Posted on 08/07/2006 8:23:28 AM PDT by NYer
THE greatest story ever told has acquired a Hollywood twist. James Cameron, the director of Titanic, is the executive producer of a new documentary that claims to have uncovered fresh evidence confirming one of the most dramatic episodes in the Old Testament — the parting of the Red Sea and the Jewish exodus from Egypt.
In The Exodus Decoded, a 90-minute documentary that will be shown in America this month, Cameron and Simcha Jacobovici, the Canadian film producer, claim a volcanic eruption on the Greek archipelago of Santorini triggered a chain of natural catastrophes recorded in the Bible as the 10 plagues that God visited upon Egypt as punishment for enslaving the Jews.
Cameron believes the parting of the Red Sea may have been a tsunami that destroyed the pharaoh’s army as it pursued the escaping Jews. The documentary claims the episode occurred not at the Red Sea but at the smaller Sea of Reeds, a marshy area at the northern end of the Gulf of Suez. An underwater earthquake may have released poisonous gases that turned the waters red.
Jacobovici said “the common wisdom is there isn’t a single piece of archeological evidence backing up the biblical story of the exodus”. Jewish scholars have reluctantly concurred that an episode central to their faith — commemorated each year at Passover — may never have taken place.
Yet Cameron and Jacobovici claim to have unearthed more than a dozen archeological relics that suggest the exodus took place three centuries earlier than biblical scholars estimate. By reinterpreting artwork at museums in Luxor, Cairo, Athens and elsewhere, Jacobovici dates the exodus to around 1500BC.
That was about the time when some geologists believe the Santorini volcano, 400 miles north of Egypt, erupted in the eastern Mediterranean. Scientists and historians have long speculated that the 10 “plagues” suffered by Egypt might have been linked in a “domino theory” of natural causes.
The documentary’s website argues that a series of earthquakes may have “destabilised the entire Nile Delta system and resulted in part of the delta sliding off the African continental shelf”. This would have raised the level of land around the Sea of Reeds, believed to have been saltwater swamps around El Balah, the now extinct lake.
“In other words, the sea parted,” the website says. “Water would have cascaded from higher ground to lower ground . . . creating dry land on which the Israelites could cross. This event would also have caused an enormous ‘backsplash’ of water, a veritable tsunami. If the waves went a mere seven miles inland they would have engulfed the Egyptian army.”
The Exodus producers believe the waters were turned red by chemicals released by underwater tremors. Something similar happened to the lakes in Cameroon in 1986. If the waters were poisoned, amphibians would hop ashore, producing the biblical plague of frogs. When the frogs died, insects would have bred on their bodies leading to plagues of locusts, fleas and lice.
They in turn would have spread disease to humans, the plague of boils, and animals, the plague of dying livestock. They would also have threatened crops, forcing the Egyptians to store grain which might have then turned mouldy. Contaminated food might account for the plague of deaths among first-born Egyptian males. Weather conditions spawned by the eruption might also have caused the plagues of hailstorms and darkness.
“It’s individual pieces that start to form a compelling pattern,” said Cameron.
What?!?!?!?
The media loves these stories that say "well Jesus walked on water but it was really ice...", "the Red Sea parted but it was a coincidence...".
They insist that none of this stuff ever happened, but if it did it is because there is a logical explanation for it.
They ignore the message behind it altogether ("hrrrumph, that is just moralizing").
Perhaps we should simply let the Bible guide us, instead of constantly trying to prove the veracity of the Bible.
Gee, surprise, God follows the laws of nature He created.
Must just be a coincidence it happened as the Jews showed up with Pharoah in hot pursuit. /sarcasm/
Heck, here I was thinking it was caused by some guy who robbed Moses at gunpoint.
Interesting, there is a "land bridge" not far beneath the surface of the red sea, that now a days has been dredged in 2 spots for boat traffic, but if the level of the water dropped significantly it would have exposed the land bridge that could have been walked across...
But I don't see a tsunami wave drawing back that much water, for a period long enough for thousands of people to walk across before the tide came back in....
"Jewish Scholars have concurred" ... as if they are all in agreement ... lol
The Red Sea in Exodus is a misinterpretation. It was the Reed Sea that the Children of Israel escaped through.
Kind of an old theory. But one that is very interesting.
Yeah, I'm buying that one...
They missed one rather important plague in all of that: the death of the first born in any house where the blood of the lamb was not applied to the doorway. The central image of Passover is the most important of the plagues. They go through great hoops to not believe.
I do get a kick out of their reverence for Biblical truth.
What a buch of whack-jobs.
Agreed, however the figure was probably somewhere between 2-3 million people and their livestock.
A 4 year old child once told me he could do magic. He pushed his tricycle gently in my direction, waited for it to slow down, and loudly said "STOP!" just before it did so.
Every time I hear someone trying to explain away God by using their vast scientific knowledge, I think of that child and just shake my head.
Very interesting site - thanks!
I agree, but must correct one point. It was over a MILLION people, I believe.
LOL
Whether the ten plagues and the parting of the Reed Sea fall into the category of "natural" is, of course, not the point. The point is how the Chosen People saw God working to deliver them from Egypt.
No problem brother.
It makes absolute sense that God would use forces of nature to accomplish his goals. This is no different than the temple veil being rended by an earthquake at the Crucifixion.
Personally I have always believed that miracles are not found in the means that produce them but in the timing of their occurrence. That some miracles have no obvious explanation is an indication of ignorance on our part of the natural processes used to produce them. That some miracles do have an obvious explanation that is then used to denounce faith in God proves nothing except the spiritual ignorance of those who are so eager to undermine that faith.
Aside from the pure faith aspect, Exodus is the key story that underpins Western Civilization.
G-d called for the freedom of people, and we are to seek freedom for ourselves and others in every generation.
Thank you for that link. It was fascinating. Quite a different take: assuming the Bible is true and finding evidence to support it rather than finding evidence to explain it away. It is a rather compelling bit of research.
I read that somewhere too......
It would take more 'faith' to believe this story than the one Moses came up with...
The cult of adulterers, fornicators, scorners, abortionists and scoffers at it again.
There is a very interesting documentary Called Exodus that talks about searching for the location where the crossed teh Red Sea. I wont go into all of the details but is was an exceptionally convining documentary...it also if true would leave all of this mumbo jumdo about an earthquake being responsible just that..a bunch of mumbo jumbo.
NOt sayign of course that the documentary is fact..but it was convincing to me.
HA!! Thats the same information that was in the documentary Exodus that I saw. It was very convincing. Thanks for the website!!
There is a fascinating book called "Gold of Exodus" which goes into some detail about that land bridge.
this is a conservative and reform problem. if they admit one area they are stuck having to admit what they dont want to admit.
I'll never understand these attempts to explain away miracles. Not just biblical miracles but modern day ones as well. I'm reminded of a scene in the Last Battle where dwarves who have rejected Aslan (Christ) are miraculously presented with a feast -- they try it but convince themselves that it must be garbarge.
Ah well.
Since God created the Red Sea and preserves it in its existence, it seems to me that it would have been possible for Him to part it.
I find it very plausible that God would create a perfectly coordinated series of natural events that would allow the escape of the Hebrews and cause the destruction of Egypt. I guess I don't understand why this is so blasphemous when God brought forth an earthquake at the Crucifixion that split the Holy of Holies, and then there's that flood thing.
In the meantime, these folks will claim that God is speaking through Hurricane Katrina, but NEVER would He use nature to accomplish His goals in the O.T.
Which is easier/more likely??
(1) For the LORD to send the Word of His power to part the waters for our forefathers.... and bring them back together to wipe out the bad guys?....OR
(2) For the LORD to set up a tumbling domino game of natural catastrophes -- volcanoes, earthquakes, tsunami...etc.. that would mask the working of His miracles and deny His Name the honor and glory only God deserves?
Just goes to show ya - Nothing is impossible with God, and He does work in mysterious ways!
Depends on your definition of a miracle. Causing a volcano to errupt and a natural chain of events for the sole purpose of saving the Hebrews seems pretty miraculous in my estimation. I mean, not that I've ever tried to cause a volcanic erruption myself, but it seems like a complex undertaking.
Let's see, volcanic eruption, check. Frogs, insects, darkness, bloody Nile, check. Get all the Israelites together, like Right Now!, and haul outa there real quick, check. Grain infested, store it (Hey, didn't we always store it?, sayeth the Egyptians. Joesph, seven fat years, seven lean. Remember him?), it gets mouldy and people die - at some point in time, like later, when the mould has time to form. Yeah, check. I guess.
And what? The Israelites kind of got the sequence of events garbled? And where's the chariots and the army in pursuit? Must be a rhetorical flourish added on at a later retelling of events.
I like the original version better.
Don't worry, it's probably just the liberal 'scholars'. Just like the so called "Jesus Seminar," they're always wanting to pretend they know more than the people who witnessed these things.
So you agree that all this talk about Hurricane Katrina being a "message" from God is patently absurd? I mean, He couldn't He just e-mail a message to the world? I'm sure He has gmail.
Ummm...Poetic License?
The Jewish people saw the hand of God in the plagues and the parting of the Reed Sea.
Why is it that so many insist that God has to work outside the natural processes He has created in order for us to see Him in a particular action?
Well, I can't speak for everyone, and I do believe that God uses the laws he created in many instances. BUT - I really don't think that's the point here. Just like evolution, the point is to deny that God really had a hand in it at all.
Well, as one who believes evolutionary theory, I find it all the more fascinating that these magnificent physical and natural laws that God has set in place manifest his presence and working in our lives in extraordinary ways and in very ordinary, common, day-to-day events.
I don't see either evolution or explaining the plagues as natural occurrences detract from God's acting in them at all.
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