A discussion of the Passover story in light of research by biblical scholars, historians, and scientists

1. The Biblical Exodus – what really happened?
CHJ
Dave Shafer
1

2. As if
We will look here at the Exodus story from an “as if” context – “as if” it all
happened as stated in the Torah and then see what possible natural non-theistic
explanations there might be. Some parts of the story might be discarded as simply
impossible or unexplainable based on the current evidence base.
For instance camels for riding or as pack animals
are mentioned in connection with Abraham,
Joseph, Moses, and others, but domesticated
camels did not exist in that part of the world until
hundreds of years later. “Behold the hand of God
will be upon your livestock, in the field, upon the
horses, the donkeys, camels, cattle and sheep, a
very severe epidemic” (Ex. 9:3). But that is a small
type of error that can be ignored.
2

3. You don’t have to be an atheist to seek
natural explanations for the Exodus events.
As some say, God works in mysterious ways.
The universe
is full of the
miraculous and
one miracle is
that much has
been explained
so far by fully
natural laws
and causes.
3

4. Let’s start on this journey
and see where it leads us.
I love the training wheels
4

5. Parts of the Exodus story simply lead to interesting questions. If you assume
that the 10 Commandments were chiseled into two stone tablets by either God
or Moses then you might wonder what the language was that was written down.
Hebrew letters like that shown on the left here did not exist until a few hundred
years after the assumed date of the Exodus. In the famous “10 Commandments”
movie they show a much better choice: an earlier than Hebrew ancient script.
But that one too
did not exist at the
time of the Exodus.
Yet writing existed
in that region, so
what might it have
been on the stone
tablets?
5

6. Young Moses grew up in the Pharaoh’s
court and may have learned Egyptian
hieroglyphics. Or, as a prince of Egypt,
he might have learned the international
language of diplomacy in that region
back then - Akkadian. That was written
in cuneiform letters like this.
6

7. The Hebrew slaves in Egypt were probably illiterate. If they could read it is very
unlikely that it would be Egyptian hieroglyphic or Akkadian, which require a lot of
training. What might they have spoken amongst themselves? Probably a language
from back in Canaan, from which they came a few generations earlier with Joseph.
That would be Ugaritic or Canaanite and both were written with cuneiform letters.
7

8. Ugaritic or Canaanite may have been what was written on the twin stone tablets
Language that Jesus spoke
8

9. So the best guess is that any writing of the 10
Commandments on the stone tablets was
probably be in Ugaritic or Canaanite and would
look like this. Both of these languages were
written with the same cuneiform letters. Here
in the US Southwest there are people who
speak Spanish at home whose families have
lived here for many generations. So the
Egyptian slaves may have spoken among
themselves those two languages and some may
have been literate in them. Moses and/or God
would have wanted the 10 commandments on
the stone tablets to be readable by the most
people among the Hebrews, so that would rule
out most other language choices.
9

10. The image of the twin tablets with rounded
tops is a modern idea. Here Michelangelo’s
statue of Moses clearly shows pure rectangles.
10

11. The most important question that has
to be settled when discussing the
Exodus is when did it happen and who
was the unnamed (in the Torah) pharaoh
that Moses dealt with? Because there
seems to be no Egyptian record of the
Jews ever being in Egypt and being slaves
there, it is crucial to nail down a likely
time. One possible way to get a
reference date involves the patriarch
Joseph. Scholars have had a very hard
time meshing biblical chronology with
Egyptian chronology so a firm date for
Joseph would be very valuable.
11

12. There are some aspects of the story of the Patriarch Joseph that give
a chance of getting an unusual route to a date for Joseph. It may be
possible to identify Joseph as being the same person as someone with
a different name who was very clearly recorded in Egyptian history.
12

13. In the Torah there is the story of Joseph being sold into slavery by his jealous
brothers to Midianite traders, who took him to Egypt. Note the camels in this art
work, which could not have been used in this way at that time.
13

14. Joseph, a slave,
becomes known as an
interpreter of dreams
and tells the Pharaoh
what the Pharaoh’s
dream means, about 7
years of plenty and then
7 years of famine. Based
on this he eventually
becomes #2 in power in
Egypt, after the Pharaoh,
extremely unusual for a
former slave.
14

15. In Egypt the
Pharaohs are
buried in the
Valley of the
Kings. In 1906 a
very unusual
tomb was found
there of a man
named Yuya
It was a very great honor for Yuya, not a pharaoh, to be
buried there with his wife in the midst of all the pharaoh
tombs. Writings on his tomb show that he had been #2 to
the pharaoh and he and his life have some striking parallels
to the life of Joseph, as told in the Torah. The mummy of
Yuya is in a museum in Cairo. What are these parallels?
15

16. Joseph, according to the Torah Yuya, according to Egyptian sources
#2 in power after the Pharaoh
Given a very unusual honorific title – “father to
the pharaoh”
Not Egyptian
Given an Egyptian wife by the Pharaoh
Given a gold necklace to wear by the Pharaoh
When died he was mummified
And put in a coffin in Egypt. (see Genesis 50:26)
Similar linguistic root of name – Joseph = Yusef
Same
Same
Same
Same
Same
Same
Same - Yuya
16

17. Yuya was buried in the
Valley of the Kings
between two Pharaohs – a
very unusual honor. His
wife, an Egyptian, was
buried next to him. His
ears were not pierced,
unlike Egyptians, his hands
were in a very different
position than Egyptian
mummies, and he was
wearing an unusual gold
necklace around his neck.
Also had a beard, very
non-Egyptian.
The reason we care about Yuya is that there are remarkable
parallels between his life and the life of Joseph and it is
possible that Yuya is Joseph! If true that would tell us the
identity of Joseph’s Pharaoh in the Torah and therefore give a
firm date for Joseph and his time in Egypt.
17

18. The historical record shows that Yuya’s daughter
married the pharaoh. They had a son, who became the
pharaoh Akhenaten. Akhenaten was Yuya’s grandson.
And so maybe also Joseph’s too! And Akhenaten went
down in history for doing one major thing for Egypt:
destroying all of its idolatry to make the nation
monotheistic (temporarily). It wasn’t long after that the
Jewish people left Egypt, beginning the eventual spread
of monotheism to the entire world.
The Pharaoh of Joseph (Yusef)/Yuya was probably
Thutmose IV, around 1400 BC. He is mostly known
today because of an inscription in stone of an
important dream he had. Sound familiar? Dream
interpretation to the Pharaoh is how Joseph
became #2 in Egypt.
18

19. There is a lot of controversy among
Egyptologists about the dates of the pharaohs
and very many problems trying to match
Egyptian dates with events in the Torah. This
date for Joseph of around 1,400 BC, based on
the possible Yuya connection, is later than
some mainstream Egyptologists would accept.
If true and if Joseph was the grandfather of
Pharaoh Akhenaten then Joseph may have
been still alive when Moses was born – since
Moses was probably a contemporary of
Akhenaten.
19

20. In a museum in
Cairo there is a
strikingly well
preserved
mummy of a very
high level official-
named Yuya - who
was #2 in power
to the Pharaoh of
that time. He was
not Egyptian and
had Semitic facial
features. Maybe
= Joseph!
20

21. The very dry
Egyptian climate as
well as the specific
materials used in
mummification led
to the very well
preserved body of
Joseph/Yuya.
Ancient Egyptians
worshipped onions,
with their many
layers, as symbols of
eternal life.

22. A significance of this date for Joseph/Yuya of about 1400 B.C. and there being about four
generations after that until Moses, is it places Moses and the Exodus in the mid 1200’s B.C. That is
very different from an alternate possibility some suggest, of mid 1500s B.C. The fans of the mid
1500s B.C. date like it because they think the giant explosion of the Island of Thera, where a volcano
blew its top off, created huge amounts of ash that blanketed the whole Mediterranean area and
might explain the 10 plagues of the Exodus story.
22

23. Thera's eruption was four or five times more powerful than Krakatoa,
geologists believe, exploding with the energy of several hundred atomic
bombs!! in a fraction of a second. Nothing like these very modest images
here. An enormous amount of ash was thrown high into the atmosphere.
23

24. El-Amarna tablet
The El-Amarna “letters” are a large
group of cuneiform tablets
discovered in 1887 that were
diplomatic correspondence between
rulers in the geographic region of the
Exodus story. They throw a lot of
light on the history of the region. It is
always possible for new discoveries
like this to happen that can answer
questions like who were the Habiru?
(probably not the Hebrews) or the
Hyksos? and why is there no record
of the Hebrews being in Egypt?
24

25. After all the years of intense exploration by archeologists of Egypt
there are still occasional new discoveries being made.
It wasn’t until 1989 that someone noticed that the three great pyramids exactly duplicate the relative
position and size of the three stars in Orion’s belt – stars important in Egyptian religion. The dimmer 3rd
star is slightly offset from a line joining the two brighter ones and the same is true of the three pyramids.
Maybe a coincidence but it took this long for someone to notice it.
Constellation of Orion, with its belt
Possible?
25

26. Hyksos
The Hyksos were a large group of invaders
who conquered Egypt and ruled for a long time
until they were ejected around 1532 BC.
That leaving is too early to be the Exodus.
There are many interesting topics like
this that can be dismissed here because
of the date range we are settling on for
the Exodus. The Hyksos are just not
time-relevant.
26

27. All discussions about the Exodus make certain
key assumptions, like the approximate date of the
event, and then build up a rather rickety theory
with that as a base. But then a single
archeological find or inscription can bring it all
crashing down if a key assumption is wrong.
27

28. Shiphrah and Puah
were two Hebrew
midwives around the
time of the birth of
Moses and the Torah
implies that there were
only two. That would
mean a very small
group of Hebrews in
Egypt, or at least in
that part of Egypt near
the Pharaoh.
This also implies there still being a small group later
by the time Moses is an adult. Nothing like the huge
numbers mentioned in the Torah at the Exodus.
28

29. There are a lot of technical problems
in the Torah with differing time spans
being given for the amount of time the
Hebrews were in Egypt before the
Exodus. 430 years given in one place,
400 in another and also elsewhere a
much shorter time of 4 generations
(from Levi to Moses). We are going
with the 4 generations number which
fits much better with plausible history.
Very many generations
29

30. About 2,300 BC the semi-legendary figure of Sargon of Akkad, the supposed first ruler of the Semitic-speaking
Akkadian Empire, had a close parallel to the story of Moses. In 700 BC, neo-Assyrian texts were penned associating
him with the birth in a basket legend. Sargon says, in these legends:
“My mother was a high priestess, my father I knew not. My high priestess mother conceived me, in secret she bore
me. She set me in a basket of rushes, with bitumen she sealed my lid. She cast me into the river which rose over me.
The river bore me up and carried me to Akki, the drawer of water. Akki, the drawer of water, took me as his son and
reared me. Akki, the drawer of water, appointed me as his gardener. ”
This same type of
birth and foundling
legend is associated
with several mythic
characters. It may be
that the Moses birth
legend was simply
copied from the
earlier Sargon one.
30

31. One reason to suspect that the baby Moses in the ark in the bulrushes story was simply copied from the
much earlier Sargon story is that both stories say the ark was sealed with bitumen (tar) to make it
waterproof. But until recently no archeological evidence of natural bitumen existed in Egypt, while it was
plentiful where Sargon lived. But recently a site in Egypt was found that does have bitumen. More might be
found in the future. Furthermore, mummification turns out to use bitumen and so back then it would have
been imported into Egypt if there was not enough local natural bitumen. Over time more and more was
used on mummies compared to wrapped cloth. So the baby Moses story, with bitumen, was not impossible.
31

32. Over time more and more bitumen
was used in mummification.
32

33. Freud thought that Moses was not Hebrew but rather
was born into Egyptian royalty. Freud said that Moses
is not a Hebrew name but is an Egyptian word (quite
true). And that the many heroic birth stories in fairy
tales and with mythic figures like Sargon always have a
baby born into royalty who is then abandoned and
found by a poor rural family, who raised him and then
as an adult is discovered and reunited with the royal
family. All these stories are the same except that of
Moses, where everything is reversed. Moses is born
into a poor Hebrew family and is found by an Egyptian
princess who then raises him at the royal court. Freud
thought that this reversal of the usual mythic pattern
indicated and concealed a truth. But how you get from
that to Moses being Egyptian is a mystery.
Just a cigar
33

34. Amram, the father of Moses, married
Jochebed, his own aunt. This would later come
to be considered as incest and prohibited in the
Torah. It would make Moses illegitimate,
probably a bastard.
Lot and his daughters in
the Torah have a “party”
34

35. Babies are born with certain
reflexes, like holding their breath,
that protect them if they fall into
water. They can actually swim at
a very early age. The Torah says
Moses was 3 months old when
he was put into the ark and then
placed in the Nile river.
The Pharaoh said that all new Hebrew boy babies were to be thrown into the Nile. In
ancient times it was common in Egypt, Greece, and other cultures to throw babies into
water and see if they could survive for a short time. Only strong babies were wanted. It
was also thought to be a way to determine if a baby was illegitimate. If so it would
drown. Maybe the story of baby Moses in the ark is a sanitized version of some earlier
story, about testing his birth legitimacy.
35

36. Moses was from
the tribe of Levi,
according to the
Torah’s genealogy
Joseph brought
his extended
family into Egypt,
after becoming #2
to the Pharaoh
36

37. The tribe of Levi has many Egyptian language names, but none of the other tribes does
37

38. It might be that only the
tribe of Levi, of the 12 tribes,
was ever actually in Egypt.
Hence all those Egyptian
names. If Moses was
actually an Egyptian, and not
just raised in the Pharaoh’s
palace, then the Torah’s
genealogy would be wrong.
38

39. Moses had a black wife,
from Kush (or Cush) and
that is present day Sudan
and Ethiopia.
Numbers 12, verse 1 says
that Moses had a black wife
but it is not clear if he had
more than one wife.
39

40. Moses leaves the
royal palace and
sees an injustice that
angers him to the
point of killing an
Egyptian slave master.
He then flees Egypt
and retribution and
goes to Midian. His
route may have taken
him right by the place
where later the
waters are parted.
40

41. Midian, where Moses
lived for 40 years, was
very close to Mt. Sinai
and Mt. Horeb, which
may have been the
same mountain with
two different names.
Like many such biblical
topics there is
controversy about
that.
41

42. Midian was in what is now Saudi Arabia
42

43. When Moses moved to Midian he married a daughter of Jethro, a high priest of the local religion –
which was probably a cult based on a local volcano god. That local God was probably Yahweh and Jethro
introduced Moses to that religion. Moses then later combined that with existing religious practices of
the Hebrews back in Canaan and also Egypt to form what we now call Judaism. This is known as the
Kenite Hypothesis and the idea has been around for 150 years now. The mountain was Mt. Horeb.
43

44. There is much controversy over whether or
not Mt. Horeb and Mt. Sinai are just two names
for the same place and if so where it is/was.
Assuming it was just one mountain with 2
names, it was probably in Midian, where Moses
lived for 40 years as a shepherd after fleeing
Egypt. That is then where he later brings the
Hebrew people after the Exodus from Egypt and
where God gives the 10 Commandments. This
is not where some traditions place the
mountain but it makes sense that it would be in
Midian.
From Torah descriptions of Mt Sinai/Horeb, it is clear that it was a semi-active volcano. The
name Mt. Horeb means “Glow, hot” and Exodus 19: 16-18 describe Horeb/Sinai with fire,
lightning, thunder, and trembling, and smoke like in a kiln.
44

45. For Jethro and his
Kenite tribe in
Midian their god
probably was
thought to actually
live on Mt.
Horeb/Sinai, a semi-
active volcano.
45

46. "Make a poisonous serpent out of brass and fasten it to a pole.
Anyone who has been bitten and who looks at it will live."
Jethro and his people in Midian were Kenites – a group that claimed distant descent of Cain (of
Cain and Abel fame). They were shepherds and metal workers. How fitting that they would live
near a semi-active volcano, like a giant forge. They probably worshiped a god living on the
volcano, like in the later description of God on Mt. Sinai in the 10 Commandments story. Moses
lived with these people for 40 years and probably learned metal working skills. Later during the
wandering in the desert with the Hebrews for 40 years God tells Moses in Numbers 21:8 -
46

47. Moses lived
as a shepherd
in Midian for
40 years. He
would have
often
wandered
around with
his flock
looking for
grass and
shrubs for
them.
47

48. Moses, while on Mt. Horeb (= Mt.
Sinai) sees a bush that burns
without being consumed and hears
God speaking to him from the bush.
He has a conversation with God and
is asked to go back to Egypt and lead
his people to freedom.
Dr. Benny Shanon of Hebrew University in Jerusalem
has an Interesting explanation for this. There is a plant
used in Saudi Arabia and the surrounding regions
(including what was Midian back then) for its various
medicinal properties. Prepared in a certain way it is a
hallucinogenic drug. Moses may have been stoned when
he had his encounter with God and the burning bush!
48

49. "Encountering the divine is
one of the most powerful
experiences associated with
high-level hallucinogenic
inebriation," claims Shanon,
who tried the drink himself.
The seeds of the Syrian rue
plant (Peganum harmala)
can be used to make a
hallucinogenic drink. The
plant is widespread in the
orange areas on the map.
Moses may have been
familiar with it.
49

50. The “burning bush” that Moses sees is a thorny bramble bush. There is a plant (Dictamnus)
that emits very volatile hydrocarbon oils that quickly flame up if touched with a match, but the
flame immediately goes out. Furthermore these plants are not found in the biblical part of the
world. A different possibility, of a biological light that does not go out, is bioluminescence.
Certain mushrooms and other fungi, especially on rotting logs, can glow brightly at night. This
is known as “foxfire”. A bramble bush with this happening on the ground at its base would
seem, at night, to be a “burning bush that is not consumed”
50

51. Moses tries to weasel
out of going back to Egypt
and gives God various
excuses. God tries to
sweeten the task by telling
Moses, in Exodus 3:21 that
he will make the Egyptians
willingly give over to the
departing Hebrews their
gold and jewelry and
valuables, so that the
Egyptians will then be
stripped of their wealth.
And just in case Moses is still being difficult God then tells
him, in Exodus 4: 21-23, some of the key parts of the
Passover story, which has yet to happen. Including the last
of the 10 plagues, of killing the first-born of Egypt. So
Moses went back to Egypt having already heard from God
what the near future would be. All the spoilers were out.
51

52. You might legitimately wonder why, if God can
do all the miracles of the Exodus, he needed to
enlist a reluctant Moses to get involved. It’s not
like he was too busy, sitting around on a throne.
52

53. When Moses and Aaron first confronted Pharaoh they did not ask for freedom for
the Hebrews. “Let my people go” referred to a request that the Hebrews be
allowed to travel 3 days journey into the desert to celebrate a religious festival
(Exodus 5:1), with the understanding that they would then return back (Scout’s
honor!). Pharaoh rejected that. The festival Moses referred to was probably the
annual Feast of the Matzoh, an agricultural holiday.
53

54. The chances that the
Pharaoh would let
the Hebrew slaves
go 3 days journey
away for some
festival, with the
understanding that
they would willingly
return, were similar
to the chances this
hitchhiker will get
picked up
54

55. Moses and God then upped the ante by
starting the 10 plagues and Pharaoh kept
stonewalling. But the Torah says that God
kept hardening the Pharaoh’s heart each
time he capitulated, so as to set the stage
for the next plagues. So Pharaoh was hardly
a free agent here. He was just being used by
God to make a point about how great he
(God) was. The next slide shows the 10
plagues and where they are described in the
Torah. Some will then be commented on, as
to their possible natural causes.
55

56. 56

57. Red tide off of FloridaResults of Red Tide, which depletes the
water of oxygen. Frogs also leave the water
57

58. A report published July 12, 1873 in Scientific American described "a shower of frogs which
darkened the air and covered the ground for a long distance," following a recent rainstorm. A
whirlwind/water spout can suck up water into the sky and then rain it down later. And in May
2010 in Greece, thousands of frogs emerged from a lake in the northern part of the country,
likely in search of food, and disrupted traffic for days.
58

59. The dying fish
everywhere from
the Red Tide would
attract flies and
disease. Lice,
locust, and flies are
3 plagues that can
all be accounted for
by natural means.
Cattle disease is
transmitted by
flies.
15th century German image of the plague of insects
59

60. Heavy hail with flashing lightning can
occur naturally. Darkness for 3 days could
be a sandstorm, volcanic ash blocking out
the sun, or an eclipse that was later
inflated to be 3 days of darkness. The
challenge is not finding natural
explanations for the plagues but rather
explaining why they would all occur more
or less together in a short time.
The Torah was codified and put into writing almost 1000 years after the Exodus events
being described. It is easy to imagine that an especially dramatic unexpected eclipse that
temporarily plunged parts of Egypt into near darkness could be remembered very much
later as 3 days of darkness. And certain numbers, like 3, 7, and 40 are often used in the
Torah in a poetic sense.
60

61. The Torah has several numbers, like 40, which are used in
an idiomatic way. 40 appears many times, usually
designating a time of radical transition or transformation.
Among the most famous examples are these: It rained for
40 days and 40 nights during the Flood. Exodus records
that Moses spent 40 days on Mount Sinai with God. 40 is
the number of years the Israelites were required to
wander in the wilderness until they were allowed to enter
Canaan. Corporeal punishment in the Torah involved 40
lashes. Elijah fasted for 40 days prior to receiving his
revelation on Mount Horeb. Multiples of 40 are also
common: 40,000 men rallied to Barak in the book of
Judges. 7 is another number like that.
So we should not take certain numbers literally.
7 years of plenty and 7 years of famine in the Joseph story,
for example.
61

62. Annular eclipse – moon does not completely
block out the sun. Not as dramatic as a total
eclipse, but more common. Total eclipse – can be very dramatic
Next – some ancient eclipse visibility paths that go right over Egypt/Israel region, during the
general time era of the Exodus
62

63. 63

64. 64

65. 65

66. 66

67. The last of the 10 plagues, the killing of the first-
born, is the hardest to explain by natural causes –
especially when the Hebrew families were supposedly
not affected. But before getting to that it is important
to know that infanticide was very common in ancient
times, especially of girls. Sometimes to limit family
size but often as a religious sacrifice of babies. The
Canaanites, close-by neighbors of the Hebrews once
they had reached the Promised Land, had the god
Molech that was specifically for sacrificing babies into
a fire. And the Hebrews did that too on occasion, for
the Torah often strongly condemns it. Oddly, however,
the Egyptians were an exception in the ancient world
and valued all children, boys and girls, and did not
practice infanticide. Quite unusual for the times.
67

68. A literal reading of
the Torah (Exodus
22:28-29) indicates
that all first-born are
to be sacrificed to
God – sheep, goats,
and people too.
Exodus 13: 12-14 and
34: 19-20 softens this
by saying that you can
make a substitute
offering in place of
your son. But that is
clearly a later
development.
Back to our story. To Moses and the Kenite tribe he came from in Midian the idea of the killing of
the first born in the last plague would not have been nearly as big a deal as it was to the Egyptians,
who had never practiced child sacrifice.
68

69. The Hebrews settled in Goshen, an ethnic enclave separate from where the Egyptians lived. God tells
Moses that he will go among the Egyptians during the night and slay all the first born, from the Pharaoh’s
household down to the slave girls (who were probably Hebrew). Also the first born of the cattle. It might
be from this and other passages that the 10 th plague would only happen among the Egyptians and their
household slaves and where they lived, and not in Goshen where most of the Hebrews lived. It may have
been some deadly virus transmitted by close contact, a version of the Harry Potter dementors. Only the
first born? No idea about that.
Harry Potter death bringing dementorGoshen
69

70. The idea that he and his army could be defeated by a
collection of slaves would not reflect well at all on the
allegedly divine Egyptian ruler. As historian James Robinson
wrote in his 1932 book A History of Israel,
[The Exodus]... was not a great success for the Egyptian
power, and the historians of that country seldom recorded
facts on the monuments unless they could be turned to the
honor of the king and of the people. And even so, our
knowledge of Egyptian history is not so complete that we can
venture to state dogmatically that an incident was never
recorded simply because we have not discovered the
narrative.
Alan Schulam writes in a 1987 article in The Journal of
the American Research Center in Egypt, that
The recording of historical facts was only incidental to
the purpose of the royal documents...we should
understand that the royal historical document was a
piece of controlled government propaganda, intended
mainly, if not solely, to propagate the royal myth.
Why there is no Egyptian
record of the Jews ever being
in Egypt.
70

71. .
Herodotus
484 -430 BC
The Greek Herodotus is called the “father of history”
because he was the first true historian – trying to
determine the facts and not just myth, rumor, propaganda,
etc . His famous book was the foundation of history as a
science. He was a skeptic and a humanist, as this quote
shows. Biblical scribes who composed the Torah and
Egyptian scribes writing propaganda about the pharaohs
1000 or more years earlier had no interest in actual history.
71

72. The main challenge in the Exodus story is to
explain the parting of the waters. This is made
more difficult because of the popular misconception
of how extreme a situation it was, as in these
cartoons.
72

73. The parting of the
waters is always
shown as extreme.
73

74. The parting of the waters is always shown as extreme.
74

75. The Red Sea is
a very large
place and if
Moses crossed
it or a part of it
(the Sea of
Reeds) it would
probably be at a
narrow place
near the top in
this photo.
75

76. There is endless speculation about the route that Moses and the fleeing Hebrews took, with many
plausible possibilities. Some are quite roundabout. Where the Red Sea was crossed is most likely in
the Gulf of Aqaba at either end where it narrows. Nobody knows where the Sea of Reeds is but it
could be a portion of the Gulf of Aqaba.
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77. From the context, we know that in a number of Biblical references, yam sûp refers to the body of
water that we know as the Red Sea. Look, for example, at 1 Kings 9:26, where we are told that “King
Solomon built a fleet of ships at Ezion-Geber near Elath [or Eilat] on the shore of the yam sûp in the
land of Edom.” From the other geographical references, it is absolutely clear that yam sûp refers to
the northeastern finger of the Red Sea, known today as the Gulf of Eilat or the Gulf of Aqaba.
“Yam suph” – has more than one
possible translation, or meaning – Red
Sea, Sea of Reeds, or Sea at the end (of
the world). Here we are more
interested in how the waters were
parted than in where they were.
Crossing the Red Sea or the Sea of Reeds?
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78. This shows the route
Moses probably took
when he moved to
Midian.
40 years later, with
the crowd of Hebrews
following him, he may
have taken a very
different route – for
various reasons, such
as to avoid hostile
tribes.
Midian and Mt. Sinai/Horeb
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79. Best route for Moses from Egypt to
Midian, according to Trump and his sharpieSharpie-gate
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80. The Red Sea region is highly seismically
active and scientific researches indicates that
such an event might have been triggered by an
earthquake in the Gulf of Aqaba, causing the
water to withdraw first, for about an hour, in a
place where the Israelite were already
preparing to ford, at low tide, the few hundred
meters necessary to get on the other side and
then a mighty wave could have wiped out the
Egyptians and their cumbersome war chariots.
But a tsunami would be a very unpredictable
rescue means to rely on. The timing of it would
be crucial.
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81. The moments just before a tsunami hits
can be a time of eerie calm. In some places,
the water begins to slowly but surely rise. In
others, the water actually pulls back from
the coast. In some instances, harbors and
bays are entirely emptied of their water.
This happens if the trough of the wave is
traveling ahead of the crest. The temptation
to explore such a bared ocean floor can be
deadly. Such was the case when crowds of
curious onlookers walked into the emptied
harbor of Lisbon, Portugal, before a tsunami
hit in 1755; and again off the shore of Hilo,
Hawaii, in 1946.
Earthquake-caused tsunami
A tsunami – caused water pullback has been
suggested for the parting of the waters.
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82. This is Mont St. Michelle in France. When the tide turns it comes in faster than a man can run. It is
possible to be in danger of drowning depending on the timing of the tide and variations in the moon’s
position. The highest spring tides in Continental Europe are here and they are an unforgettable
spectacle! At the lowest tide the sea is 9 miles from the shore!! The tide comes in at the speed of a
galloping horse with the sea level rising by 50 feet!! between low and high tide. When wet, the sand can
be unstable and a person can sink into it like quicksand, drowning as the tide rushes in.
Consider instead this very predictable event, here in an extreme version
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83. Moses was not the only leader to cross the Gulf of Suez at low
tide. In 1798, Napoleon Bonaparte and a small group of soldiers
on horseback crossed the Gulf of Suez, the northern end of the
Red Sea, roughly where Moses and the Israelites might have
crossed. On a mile-long expanse of dry sea bottom exposed at
low water, the tide suddenly rushed in, almost drowning them.
When Napoleon and his forces almost drowned in 1798, the
water typically rose 5 or 6 feet at high tide (and up to 9 or 10
feet with the wind blowing in the right direction). But there is
evidence that the sea level was higher in Moses’ time. As a
result, the Gulf of Suez would have extended farther north and
had a larger tidal range. If that was indeed the case, the real
story of the Israelites’ crossing wouldn’t have needed much
exaggeration to include walls of water crashing down on the
pursuing Egyptians.
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84. The Torah mentions a strong east wind that blew all night and pushed back the waters. Ocean
physics tells us that wind blowing over a shallow waterway pushes back more water than a wind
blowing over a deep waterway. If a wind did by chance fortuitously blow before the Israelites
crossed the Red Sea, it would have had more effect at low tide than at any other time, uncovering
even more sea bottom.
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85. In addition to the Torah and other
ancient Jewish writings (the Tenakh)
there are very many Jewish oral legends
and folklore that surround the Talmud,
Mishnah, and many Midrash. Some of
these may preserve factual memories
from very ancient times. Many of these
legends were collected and published in
4 volumes by Louis Ginzberg. Some are
relevant to the story of the Exodus.
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86. The Torah does not
explicitly say that Pharaoh
perished in the sea with his
army. He might even not
have been with the
pursuing troops. But there
is an old oral Jewish legend
that says that his chariot
overturned in pursuit and it
fell on him and broke his
leg. There is actually a
mummy of a pharaoh who
died from a broken leg and
an infection.
Interesting!
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87. The ancient author Eusebius of Caesarea (263–339 A.D.) cites two versions of the story of
the crossing of the Red Sea as related by the Hellenistic historian Artapanus (80–40 B.C.).
One version, told by the people of Heliopolis, is similar to the account in the Bible. But in
the second version, told by the people of Memphis, “Moses, being acquainted with the
country, waited for the ebb tide and took the people across the sea when dry.”
Moses had lived in the nearby wilderness in his
early years, and he knew where caravans crossed the
Red Sea at low tide. He knew the night sky and the
ancient methods of predicting the tide, based on
where the moon was overhead and how full it was.
Pharaoh and his advisers, by contrast, lived along the
Nile River, which is connected to the almost tideless
Mediterranean Sea. They probably had little
knowledge of the tides of the Red Sea and how
dangerous they could be.
Napoleon and the Red Sea and tides
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88. Joseph left Canaan in bondage
and was taken to Egypt. A few
generations later Moses led the
Jews out of Egypt. After
wandering for 40 years in the
Sinai desert they finally reached
the Promised Land. Where was
it? Canaan! A long full circle
journey. Ah, there is nothing like
home!
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89. After the escape from Egypt the Exodus story continues on but we will
stop here. There can still be some surprises in the future with new
inscriptions and evidence that may throw new light on chronologies, ancient
cultural practices, and religious sites.
This discussion of the Exodus should in no
way be taken as diminishing the traditional
aspirational goal of freedom that the usual
Passover story embodies. That goal needs to
be reiterated afresh every year, at Passover.
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