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CONCORDIA UNIVERSITY EDUCATION NETWORK
EXODUS
DR. DAVID ADAMS
#35
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>> In talking about the plagues, somehow I just try to
connect each one of the plagues with a particular god or goddess
of ancient Egypt. But there seems to be disagreement about
which gods were being attacked with which plague. How important
is it for us to be able to identify which of the gods or
goddesses is being attacked with each of the plagues?
>> This is an interesting question. And it's one that comes
up frequently in more conservative type commentaries. You
almost never see this question dealt with in more historical
critical types of commentaries. You're absolutely right, Nick,
in suggesting that one of the points being made here and
throughout the plague narratives is the conflict between Yahweh
and the gods of Egypt. We've kind of said that along the way.
It's not directly stated in any of the plague narratives.
There's no direct statement that says here God is battling it
out with the various gods of Egypt. But everybody recognizes
that in the context of the ancient near east, that's how it
would have been understood in Egypt at that time. And that's
the way that we should understand it, as well. It's almost one
of those things that's so obvious to any informed reader, that
it doesn't need to be said directly in the text.
But the question you ask about how, you know, we can
identify which of the Egyptian gods is to be associated with
which plague is a more difficult question. Some commentators
spend a great deal of effort trying to identify which God Yahweh
is defeating in each of the ten plagues. And frankly, none of
these efforts have been very successful, at least not from my
perspective. The reason is I think the Egyptians just have too
many gods. And not only that, but it's often the case that the
duties of the gods overlap so you won't just have one god
responsible for one thing. You might have half a dozen
different gods or goddesses responsible for something.
So it's very difficult to say which god, you know, the
text has in mind at any particular point. And frankly, it
probably doesn't matter. Because the overall point is -- would
have been clearly understood. That the gods of the Egyptians
were in charge of all of these things, even if you didn't know
which particular god was in charge of what. So collectively
Yahweh is defeating them as a group. He's not really fighting
them one by one in each of the ten plagues. He's demonstrating
his power over all creation and, therefore, his power over all
the false gods of Egypt. So it's really not all that important
to be able to identify which god in particular is being
addressed with which plague.
The one that probably does stand out as the clearest is
the plague that involves darkness. Because the -- there were
three major sun gods in Egypt. There was Amun, there was Re and
there was Aten. Two of them, at least Amun and Re, sometimes
get combined into a single god called Amun Re. And Aten is
sometimes associated with them and sometimes treated separately.
But one way or another the sun god was the high god in
the Egyptian pantheon. And because that god in particular is so
easily identifiable and because that plague is the last one in
the sequence before the death of the first born, it's probably
the case that the ninth plague, the plague of darkness, sort of
represents the culmination or the high point or the climax of
the narratives before we get to the death of the first born.
So that's probably the one plague out of the group where
we could clearly identify more or less which Egyptian god is
being addressed. What we have here as it would have been
understood by the Egyptians at least is a kind of mythopoeic
struggle being acted out: The struggle between Moses and
Pharaoh in our world reflecting the struggle between Yahweh and
the gods of Egypt in the realm of the divine. That's how the
Egyptians would have understood it. And the main thing is that
at every turn the gods of the Egyptians are defeated.
And so that's the main point. Through this sequence of
acts, Yahweh demonstrates that he is the only true God. And as
a result, even the Egyptians will come to know that he is Yahweh
as he indicated that he wanted them to do in Chapter 7 verse 5.
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This text is being provided in a rough draft format.
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