I Can't Resist

There's a story being played up by the media (it was on ABC News tonight, and here's an AFP version of it), noting that CT Scans of the Mummies of the Pharaohs show that they had heart disease, specifically, hardening of the arteries.

Some residue of either my upbringing or watching Charlton Heston movies promptly made me think of Exodus 4:21:

And the LORD said unto Moses, When thou goest to return into Egypt, see that thou do all those wonders before Pharaoh, which I have put in thine hand: but I will harden his heart, that he shall not let the people go.

Could have saved the cost of the CatScans.

Punchline: The story says one of the Pharaohs specifically tested was Merenptah. He was the successor of Ramses II, most people's (including Cecil B. DeMille's) candidate to be the Pharaoh of the Exodus.