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Turns Out, The 10 Plagues Of Egypt Might’ve Actually Happened Because Of A Volcanic Eruption And This Person Explains It All
Turns Out, The 10 Plagues Of Egypt Might’ve Actually Happened Because Of A Volcanic Eruption And This Person Explains It All
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Turns Out, The 10 Plagues Of Egypt Might’ve Actually Happened Because Of A Volcanic Eruption And This Person Explains It All

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The Passover holiday is a major Jewish holiday and one of the most celebrated ones. During this, Jewish people around the world celebrate by retelling the biblical story of the Exodus from Egypt — including the 10 plagues that God inflicted on the Ancient Egyptians.

The story goes that after Pharaoh refused Moses’ entreaties to let the Israelite slaves go free, God sent 10 plagues to put pressure on the Egyptian ruler. Every time, Pharaoh promises to let the Israelites go but changes his mind each time the plague is lifted — until the last one. The ten plagues are water turning to blood, frogs, lice, flies, livestock pestilence, boils, hail, locusts, darkness and the killing of firstborn children.

The question of whether the story has a true basis and whether it can be linked to archaeological discoveries has boggled historians for a long time. Over the years, enthusiasts and scientists alike have been wondering whether the story on the plagues might have been based on true events that can be proved.

As it turns out, there are theories out there talking about the legitimacy of the story of the ten plagues. Recently, Tumblr users started an interesting discussion that was prompted by… a meme. Scroll down below to read the full story and don’t forget to tell us what you think in the comment section down below!

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    Kvothe-kingkiller then went on to provide the links of the sources of the theories. One of them, written all the way back in 2002, is theorized that “much of the Bible story can be explained by a single natural disaster, a huge volcanic eruption on the Greek island of Santorini in the 16th century BC.” The second source is a little bit more liberal with possible theories, giving out three possible scenarios of what might’ve happened. The first one coincides with the theory presented in the 2002 article – the Bible story can be explained by a volcanic eruption. In the second one, it is argued that “red algae could have sucked the oxygen out of Egypt’s waterways, killed the fish and turned the water red.” Lastly, the third given theory talks about climate change – a study published in 2010 suggested that “there had been a dry period towards the end of the rule of Pharaoh Ramses II.” Thus, if climate change would have caused the Nile to dry up and slowed down the flow of water, the conditions for the growth of the bacterium Oscillatoria rubescens (Burgundy Blood algae) would have been perfect.

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    Neringa Utaraitė

    Neringa Utaraitė

    Author, Community member

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    Neringa is a proud writer at Bored Panda who used to study English and French linguistics. Although she has many different interests, she's particularly drawn to covering stories about pop culture as well as history. While not at the office, this Panda enjoys creepy movies, poetry, photography and learning how to play the piano.

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    Neringa Utaraitė

    Neringa Utaraitė

    Author, Community member

    Neringa is a proud writer at Bored Panda who used to study English and French linguistics. Although she has many different interests, she's particularly drawn to covering stories about pop culture as well as history. While not at the office, this Panda enjoys creepy movies, poetry, photography and learning how to play the piano.

    What do you think ?
    Dave P
    Community Member
    6 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    This is old, like written decades ago old and in dozens of books

    NotMe
    Community Member
    6 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    I watched a documentary about this around 10 years ago, actually. Still pretty cool, tho.

    Load More Replies...
    Valentijn 101
    Community Member
    6 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    First born is also explained. I times of less food the oldest child would get the most food. Jews trew out old grain at the end of the year. Others didn’t. Grain was infected with funguses so the oldest died.

    Andres Tejeda
    Community Member
    6 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    You make a good point, like in history they had many records of poisoning from bad barley or wheat.

    Load More Replies...
    Jon S.
    Community Member
    6 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    This is such a random mishmash of speculation with nothing to back it up, like a group of people reporting half-remembered documentaries. Get some biblical scholars and egyptologists to comment with their favourite theories and then I'm all in.

    Jo Chrisco
    Community Member
    6 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Since God created volcanos, He can use them as needs arise.

    Christopher Lee
    Community Member
    6 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    He also created childhood cancer - what's he using that for?

    Load More Replies...
    Scott Finley
    Community Member
    5 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    "God uses the things that are made."

    Carol Emory
    Community Member
    6 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    The fact that dougoftheabaci says that there is no record of Exodus is false. There is one record that survived the propaganda machine. At the time of Exodus, Ramses II was Pharaoh of Egypt. When you visit the site of Abu Simbel, there are small statues around the feet of the giant sitting statues that represent Ramses and his wife, Nefertari, all of them of their children. The one that represents his first born son has a marking on it indicating "deceased" around the same time Exodus would have occurred. Ramses also died at age 89 (longest lived pharaoh in history) and had 162+ children from his Queen and his concubines. Known as Ramses the Great, he would have never let a little thing like a mass Exodus ruin his perfect record.

    Bepina
    Community Member
    6 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    :facepalm: It's not reed/red sea, Jesus Christ, the bible was not written in English, I saw this in a documentary where they said it was misspelled

    Martha Meyer
    Community Member
    6 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    There are absolutely no records of any plagues in Egyptian wtiting. The Bible made up the escape from Egypt, just like everything else in it.

    AlphaPuck
    Community Member
    6 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Aww is someone a bitter biscuit? I smell bitter biscuittry. Multiple events or situations written in the Bible are found to be true within the last 100 years.

    Load More Replies...
    Sophie Babbitt
    Community Member
    4 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    And God activated the volcano sending this into action!!!

    Load More Comments
    Dave P
    Community Member
    6 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    This is old, like written decades ago old and in dozens of books

    NotMe
    Community Member
    6 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    I watched a documentary about this around 10 years ago, actually. Still pretty cool, tho.

    Load More Replies...
    Valentijn 101
    Community Member
    6 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    First born is also explained. I times of less food the oldest child would get the most food. Jews trew out old grain at the end of the year. Others didn’t. Grain was infected with funguses so the oldest died.

    Andres Tejeda
    Community Member
    6 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    You make a good point, like in history they had many records of poisoning from bad barley or wheat.

    Load More Replies...
    Jon S.
    Community Member
    6 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    This is such a random mishmash of speculation with nothing to back it up, like a group of people reporting half-remembered documentaries. Get some biblical scholars and egyptologists to comment with their favourite theories and then I'm all in.

    Jo Chrisco
    Community Member
    6 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Since God created volcanos, He can use them as needs arise.

    Christopher Lee
    Community Member
    6 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    He also created childhood cancer - what's he using that for?

    Load More Replies...
    Scott Finley
    Community Member
    5 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    "God uses the things that are made."

    Carol Emory
    Community Member
    6 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    The fact that dougoftheabaci says that there is no record of Exodus is false. There is one record that survived the propaganda machine. At the time of Exodus, Ramses II was Pharaoh of Egypt. When you visit the site of Abu Simbel, there are small statues around the feet of the giant sitting statues that represent Ramses and his wife, Nefertari, all of them of their children. The one that represents his first born son has a marking on it indicating "deceased" around the same time Exodus would have occurred. Ramses also died at age 89 (longest lived pharaoh in history) and had 162+ children from his Queen and his concubines. Known as Ramses the Great, he would have never let a little thing like a mass Exodus ruin his perfect record.

    Bepina
    Community Member
    6 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    :facepalm: It's not reed/red sea, Jesus Christ, the bible was not written in English, I saw this in a documentary where they said it was misspelled

    Martha Meyer
    Community Member
    6 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    There are absolutely no records of any plagues in Egyptian wtiting. The Bible made up the escape from Egypt, just like everything else in it.

    AlphaPuck
    Community Member
    6 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Aww is someone a bitter biscuit? I smell bitter biscuittry. Multiple events or situations written in the Bible are found to be true within the last 100 years.

    Load More Replies...
    Sophie Babbitt
    Community Member
    4 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    And God activated the volcano sending this into action!!!

    Load More Comments
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