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Timmah! on 25 September 2008
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ManusJustus said:

So its impossible that the people who wrote the Bible could have exagerrated at all? The Hebrews could of had an army of several thousand, and if thats true then their feats aren't that spectacular. If they had an army of 40,000 thats still smaller than the Egyptian army that marched back and forth through the same desert at this time. So they had enough gold to supply a huge army for a long period time but they drank it all, I dont think I'm the only one not buying that one.

You dont think that other people in the world would have heard about this? Egypt was a major trader in the Middle East, it wouldnt take much for word to spread via trader or traveler to other nations. One would have to give the Egyptians credit for covering up both politically and archeologically the death of hundreds of thousands of children at once, but we would also have to comment on the carelessness of foriegn leaders, scribes, and the general population for not bothering to mention it in their texts and stories.

If every first born child in Iran was killed by some astounding miracle, I'm sure we in America find out about it and bother to record it.

I LOL'd when I read this. Yes, with the 24/7 news cycle and the internet, I'm sure we would hear about this. However, in ancient Egyptian times, nations were very isolated, so Egypt's neighbor would likely not even know about the plagues, or maybe just hear romors. Even when they did hear, it's not a definite that they would record this in their History (if they were recording their history at all), or that their Historical texts would survive until the present. There were not any international historians back then either. In addition, great kingdoms such as Egypt were known to write their own History as they wanted it to be remembered. This includes destroying the hyrogliphs of pharos that were considered failures, traitors, etc. Do you actually think they would record the details of a humiliating defeat by a Slave God? Because of the selective recording of History, our modern record of national defeats from early time periods comes from the historical records of the victorious nation in most cases. That is why The Bible (the record from the Isrealite's perspective) is the only place where this is recorded, this is very common.

But there is record that seems to be of the Plagues in spite of this. The Lieden museum in Holland houses a Papyrus that seems to describe the effects of the plagues. http://ohr.edu/yhiy/article.php/838 . This papyrus describes turmoil and plague on the land, including 'The river has been turned to blood' 'Forsooth, gates, columns and walls are consumed by fire.' 'Gold and lapis lazuli, silver and malachite, carnelian and bronze... are fastened on the neck of female slaves.' It has been widely debated whether this applies to the Plagues, but it makes sense that it very well could.