Paperback: 304 pages Publisher: Schocken (April 2, 1996) Language: English ISBN-10: 0805210636 ISBN-13: 978-09805210637	Order from here:

Like his previous work, Mr. Sarna combines Biblical passages with history and culture of the time period.  This time around, it looks at the book of Exodus.  I was able to learn many interesting things through reading this.  

One example he covers is that of the Staff turning into snakes.  There is a snake known as <em>naja hage</em>.  This is a certain type of snake where, when a nerve is pressed on the back of the neck, becomes stiff like a rod.  When thrown to the ground, the shock snaps it out of it’s paralysis and it crawls off.   In the biblical story however, they didn’t count on Moses snake swallowing the other snakes.

Mr. Sarna also goes into detail on a therory of the 10 plagues, and how each plague, and the resulting environmental problems, led to the next plague.  Lke his book on Genesis, this brings a lot of the history of the time period alive.  I learned a lot about the behind the scenes stuff, especially on aspects like the parting of the Sea of Reeds that I didn’t know before.

I’d recommend this book to any person interested in understanding the bible better, or wanting to learn about the events in their historical context.  It certainly answers a lot of the questions I have, and I think you’d find it helpful as well.

You can discuss it here

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