PLAGUES OF EGYPT: Moses\' calendar contra Egyptian calendar

PLAGUES OF EGYPT
Moses' calendar contra Egyptian calendar

Iurii Mosenkis

The Plagues of Egypt might reflect a constellational calendar of 'incomplete year' from the summer solstice to the vernal equinox

The Plagues of Egypt may be interpreted as reflections of astronomical events during a year.
I. Blood: the water of the Nile was changed into blood (Ex. 7:14–25). It might be the summer inundation of the river (red water) as the beginning of Egyptian year. The death of fish in the Nile might symbolize the summer set of Pisces.
II. Frogs: may be interpreted as a rise of the frog-shaped Crater.
III. Lice
IV. Wild animals might stand for rising Lupus ('wolf', Sumerian 'Mad Dog,' or Ther, 'beast' in ancient Greek astronomy).
V. Cattle-plague stands for the autumnal set of Aries ('ram') and Taurus ('bull').
VI. Boils
VII. Hailstorm (on vine tree and fig-tree – Ps. 105:33) may be interpreted as rising wave-shaped Aquarius (hailstorm), setting tree-shaped Monoceros (fig tree) and Vindemiatrix, 'vine-dresser' (vine tree).
VIII. Locusts: might indicate the autumnal morning rise of Scorpius.
IX. Three days of darkness ('total darkness covered all Egypt for three days', Ex. 10:22) denotes not the winter solstice (impossible eight months after the inundation of Nile) but the solar eclipse on the March 5, 1223 BCE (above).
X. Death of the firstborn may be compared with the image of an autumnal star of Cain (= Spica or rather Antares), the elder son of Adam being a ploughman, and thus be interpreted as the vernal set of autumnal constellations.
Thus, the ten plagues of Egypt may reflect celestial events from the summer rise of Sirius (the beginning of Egyptian year) to the vernal equinox and the sets of the autumnal constellations (especially Spica, one of the firstborn Cain's symbols). The story about the plagues might have been influenced by some Egyptian myths and historical events, geological and biological truths. The two-month 'unattested period' of the calendar may be compared with 70-day period of invisibility of Sirius. It was considered that the star was located in the Underworld (under the horizon); the period of the pharaoh's embalming is of the same duration. Two 'unattested' winter months of the Romulus calendar may also be taken into consideration.
According to the Book of Formation (Sefer Yetzirah), each month corresponds to a zodiacal sign, e.g. Tammuz – Cancer, Nissan – Aries. Some commentators of the Bible proposed calendrical dating of the plagues: Tammuz – Blood, Av – Frogs, Elul – Lice, Tishrei – Wild Beasts, Cheshvan – Cattle Epidemic (Murrain), Kislev – Boils, Tevet – Hail, Shevat – Locusts, Adar – Darkness & Nissan – Death of the 1st Born. This dating corresponds with proposed chronological reconstruction.
The 'incomplete year' symbolized by the plagues lasts from the summer solstice (the beginning of a year in Egypt, Babylonia, and Greece) till the vernal equinox and resembles similar calendars of 'incomplete year', e.g. Romulus calendar (embracing the period from March to December).
The specific calendar of 'incomplete year' differs from majority of other calendars, in which the year is complete. However, the duration of months in a calendar may be bigger than the length of zodiacal (sideric) months (e. g., star calendar symbolized by Biblical postdiluvian patriarchs with 35, 34, 32, etc. days in each one). The sons of Jacob symbolize zodiacal constellations (solar zodiac in this case), but much earlier they have been 10, cf. 10 Jacob's son in the song of Deborah (Judg., 5), 10-month Gezer calendar of the 10th century BCE, and 11 zodiacal constellations after Eudoxus and Aratus (Libra as a part of Scorpius named Khelai, 'claws').
Exodus (along with Passover) may symbolize the vernal beginning of a year. (One more exact interpretation of the name of Passover may be suggested. The constellation of Aries is visible when the sun passes over the part of the constellation.) It was a calendar, different from Egyptian one.
The beginning of a year on the first full moon after the vernal equinox may be compared with the beginning of a year in the ancient Greek calendars: on the first full moon after the winter solstice (Thebes) or on the first full moon after the summer solstice (Athens). The participants of the feast of Passover might observe the rise of Spica in the evening, the rise of Aries in the morning, and the full moon (near Spica) during all night.
The role of Sirius in ancient Egyptian calendar might have been based not only on coincidence of the summer rise of the star with the summer solstice and the inundation of Nile. The summer solstice stands for the edge between 'good' and 'bad' parts of a year, i.e. between the period when the sun ascends and shines stronger from day to day and the period when the sun descends and seems weaker; compare Common Slavic godŭ, 'year', literally 'good' (i. e. 'good part of year'), and Ovid's Fasti as a calendar of the first part of a year. The division of the year into good and bad parts is reflected in ancient Egyptian sacral geography, e. g. Nile dividing inhabited territories and the land of tombs is a 'reflection' of the Milky Way supposed to be the edge between the parts of the year. Sirius is located near the Milky Way and may be considered a guard of the edge between the world of the living and the world of the dead.
The Moses calendar might be established on April 6, 1223 BCE, in the first new moon after the spring equinox and the planet parade in Aries. The Egyptian feast of Amon-Ra (solar ram) in the new moon of the first month of the Shemu season (the end of February in this time) was celebrated in the XIII century BCE in honor to the day of the intronization of Seti I, the father of Ramesses II.


Another order of the plagues: blood, flies, frogs, caterpillars and locusts, hailstorm, plague on livestock, plague on firstborn (Ps. 78:44–51); darkness, blood and the death of fish, frogs, flies and lice, hailstorm on winetree and fig-tree, locusts and caterpillars, plague on firstborn (Ps. 105:28–36).
Perhaps, including the eruption of Thera (Santorini).
Tabasky, Ch. Plagues and Jewish month, www.yeshiva.org.il/ask/eng/?id=3222
Years between the birth of each patriarch and the birth of his son stand for the days of each constellational month.
Jeremias, A., The Old Testament in the light of Ancient East, London; N. Y., 1911, vol. 2, p. 64, 77-81. Josef (was compared with a bull, Deut. 33:17, Gen. 49:22) may be identified with Taurus, but A. Jeremias also mentioned Orion.
Иванов В. В. Двенадцать сыновей Иакова, in: Мифологический словарь / Гл. ред. Е. М. Мелетинский, Москва, 1991, с. 177.
Куртик, Г., Некоторые проблемы ранней истории античной астрономии, Историко-астрономические исследования, Москва, 2001, вып. XXVI, с. 49.