Exodus says that the Egyptian magicians reproduced some of the signs of Moses. Turned staffs into snakes, water into blood...

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But the Egyptian magicians did the same things by their secret arts, and Pharaoh's heart became hard; he would not listen to Moses and Aaron, just as the LORD had said.

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How is this viewed by scholars of ancient history?

Did the Egyptians posses real magical powers, or are the Egyptian gods and other Gods mentioned in the Bible believed to be real non-human beings that people worshipped and had these powers? or was it by some foolery or alright of hand like a modern magician?


I read this pretty good scholarly article. What powers were Egyptian priests known to have? And what is the stance of the church? Black magic, powers of lesser gods, sleight of hand?

https://www.thetorah.com/article/the-egyptian-magicians

Or, one might consider that these were supernatural powers granted by Satan to humans for the purpose of exterminating the Hebrews with the purpose of attempting to defeat God's purpose of bringing forth the Messiah through Jacob's bloodline.

They couldn't stop the boils from appearing on their bodies or the nasty lice.
Didn't do well with the locust.
Hail and fire they couldn't do nothing about.
All first born both human and beast died, even theirs.

Also God harden pharaoh's heart before, during, and after the 10 events.

God's purpose was to kill Pharaoh, make an example of him for all of the world to see. He told Moses he would harden his heart and he did.

Dude was crushed by a wall of water, died in the Red Sea.

Side note:

Wife and I purchased John MacArthur 's study Bible and started reading the gospel of Mark together, every morning for about 40 minutes. Twenty minutes, break for an hour, then twenty minutes.
We finished Mark and elected to start from the very first page of Genesis and after a few weeks, completed Genesis. Questioning each other On what we read while it was fresh On the mind was critical.

We are Now in the Exodus book and just finished the part where Moses parted the Red Sea. Just wow!

I have always studied bits and pieces of the Bible and highly recommend reading Genesis with someone you love from front to back.

Our goal is to get thru the Old Testament by the end of the year.

The study Bible is the written word in understandable English, the notes below each paragraph are JM interruption. I can honestly say we have seldom looked for interruption from JM as the text really flows.
Moses also likes to repeat himself so if you miss it the first time, he will repeat it.

UTExan said:

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Or, one might consider that these were supernatural powers granted by Satan to humans for the purpose of exterminating the Hebrews with the purpose of attempting to defeat God's purpose of bringing forth the Messiah through Jacob's bloodline.

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I never understood this line of reasoning. If Satan has supernatural powers, or really any powers at all, it is only because they were given to him by God. God could take them away at any time. God knows exactly the capabilities of Satan and knows exactly how Satan will use them. If God's great plan was threatened He could just revoke those powers.

Traditionally Jews just view Satan as an angel with a job. He's the equivalent of a state prosecutor that seeks to have us condemned and punished for our sins. I prefer to take things a step further and say that Satan's job is to tempt us away from God and also speak to our condemnation. Satan's temptation is the counterweight against God's goodness that makes free will possible. Without that we'd only have the option of goodness, and there is no freedom in that.

Along those same lines, I don't think God wanted to make an example out of Pharoah. God wanted to the Jews free so He could make an example of them. Pharoah just got in the way. Pharoah's will was to obstruct God at all times, but even the strongest will would collapse under the weight of the miracles and hardship imposed on Egypt. So God hardened Pharoah's heart to prevent His direct action from running roughshod over Pharoah's free will.

While I think the theme in the story is that Gods power is beyond that of men or other gods, I'd like to learn more about how much power Egyptian priests are considered to have possessed.

I've been searching for more understanding of the nature of God the I AM of Moses and Abraham, and also the nature of the new age philosophy, mystic or alchemist view of God that often claim "secret" knowledge.

This story in Exodus stands out as a contrast between the two because I've discovered a lot of new age philosophy, such as hermeticism, is considered a derivative of Egyptian beliefs. Well here in Exodus is a record of Egyptian secret arts in direct comparison to God I AM.

It would be useful to know how scholars view theses secret arts. As legitimate witch craft type powers, demon powers, or do they think it was sleight of hand?

I don't think theories of demon imbued powers are in conflict with biblical records.

ramblin_ag02 said:

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UTExan said:

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Or, one might consider that these were supernatural powers granted by Satan to humans for the purpose of exterminating the Hebrews with the purpose of attempting to defeat God's purpose of bringing forth the Messiah through Jacob's bloodline.

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I never understood this line of reasoning. If Satan has supernatural powers, or really any powers at all, it is only because they were given to him by God. God could take them away at any time. God knows exactly the capabilities of Satan and knows exactly how Satan will use them. If God's great plan was threatened He could just revoke those powers.

Traditionally Jews just view Satan as an angel with a job. He's the equivalent of a state prosecutor that seeks to have us condemned and punished for our sins. I prefer to take things a step further and say that Satan's job is to tempt us away from God and also speak to our condemnation. Satan's temptation is the counterweight against God's goodness that makes free will possible. Without that we'd only have the option of goodness, and there is no freedom in that.

Along those same lines, I don't think God wanted to make an example out of Pharoah. God wanted to the Jews free so He could make an example of them. Pharoah just got in the way. Pharoah's will was to obstruct God at all times, but even the strongest will would collapse under the weight of the miracles and hardship imposed on Egypt. So God hardened Pharoah's heart to prevent His direct action from running roughshod over Pharoah's free will.

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Then why not just soften his heart and let Jacob's offsprings go their merry way?



God killed em dead along with his followers as Moses wrote. God has no issues killing evil men, and IMO even stacked the deck against this king by making his heart hard.

Exodus 14:18 which states the drowning of Pharaoh and his followers were for all of Egypt to see the glory of God.

He is God, your free will is stronger than God?

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He is God, your free will is stronger than God?

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Of course not. No one's will can stand up to God's will. That's why God had to harden Pharoah's heart. God had to give Pharoah a supernatural level of stubborness to be able to stand up to Him and maintain any sort of free will.