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Open Forum => Off-Topic => Topic started by: Sean on March 17, 2012, 10:39:02 PM
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How many human first born were killed by the plague of first born?
I've had little success in my initial internet searching and am wondering if any of you Biblical scholars and studious learners out there have an idea of what the guessed number is or where I can find it.
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Reading a painfully biased Wikipedia article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Exodus#Numbers_and_logistics) (these numbers were at least sourced):
- Egypt's population was about 3.0-3.5 million.
- Of this, about 2.0-2.5 million where Israelites.
Thus, about 1.0 - 1.5 million Egyptians.
- The Bible records 600,000 men as being part of the Israelite exodus.
That is roughly a 1:4 ratio to the Israelite population. Using a poor assumption that population ratios were similar for Egyptians, that could mean 250,000-300,000 Egyptian men, many of whom would've had a son since the ratio allows for 2 kids.
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Since Pharaoh himself was not killed by the plague (and assuming the Pharaoh at the time of the exodus was Ramses II), that means it probably only killed firstborn who were still children, resulting in an even lower number than that.
Considering that Egypt is still a world power shortly after the conquest of Canaan, it's unlikely that they were depopulated by 1/3 only a century ago.
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All I know is that I'm first born, so it pretty much guarantees I'm not Egyptian at the very least. ;)