Evidence For Aaron s Rod Transforming Into A Beast - Duelling Crocodiles - History Documentary

The ancient Hebrew of the Bible describes fantastic beasts that are incredible symbols of power. But modern translations often contain mistakes that are misleading. By going back to the original text, we can uncover animals lost to us for centuries. In Exodus, we're told that Moses' tribe was in trouble. Pharaoh had enslaved his people, and so he and Aaron travel into the heart of Egypt to challenge Pharaoh, to shout their now famous words, Let my people go. But this time, the Bible tells us God placed a mighty power in Aaron's rod. The Bible makes it clear that it was Aaron, the brother of Moses, who threw the rod before Pharaoh. Sure that the Hebrew's God was powerless, Pharaoh demands to see a miracle. And Aaron throws down his staff. Back at the burning bush, when Moses threw down his staff, it transformed into a nakash, a snake. And most translations of the Exodus story describe the same thing happening for Aaron. But they've got it all wrong. That's not at all what materialized in front of Pharaoh. The original Hebrew tells us that when Aaron threw down his rod, it transformed into a temim, a beast considered to be so powerful by the Egyptians that they dedicated entire temples to the creature. Constructed with such devotion that the massive ruins still stand 3,000 years later. What kind of beast was this temim? Why was it so revered? And how does it change our understanding of the Bible? When Moses and Aaron go before Pharaoh, and Aaron throws down his staff, it turns into a temim. Now the word temim is used here in reference to that stated in the book of Ezekiel. The book of Ezekiel speaks of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, as being the great tanim who lives in the river Nile and declares himself king and creator of all his surroundings. What is the great tanim in the river Nile? It's the Nile crocodile, the number one predator in Egypt. The way Ezekiel tells it, God compared Pharaoh to the great tanim crouching in the river. And then God warned the crocodile, I will put hooks in your jaws and I will pull you out of your streams. Pharaoh, king of Egypt, is symbolically represented as being the great Nile crocodile. And so for centuries there has been a mistranslation of tanim, probably stemming back to when the Bible was translated from Hebrew to Greek. But Ezekiel makes it clear that a tanim is not a snake. So in the book of Exodus, when Aaron challenges Pharaoh and throws down his staff, God gives him control of a monstrous Nile crocodile. Pharaoh calls to his priests, commanding them to throw down their staffs, and so begins the battle. What is the significance behind the fact that Aaron's rod transformed into a crocodile when challenging the ruler of Egypt? The mystery surrounding this biblical beast begins here. On these great stone columns and walls is evidence that one of the oldest and most revered of the Egyptian deities was the crocodile god, Sobek. We are in the temple of Khamombo in the southern part of Egypt, lying on the banks of the Nile. It's an unusual temple because it's dedicated to the infinitely glamorous crocodile god, Sobek. Sobek was often shown as a man with a crocodile head or just as a crocodile. Sobek was one of the most important gods in the Egyptian pantheon. He was probably one of the top 10 or 15 gods. And over time his popularity grew and grew. Part of this was because he was a combination of a fertility god and a sun god. The ancient Egyptians chose a crocodile for Sobek because they believed the crocodile had magical powers. Female crocodiles seemed to know when the Nile's waters would flood. Just before the flood, they would lay 18 to 80 eggs. Their nests would always be above the line of the flood and therefore never disturbed by the rushing waters. The other thing of course is that crocodiles spend a lot of time on the sand banks sunning themselves. And that made them a very ideal choice to be a solar deity. And if you look at the scales of a crocodile, they shine in the light and they look like gold. And again, this is reflective of the sun. The Egyptians actually had a live crocodile in a pool in the back of the temple. And this was supposed to be the incarnation of the god Sobek. And pilgrims would come and visit him, bringing him offerings of food and drink, meat and bread and even wine. So the crocodile would be appeased. So to kill a sacred crocodile would be an incredible crime. So, in the tale of Exodus, God transforms Aaron's staff into one of Egypt's most celebrated animals. Aaron's control over the mighty Nile crocodile would have challenged Pharaoh's every fiber of belief. It looked as if his god Sobek was in trouble. If Aaron's crocodile could win this battle, how much of a challenge would that be to Pharaoh's power? The recently unearthed mummified remains of 2,000-year-old crocodiles just may hold the answers. This crocodile is at least 2,000 years old, but probably more like 2,300 or something like that. Crocodiles were mummified because the Egyptians believed that, of course, you live eternally. And gods, too, are eternal. And they believed that the spirit of the god Sobek came into a sacred crocodile that was in residence at the temple. And when the crocodile died, they would mummify it and bury it with great pomp and splendor because, of course, it was a god. Now, sometimes, so that the crocodiles would keep their shape, they stuffed their internal cavities with papyrus. And sometimes they were inscribed. So some of the crocodile mummies are not only interesting because they are mummies of crocodiles, but also because they have given us hundreds and thousands of documents from ancient Egypt. In the early 1900s, hidden in the shifting sands outside the ancient Egyptian town of Teptunus, archaeologists uncovered 1,500 crocodile mummies. Thirty-one of these mummies were stuffed with papyri. The crocodile cavities contained a veritable bouillabaisse of ancient texts spanning not just centuries, but cultures. Amongst the writings were Greek poems and plays, suggesting that the crocodile cult was not only popular with Egyptians. A hundred years later, archaeologists are still unearthing this city. What can the ancient fragments tell us about the significance of Aaron's crocodile in the Exodus story? Can the new discoveries here shine light on our biblical feast? If you're asking crocodile questions in Teptunus, there's only one man to talk to. Claudio Galazzi. And one of this professor's most favorite places to dig is just down this ancient road and outside the walls of another crocodile temple. Now we are beside the temple of the crocodile gods. The most important god of Teptunus was the crocodile. As you can see, beside the temple, we have an empty area. In this empty area, we collect thousands and thousands of papyri. And many papyri fragments unearthed by Galazzi's team contain questions to the crocodile god Sobek. The people wrote on the small paper the question, or sometimes many questions, then presented to the gods in order to have an answer concerning some personal problem. Example, I must go to Alexandria or not? Example, who stole my clothes? Cronion, Irini, or another person? The people present questions to the crocodile because the crocodile gods was oracular gods. An oracular god was considered a wise counselor, able to predict the future. Because the ancient Egyptians witnessed the crocodilian habit of predicting flood lines, never laying eggs too low on the banks of the Nile, they considered the crocodile a psychic deity. After receiving the written notes in the crocodile temple, the priests, apparently channeling Sobek, would provide written answers. The original questions were then buried in the sands outside the temple wall. These small papyri prayers have been sealed shut for over 2,000 years. The secrets they hold can show us the true power behind Pharaoh's crocodile god. A few days ago, in this area, in a few square meters, we collected 55 oracular questions that you can see in our laboratory. Some of them contain simple requests. Others, advice on marriage. Others still list a variety of suspects for a variety of crimes, asking Sobek to pick out the culprits. Actually, it is a name. It is a name of a person, masculine name. So, they ask the crocodile god a question concerning this name. Altogether, they paint a pretty vivid picture. We can see a real picture of the life of more than 2,000 years ago. And what the picture shows is that Sobek, the crocodile god, had become one of the most popular deities in the Middle Kingdom. Romans and Greeks began to believe in the Egyptian god. Moses and Aaron's god would have been up against some serious worship. And so, when we read the correct translation of the Exodus story, and Aaron's rod transforms into a crocodile, not a snake, the symbolism becomes crystal clear. For the first time in millennia, the true meaning behind this biblical beast is unveiled. In the Exodus showdown, when Aaron's crocodile faces Pharaoh's god Sobek, ancient Egypt's entire world view is at stake. According to the Bible, Aaron's crocodile slid across the blood-stained courtyard and gulped down every last one of Pharaoh's reptiles. And Pharaoh's power went down with them all.