* Mentions Slaves Get Rich 40 Times! Bob Enyart and Fred Williams continue their series on the historical evidence for Israel's sojourn in Egypt and then their exodus. For the first time in broadcast history, the guys bring Ipuwer's papyrus to the audience. Real Science Radio thus queries an eyewitness to the plagues of Moses repeatedly mentions the transfer of wealth from the rich to the slaves of Egypt. Forty times in the eight pages of the English translation Ipuwer repeats that the servants of the land now have the riches of their masters. Forty times! The scribe records no battle, no army, no warrior leader, and describes nothing like a civil war, but only blames one person for the calamity. As excerpted at rsr.org/exodus#ipuwer, the sage only once ascribes blame, and that was to the one who poured out water on the ground, when the river became blood:
Ipuwer: "Behold, Egypt is fallen to the pouring of water; and he who poured water on the ground, seizes the mighty in misery. ... The river is blood."
Exodus: "...you shall take water from the river and pour it on the dry land. The water which you take from the river will become blood" (Ex. 4:9). "And all the waters that were in the river were turned to blood" (Ex. 7:20).
These and other particulars, including the theme of the servants' gain, explicitly testifies to that same extraordinary happening as recorded in Moses' Exodus and prophesied by God in Genesis! That Ipuwer places the blame for Egypt's fall merely on him "who poured water on the ground" is extraordinary and powerful extrabiblical evidence of the historicity of the signs that God gave to Moses in an attempt to convince Pharaoh to comply. Note also that Ipuwer does nothing to further explain the identity of this man. How could that be? The one he blames for the destruction of the Nile, the fall of Egypt, and the servants taking the wealth of the mighty, is described only as "he who poured water on the ground"? He described no more because Moses needed no introduction. All of Ipuwer's readers, the contemporaneous ones, and for as far into the future as he could envision, would know exactly who he was referring to. The one who gave Pharaoh that unheeded warning sign by pouring water on the ground.
* Parts 1 – 8 and the Written List:
- Part 1 and the list both at rsr.org/exodus
- Part 2
- Part 3
- Part 4
- Part 5
- Part 6 Ipuwer 1 (this program)
- Part 7 Ipuwer 2 (read the Forty Times)
- Part 8
- Bonus: mummy genomes
* Today's Resources: All available from our store.kgov.com, the guys recommend:
- Mahoney's stunningly beautiful Patterns of Evidence
- Enyart's Mount Moriah: Evidence for the Resurrection
- and Bob's Bible Tour of Israel.
Our BEL videos are far from the production quality of Tim's superb work. But like his Patterns, they too are chock full of important and fascinating information corroborating the historicity of the Scriptures!