I went to a lesbian seder the other day, and among the many non-traditional elements was the suggestion that Pharaoh’s son was poisoned by an enterprising Jew (as opposed to slain by a holy plague). When I expressed surprise, I was asked, “What? Did you think it was a miracle or something?” Not that I’m a literalist or anything, but I was somewhat taken aback. Without even beginning to comment on the weirdness of the whole thing, has anyone ever heard of the poison theory? How 'bout the rest of those Plagues? Any non-miraculous explanations? And I can see how some of the various plagues might have been exagerated versions of natural phenomena, but is there a non-supernatural theory regarding the origins of the “crossing the Red Sea” story? Thanks. (Sorry if this is too much like the thread about non-Christian explanations for the supposed resurrection of Jesus.)
Several of the plagues have apparently natural parallels. Of course, that does not preclude God from having arranged to have each begin on the signal of Moses. (And, of course, the whole set of stories could be simply wishes that were inserted into the myth of the Exodus if that is one’s take on the religious experience.)
There has long been a “natural” explanation of the crossing of the sea: At the point where the Israelites traditionally crossed, the sea is quite shallow and a sufficiently strong and prolonged wind can push the waters back in a way that would permit a crossing. (The wind would not “divide” the waters into Cecil B. DeMille-like walls, but it would be good enough to allow a large group of people to walk across the sea bed.)
Again, there is nothing to preclude God from arranging the wind to arise at the appropriate strength just as the Israelites needed to cross, then having the wind die as they completed the crossing.
Manna also has a potentially natural explanation in the form of a variety of algae (lichen?) bloom that periodically occurs in that region.
How one views the events–direct Divine intervention, Divine assistance to natural phenomena, purely natural phenomena siezed upon by the creators of the story, or pure invention of whoever created the Exodus myth–is a personal choice.
(I have never heard any story that the Israelites poisoned the Pharoah’s son–to say nothing of every other firstborn son in Egypt. That sounds like a very recently created story.)
Well, in order to believe that, you’d pretty much have to disbelieve almost everything else in the Passover story. For one thing, according to the Biblical account, Pharaoh’s son was not the only death; all Egyptian firstborns died. For another, G-d had commanded the Jews to stay in their house all night…when would they have done the dirty deed to arrange that it happen on that night?
I mean, if they don’t believe it happened as described, why bother believing any of it…enough to form a “Seder” around?
Bottom line: If you believe the Biblical accouny, then obviously it was a miracle. If you don’t, then what’s the source for their Passover at all?
That’s weird. I mean, that’ll be like going to a Christian prayer meeting and being asked: “You actually think Christ rose from the dead?”
(That only works if your Christian, of course.)
“…if you’re Christian…”
Debil.
That would have to be a really busy poisoner, to go to every Egyptian house. I do have to admit that the last plague bothers me a little (probably in part, because I’m the oldest son in my family), but I always understood that G-d did it because of Pharoah. Pharoah earlier commanded that all Hebrew boys be killed, so, G-d’s punishment on the Egyptians is that their children have to die.
I’m with Chaim. The entire source for the story is the Bible, so its pointless to accept it but change the central details.
This is like the old joke about the Apikorus (heretic) from Chelm (a fabled city of fools). One day he made an important heretical announcement:
“There was never such a person as Moses!”
“So who took us out of Egypt?”
“Hmm, er, his cousin. Whose name was also Moses…”