Philosophy Now Forum

Each time, first a plague, then Pharaoh would agree to let the Jews go, but then God would harden his heart. Why?

The point to those plagues was to convince Pharaoh it wasn't in his/Egypt's interest to keep the Jews around. Was God playing around?

PhilX

Philosophy Explorer wrote:Each time, first a plague, then Pharaoh would agree to let the Jews go, but then God would harden his heart. Why?

The point to those plagues was to convince Pharaoh it wasn't in his/Egypt's interest to keep the Jews around. Was God playing around?

PhilX

well OT god was a hard ass. But its things like this written into the bible that make me look more towards polytheism.
Other side of it maybe god just wanted to make them suffer. Tbf it always seems to happen to the Jews. Gods chosen people suffer alot

This is why.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZyFM0_AhIYA

The way my mother always put it (and she could certainly be wrong) was that the sentence should be read as Pharoah doing the hardening. That is to say, if I said "that last failure has only strengthened my resolve to succeed" I certainly wouldn't be giving the failure any sort of causal power. Instead, I would mean that the fact of the failure has caused me to strengthen my resolve. As such, the "fact of God" led to Pharoah hardening his own heart. There's a certain grammatical sense to be had there, and it certainly helps us get around the conundrum of God doing the hardening.

The other thing that needs to be remembered is that these stories were told and retold orally many times before being written down, and while I assume that at that time the retelling was much more accurate, I also believe that the stories were enhanced for effect along the way. The story tellers were trying to frighten the people into submission and a Pharaoh that gave in too easily would not have the desired effect on the listener. The Pharaoh had to exercise his power as much as possible and then be crushed completely, for effect.

Are you really searching for some logic in the Holy Scripture? Best wishes.

It's interesting to note, that although the Jews were supposed to be captured by the Egyptians and enslaved- unlike all the other nations they conquered and enslaved, The Jews are never mentioned in any of their histories, either on monoliths in temples or anywhere else. In fact The Egyptians probably never attacked Israel, their close neighbours The Assyrians may have, but their history is thread bare and they were probably only ever enslaved by the Babylonians whose lands they originally inhabited in the North of their Empire.

In fact there is very little historical evidence that back anything about the Kingdom/Empire of Israel up, either from Jeremiahs genocide of the Canaanites/Philistines et al and the 31 cities of Ai or about places like Jericho, which never had a city wall in the time periods so stated either 500 years before the mentioned story of Joshua in the Bible and hence could never of had it blown down by a trumpet, even if one were willing to buy such obvious lies. The victor writes the history, the victor makes shit up, the victor is full of shit. Take Herodotus: Histories mixed amongst the propaganda that Xerxes had an army of over a million, are stories of Satyr and Centaurs and all sorts of stuff, that modern people would simply have found ridiculous. But you could get way with a lot more artistic license in them ancient times.

The problem is The Bible has to be 100% true, as we all know though human beings are full of shit, ask them to write anything down and sooner or later you are stepping through the wardrobe into Narnia if you buy such shite that man has ever been honest in written word, let alone his own voice.

but Jews were not supposed to or even captured by Egyptians!
"In fact The Egyptians probably never attacked Israel"... what Israel???

Create a false Christianity and then destroy that, thus proving that Christianity is false. Unfortunately it doesn't work, and anyone with a brain that works, will see through it. But it's fun to watch.

Philosophy Explorer wrote:Each time, first a plague, then Pharaoh would agree to let the Jews go, but then God would harden his heart. Why?

The point to those plagues was to convince Pharaoh it wasn't in his/Egypt's interest to keep the Jews around. Was God playing around?

PhilX

Because he wanted to show how stupid free will is.

David Handeye wrote:but Jews were not supposed to or even captured by Egyptians!
"In fact The Egyptians probably never attacked Israel"... what Israel???

Could you run that sentence or two by me in English?

What Israel? No didn't get what you meant there, my bad, although I am from England, so I do tend to probably falsely pride myself on my ability to understand English. :/

Blaggard wrote:

David Handeye wrote:but Jews were not supposed to or even captured by Egyptians!
"In fact The Egyptians probably never attacked Israel"... what Israel???

Could you run that sentence or two by me in English?

What Israel? No didn't get what you meant there, my bad, although I am from England, so I do tend to probably falsely pride myself on my ability to understand English. :/

According to the Bible, the Jews, starting with Joseph and his brothers, went down to Egypt to live. The Egyptians over the years saw the Jews increase in number and fearing that they might join up with Egypt's enemies, they decided to enslave them. Israel didn't come into existence until after the Jews left Egypt.

PhilX

Blaggard wrote:

David Handeye wrote:but Jews were not supposed to or even captured by Egyptians!
"In fact The Egyptians probably never attacked Israel"... what Israel???

Could you run that sentence or two by me in English?

What Israel? No didn't get what you meant there, my bad, although I am from England, so I do tend to probably falsely pride myself on my ability to understand English. :/

The Bible was not written in English. This is not question of language, the question is that you never read the Bible, and I can see from what you write that you don't know anythyng about these arguments, You'd better shut up.