The Plagues of Egypt by Siro Igino Trevisanato

51GFEKFQKHL._SL500_AA300_Over the past several months I have been researching the biblical Ten Plagues of Egypt for a personal writing project. Specifically, I have been looking at how the story of the plagues were a description of a power encounter between God Almighty and the gods of ancient Egypt.

Looking online I discovered this book by Siro Igino Trevisanato, a molecular biologist, that looked very interesting – a glance at the book via Google reader showed a lot of references to various gods.

Sadly enough, when I read the book it turns out that Trevisanato’s discussion about gods where limited to the gods of Greece and not Egypt.

Yes, the gods of Greece.

Here’s why (this is the cool part) – Trevisanato’s goal in his book “The Plagues of Egypt” was to see if there were any archaeological, historical and scientific evidence to the ten plagues as recorded in the book of Exodus.  Using the process of elimination, Trevisanato comes to the conclusion that the plagues were the result of a double volcanic eruption over a period of 21 months.

The only volcano that would fit this solution is the eruption of Santorini in the Aegean Sea around 1602 and 1600 BC.  Knowing that any eruption that would effect Egypt across the Mediterranean Sea would also leave a mark on surrounding area, Trevisanato looks at the ancient stories of Greece to see if there are any similarities.

Surprisingly enough, the majority of the Greek stories about the creation of their gods correlate with the eruption and aftermath of the double eruption of Santorini. Hence the references I saw on Google Reader to gods and the plagues.

Fascinating information – yet, not quite what I was looking for… sigh…

Oh well, at least I learned a lot ancient Egyptian rulers, military campaigns, volcanoes, and Greek gods. 😀

4 thoughts on “The Plagues of Egypt by Siro Igino Trevisanato”

  1. You state that the plagues started with a volcano. However, the stream winds would have darkened the skies within 17 hour in the furthest southern portions of Egypt. You also make the claims that the boils were caused by acid rain, when there are no mentions of rain. For you theory to hold any water, the events would have taken place in a different order than stated in the Bible.

    1. Thank you Kurt for your comment. Just to verify, it was Siro Igino Trevisanato who made those claims in his book “The Plagues of Egypt.” I merely offered up my thoughts on his book, which I found insightful. Blessings.

      1. Just bumped into your review/comments, and I’ll also answer the ones of the person above.
        There are Egyptian theological texts dealing with the plagues, e.g. a string of spells in Edwin Smith Papyrus and the Book of Heavenly Cow. You’ll find the plagues there as well as in four texts I mentioned in the book: the diary in Rhind Mathematical Papyrus 87, the Manetho quote about Timaios, the el-Arish Naos, and Papyrus Magical Harris.
        Overall, Seth was accused to be behind the mess.
        Regarding the claim – not by you – that my explanation requires a different order of the plagues, and the missing rain, both remarks are nonsensical.
        My explanation only works with the biblical series.
        Ash fallout gets you acidified waters [p 1], frogs pushed out [p 2], larvae hatching from eggs placed in dead animals and wounds from acidified waters [p 3], then adult flies [p 4].
        The ash that fails to fall then forms a film that triggers weather problems: storm that poisons herbivores [p 5], and causes blisters [p 6], then hail [p 7], and as humidity is much higher than normal because of the weather anomalies one gets invertebrate proliferation in the area [p 8].
        The volcano resumes its activity and this time the plume is at low altitude [p 9], and people have a psychological reaction [p 10].
        All this stuff is attested by Egyptian documents from Hyksos time.
        The fact that the rain is not mentioned in the Exodus account does not mean that there was no rain. It just means that just as the Exodus account fails to mention the cloud from which volcanic fallout came (it’s mentioned in the Psalms, though), it doesn’t mention other facts mentioned elsewhere (Psalms, Artapanus, Josephus, Jasher): tsunamis up the Nile, proliferation of worms in the fields, … and a storm that turned grass toxic (in fact only herbivores died), which all make perfect sense within a volcanic eruption context.
        Hope I answered your queries.

        1. Thanks Siro for your comments! I will have to look up those Egyptian theological texts. =D

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