Fantastic Voyage

From the ten plagues to the parting of the red sea?

Tell me what you think of the story of Moses..

Let me kick it off, by saying, I find it quite amazing that no sooner has a major, mind blowing miracle taken place for the benifit of the Israelites, than they quickly forget it and starting giving Moses attitude.


I mean, come on..would you forget the parting of the red sea if you had seen it.

But lay it on me. Tell me everything you know, or think you know about Moses, and the Exodus.

Chili

True, it was wrong to part the waters to get into the promised land but it gave them a false hope of deliverance from the turmoil they left behind.

In reality it is no different then protestant churches surviving who are also torn, and are forever torn, in the faith-doubt/saved sinner paradox until they die.

NZSkep

short answer - its all BS
tactful answer - its a metaphor, just like Adam and Eve and Noah etc

I mean, supposedly Moses asks he Pharoh to 'let my people go' and it takes 10, count em, 10, miracle plagues for the pharoah to relent. The passover one is the most sickening. This is a loving God who caused all the firstborn sons of every egyptian to die. Overkill or what! Ok, lets say I'm god and I want to persuade the pharoah to let my chosen people go. Do I appear before the pharoah in real life (or even a dream) and tell him to do it. Egyptians held dreams in very high status in those days (seven cows eating seven cows and all that) or do I not bother with that and simply murder in cold blood all the innocent babies in egypt, not just the pharoahs son, but all the citizens who would have had no responisbility for this atall.
Its basically Holocaust - the prologue.
Oh, and why would an all knowing god require all the israelites to paint a red cross on their door to show the angel of death not to kill their kids. why not simply give the angel a long list of all the sweet innocent babies god wants to die.
Basically this story makes zero sence whatsoever as a literal interpretation.

Fantastic Voyage

lol, exactly the kind of thing I was looking for...and yes..Overkill is the word for it. I understand that the ten plagues represent an attack on the gods of Egypt themselves. And while we are at it, how long do you think it took the Isrealites to cross the Red Sea...I bet a long time with all those people and supplies.

and Pharoah never apparently clues into the supernatural block before him?

NZSkep

red sea is 17 miles wide at its narrowest point. Don't forgetthat even with the water parted the mud would still be really icky (unless god miraculasly dried that up too) so it would take at least a couple of days to cross with all the baggage,sick people, kids oldies etc. From god's point of view, why bother parting the waves and making them walk through. why not simply magic them to the other side with your 'omnipower'

some apologists are saying the actual translation should say Reed sea, and that would explain it. But then there isn't much miraculis (sp?) about parting some reeds and walking through them.

butswana

Let's not forget that God hardened the heart of Pharoah, therefore causing him to tell Moses to fuck off. So God was just jerking Moses chain by making Pharoah be a dick to him and his people.

cass256

Yeah, first of all the God of the old Testament Yahweh chose a murderer (Moses) to represent him. Then as you say he hardens Pharoah's heart so he wouldn't let the people go. Now how is that an exciuse to plague Egypt, kill their first born children etc.?

Secular Pinoy

You should read Robert Ingersoll's Some Mistakes of Moses.

Anat

Well, supposedly the same people who saw God talking to them in flame and smoke from Sinai went and made the golden calf when Moses took too long to come down from the mountain. The authors of these stories did not think public revelation was an effective way for God to communicate with people in the long term. The effect of revelation seems to be immediate but easily lost.

No, it is pointless to read the story of the exodus as history, and I don't think it was intended as such originally. But it does read as impressive drama. Or at least, that's what it seemed like when I was exposed to it as a kid, and I would guess that my outlook at that time was similar enough to that of listeners in ancient times.

Adora

I believe one of the most compelling facts is archaeologists' ability to find archaeological evidence of ancient Bedouin camps, but no evidence of hundreds or even thousands of Red Sea Pedestrians travelling in a small desert area for an extended period of time.