I don't believe that plagues happened so quickly one after another and at a time when some Hebrews moved out of Egypt.
It's impossible to tell what really happened then, but there is one explanation which preserves the possibility of a series of plagues one after the other, and the splitting of the Reed Sea: the eruption of Thera (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thera_eruption#Biblical_traditions).
There is no evidence of the Exodus and there is no evidence of Jesus. The historian try desperately to proof his existance but they can't.
Jesus lived in a completely different time: unlike at the time of the Exodus, lots of people were writing about that period at the time, or very shortly afterwards.
I don't know why you're so dead set that Jesus did not exist; indeed, I'm most amused by the way that, as an observant Jew, you're making me stand up and declare: I believe in Jesus! (Well, I do.)
A quick look at Wikipedia reveals (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historicity_of_Jesus) that, in addition to the Gospels and the letters of Paul:
Some of the early Church fathers quote eyewitnesses of Jesus' ministry and healings, in the late first century.
Josephus wrote, in 93 CE:
About this time came Jesus, a wise man. His conduct was good, and he was known to be virtuous, and he won over many of the Jews and also many Greeks. When Pilate, upon the accusation of the first men amongst us, condemned him to be crucified, those who had formerly loved him did not cease to follow him. They reported he appeared to them on the third day, living again, accordingly, he was perhaps the Messiah concerning whom the prophets have recounted wonders. And the tribe of the Christians, so named after him, has not disappeared to this day.
(This text being my modification of the text that has come down to us, which Christians have meddled with, with a quotation given by a tenth-century Arab, both from the Wikipedia page.)
Tacitus wrote, in ca. 116:
Nero fastened the guilt of starting the blaze and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians by the populace. Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius 14-37 at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus, and a most mischievous superstition, thus checked for the moment, again broke out not only in Judaea, the first source of the evil, but even in Rome, where all things hideous and shameful from every part of the world find their centre and become popular.
The Talmud records (Sanhedrin 43a):
On the eve of the Passover, Yeshu was hanged. Forty days before the execution took place, a herald went forth and cried: "He is going forth to be stoned because he has practiced sorcery and enticed Israel to apostasy. Any one who can say anything in his favour, let him come forward and plead on his behalf." But since nothing was brought forward in his favour he was hanged on the eve of the Passover.
All of these have some problems associated with them, but there's enough evidence in general to say that a Jesus really did exist, and was executed by the Romans, if not necessarily very much more.
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Date: 2009-02-10 07:53 pm (UTC)It's impossible to tell what really happened then, but there is one explanation which preserves the possibility of a series of plagues one after the other, and the splitting of the Reed Sea: the eruption of Thera (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thera_eruption#Biblical_traditions).
There is no evidence of the Exodus and there is no evidence of Jesus. The historian try desperately to proof his existance but they can't.
Jesus lived in a completely different time: unlike at the time of the Exodus, lots of people were writing about that period at the time, or very shortly afterwards.
I don't know why you're so dead set that Jesus did not exist; indeed, I'm most amused by the way that, as an observant Jew, you're making me stand up and declare: I believe in Jesus! (Well, I do.)
A quick look at Wikipedia reveals (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historicity_of_Jesus) that, in addition to the Gospels and the letters of Paul:
- Some of the early Church fathers quote eyewitnesses of Jesus' ministry and healings, in the late first century.
- Josephus wrote, in 93 CE:(This text being my modification of the text that has come down to us, which Christians have meddled with, with a quotation given by a tenth-century Arab, both from the Wikipedia page.)
- Tacitus wrote, in ca. 116:
- The Talmud records (Sanhedrin 43a):
All of these have some problems associated with them, but there's enough evidence in general to say that a Jesus really did exist, and was executed by the Romans, if not necessarily very much more.