The catastrophic plagues occurs in Chapter 16. In this Christian vision, the situation is that a man named John, who is presumed to be John the Apostle in old age on the island of Patmos, has a series of visions of the end of time and judgment day. The best known collection of plagues in the New Testament is the seven bowls of God’s wrath that are poured out on the earth at the end of time and are described in the Revelation. But it is an interesting interpretation, and the Scriptures do say that God will bring down his wrath on the Egyptian gods. Much of the worship of the gods by the powerful priests was secretive, and not many Egyptians had a detailed knowledge of it. This interpretation also presumes a detailed knowledge of Egyptian gods, which were many. But while the Nile had many flies, it is not clear that she was specifically a goddess of them. Her Egyptian name was Wadjet she was the patron of the Lower Nile and the cobra was sacred to her. The plague of gnats, or flies, is tied to the goddess Uatchit, who is called the goddess of flies in many sources. This argument is fascinating but it is not clear. A considerable amount of devout interpretation has been given to these passages, and some have argued that each of the 10 plagues represents one of the many gods of ancient Egypt, showing the superiority of the Hebrew God to the pagan gods.įor example, it is argued that the plague on cattle is a symbolic thrashing of the goddess Hathor, the goddess of cattle, and the plague of darkness was a slap in the face to the sun god, Amun-Re. The plagues were water turned into blood, frogs, lice, gnats, diseased livestock, boils, hail, locusts, darkness for three days and killing of firstborn sons. These plagues are described in chapters 7 through 11 of the book of Exodus.

Orgis can also refer to unrestrained emotion or desire, hence the English word orgy.Īnother term used is thumos, which means am outburst of anger or expressed anger that has serious consequences. A common biblical Greek term for wrath that is unleashed as plagues on the earth is orgis, which can mean fury or a harsh punishment administered by a law court. These words are often tied to the wrath of God, which inflicts the plagues. Another term is panoukla, which means a disease or illness.

There are several Greek words in the New Testament that refer to plagues, the most common being plage, which means a blow, a wound or a disease. Sometimes this is translated as pestilence. It can mean slaughter, a disease, a strong blow or a death blow.Īnother Hebrew term is debher, which more explicitly means a disease, and in the Hebrew Scriptures this is normally associated with divine anger. In Hebrew, the most common term is maggephah, although there are other related words used. There are nearly 70 references to plagues and pestilences in the Hebrew Bible and at least five Hebrew words are used for plagues.

Prophet in bible in tamil letters