RE: [Quranic Reflection]: Magic
December 31, 2019 at 6:25 am
(This post was last modified: December 31, 2019 at 6:30 am by The Grand Nudger.)
Just as an fyi, there's actually a story behind that story that's absolutely fascinating. If you ever wanted to do some actual "quranic reflection".
The wizard duel and the plagues...exodus....had nothing to do with any moses who threw down any staff.
It's the narrative product of post exile jewish literature heavily influenced by the misconceptions babylonians had about egyptian religion. Set in the 1200s or before, it describes, instead, a polemic against the main gods of egypt as they were known in the fifth century - part of the period in which these stories were constructed. The oldest extant (partial) manuscripts of the story in question are no older than the even later hellenistic period from 321-30ishbc.
As it's understood, this was the foundation legend of a particular people, the levites..who, after becoming the priestly class, incorporated their tribal narrative as the backbone of a national myth meant to eulogize an Isreal that had never existed, and that what detail had existed, and was recounted in their magic book (and then..lol, faithfully, in yours) was typical of a much later date in time. This is a running problem of the entire old testament. The authors simply could not remember, or even imagine, factual period appropriate details for a kindgom that did not exist when it was claimed to have.
What they did, instead, was to imagine a society much like their own transported into the past as that national foundation myth, above, on a resurgent wave of hope for a new israel in diaspora. It was precisely this element of judaism that created the messianic sects which would give birth to christianity, and through christianity, islam. That's the great dripping irony of the middle east, at present. Without the myth of israel...there would be no islam.
The wizard duel and the plagues...exodus....had nothing to do with any moses who threw down any staff.
It's the narrative product of post exile jewish literature heavily influenced by the misconceptions babylonians had about egyptian religion. Set in the 1200s or before, it describes, instead, a polemic against the main gods of egypt as they were known in the fifth century - part of the period in which these stories were constructed. The oldest extant (partial) manuscripts of the story in question are no older than the even later hellenistic period from 321-30ishbc.
As it's understood, this was the foundation legend of a particular people, the levites..who, after becoming the priestly class, incorporated their tribal narrative as the backbone of a national myth meant to eulogize an Isreal that had never existed, and that what detail had existed, and was recounted in their magic book (and then..lol, faithfully, in yours) was typical of a much later date in time. This is a running problem of the entire old testament. The authors simply could not remember, or even imagine, factual period appropriate details for a kindgom that did not exist when it was claimed to have.
What they did, instead, was to imagine a society much like their own transported into the past as that national foundation myth, above, on a resurgent wave of hope for a new israel in diaspora. It was precisely this element of judaism that created the messianic sects which would give birth to christianity, and through christianity, islam. That's the great dripping irony of the middle east, at present. Without the myth of israel...there would be no islam.
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