Biblical Plagues and Parting of Red Sea caused by Volcano

Fresh evidence that the Biblical plagues and the parting of the Red Sea were natural events rather than myths or miracles is to be presented in a new BBC documentary.

Moses, which will be broadcast next month, will suggest that much of the Bible story can be explained by a single natural disaster, a huge volcanic eruption on the Greek island of Santorini in the 16th century BC.

Using computer-generated imagery pioneered in Walking With Dinosaurs, the programme tells the story of how Moses led the Hebrews out of Egypt after a series of plagues had devastated the country. But it also uses new scientific research to argue that many of the events surrounding the exodus could have been triggered by the eruption, which would have been a thousand times more powerful than a nuclear bomb.

Dr Daniel Stanley, an oceanographer who has found volcanic shards in Egypt that he believes are linked to the explosion, tells the programme: "I think it would have been a frightening experience. It would have been heard. The blast ash would have been felt."

Computer simulations by Mike Rampino, a climate modeller from New York University, show that the resulting ash cloud could have plunged the area into darkness, as well as generating lightning and hail, two of the 10 plagues.

The cloud could have also reduced the rainfall, causing a drought. If the Nile had then been poisoned by the effects of the eruption, pollution could have turned it red, as happened in a recent environmental disaster in America.

The same pollution could have driven millions of frogs on to the land, the second plague. On land the frogs would die, removing the only obstacle to an explosion of flies and lice - the third and fourth plagues.

The flies could have transmitted fatal diseases to cattle (the fifth plague) and boils and blisters to humans (the sixth plague).

The hour-long documentary argues that even the story of the parting of the Red Sea, which allowed Moses to lead the Hebrews to safety while the pursuing Egyptian army was drowned, may have its origins in the eruption.

It repeats the theory that "Red Sea" is a mistranslation of the Sea of Reeds, a much shallower swamp.

Computer simulations show that the Santorini eruption could have triggered a 600ft-high tidal wave, travelling at about 400 miles an hour, which would have been 6ft high and a hundred miles long when it reached the Egyptian delta.

Such an event would have been remembered for generations, and may have provided the inspiration for the story.

Jean-Claude Bragard, the director, said: "Sifting through the latest historical research and utilising new archaeological tools, we have been able to find a surprising amount of circumstantial evidence for the Biblical tales."

Moses, which is presented by Jeremy Bowen, the former Middle East correspondent, will be broadcast on BBC1 on Dec 1.

Dear Cecil:

I'm sure I remember hearing from a reliable source, i.e., a science program, that certain species of trees (or shrubs) will spontaneously combust in order to ensure the survival of the species. I'm being mercilessly teased about this, so I'd appreciate any information you can dig up. --Donna Rose, Washington, D.C. Cecil replies:

No offense, Donna, but this is a pretty dull way of putting it. A more interesting way is: Could the biblical burning bush that spoke to Moses have been a spontaneously combusting desert shrub? Answer: Maybe. Some claim there's a plant in desert regions that every so often bursts into flame for no apparent reason. And here your idea of plant-based excitement was watching the leaves turn colors. Then again, I suppose if you were a desert home owner observing the spectacle of random ignition on the lawn some night, you might also think: Cheezit, couldn't I just have crabgrass?

But first the question you asked, as opposed to the one I feel like answering. The science program you heard likely was speaking of pyrophytes, plants that have adapted to fire in various ways. The cones of several species of pine, for example, are serotinous--that is, they open only when exposed to extremely high temperature, making fire an essential part of the reproductive process. (Bruce Springsteen once wrote a song about this.) The fire has to be of external origin, though--the pines don't torch themselves.

It's possible some other plants eliminate the middleman. The leading candidate is Dictamnus albus, a flowering shrub that grows to a height of about two feet. Native to a wide swath of Europe and Asia, including Israel, it's commonly called "fraxinella," "dittany," and, more pertinently for our story, "gas plant" and "burning bush." On warm days D. albus exudes vapor that readily ignites if you hold a match to it, and some say it ignites all by itself if the sun is hot enough. But--here's where things start to get biblical--the vapor burns so quickly that it doesn't consume or even damage the plant. This naturally brings to mind Exodus 3:2: "And the angel of the Lord appeared unto [Moses] in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed."

So D. albus is Moses's burning bush, right? Many biblical commentators think so (or at least they think the bush was a spontaneously combusting plant). But I'm not staking my King James on it. Straight Dope research assistant Bibliophage has turned up an apparent case of spontaneous combustion involving a cactus (www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_567529.html), but nobody in a position to speak authoritatively, e.g., a botanist in Israel, could confirm that such things happen on a regular basis. What's more, the seemingly miraculous biblical story is put in a somewhat Martha Stewart-ish light if we assume burning ornamentals are a commonplace feature of Mount Sinai life: "And behold, the angel of the Lord spoke unto Moses from a lovely spread of flaming fraxinella." All of which means we'd be jumping the gun to conclude that Dictamnus albus, or any other plant, spontaneously combusts in order to perpetuate the species.

I did a term paper for a theology course in 1964 in which I argued that all of the events on Moses's journey could have been caused by that volcanic eruption. It's just fascinating; in my mind the timing proved that a greater being must have had a hand in creating a situation which made the biblical events possible.

The professor gave me a "D" for the paper, for being outside accepted thought patterns for religion class. I thought it was pretty funny, since it was actually a research project I enjoyed and learned something from!

There are theories around that the island that was destroyed by the volcano was the basis for Atlantis legends, and its eruption caused the migration of Mediterranean seafaring people all over the world.

My thoughts are that Atlantis was thousands of years before this 1628BC event....and maybe on another continent?

Unbelievable...I found my son's HS term paper from March 1985. In it, he cited John Victor Luce LOST ATLANTIS: NEW LIGHT ON AN OLD LEGEND (McGrawHill, 1969).

He wrote "the only possible volcano which could have destroyed Crete was Santorini. When this occurred, argonauts from Crete were confronted with huge tsunamis and a "large bronze giant who hurled stones". The surviving Argonauts then went north from Crete, and, according to Appolonius, the Cretans "helplessly entrusted their safe return to the sea, to carry them where it would".

This story of the Cretan argonauts is remarkably similar to that of the Atlantean argonauts...(All quotes cite Luce).

This is just one of many theories. If you'd like, I'll go through the whole paper tomorrow and get more sources and theories he developed.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.