Desert of Wandering
The desert of the forty-year wandering was not the Sinai. Peninsula, but a much larger area. The inclination of the historians is generally to deny the ancients long itineraries; Midian being the Medina of Moslem times, actually deep in the Arabian Peninsula, all indications in the Old Testament are for a deep penetration of the Arab Peninsula by the wandering Israelites who escaped the land of Egypt destroyed by the catastrophe in the mid-fifteenth century before the present era.
There are autochthonous Arab traditions about the wandering tribes led by Mosaikaia, his brother Arnran, and his sister Zeripha. These traditions have not been borrowed from the Old Testament or rabbinical tradition. From the Bible and Midrashim, the Arabs culled much of the content of the Koran, but they did not realize that their traditions about Mosaikaia (and the catastrophe that took place in his time) are of independent origin, though referring to the same persons and events.
All together indicates that the Israelites under Moses did not spend forty years in the small triangular Sinai Peninsula, but in the western regions of Arabia.
http://www.varchive.org/ce/baalbek/deswan.htm
So basically the whole Saudi peninsula and its oil reserves belong to the Jews? How interesting.
I read before that 40 is a miss translation and that it really means 'many'. For example: Rained 40 days and 40 nights...Ali Baba and the 40 thieves...etc.
I too believe that the area of wandering was much larger. I was interested to see your reference to the disasters of the mid-fifteenth century, as I have been looking for just such a disaster. One possibility is a major pyroclastic explosion of Mt. Etna which is listed as 1500 BC + - 50 years. I wish I could get a more accurate date on that. Any info you have would be greatly appreciated.
I have also developed a rather detailed scenario about the political connection in Egypt involving that time period which I may some day develop into a historical novel.
I think the people who say the reign of Ramases was the time of the Exodus are wrong. I am not aware of any major disasters in his reign, and I think he was so strong he would have just crushed a slave revolt. It makes more sense that the problem arose shortly after Egyptians regained power after the Hyksos period of invasion and conquest.
All together indicates that the Israelites under Moses did not spend forty years in the small triangular Sinai Peninsula, but in the western regions of Arabia.
If you assume that the actual events (wandering around in the desert for forty years)are true, you'd have to have (or dream up)a religious reason for being so meshugginah(sp?)for so long.
I mean, Dude, why not lead your chosen people down that camel trail to see where all those great trade goods and foodstuffs come from? Gotta be better than this