Steven Weitzman. Disasters of Biblical Proportions: The Ten Plagues Then, Now, and at the End of the World. Princeton University Press, 2026. 344 p. $29.95, cloth, ISBN 978-0-691-27046-3.This review includes an insightful discussion of the importance of biblical reception history.Reviewed by David Armstrong (Independent Scholar)
Published on H-Judaic (March, 2026)
Commissioned by Vadim Putzu (Missouri State University)
Steven Weitzman’s Disasters of Biblical Proportions: The Ten Plagues Then, Now, and at the End of the World is both an authoritative reception history of the Ten Plagues narrative (Exod 7-11) as well as a demonstration of the ongoing relevance of biblical studies and comparative religious studies for the modern world. In an age where humanities programs, especially those that center on the study of religion and religious texts, are in jeopardy around the United States, Weitzman shows that the narrative of the Ten Plagues has a colorful history of influence not just across the last two millennia but also contemporaneously, within the living memory of its readers.
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