Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Karl Randolph" <kwrandolph AT email.com>]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Liz Fried" <lizfried AT umich.edu>
<snip>

>  Liz can you give us other
> > examples where pagan deities are shown in the OT as responding
> > favorably to
> > human sacrifice or any other kind of sacrifice?
> >
> > This isn't a rhetorical question, I really want to know.
> 
> Well..., I don't think it's relevant really.....
> Just cuz one episode sneaks in, that doesn't mean there'll be more.
> Uh, how about Exodus 7:11,22; 8:7???
> >
> > greetings, Clay
> Best,
> Liz
>
Many years ago, when I was a callow youth, I read a book in my uncle’s house 
written by a man (journalist?) who spent a few years traveling through the 
Near East and Asia with the specific goal of learning magicians’ tricks. Some 
of his recreations didn’t work very well, such as his Indian Rope Trick, 
which got only about waist high, but the book contained a lot of interesting 
stories. It was published about 1950, I don’t remember the name of the author 
nor title.

In Egypt he was presented a stick. When he reached out to take it, the 
magician pulled it back, then threw it on the floor. There was a spitting, 
poisonous snake. Then the magician circled around, saw his moment and, faster 
than the snake could react, grabbed it right behind the head and the snake 
stiffened into a “stick” again. It turns out that a particular type of snake 
stiffens into a straight, stiff form when the nerve is pushed right behind 
the head, and the magicians knew it.

In Exodus 7:11,22; 8:3 (7 in English) Egypt’s people were copying Moses’ 
signs “in their sorcery” and not by calling on their gods. Those magicians 
should have recognized that something greater was occuring than their tricks 
when they saw Moses pick up his snake by grabbing the tail (Exodus 4:4) and 
it returned to a stick. I wonder what tricks they used to “replicate” God’s 
actions in 7:22 and 8:3.

Years ago my uncle retired and got rid of his library, so I have no clue 
where even to start to look to find the name of the book or its author. He 
doesn’t remember the names either.

Yours, Karl W. Randolph.
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