Current Events > The Prince of Egypt: The 10 Plagues

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZCfTKF6LxI

Gotta be honest, kid me wasn't familiar with the bible story (of course) so I kinda felt like moses was the asshole here, it's like what did those cows ever do to you. Or the rest of the people, it was just ramses and those 2 snake wizards who were jerks.

Moses was just the messenger, God was the a**hole here since he wanted to make an example out of everyone who doesn't bend the knee.

What I never got is the bible specifically says that God hardened Pharoah's heart but then he also went and punished him for not letting the Israelites leave. It's like why not just soften his heart instead

Crimsoness posted...

What I never got is the bible specifically says that God hardened Pharoah's heart but then he also went and punished him for not letting the Israelites leave. It's like why not just soften his heart instead

I always thought as a kid, that it was metaphorical. Like, Pharoah got mad at God for daring to defy him as the one supreme ruler, and it made him double-down on his ruthless nature.

God did the 10 Plagues, not Moses.

And yeah, God is an asshole. Everybody should know that by now.

And the LORD said unto Moses, When thou goest to return into Egypt, see that thou do all those wonders before Pharaoh, which I have put in thine hand: but I will harden his heart, that he shall not let the people go

PiOverlord posted...

I always thought as a kid, that it was metaphorical. Like, Pharoah got mad at God for daring to defy him as the one supreme ruler, and it made him double-down on his ruthless nature.

My own personal theory, so bear with me.

I've been of a mind that the earliest versions of the story of Exodus, there were no plagues. The key to this is that Exodus was originally an oral story.

Moses started with killing Egypt's first born and Pharoah relented. At that time it was considered reasonable because in the story the Jew's firstborn had all been killed.

Then as time went on, Yahweh was depicted as less of a war god and more a just and merciful god. Audiences thought that was too harsh too start with by punishing innocent Egyptians. The plagues were added to show that God gave ample warning.

Then even later traditions tried to fill the plot hole that Pharaoh didn't just relent after the first couple of plagues. So they said God hardened his heart because God was primarily just and wanted to make an example out of the Egyptians. Which just circled back around to God being an outright lawful evil asshole again. Eventually, this became the version that was written down.

The plagues can be explained with a volcano eruption.
That it was such an unnatural event, it surely turned into a legend, which got slightly changed every time it got retold.
Then it got migrated into the Jewish folklore, and changed some to make it work as something Yahweh did.