-baked bricks indicates that the Tower was intended to last, since this material was known for its durability. Secondly, the explicit description of the expensive building materials lends further support to the theory that the tower was a ziggurat. The use of baked bricks was not underway until the mid-4th century B.C. and even then, was only employed for luxurious buildings such as temples and ziggurats.

 

Where Is It?

So where do we find this ancient kiln-baked brick ziggurat in Shinar? Because the Tower would probably now be nothing more than rubble, it is difficult to concisely pinpoint its location. However, given the durable material that Genesis 11 describes as having been used for the construction of the tower, and since the accounts in Genesis do not describe the tower coming under any type of destruction, there is a possibility that remnants of the Tower of Babel may well have survived until now.

Modern archaeologists claim that the remains of the Tower of Babel may still exist, in an area which was once occupied by ancient Babylon. The foundations of the tower still stand and the remaining embankments have been estimated to date back to the rule of King Nebuchadnezzar II who lived from 605-562 BC. Jewish historian Josephus claimed that Nebuchadnezzar was also responsible for the construction of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.

Wherever the Tower lies, it is fair to assume that since God was so displeased with humanity’s efforts to construct it, he probably does not want humanity to find it, lest we once again pursue our efforts to ‘make a name for ourselves’.

 

 

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Is The Bible True? 8 Compelling Pieces of Evidence

Is The Bible True? 8 Compelling Pieces of Evidence

The Bible

In order to understand the Bible and whether or not we can regard it as reliable, we must first understand something about the nature of the Bible. The Bible is not a book, so much as a collection of many books. The collection was authored by a number of different writers and editors over a period of over 1000 years before it was compiled into the single book that we now know as ‘the Bible’.

Though God did not physically write the Bible, Christians believe that the Bible is God’s word – inspired by God, written through everyday people to record the events of the Old and New Testament and to reveal himself to humanity.

The Bible is controversial today for several reasons. Firstly, it is filled with miraculous events which modern people find hard to accept as true events. Events such as the parting of the Red Sea, the splitting of the rock and Jesus walking on water are difficult for people to swallow, particularly in an age where anything that appears to supersede the natural world is dismissed or rejected. Secondly, the Bible makes very bold, existential claims about the world. It claims that God exists, that he reveals himself through his creation and through his son Jesus who is the saviour of the world and all of humanity. These things have often led people to doubt the authenticity, and relevance of the Bible in the 21st century.

One of the issues that sceptics have is that Christians often quote the Bible, in trying to build their case for the Bible’s validity. This can be problematic because those who question the Bible do not view it as reliable, and thus, an appropriate source. A better approach is to present sceptics with mixed evidence, both from within, and outside of the Bible. This will exhibit the Bible for what it is – a reliable, accurate record which has been transmitted down through history and shaped into a canon that reveals God to the world.

The following is a list of eight compelling cases for the accuracy and reliability of the Bible.

 

  1. Manuscript Evidence

“There is no body of ancient literature in the world which enjoys such a wealth of good textual attestation as the New Testament.”

– F. F. Bruce

Compared to other manuscripts and pieces of ancient literature, the amount of Biblical manuscripts in existence is phenomenal. The number of ancient Biblical manuscripts in existence far exceeds that of classics such as Plato, Socrates or Aristotle, and the accuracy of the transmission between manuscripts serves to prove just how extraordinary this piece of literature is.

The most famous Old Testament example of manuscript evidence is that of the Dead Sea Scrolls, which were found in the caves of Qumran, Palestine in the 1940s. At the time of their discovery, there had been 2,000 years since the last penned pieces of the Old Testament and the finding of the manuscripts, yet, the match between the Hebrew Bible that we use today and the ones found in the caves is uncanny.

When it comes to the New Testament, more than 20,000 manuscripts are in existence, making the New Testament the most reliable document in antiquity. The second most available text from antiquity is Homer’s Illiad, of which just over 600 copies exist.

Sceptics will often claim that the Bible has been changed throughout history, and lacks the original, intended message of the authors but the physical evidence against this notion, such as the Dead Sea Scrolls, is quite compelling. While the manuscripts do contain minor variants, they do not impact on the substance or the significance of key Old or New Testament beliefs and claims. It is also clear from the sheer number of manuscript copies that closely match the Bible in its current form, that the Bible has been preserved without any additions or major alterations.

The manuscript evidence reinforces the fact that the Bible has indeed, stood the test of time.

 

  1. Archaeological Evidence

Time after time, modern archaeological discoveries have confirmed the historical and cultural accuracy of the Bible and its records.

Over 25,000 Biblically relevant archaeological sites have now been excavated, all of which have served as an amazing testimony to the legitimacy of the Biblical record. The historical reality of civilisation such as the Hittites, the Edomites and the Horites have all been confirmed through archaeological findings, as have many kings and kingdoms mentioned within the Old Testament. The Hittites, referenced throughout the Old Testament as a group of people living within the Canaanites, were thought to be nothing more than a Biblical legend, until their royal archives were unearthed in Turkey in 1906. Sceptics also believed that Solomon’s tremendous wealth, as described in 1 Kings was thought to be exaggerated, and embellished for literary reasons, but recovered records show that wealth in antiquity peaked around the time of Solomon.

No other piece of ancient literature has been as confirmed by archaeological studies as much as the Bible, and discoveries of this nature continue to demonstrate the credibility of the Bible.

 

  1. Eyewitness Accounts

What makes the Bible unique from other ancient texts is also the nature of its authors – many of whom were eyewitnesses to the events described. We know from the New Testament and other historical writings that Christians were strongly victimised and oppressed for their beliefs, particularly by the Roman government. Some of the Biblical eyewitnesses went on to be persecuted and even executed for their commitment to the Christian message, begging the question….would a person die to protect texts that were not true? John Calvin wrote that:

“It is no moderate approbation of Scripture that it has been sealed by the blood of so many witnesses, especially when we reflect that they died to render testimony to the faith …with a firm and constant, yet sober, zeal toward God.”

All of the New Testament writers lived in the same generation of Jesus, and three of the writers were likely His apostles – Matthew, John and Peter. A strong case can also be made that these writers wrote the books that make up the New Testament prior to the destruction of the temple in AD 70. One portion of The Gospel of Matthew is dated to around 50 AD – 17 years after Christ’s crucifixion. This small interval between the actual events and the written accounts of them make the content within them more likely to be reliable than if there was a large interval between the two. The first account of the Buddha’s life did not get penned till 700 years after his death! The fact that these manuscripts, read by those living only 17 years after Jesus ministry do not differ from the Biblical material that we have today – 2,000 years later, reinforces the reliability of the Biblical texts.

It is also, certainly worth noting that the New Testament circulated during the lifetime of thousands of people who were alive at the time of Jesus’ ministry. If a book began circulating today that claimed that a man was the Son of God, and went onto describe a serious of miraculous events that took place – when in fact they didn’t – people would soon refute the book and correct the story. Interestingly, nobody in the generation in which the New Testament was circulating ever claimed the texts to be anything other than truth, indicating that they probably were.

 

  1. Extra-Biblical Evidence

Sources outside of the Bible also confirm the events which are described in the Bible. Prominent Jewish historian Josephus confirmed the life of Jesus as well as the events surrounding his crucifixion under the Roman government  and Roman historian P. Cornelius Tacitus, also referred to Jesus in his writings. The fact that the Bible finds support among secular historians such as Cornelius lends further backing to the idea that the Bible is an authentic, valid piece of literature and thus, should be treated as such.

 

  1. Consistency

Though the Bible is made up of 66 books written over a long span of time, it consists of just one Metanarrative: one overarching story of God’s plan for redemption and salvation. While some modern books are compiled by multiple authors and editors, they do not achieve one single, unifying theme like the Bible does – this can only be accomplished when the book is underwritten by a single divine author.

The internal consistency and coherence that exists with the Bible is unique in that it represents a single theology, revealed and described through the framework of human history.

 

  1. Jesus

One of the most compelling arguments for the truth and validity of the Bible, is that of Jesus Christ himself. Jesus is evidence for the Bible’s validity, for two distinct reasons:

Firstly, the four Gospels in the New Testament  – Matthew, Mark, Luke and John – all present an accurate, coherent record of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus and in all four of the gospels, Jesus can be seen as regarding the Old Testament as holy and authoritative. For this reason, Jesus himself forms the sixth piece of compelling evidence that the Bible is true. Jesus said that “Scripture cannot be broken” and used it as a source of authority in his teachings. Jesus also confirmed historical characters from the Old Testament, including Jonah, Noah and Adam and Eve.

All of this amounts to one point: If we take the New Testament to be proof of Jesus and accept that He was God’s son, that he lived, was crucified and rose again on the third day, then we must accept the Old Testament – because Jesus did.

Secondly, Jesus very existence proclaims the reliability of the Bible. Of all the prophecies which are contained in the Old Testament, over 300 point to the ‘anointed one’. In light of what we know about Jesus birth, life, ministry, death and resurrection, we can include the reality of Jesus as evidence for the Old Testament. These 300 + prophecies were written hundreds of years before Jesus was born, yet, in being born, he fulfilled them all.

 

  1. Scientific Consistence

Much of the Biblical material is consistent with modern scientific discoveries, despite being written long before our modern understanding of the world.

Here are some examples:

  • The Bible refers to the immeasurable number of stars in the heavens (Genesis 22:17, Jeremiah 33:22). We know that scientists today do not know the amount of stars in the sky, as only around 3,000 are visible to the naked eye.
  • Job described the earth’s suspension in space (26:7)
  • Psalms describes the hydrologic cycle of the earth and evaporation (135:7), as does Jeremiah (10:13) and Job (36:27-29)
  • Hebrews 11:3 describes invisible atoms, stating that “things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.”
  • Modern medicine now knows that blood clotting in newborn babies reaches a climax on the eight day after they are born, before tapering off again. The Bible consistently instructs parents to circumcise their babies on the eight day after birth.

 

  1. Endurance and Influence

Lastly, the most compelling piece of evidence that the Bible is true is the longevity of the book, and the impact that it has had on the world since its inception. For thousands of years, scholars, clergy and laymen have come to the Bible of their own accord – freely and without coercion.  The Bible has influenced the legal system, ethics, art, music, literature, the calendar, money and marriage.

No other book in has ever had the impact on world history that the Bible has prompted.

 

 

 

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