When Egypt Was Destroyed by Plagues in History

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This article is part of a series of posts looking at some of the ancient biblical events from the Old Testament. With the corrected chronology, we see how these stories actually occurred in the real world, thus giving us an even better understanding of the Author behind them.

Frogs, flies, and fiery skies…

Frogs. Think of it—everywhere you walked, and sat, even in your bed and in your food! Think of the noise. Think of the smell of the piles upon piles of dead, rotting frog carcasses. I cannot imagine a more repulsive creature to be inundated with.

You have heard the stories of the plagues God brought upon the nation of Egypt as He was bringing Israel, His people, out from under the cruel hand of Pharaoh. This is a fascinating account in the Bible.

And then there were the flies. And the lice. And the locusts. And the boils. And the fire and hail. And the water turned to blood. And on and on, right up to the most horrific plague of the death of the firstborn child. Even just one of these plagues would have caused turmoil and chaos in Egypt, but by the time all ten of these had passed, it would have been devastating. Any ancient nation under such onslaught, no matter how powerful, would have been utterly destroyed. The king’s servants accurately stated to Pharaoh himself in Exodus 10:7, “Do you not realize that Egypt is destroyed?”

Fact or fabricated?

Did these things really happen? Just this week the topic of the Sunday sermon at our church was the Exodus account. During the sermon it hit me once again that, as we have pointed out elsewhere, if events such as these truly happened, then we absolutely must be able to find them in history. What we are dealing with in the Exodus account is told to be a major historical event, center stage in world history, concerning the defeat of the major world power of that day. It also is told to have been the cause of the birth of a nation that we still have with us today, the nation of Israel.

The basic elements needed in verifying any true-to-life account is an understanding of where the event took place as well as when the event took place. In this case, the “where” is not a problem. Everyone knows the plagues took place in Egypt. You could locate this same Egypt on a map on your phone right now.

But when did these events take place? If Egypt truly went through these terrible and devastating plagues as the book of Exodus records, suffered the loss of all of their military power in the Red/reed Sea, (not to mention their entire slave population which walked out the gates with much of the wealth of the kingdom), we should not have much trouble locating this major world event in Egypt on a timeline.

But, while we can easily recognize the place where these events were told to have happened, it has been demonstrated for a number of years now that we simply cannot find evidence of these accounts during the time they were supposed to have happened.

So, if these things took place in Egypt, when did they happen?

The Bible, of course, does not give us a date for the Exodus. (How can you have a B.C., or “Before Christ” date… before Christ?) Having a working timeline of biblical events is a process of piecing together clues that the Bible gives us, such as years between certain events, as well as matching individuals and events up with secular historical accounts, all while working within the constraints of proper chronology.

The traditionally accepted date given for the account of the Exodus has presented some serious problems. You will find no evidence of Egypt being destroyed at the traditional date of circa 1450 B.C. As a matter of fact, you find the opposite. At this time, Egypt is in its “New Kingdom” era, and very much large and in charge on the world’s stage. Some of its most powerful Pharaohs are in leadership, and there is no indication of any destruction of the nation. A quick Google search will actually show you that during this time, the mighty Pharaoh Thutmose III had placed the entire Canaanite region under direct imperial control. It is hard to imagine a more unlikely time for an Exodus of Israel out of Egypt into Canaan.

This is a problem for the validity of this most important biblical account. Now, we could, as Bible believing Christians, try to make the story work at these traditionally accepted dates. This has certainly been attempted time and again over the last number of decades. But as we have progressed in technology and archaeology, as demonstrated above, it has become widely realized by any honest individual who is “in the know” that this is just impossible. There is no real evidence of the Exodus account at the traditionally accepted dates. In fact, sadly, after decades of research, the majority of scholars today have concluded that the Bible is simply not historically reliable. Here are just a few examples:

“Exodus is a history that never happened.” -Ze’ev Herzog, Israeli archeologist, professor of archaeology at The Department of Archaeology and Ancient Near Eastern Cultures at Tel Aviv University

“We can say now with considerable confidence that the Bible is not a history of anyone’s past.” -Thomas Thompson, biblical scholar, theologian, professor of theology at the University of Copenhagen

“The quest for the historical Moses is a futile exercise. He now belongs only to legend.” -John Van Seters, scholar of the Hebrew Bible and the Ancient Near East

I could fill articles with similar quotes from scholars.

Another option is to just ignore it all with a wave of the hand, and an “I just believe it in my heart” rejoinder. But this really is unhelpful in our efforts to evangelize the lost, give solid reasons for the hope that lies within us, and wake the world up to the wealth of information that is in the biblical record. That sort of answer might give us a pat on the back by our fellow comrades, and some personal comfort, (maybe even a number of those most coveted likes on Facebook) but it really gives us no advantage over the cult down the street.

Let me give a quick illustration. Even if you are the bravest man in the world, and you just know it to be true in your heart, why would anyone believe it unless you had something to show for it? As James said, “Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. But someone will say, ‘You have faith, and I have works.’ Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.” (James 2:18-19) In other words, run into that burning building and save somebody big boy, and then we will know the truth about your said bravery.

Finding the plagues in history.

This series of articles is an attempt to demonstrate how real answers can be found when we simply do not ignore the facts, but we tackle them head on. This is how Christianity really does go forward and how a true defense of the faith is made. This is how Christianity gets back on the offense and off the constant defense.

Again, claims that are actually true will eventually be validated in the real world. If they cannot be, then they are simply not true. This is true for claims of bravery and ability, as in my illustration above, as well as stories of ancient civilizations destroyed by plagues from God. This is what separates stories about Princess Diana from stories about Princess Cinderella.

So the experts have told us there is no indication of the Exodus account in Egypt at the traditionally accepted dates. Instead of continuing to try to hammer out some sort of scenario that has proven to fail time and time again, or just ignoring what the experts are telling us, let’s see if we can determine why this seems to be the case. Let’s start asking some good questions and doing some good detective work.

Here is a good question—what if we have been wrong about the dates? What if we have been looking in the right place, but we have been very wrong about the time—wrong in the chronology?

Someone who has asked this good question and has spent most of his life doing relentless detective (research) work into questions such as these is Dr. Gerald Aardsma, The Biblical Chronologist. He has proposed that we have been way off on the dates of these accounts. In 1990, Dr. Aardsma advanced the idea of a major adjustment to traditional biblical chronology. He proposed that the “480” of 1 Kings 6:1 (a major key number in biblical chronology) was originally “1,480” but the Hebrew letters corresponding to the “one thousand” were lost at an early stage of copying.

This adjustment would move every account in the early Old Testament, before the time of Samuel, 1000 years earlier. 

And this one adjustment has made all the difference.

Now, instead of the plagues and other events of the Exodus having occurred around 1450 B.C., where it simply cannot be found, it is to be looked for at 2450 B.C., one thousand years earlier. Do we have any evidence at this time of national ruin in Egypt to the extent that could be due to the plagues described in the Bible?

Indeed.

When the archaeology is examined at the new dates, the harmony between the biblical and secular accounts is overwhelming. According to secular history, at this very time, Egypt is struck by national disaster, effectively causing the collapse of the great Old Kingdom at the end of the sixth dynasty. As a matter of fact, this powerful kingdom is so utterly destroyed that it does not come back onto the world scene for hundreds of years.

At this very time, a very long-reigning pharaoh (longest reigning king in history- Pepi II) is followed by a very short reigning pharaoh (about one year- Merenre Antyemsaf II) and cause of death is unknown.

At this very time, we have pottery shards all over the Sinai Peninsula of nomadic, pastoral, tribal people.

Here we have secular historical data giving validity to the scriptural account of the Exodus. And this is only one piece of the ever unraveling puzzle. Making this one adjustment in the chronology of ancient Old Testament biblical history is demonstrating the historicity of the biblical accounts in all sorts of ways. You are welcome to read some previous posts that have been published demonstrating more of the ways this new chronology shows the validity of the biblical accounts.

Yes, the frogs really were in the kneading bowls and in the beds. The flies and lice and locusts really did swarm into the land and destroy everything in their path. The army really did drown in the sea. God is patient, but His long-suffering does not last forever. And when He judges, He really judges. God’s Word is giving us an accurate account of these events and can be trusted to be giving us an accurate view of the God Who was behind them.

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