Northern Virginia Catholic Bible Study & Apologetics House rules/notes… 1. Meetup is www.meetup.com/catholicbiblestudy Zoom Meeting Logon info is the same every week: Zoom ID: 861 1782 2081 Password: 406952 2. Questions encouraged. If you have questions about anything, you can ask in the chat, email the Meetup group, or me directly at ron@hallagan.net. 3. Unedited recaps of meetings are posted via Meetup after our meeting. The final edited recap is posted within a week by Taylor on our Catholic Catacombs Light website at www.catholiccatacombs.wixsite.com/website/recaps. Taylor will notify everyone on Meetup with the link. 4. Respectfulness. We will be discussing differences between religions and between Christian denominations, and agree to be respectful at all times. Specifically, Protestants are our friends and brothers in Christ; in fact, I personally owe part of my return to the faith to them! 5. No politics. It would be easy for us to self-destruct, but that’s not our goal. Our goal is to learn/understand/apply the Bible and our Catholic faith. 6. Prison fellowship – opportunities to volunteer one Saturday per month for 2 hours (12-2 or 2-4) serving Catholic prisoners at the Fairfax County Jail. Ask Ron (ron@hallagan.net) or Gina (gmasterson99@gmail.com) for details. Why do this? "I was in prison, and you visited me." – Matt 25:36 7. Catholic Prayer & Fellowship. Are you interested in praying with other Catholics during the week? Fellow member Jason Goldberg has started just this at “Catholic Prayer, Fellowship, and Spirituality Meetup.” Sign up at: https://www.meetup.com/online-catholic-prayer-fellowship-and-spirituality/ 8. I highly recommend seeing “The Chosen” TV series. We seek a relationship with Jesus Christ, which is not easy at first. It helps when we can relate to a person that we have seen and heard. They have captured the real Jesus as close as any film I’ve ever seen. https://thechosen.link/1Y1R7. 9. RSVP Reminder: Please RSVP whether you are attending the meeting or just reading the Recap notes afterwards. The more RSVPs, the more Meetup will give us exposure, which will draw more people to us, which is our way of evangelizing! Please RSVP when you get the Meetup invite weekly. Our Bible Study Format: 5 min prayers, 10-15 min Catholic topic, 40-45 min on the main topic from weekly List below: Week 1: Nov 1 - Gospel Week: Zacchaeus Lk 19:1-10, Christ the King, Luke 23:35-43, Fig Tree Philosophy, Luke 6:43-4 “Love the Lord your God with all your might…”Eph 5:21-33 "Wives be subordinate to husbands." Week 2: Nov 8 – Bible Week (Gen àRev): We are in EXODUS, the 2nd book of Moses. Exodus Meeting #4. Week 3: Nov 15 – Survey Topics Voted on by Members: We are currently beginning Heaven.
Ö 1) Jesus’ Greatest Parables 2) Hell, Purgatory, Heaven 3) Christian Comparisons 4) Great Women in the Bible 5) World Religions 6) Book of Revelation 7) Major Heresies and Church Councils
Week 4/: Nov 22/29 – Member Questions Night 1. The History of the Mass going back to Cain & Abel, and the sublime meaning of the Eucharist in the present. 2. Love and Unity are two of the Holy Spirit’s Trinitarian descriptions. How are these different? How do they affect us? 3. The knowledge of God is “participatory.” Is that why nonbelievers have difficulty? 4. Are Charity and Love synonymous? How are they different? What are the 4 highest forms of Charity? 5. Do we have suffering for a reason? How do we offer up our sufferings? When should we embrace the cross vs wait for a miracle? Next Holy Days of Obligation Advent – Sun Nov 27 to Sat Dec 24 Chanukah – Dec 18 to 26 – this is part of our biblical history, too. Who knows what this celebrates and why it is 8 days? Christmas – Dec 25 Opening Prayer Our Lord and our God, open our eyes. Speak to us. When we see Your judgments visited in the word, we would not be deaf with our ears or hard with our hearts. Cause our hearts to be soft to Your words, help us to see Your warnings and the flee to You. Help us to praise you as we see Your providence in the world, and Your sovereignty displayed. We ask that we would understand what this Word has to say for us about You, about Your purposes, and about our ultimate victory and assurance. These things we ask in Jesus' name, Amen. And as you taught us to pray: Our Father Who art in Heaven, Hallowed be Thy Name. Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven. Give us this day our daily Bread; And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on us all. Amen. Christianity… “In Christianity, we lower (humble) ourselves so that we can raise others up.” Thank you for your ratings!
Advent weekly message…
We discussed that the word Advent (Parousia) means arrival and presence and is applied in Christianity to three time zones for Christ:
- PAST
The awaiting Christ’s first arrival (the OT, starting with the prophecy in the Fall of Man, Moses and the first Passover meal, the Prophets, and especially John the Baptist and Mary with her Immaculate Conception and the Annunciation).
- PRESENT
The arrival of Jesus, his time on earth, and his sacrifice that paid for the forgiveness of since and re-opening heaven for humanity.
As Jesus said at his Ascension, “I will be with you until the end of the age.”
More literal translations: “Behold, I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world.”
“Behold, I am with you all the days, until the completion of the age.”
Q: Theologically, this refers the Messianic Period, which is Jesus’ Resurrection to his Second coming. How does he do this? He does it in two ways.
(1) He does this leaves himself for us in the Eucharist – Trinitarian food for the journey – and
(2) by sending us the Holy Spirit, so that we have a Trinitarian GPS as our spiritual co-traveler.
- FUTURE
Judgement Day: The Second Coming of Jesus Christ at the end of time often refers to Judgement Day. That is because justice has been suspended for our sake, to give as many people as possible a chance to connect with God and seek forgiveness, which overflows freely! One way or the other, though, on Judgement Day all injustices will either have been reconciled or they will be removed and universal justice will be made whole once again.
New Age: With so much focus on Judgement Day, we run the risk of too much time on this, which may well be accomplished in the blink of an eye, the Second Coming ushers in the New Age – the New Jerusalem, the New World, Paradise, Heaven – where our eternal beings and doings will be like nothing we’ve ever known before. Join us for the next discussion on Heaven Dec 20.
Immaculate Conception 2
We covered the Immaculate Conception last week and I had two questions asked afterwards. The first asked me if I believed that Genesis 1-3 (Creation and the Fall of Man) was literal, and I sent out my answer to that. Did everyone see that?
The Church doesn’t hold to the literal interpretation of the Creation Story in Chapter One. It actually has no issue with any science, including evolution if that is true. Science is merely the investigation of God’s creation – a beautiful thing.
As for the Fall of Man, I personally don’t think it is literal but I leave the door open to however God did it. The Church says you can decide. What the Church says is fact is: 1) God breathed his spirit into man giving him free will and a spiritual nature, 2) this happened with a man and a woman (who else?!), and 3) they used their free will to leave God (the “fall”). The fall changed our spiritual nature to less than it was, kind of like evolution resulted in penguins losing their ability to fly. Baptism/Jesus restore our lost spirituality.
This second question was interesting:
Since Mary was born without Original Sin (born with Sanctifying Grace), does that mean she didn’t need Jesus to die on the cross for her?
No, it was by the merits of Jesus Chris that God gave Mary sanctifying grace at her birth (in advance). This was a singular privilege granted to her by God for the mission that she would accept at the Annunciation.
Did God have to do this? Could He have skipped this and just let Jesus be born in a fallen Mary?
Yes, of course, God can do anything – He’s God. But this is how He did it.
The Church says that God allowing Mary to be conceived without sin was logical, fitting, and an act of love.
Next week Advent reflection: the origins of December 25 as the date for Christmas.
Exodus # 4 – Chapters 4 through 11
Where we left off… After Moses agrees to do as the Lord bid him, he bids good-bye to Jethro his father-in-law and heads back to Egypt. As the Lord instructed, Aaron came into the desert and met Moses halfway. They embraced and Moses brought Aaron up to date. When they got back to Egypt, they met with the Hebrew elders and shared all that God had told them. The Hebrew people believe and fall down in praise to God. Now Moses and Aaron must meet with Pharoah.
God says to Moses: You will say to Pharaoh, "This is what Yahweh says: Israel is my first-born son and I say to you, “Let my son go that he may serve me." – Exodus 4:22 Q: What is the significance of the term “first-born son”? In ancient Near Eastern cultures the "firstborn" was the designated heir who became the father's representative, exercising the authority of the father over his brothers and sisters. Q: If Israel is God's "first-born son,” what are the other nations of the earth? It follows that the other nations are like younger sons. Q: The status of "first-born" son would give Israel certain privileges – although that also would include greater responsibilities and difficulties – compared to the other nations of the earth. But what would Israel's obligation as a "first-born son”/elder brother be to the other nations? Israel was to be a role model of holiness and a righteous teacher to the other "younger brother" nations. Q: What was Israel expected to teach her sibling nations? Israel was to teach them about the One True God, the deeper meaning of sacrifice and worship, and about the promise of salvation through a Messiah who would one day come to liberate mankind from the curse of Adam (the Fall).
Q: What famous parable did Jesus teach that has a parallel between Israel as firstborn son and the eldest son in the parable?
The Parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32); recall the older brother who refused to accept the younger brother’s return.
As it turns out, the recognition of the Gentiles as full members of the covenant family was one of the most serious stumbling blocks for the Jews in accepting the Messiah Jesus and the New Covenant.
Chapters 5 – 7: Moses and Aaron meet Pharaoh
The Hebrews may have been convinced by Moses and Aaron, but Pharaoh clearly wasn’t, and he refuses their request. Moreover, Pharaoh is so incensed that he decides to penalize all the Hebrews and blames it on Moses’ “treasonous” request.
Prior to this, the straw that was needed for brickmaking was gathered by others and brought to the Hebrews who then made the bricks and hauled them into place for their building projects. Now the Hebrew slaves are told they must collect the straw themselves, effectively doubling the time required for making bricks; however, there would be no change in their brickmaking quotas. Of course, this was impossible and so the slave drivers were instructed to punish the Hebrews for coming up short.
Q: What are we learning about this Pharaoh?
He was a megalomaniac, paranoid, and vindictive. Know any bosses like that?
The outcome was that the Hebrew workers denounced Moses and Aaron for putting them under the suspicion of treason and for the horrible physical burden it brought.
Moses and Aaron are instructed to return to Pharaoh, each time threatening to bring on plagues, which then begin to happen.
The first plague was turning the Nile into a river of blood. For 7 days, Pharaoh refused to budge while the Egyptian people dug around the Nile looking desperately for water. After 7 days, Moses threatens the 2nd plague – frogs – and Pharaoh’s heart is hardened so frogs come out of the Nile and invade every home.
Q: What does it mean, “Pharaoh’s heart was hardened”?
A “hardened heart” is a common saying – or idiom – used in those days. It is found 20+ times in the OT and a half dozen times in the NT. It is used loosely but if one’s “heart is hardened” it means it heavy, stubborn, and he ceases to care about being accommodating to others.
However, and rather surprisingly, this also had special meaning for the Egyptians (perhaps the Jews picked the term up from them). We have learned that Egyptian’s belief in the afterlife belief said that if your heart was heavy, the gods were making a moral judgement about you. They believed that when someone died, the person went to judgment in the underworld. The individual's heart, which was thought to be the essence of the person, was weighed on the scales of truth. On the side of the scale sat the feather of truth and righteousness. On the other side of the scale laid the heart of the deceased. If the heart was heavy or weighty with misdeeds, the person was considered unjust and was condemned and thrown to the devourers to be eaten. If the heart was pure and light, the deceased would go into the Egyptian afterlife. When God says in verse 7:14 that Pharaoh’s heart is hardened, He has already judged Pharaoh, the “god” of Egypt, to be unrighteous.
Q: What about times it says God hardened Pharaoh’s heart?
In Exodus there are times when it says Pharaoh and his advisors hardened their hearts against Moses and Aaron, and there are other times when it says God hardened Pharaoh’s heart. They kind of mean the same thing. Nowhere in NT or OT Biblical commentaries is it ever suggested that Pharaoh’s free will was compromised, for that would be unthinkable; free will is a basic tenet of who we are, a fundamental tenet to our Fall from grace, and an essential component of our accepting redemption.
Also, consider if someone really upset you, “p***** you off,” or more delicately, “teed you off.” Somebody commenting on this would say, “The boss totally teed off Sarah!” You could even say that Sarah dug in her heels after that.
Did the boss upset you? Yes. The BOSS teed you off. Was your free will compromised? No, not in the least.
Likewise, God teed off the Pharaoh, and the Pharaoh’s heart was hardened. This is understandable because he (Pharaoh) was supposed to be a god, and he was a megalomaniac. He was really and truly mad and dug in his heels. Of course, God knows this in advance and doesn’t hesitate to warn Moses about it.
I heard it said once: God is like the sun. In the heat of the sun, wax melts but clay hardens. If our hearts are like wax, they will soften in God’s presence, but if they are like clay, they will harden.
Q: What was the significance of the plagues?
The plagues are God’s answer to Pharaoh’s hardness of heart in refusing to free the people of Israel.
Through the plagues, the Lord judges Pharaoh as well as all the other gods of Egypt.
The Israelites have been enslaved for 400 years, during which time they have been influenced by Egyptian culture – especially their gods. Through the plagues, God releases them from the influence of these false gods.
Chapter 8 – 11: The Ten Plagues
Q: How does Yahweh judge the gods of Egypt?
He customizes the plagues around the Egyptian gods. For example, Hapi was the Egyptian god of the Nile, so the 2st plague was turning the Nile to blood. Heket was the god of fertility – she had the head of a frog. So the 2nd plague was frogs overtaking the kingdom. Ra was the “sun god,” so the 9th plague was brought complete darkness for three days.
The Ten Plagues of Egypt
Chapter 11: The Tenth Plague – The Death of the Firstborn
Then the LORD spoke to Moses: One more plague I will bring upon Pharaoh and Egypt. After that he will let you depart, and when he does, he will drive you out completely.
Tell the Israelite men and women to ask their Egyptian neighbors for articles of silver and gold. .
The LORD indeed made the Egyptians well-disposed toward the people, and Moses himself was very highly regarded by Pharaoh’s officials and the people in the land of Egypt.
Moses then said to Pharaoh, “Thus says the LORD: About midnight I will go forth through Egypt. Every firstborn son in the land of Egypt will die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sits on his throne to the firstborn of the female slave who is at the hand mill, as well as all the firstborn of the livestock. There will be loud wailing throughout Egypt, such as has never been, nor will ever be again.
But among all the Israelites – humans and animals alike – not even a dog will bark, so that you may know that the LORD makes a distinction between Egypt and Israel.
All these officials of yours will then come and bow down before me, saying: “Go, you and all your followers!” After that, I will depart.”
With that, Moses left Pharaoh’s presence in hot anger.
Just as the LORD said to Moses earlier, Pharaoh did not listen to him. .
Many people have questioned the goodness of Yahweh since he killed the firstborn of every family in Egypt in the 10th plague – especially considering that the people of Egypt didn’t personally disobey God – certainly not their “first-born.” It was Pharaoh, right?
At least that’s the thinking. But this is mostly a superficial view that has not taken the time to consider the facts and context.
Now, a perfect God hardly needs justifying but, still, how can we (or God) justify this?
Q: Can anyone think of any satisfactory explanation?
Since “seven” represents a perfect number, we will try for seven reasons, although you don’t have to accept them all:
1) First, the Egyptians were far from innocent. Egypt had grown rich by enslaving the Jewish people for 400 years (Gen. 15:13). Then, many Egyptians participated (i.e., military, the midwives) when Pharaoh ordered all of the infant Hebrew boys to be drowned in the Nile River (Ex. 1:22). As usual, some were probably more culpable than others; for instance, how cruel individual slave-drivers were.
2) While Pharaoh killed every Hebrew infant boy (except Moses), God’s judgment was only on the firstborn of Egypt, which kind of makes God’s judgment mild in comparison to Pharaoh’s judgment. Note, it does not indicate anywhere that Pharaoh’s order to kill the Hebrew infants ever ceased; it’s possible that it was continuing even at the time of the plagues.
3) The 10th plague was last one – because it was a last resort. Pharaoh had been warned by God for nine straight plagues. BTW, very rarely in the OT does God give a sign that he does not pre-explain and post-explain. What gods do that? Only a God that cares. God had given Pharaoh multiple opportunities to change his mind and avoid judgment. Pharaoh did not give the Jews any chances, or ways out, when he killed the Hebrew boys. While God exercised patience and gave Pharaoh many chances, Pharaoh gave none.
4) Remember how 9 plagues earlier God told Moses to tell Pharaoh that Israel was his “first-born” and to let him go (Ex.4:22)? This may have been an ominous warning to Pharaoh, but the fact of the matter was that God’s first-born had been suffering under Egyptian slavery for 400 years already, and it appears they had done nothing to deserve it.
5) Just because your king or ruler is sinful, cruel, murderous, etc. is not an excuse for you to participate in that behavior and say, “Well, it’s not my fault.” Everyone knows basic right and wrong behavior because it is part of our spiritual natures. For example, in any culture a man can love his wife and children, be honest with his neighbors, and honor his commitments; OR, he can be hateful, cruel, dishonest, and a cheater. You don’t need to be a Christian to know these things. The Egyptians knew what was going on.
6) Above I said that even though a perfect God doesn’t need justification for his actions, let’s see explore what explanations we can come up with. As the author and creator of life, God has certain moral rights over human life that we don’t. Since God is the creator and sustainer of all people, he decides how long we get to live (Ps. 139:16). God takes everyone’s life at some point. It’s called death. God allows everyone to die; the only question is – when? We live everyday –not as a right –but because God loved us into existence and has allowed us to continue living. When God took the lives of the firstborn in Egypt, he was acting on prerogatives that rightly belong to him. In fact, these Egyptian boys most likely died in their sleep (Exodus 12:29 – “Now it came about at midnight…”). The Hebrew infants were given no such mercy, being drowned in the Nile River to die alone and suffocating.
As for children who would have died, let us remember God is not only just, but perfectly just. Jesus implies that little children will be in heaven (Mk. 10:14; Mt. 18:3; 19:14). It would seem then that God would have brought the innocent immediately into his presence. The Bible doesn’t spell out every possible situation so there are not hard and fast rules for all scenarios – so this is the Church’s best theological estimation.
7) Finally, would a cruel God eventually give up his own firstborn son for the salvation of the human race? We would be wrong if we didn’t think about this. While we might feel horror at the fact that God would judge the firstborn of Egypt, we need to remember that we’re dealing with the same God who paid this great and terrible price himself by giving up his “only begotten son” (Jn. 3:16). While God is willing and able to judge, he was also willing to take our place in judgment.
Q: About how long did the Ten Plagues last from beginning to end?
It is estimated that it lasted from Feb 10 to March 22, which was when the first Passover took place the night before they left. That is 40 days.
Q: What does this 40 days remind you of?
The 40 days leading up to the Last Supper. Lent!
Speaking of the First Passover, that’s next!
Closing Prayer
Father in Heaven, we all during salvation history You reveal to us that you love us and continually reveal your heart to us.
You continually fight for us, even when we don’t deserve it.
You continually show to us that we are made for you and you alone.
Yet, our hearts continually make idols, and we can make idols out of anything around us.
Lord God, free us from our modern-day idols. Like our forebears in faith, the Israelites, you free us for true worship.
Lord God, help our hearts to be free, truly free, to turn to you first, every day of our lives.
We make this prayer in the mighty name of Jesus Christ, our Lord, Amen.
Hail Mary, full of grace the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death.
Amen.
Taylor keeping positive in spite of only one eye!
Exodus # 5
- The First Passover Meal foreshadows the Last Passover Meal (Last Supper) – 12-13
- Crossing the Red Sea – 14
- Songs of Miriam – 15
- Manna from Heaven – 16
- Water from the Rock, attack of Amalek – 17
- Jethro’s counsel – 18
- Israelites reach Mt. Sinai – 19
- The Ten Commandments - 20
Advent 3
Maranatha – a 1st century greeting used by Paul and others that can be translated as “Christ has come,” also as “Christ is come,” and also “Christ will
Our Father – thy kingdom come, thy will be done… This isn’t only us, it’s also a prophecy.
Next… Sacrifice? – God gives us everything for our journey with Him, particularly love and forgiveness. What do we give Him in return for the love? What do we give him for His forgiveness? Nothing truly good and lasting ever comes for free. It always costs. The more it costs – the more we sacrifice – the more good and lasting it is. This is especially true for relationships. This is true for all humanity.
In the First Covenant period before Jesus came, the Jews gave sacrifices all the time to God. Love/gratitude sacrifices, and sin/forgiveness sacrifices. These kept love and forgiveness and God central to their lives. This is what it meant to be “chosen.” This was a relationship dance. If someone had a prize lamb or goat to offer, they sacrificed these. (Note that unlike pagan sacrifices, these sacrifices were eaten – shared with God.) If someone could not afford a lamb or goat, they could offer two pigeons or turtledoves. If they couldn’t afford that, they could offer fine flour. God did not want anything to get in the way of people receiving his mercy or blocking their relationship.
For “sin offerings,” the person or priest would lay their hands on the animal and pass their sins onto it. When burning the offering, the smoke carried their offering up to God and God called it a sweet scent. The offering was then eaten because this was a mutual act of fellowship.
As you can see, this was no primitive act of ignorance, but a highly developed form of pure relationship.
However, these offerings were never sufficient for the needs of man for he sinned often, needed mercy often, and needed to re-establish or re-solidify his relationship with God often. Consequently, the animal and grain sacrifices were never-ending.
God came here, through Mary, in Jesus, and put an end to agrarian sacrifices. By laying down his life for us, it’s as though we have been given a spiritual bank account with infinite credits of mercy. We only have to avail ourselves of it. Moreover, this was an act of love, for as Jesus said, “No greater love can a person give to one’s friends than to lay his life down for them.” And then he called us his friends.
So this sacrifice – which we now call the Mass – is a relationship dance of never-ending love and mercy. All we have to do is see it for what it is and choose it make it so.
Is there extra-biblical evidence of the ten plagues in Egypt? Some critics of the Bible claim that there is no verifiable evidence to support the Bible’s account of the Exodus of the Hebrews from Egypt. They say that Egyptologists have found no record of the Hebrew people in Egypt or the ten plagues as described in the book of Exodus. Christians accept that the Bible is God’s inspired Word, and they do not doubt that these events happened. They do not require extra-biblical accounts. However, external evidence can be useful in silencing detractors who say the ten plagues and the Exodus are just myths. The Ipuwer Papyrus is an ancient document that provides a possible independent record of the ten plagues in Egypt. It describes a great disaster that took place in ancient Egypt. The oldest copy dates to around 1400 BC, placing it close to the time of the Exodus (circa 1446 BC). The Ipuwer Papyrus is the sole surviving manuscript of an ancient Egyptian poem officially designated as Papyrus Leiden I-344. The poem is known as “The Admonitions of Ipuwer.” A new edition is available now entitled “The Dialogue of Ipuwer and the Lord of All.” Dutchman Giovanni Anastasi purchased the Ipuwer Papyrus in 1828, and it is now housed in Leiden, the Netherlands, at the Dutch National Museum of Antiquities, the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden. We shall now compare the Bible’s account of the plagues with the relevant parts of the Ipuwer Papyrus. The first plague (turning the Nile to blood). The Nile River, which formed the basis of daily life and the national economy in Egypt, was devastated as millions of fish died and the water was unusable. Pharaoh was told by God, “By this you will know that I am the LORD” (Exodus 7:17). The Ipuwer Papyrus says, “Plague is throughout the land. Blood is everywhere” (2:5–6). “The river is blood. . . . Men shrink from tasting—human beings, and thirst after water” (2:10). “That is our water! That is our happiness! What shall we do in respect thereof? All is ruin” (3:10–13). The fifth plague (the death of livestock). God protected His people from this plague, while the cattle of the Egyptians died. God was steadily destroying the economy of Egypt, while showing His ability to protect and provide for those who obeyed Him. Pharaoh even sent investigators (Exodus 9:1–7) to find out if the Israelites were suffering along with the Egyptians, but the result was a hardening of his heart against them. The Ipuwer Papyrus says, “All animals, their hearts weep. Cattle moan” (5:5). “Behold, cattle are left to stray, and there is none to gather them together” (9:2–3). The seventh plague (hail and fire). This hail was unlike any that had been seen before. It was accompanied by a fire that ran along the ground, and everything left out in the open was devastated by the hail and fire. Again, the children of Israel were miraculously protected, and no hail damaged anything in their lands (Exodus 9:35). The Ipuwer Papyrus says, “Forsooth, gates, columns and walls are consumed by fire” (2:10). “Lower Egypt weeps. . . . The entire palace is without its revenues. To it belong [by right] wheat and barley, geese and fish” (10:3–6). “Forsooth, grain has perished on every side” (6:3). “Forsooth, that has perished which was yesterday seen. The land is left over to its weariness like the cutting of flax” (5:12). The ninth plague (darkness). For three days, the land of Egypt was smothered with an unearthly darkness, but the homes of the Israelites had light (Exodus 10:22–23). The Ipuwer Papyrus says, “The land is without light” (9:11). The tenth and last plague (the death of firstborn males). Every household that did not apply the blood of the Passover sacrifice saw the death of the firstborn (Exodus 12:23). The Ipuwer Papyrus says, “Forsooth, the children of princes are dashed against the walls” (4:3 and 5:6). “Forsooth, the children of princes are cast out in the streets” (6:12). “He who places his brother in the ground is everywhere” (2:13). “It is groaning throughout the land, mingled with lamentations” (3:14). The Ipuwer Papyrus also contains a possible reference to the Hebrews’ departure from Egypt, laden with treasures: “Gold and lapis lazuli, silver and malachite, carnelian and bronze . . . are fastened on the neck of female slaves” (3:2; cf. Exodus 12:35–38). Further, there is a possible description of the pillar of fire: “Behold, the fire has mounted up on high. Its burning goes forth against the enemies of the land” (7:1; cf. Exodus 13:20–22). Egyptologist David Rohl, who doesn’t claim to be a Christian, has written two books on how biblical accounts relating to Egypt, Joseph, and Moses are astonishingly accurate. He believes Joseph and Moses were historic characters and cites Bronze Age slave lists containing Hebrew names, the grave goods of an underclass discovered at Avaris (the biblical Goshen), and Egyptian “plague pits” full of skeletal remains. While the Bible does not need confirmation from secular historians, and Christians do not require extra-biblical accounts in order to believe the Bible, it is interesting that independent records of biblical events exist—records with remarkable parallels to the biblical accounts.
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