Ya think? Did the Parting of the Red Sea happen, or is it some kind of code?
Don't have any data or an opinion on the editing of Exodus. I do believe the Red Sea (or something very close to it) parted.
Code?
"Did the parting of the Red Sea happen?"
Actually, I have a possible explanation for most of the Exodus episode. I is based on research that I have been doing on major episodes of vulcanism in various periods of our earth's history. Specifically in 1902 when the Caribbean Plate was active there were 5 volcanos active in that period. When the almost simultaneous eruptions of La Soufrier on St. Vincent and Mt. Pelee on Martinique, amazing amounts of undersea rising and sinking took place. Telegraph cables were cut, and one captain far at sea reported that suddenly it became extremely warm, as far as the eye could see the sharks were leaping out of the ocean in their distress, and suddenly the ocean and the ship dropped about 4 feet.
Here is my theory of what happened in Exodus. First of all I think the culprit may have included the Mt. Etna vulcanism of 1500 BC plus or minus 50 years. From what ever source, volcanic ash was deposited in the upper Nile, with the high phosphorus content causing a red algae bloom, or iron in the dust causing redness, probably both. The algae killed the fish and sickened the people who used the water. Dead fish did NOT eat frogs eggs, so their was a huge frog population explosion. All kinds of additional disease, food scarcity, etc took place. Unleavened bread would have been safer to eat because of the higher heat and dryness used in making the flat breads. Incomplete cooking of the round denser loaves could easily have sickened the Egyptians.
The people followed a pillar of fire by night and a pillar of smoke by day. Magma inflation under ground caused the shallow botton of the blocking body of water to rise up, giving the Israelites time to cross and escape. (Mt. Unzen (I think) or maybe it was Usu, had a land inflation of around 300 feet recently associated with magma flooding.