I know this is 4 years after the initial post, but perhaps some will see this and find it useful.
1) The bible lists the years before and after the Exodus as 400 and something. Back to when Abraham came to Egypt, and before the building of the temple in Jerusalem. This would seem to put the events in the 1400's BC. This is well outside the Santorini events which have been dated to 1600's. Another possibility is Mt. Etna, which had a catastrophic event at 1500 plus or minus 50 years. I am not finding much information about that event unfortunately. I have seen an arial photo of a recent Etna eruption with a tail of ash headed to North Africa. Perhaps ash from the early Etna eruption crossed the Nile above the Egyptian settlements, contaminated the river and caused the following: 1) red caused by particles in water or by algal bloom (think phisteria) causing red tide. 2)Major fish kill caused by toxic organisms or ash. 3) Lots of frogs, because fish were not eating their eggs. 4) Overpopulation of frogs leads to starved, dead frogs, and lots of flies. 5) Cattle plauged by flies and/or toxic waters. 6) Humans sickened by all of this.
2) An ancient form of bread called Essene bread is made with sprouted grain with very minimal cooking and a moist interior. Contaminated water would sicken those who ate such a bread. The unleavened bread of the Jews, would be dry and better heated, killing organisms.
3) "Pillar of fire by night and of smoke by day" There are inactive volcanoes in the Sinai area. Have not found much information on when these were active. Interesting research topic for budding geologists. Suspect this is what Moses and co. saw. In other research I have found that there have been some extensive periods of volcanism with widespread activity including earthquakes and earth movement. See events of 1811 and 1812, and Caribbean basin in 1902. The parting of the sea could have been caused by elevation of the ground and subsequent sinking, especially if there was an active volcano in the area.
4) While Crete experienced significant destruction as a result of Santorini, the more severe decline occured more than 100 years later, perhaps coinciding with the Exodus time period. More research needed.
5) Since Pharaoh would have been royally p....., it would have made sense for Moses to stay in the desert until word reached him that Pharaoh was dead. My candidate for this is Amenhotep II. He was co-regent for a time with Tutmosis III, and then ruled himself for a number of years. After Tutmosis' death he made seven punitive raids into the Middle East to put down uprisings against Egyptian rule and subsequently had a fairly long reign. I think when I added it up some time ago it was a total of around 38 years.
If anyone has additional information, please post it. I will check back occasionally.
See my post #20. That's still my opinion.
Sunkenciv, please put Gleeaikin on the GGG ping list.
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