Then comes the major event of the parting of the Red Sea. It seems the Hebrew word, Yam Suf was mistranslated as Red Sea while it actually means Reed Sea. Instead of looking for the sea scholars should have been looking for a lake. Based on the new evidence, the film makers find the location of the Reed Sea, a lake currently dried up, due to the Suez Canal. Again, the parting of the lake is attributed to the seismic activity.[Exodus Decoded (1) | varnam]
Besides this, archaeology too has not found any evidence of the Exodus, in the scale mentioned in the Bible.
That is one of the conclusions of the two hour NOVA documentary, Bible’s Buried Secrets, which aired on PBS on Nov 18th. This conclusion is not revolutionary; it has been suggested before, most recently by Dr. Zahi Hawass, Egypt’s chief archaeologist.
The Exodus, the most repeated story in the Hebrew Bible immortalized by Charlton Heston, suggests that about six hundred thousand men and their families escaped Egypt and reached the promised land. A century of archaeological work has found no such evidence but has found that during the time of the Exodus, dated between the Merneptah Stele (1275 B.C.E) and the Zayit Stone (1208 B.C.E), the promised land, Canaan, had just 25 settlements with 3000 – 5000 inhabitants.[Bible’s Buried Secrets (1/2) | varnam]
Still that has not prevented people from coming up with theories of the partition of the Red Sea.
Accepting the biblical account as a “possible ‘qualitative’ description of an event,” Florida State oceanographer Doron Nof set out to investigate whether the parting of the Red Sea is “plausible from a physical point of view.” Using a common phenomenon called wind set-down effect, he found that “a northwesterly wind of 20 m/s blowing for 10-14 h is sufficient to cause a sea level drop of about 2.5m.” Such a drop in sea level, Nof speculates, might have exposed an underwater ridge, which the Israelites crossed as if it were dry land. Although the event is plausible, Nof estimated that the likelihood of such a storm occurring in that particular place and time of year is less than once every 2,400 years.[La scienza e i miracoli dell’Esodo]
Really makes me wonder whats the use of learning all of those scientific subjects in school, college, and university if this kind of witch-hunt is what the west uses technology for. They are so desperate to prove that their book is right.
I could have as well studied our traditional vedic wisdom and become wiser than I am now.
Exodus is a myth, already proven by archaeologist Israel Finkelstein. Accounts in Bible are politically oriented. Old Testament was basically composed at the time of King Josiah from the Southern Kingdom, around 7th century BC in order to attract northern Israelites and it was invented a common glorious past, Exodus is one of such invented stories. Regarding the archaeologist Hawass mentioned in the text, he agrees with Finkelstein that Exodus is a myth. There is no any archaeological sign of such a number of people (600.000) moving in the desert for nothing less than 40 years!
Carlos, thanks for dropping by.