In Exodus 7, we read how Aaron throws his staff on the floor to impress the pharao:
Aaron threw his staff down in front of Pharaoh and his officials, and it became a snake. Pharaoh then summoned wise men and sorcerers, and the Egyptian magicians also did the same things by their secret arts: Each one threw down his staff and it became a snake. But Aaron's staff swallowed up their staffs. (Ex 7:8-12)
Amazingly, this closely resembles a famous, ancient Egyptian story that was recorded on papyruses at least a thousand years earlier.
In the ancient Egyptian myth ‘Se Osiris and the sealed letter’, the Egyptian wizard Se Osiris duels with an Ethiopian sorcerer. Like Aaron, the Ethiopian guy summons a snake to impress the pharao:
The Ethiopian waved the sealed roll as if it had been a wand, and pointed to the floor in front of Pharaoh, muttering a great word of power. At once there reared up a mighty serpent hissing loudly, its forked tongue flickering evilly and its poisoned fangs bared to kill. Pharaoh cowered back with a cry. But Se-Osiris laughed merrily, and as he raised his hand the giant cobra dwindled into a little white worm which he picked up between his thumb and first finger and cast out of the window.
Theologists have found many more of such striking parallels between Exodus and ancient Egyptian mythology.
This probably means that whoever wrote Exodus was at least partly inspired by the popular myths of those days. It also strongly suggests that the staff thing didn’t really happen, but is merely a ‘modern’ retelling of a classic myth!
Marcel Hulspas: "En de zee spleet in tweeen" (2006)
