The Plagues of the Bible Explained

For three and a half millennia, people have wondered whether the story told by the book of Exodus was just a myth, or if it was a true account of a series of events that could be interpreted as nothing less than a divine miracle. It stretches the boundaries of belief to ponder the possibility, let alone the consequences, of the plagues of Egypt, as told by the Bible, having actually taken place.

But, perhaps, with today´s most advanced science, we might yet be able to discover if these most unbelievable happenings, happened.

The key to discovering the facts behind the story of the plagues is in not just finding potential explanations for each event. If we are to seriously consider whether the events described in the Bible could have happened as laid out in innumerable texts, we need a comprehensive explanation that covers each of the plagues, individually and together.

To begin, let us explore each of the plagues and their potential real-world causes. If science can shed some light on the sequence of events, the entire course of the plagues should become clear as we proceed.

First, there is the river of blood. According to scripture, Moses´s first act, which triggered the initiation of the sequence of plagues, was to turn the Nile River blood red.

Scientifically, there are a number of possible causes for a red river. Actual blood is one of the first that comes to mind. Throughout history, there have been reports of titanic battles between massive armies. Some of these battles were said to be so deadly that ´the waters ran red with blood´. Is it possible that, somewhere upstream, a gigantic clash of arms spilled enough blood into the Nile to cause such a change?

That scenario is unlikely in the extreme; there are no records of any kind that indicate a major war was underway anywhere in Africa during the time of the exodus. However, there is another explanation, one that involves another kind of titanic event, and one that was most assuredly recorded in history, all across the Mediterranean region.

The geography of the Nile region reveals some astonishing mysteries. The entire area is riddled with faults, one of the most tectonically active zones in the world. The African plate intersects the Asian plate just a few miles to the East, and a large spur fault line runs right under the Nile delta itself. Additionally, just a short distance away, geologically speaking, the northern edge of Africa is being forced underneath the European plate. In an area where three gigantic continents are rubbing together, it stands to reason that huge earthquakes are inevitable.

But can an earthquake turn the Nile red? The simple answer: yes.

Earthquakes often trigger the release of gasses on the surface. Some gasses can kill animals, and even humans, in the area where they emerge. If they happen to emerge under water? Not only do they kill, but the chemical interactions can actually change the color of the flow. Combined with all the silt kicked up by the tremor, a vermilion waterway can be changed to blood red. In October 2006, a half-mile stretch of the Yellow River in China was turned to blood in a very similar way.

Next came the frogs. A plague of frogs is more an oddity than anything, less inconvenience than annoyance. But where did they come from, flooding the lands around the Nile with hopping green croakers?

Following our earthquake scenario, it makes sense that if the Nile suddenly became toxic, not just a few frogs, as usually happens, would venture beyond the banks, but all of them would flee into the surrounding farmland at once. As many as up to one million frogs may have spread across Lower Egypt, immediately after the onset of the first plague.

And after the frogs, there were the gnats. Gnats, like frogs, tend to spend most of their time in marshy or swampy areas, just like the Nile Delta. And, if the Nile suddenly became toxic, it might take a bit longer for the airborne gnats to figure it out than it would the amphibians that actually inhabit those tainted waters. Again, the poisoned waters are probably to blame.

The fourth plague was one of flies and beasts. Again, the toxic Nile would quickly drive any creatures it didn´t kill out and away from its banks. And poisoned drinking water makes perfect sense for the fifth and sixth plagues, pestilence and boils. Add in flies, gnats, fleas, rats, and all manner of other exacerbating fauna, and Egypt would suddenly find itself drowning beneath a different kind of flood from the Nile; a full-scale Plague would soon be under way.

The seventh plague is the hardest to figure in scientifically. In fact, it is the odd parity of a storm of fire and ice cascading from the heavens that makes it so hard to believe in the Exodus story altogether. How can fire rain from the sky? And together with balls of ice, no less?

However, it is well established that major earthquakes often occur in tandem with volcanic eruptions, and the Mediterranean certainly has had plenty of those over the years.

But what does a volcanic eruption have to do with flaming rain intermingling with hail?

Imagine a severe thunderstorm. Lightning flashing every second or so, maybe even more often. Hail stones showering the countryside, pummeling all and sundry. And a grey-black haze hangs over the landscape.

The smoky fog is ash. Obsidian, vaporized stone, and other detritus have been blasted high into the atmosphere by the eruption. The leading edge of a volcanic plume some 2.5 miles thick passes over Egypt, bringing with it a dark maelstrom in the sky. The ionized air cascades sheets of lightning, blanketing the landscape in shimmering fire. Smoke pours from the heavens, and, by forming the condensation nuclei for the rapidly forming hail, caused by water vapor shot upwards by tremendous updrafts, the storm creates a punishing shower of icy stones.

Incredible? Believe it. That is exactly what happened on May 3, 2008, when the Chaiten volcano in southern Chile erupted suddenly. As is clearly evident from the photo taken by Carlos Gutierrez, the plume looks like nothing less than a rain of fire. Yet, there was hail as well.

Is it possible that such an eruption happened during the exodus? Archeologists have dated the eruption of a Mediterranean island volcano called Santorini to precisely that time period. It is not just possible, but highly likely that it happened during the events of the exodus; the eruption of Santorini was so violent, it destroyed the island, leaving behind only a few fragments of land. Had such an eruption happened either before or after, like the eruption of Vesuvius, there would certainly be a separate record of the event.

The eighth plague was a swarm of locusts. Whatever the cause of the hail storm, it seems only natural that such a wide-spread catastrophic weather disruption could have triggered the locusts´ swarm reaction. When temperatures cool suddenly, as would be the case following a massive hail storm, locusts can (and do) go into their special over-drive, undergoing a metabolic change to become the eaters-of-everything that we, the descendants of agricultural people, bear an instinctive fear of.

The ninth plague also follows from a volcanic episode – darkness. As Santorini´s plume began to spread downwind through the upper atmosphere, the fine dust and ash particles would block out the sunlight, perhaps for days. We observe similar happenings with many modern eruptions today.

And, finally, the last plague: the creeping death. Here the cycle returns to where it began, with escaping gasses. Given the short time frame of the plagues, it is highly probable that the initial earthquake, our likely culprit, had opened up more than one vent to the lethal gasses that lurk beneath the Earth´s crust. Just as escaping gasses turned the Nile the color of blood, so too could it be responsible for the most lethal plague of all.

It was Egyptian custom, at the time, for the eldest son to sleep on the ground floor, where the rest of the family was higher up. The parents had their bed, which kept them elevated, and other children often slept in what we would today call a loft. The Hebrews, on the other hand, did not generally sleep too close to the ground.

If a cloud of carbon dioxide, which is heavier than normal air, were to have escaped into the city during the night, it would creep along the land forming a suffocating blanket, never more than a few feet high. The deadly gas would asphyxiate livestock, other ground animals, and any humans caught unawares. Simply standing upright would keep one´s head in clean air, but the sleeping customs of Egypt at that time put the slumbering first-born children, and them alone, squarely in the gas´s ´death zone´.

Again, the explanation of this plague seems to stretch credulity. Yet, we have a contemporary example of exactly this happening. In 1979, just this sort of carbon dioxide discharge in Java killed 142 people.

All ten plagues, all possible – nay, probable – results of a ´perfect storm´ of tectonic activity. It is a potentially perfect match. Rare conditions would have to be just right, of course; but, were things different, would the story have been so memorable?

Are the plagues as described here a historical certainty? Hardly; but they are scientifically plausible. And given the preponderance of archeological evidence, produced by both the Hebrews and the Egyptians, it seems highly likely that something similar really did take place.

What´s more, the durability of this tale tells a story all its own. If such a rare series of events were to take place today, it would surely be spoken of for generations to come. It might even be considered grounds for the foundation of a new religion, one where a powerful being takes action to protect his chosen people while casting down their oppressors.

Finally, we must consider that even though such a sequence of events is unlikely at any given time, is it really such a stretch to believe that, in all of human history, such a thing has never happened? Wisdom teaches us that any possibility, no matter how improbable, over a long enough time period becomes inevitable.

The possibility is there. But did the plagues actually happen? It will be a long time before we can be absolutely sure. However, a wise man once said that Faith and Reason must work together for either to have any meaning. This article has provided Reason, through science. The choice to believe, to have Faith, is up to you.