Earth's Development of Culture With Pharaoh's, Kings, Slaves That Led to Passover

 Nadene Goldfoot                                             

       Moses parting the sea

The upcoming holiday for Jews of Passover brings to my mind of the entire Milky Way planetary system of Mercury;  the smallest planet in our solar system, Venus;  who spins slowly in the opposite direction from the other planets; Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.   Thousands more planets have been discovered beyond our solar system. Scientists call them exoplanets (exo means "from outside").NASA has found 5,000 so far. Has there ever been any life forms on these other planets?  Can any be as interesting and meaningful as ours?                                

                             Milky Way's 100 billion planets

 Our earth, specifically, is said to be a carbon-based planet.  Life on Earth is based on carbon, likely because each carbon atom can form bonds with up to four other atoms simultaneously. This quality makes carbon well-suited to form the long chains of molecules that serve as the basis for life as we know it, such as proteins and DNA.

Scientists are now showing that nature can evolve to incorporatesilicon into carbon-based molecules - the building blocks of lifeon earth. Evidently silicon is much like carbon.  Recent picturesof a UFO showed it was made of an unknown light material, somewhat like rubber, I surmised.    

Still, researchers have long speculated that alien life could have a completely different chemical basis than life on Earth. For example, instead of relying on water as the solvent in which biological molecules operate, perhaps aliens might depend on ammonia or methane. And instead of relying on carbon to create the molecules of life, perhaps aliens could use silicon.

Carbon and silicon are chemically very similar in that silicon atoms can also each form bonds with up to four other atoms simultaneously. Moreover, silicon is one of the most common elements in the universe. For example, silicon makes up almost 30 percent of the mass of the Earth's crust and is roughly 150 times more abundant than carbon in the Earth's crust.

The question is:  Are there many other planets that are carbon-based?  If so, what is their highest form of life?  Justin Simon said that The only Element that can make complex compounds with several elements is Carbon, thus if life exists, Carbon is highly likely to make life in other planets.   Carbon group element, any of the six chemical elements that make up Group 14 (IVa) of the periodic table—namely, carbon (C), silicon (Si), germanium (Ge), tin (Sn), lead (Pb), and flerovium (Fl).

Moses and Aaron do use a bit of magic by the contest of their walking cane turning into a snake that eats the pharaoh's snake.  Still and all, these things are carbon based.  A bit of hypnotism could have been used.  

I notice that in our Jewish history, G-d has always used some carbon-based tool to either help us or guide us.  We have never relied on anything magical that couldn't have come from this planet.  Even manna, a plant that grew, was carbon-based though it seemed to be developed by NASA for long-distance space flights.  It kept the people on the Exodus going for 40 years, probably with vitamins and needed minerals.  

                                                                        

During Passover, Moses used carbon-based material of the Ten Plagues to try to change the Pharaoh's mind about keeping the Israelites as slaves and that he should let them go.  Ten 10 plagues consisted of 3 sets of 3 plagues each which were intended to establish 3 eternal principles for all time.  The 1st 3 plagues proved the existence of G-d (7:17).  the next 3 proved that His providence extends to earthly affairs and that He does not choose to be oblivious to material matters (8:18) and the next 3 proved that G0d is unmatched by any power (9:14).  The 10th plague of the Firstborn  was meant to break down Pharaoh's resistance and bring the redemption from Egypt. 

Update:  3/20/23 10:50am

It seems to me that the 10 plagues were the fore-runner of a volcano eruption on a nearby Greek island.  All the plagues had a similarity to each other except the 9th plague,  darkness, and that was something that can happen in a volcano eruption.  Simcha Jacobovici, in his "The Exodus, had uncovered in 2006 the eruption of the Greek volcano happening"A suggested date of 1500 BCE is made for the Exodus, during the reign of pharaoh Ahmose I. The "palpable darkness" described as the 9th plague, is hypothetically attributed to the cloud of volcanic ash caused by the Minoan eruption, which is identified as the events described in the Tempest Stele.

                          Egyptians practiced circumcision.  

1st born sons were mentioned several times in the Bible.  It could have had to do with circumcision in Egypt on males and male animals like bulls.  There could have been a practice we just don't know about that would set apart the 1st born sons.   That it only affected sons is the clue that it has to have something to do with circumcision. Since all the plagues led to darkness, that could have something to do with the 1st sons.  Maybe they were the only ones that underwent the rite of circumcision.  Something in the polluted air from the volcano is the obvious reason that affected the first born males of both man and animal.  This one is hard to understand.  We only know it did not affect females, and that the 1st males had been marked somehow.  

 "In Judaism, circumcision has traditionally been practised on males on the eighth day after birth (after the First Temple era). The Book of Genesis records circumcision as part of the Abrahamic covenant with Yahweh (God). Herodotus, writing in the 5th century BCE, lists first of all the Egyptians being the oldest people practicing circumcision"  As practiced in Judaism and in the United States, the foreskin is completely removed. However, in ancient Egypt and elsewhere in Africa, only part of the foreskin was removed..  Perhaps something was done in Egypt to identify the 1st born male in a family in the style of the circumcision, being there are said to be 4 types.   

1.  The Nile River was turned into blood.  This was the primary source of water in the land and the heart of Egyptian life.  Ex.7:14-25.  The Egyptians believed the Nile River was a god, Hapi, and controlled the annual flooding of the Nile.  

After the water turned to blood, "the fish in the Nile died, and the Nile stank, so that the Egyptians could not drink water," according to the Bible, Exodus chapter 7, verse 21, Tanakh, and English Standard version.

The sudden appearance of red-hued waters in the Nile could have been caused by a red algae bloom, which appears when certain conditions enable a type of microscopic algae to reproduce in such great numbers that the waters they live in appear to be stained a bloody red.

2. Frogs invaded everything.  (Ex: 8:1-15)They eventually died and unleashed foul smells throughout the land.  A frog to Egyptians was  represented goddess of fertility and childbirth, Heget.And in May 2010 in Greece, thousands of frogs emerged from a lake in the northern part of the country, likely in search of food, and disrupted traffic for days, CBS News reported.     

                              A gnat

3. Gnats/Lice:  Dust turned into small insects, possibly gnats or lice.  The Egyptian priests could not duplicate this plague.  Egyptians said that gnats came from the "dust of the earth" and the god of earth was named Geb. (Ex:8:16-19).  

4. Flies/mosquitoes:  Flying insects.  Psalm 78:45 suggests that the insects fed on the Egyptians-like mosquitoes.  The head of a fly or scarab beetle represented the god of the rising sun, Khepri. (Ex 8:20-32).   

5. Death of livestock:  A plague was sent on the Egyptian livestock in the fields.  The Israelites' livestock was unharmed.  (Ex 9:1-7) A cow represented the mother and sky goddess, Hathor.  A bull was the representation of Apis, an ancient Egyptian god who was sacrificed and reborn.  

6. Boils appeared on both the Egyptians and their animals.  Egyptian priests/healers could do nothing to help. (Ex 9:8-12) The god of healing and medicine was Imhotep, while the goddess was Sekhmet.  So they had male and female healers.

7. Hail: Egyptian lands were struck by a massive hailstorm.  Some of Pharaoh's officials sided with Moses after this plague.(Ex.9:13-35)  Their god of storms and disorder was Seth.  The goddess of the sky was Nut.  

Pakistan hit by locust swarm  

8. Locusts ate every plant not destroyed in the hailstorm.  Egyptian officials pleaded with Pharaoh to listen to Moses. (Ex 10:1020)  The god who protected Egyptians against locusts was the god with the head of a locust, Serapia.  

9. Darkness, intense darkness descended upon the land for 3 days;  so dark that it was described as if it could be touched.  (Ex 10:21-29)  It takes 4 gods to be associated with the sun;  Ra, Amon-Ra, Atum, and Horus.  

10. Death of the firstborn sons:  G-d struck dead all firstborn males, including Pharaoh's son.  Those with lamb's blood on their doorframes (Israelites) were spared.  This is talked about during Passover.  This plague was an attack on the lineage and deity of Pharaoh himself.  We were not given the Pharaoh's name.                                     

My resource seems to agree with me in that the unnamed pharaoh could be Thutmose III during the Hebrew (Ivrim) oppression which they figure was from 1504-1450 BCE.  They say that Amenhotep II was the pharaoh during the Exodus (1453-1426 BCE).  The actual Exodus then started in 1446 BCE.

Update 3/20/23 8:30am :  I notice that the plagues are all animals on earth of lower group, insects, frogs, even viruses or bacteria, etc, which can be affected by a coming volcanic explosion which would include earthquakes.  The darkness plague would result from the explosion.  Somehow, our Moses knew or felt that the explosion was due (communicating with G-d).  It happened and the Egyptians allowed the slaves out of their indenture.  Then they had tried too late to turn them back when they had their bearings, but it was too late and the Egyptian soldiers were trapped in another of the results of the eruption, the parting of the sea momentarily to allow the Hebrews to get away but not them, lagging behind enough to make the difference.  

Found it! 9:00am There was such a volcanic eruption on a Greek island at that time!!!  PROBING 20 feet into the soil of the Nile delta, American scientists have found tiny glass fragments from a volcano that they say could lend support to a theory linking a volcanic eruption to the seemingly miraculous events associated with the Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt.

Scholars for some time have tied the devastating eruption 3,500 years ago on Santorini, a Greek island also known as Thera, with legends of the lost continent of Atlantis and have cited it as a major factor in the fall of the Minoan civilization on Crete.

More recently, the eruption has been invoked to explain phenonema related to the Exodus, as described in the Bible. According to this controversial theory, the ash cloud from the eruption could account for the ''deep darkness over the whole land of Egypt, even a darkness that may be felt,'' and the ensuing tidal wave could have created the ''parting of the waves'' that swallowed the pursuing Egyptians and allowed the Israelites to escape.

Daniel J. Stanley, a senior oceanographer at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, called the ash discovery ''a nonarcheological, hard-science proof that the effect of the volcano was felt as far away as Egypt.'' This, he added, ''lent credence'' to the Egyptian and biblical descriptions of a daytime darkness during the Exodus.  (New York Times) 

From the Slate article, "Marr believes the plagues were a series of natural disasters and diseases triggered by a bloom of water-borne organisms called dinoflagellates. The dinoflagellates turned the Nile red and killed the frog-eating fish, which in turn caused a population explosion among frogs. The tainted water eventually killed the frogs, causing lice and flies to run rampant, which lead to a number of animal diseases (including African horse sickness) and an outbreak of boils (fancy glanders). This reign of disaster and disease continued through hail, locusts (Schistocerca gregaria, to be precise), and sandstorms until the death of the firstborn sons, which Marr thinks was caused by grain infected with mycotoxins. Others, building on Marr’s domino theory, argue that the plagues were triggered by the eruption of the Greek island of Santorini, causing a string of disasters such as those that occurred at Lake Nyos, Cameroon, in 1986."  Between the two theorists, they pretty much are saying what I concluded this morning by just thinking about our carbon world. Ha! What can I say about that, but one idea leads to another, and another and....

Our patriarch Jacob, lived about 400 years before the Exodus which happened 480 years before Solomon's 1st Temple, or about 1445 BCE.  Moses was born in 1391 and died 120 years later in 1271 BCE.  Solomon was born in 961 and died in 920 BCE.   

This is the year 5783 by our Jewish Calendar.  

Resource:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_circumcision--Egypt

https://www.nytimes.com/1985/12/24/science/new-find-is-linked-to-events-to-exodus.html

https://slate.com/human-interest/2009/04/scientific-explanations-for-the-parting-of-the-red-sea-the-10-plagues-and-the-burning-bush.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Exodus_DecodedThe Exodus Decoded (2005)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simcha_Jacobovici  Simcha Jacobovici, the Naked Archaeologist and "Moses vs Akhenaten" (US premiere: 8 November 2010 (History Channel International))

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moses

https://www.livescience.com/58638-science-of-the-10-plagues.html

https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/overview/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apis#:~:text=Apis%20(deity)%2C%20an%20ancient,an%20obsolete%20name%20for%20Musca

https://www.britannica.com/science/carbon-group-element

Fold-Out pamphlet:  The Exodus by Rose Publishing, 2019 https://www.livescience.com/58638-science-of-the-10-plagues.html

https://kidshealth.org/en/parents/circumcision.html

https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/diseases/african-tick-bite-fever

https://www.academia.edu/14778076/Moses_and_the_Exodus_Chronological_Historical_and_Archaeological_Evidence?email_work_card=abstract-read-more

Scientists are showing that nature can evolve to incorporate silicon into carbon-based molecules — the building blocks of life on