Passage of the Red Sea

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Image:Exodus Map.jpg Image:Red Sea.png The Passage of the Red Sea is an incident in the Exodus, the account of the march of Moses and the Israelites on their escape out of Egypt. It describes the crossing of yam suph, commonly translated as the Red Sea, as described in Exodus, chapters 13:17 to 15:12.

1 Narrative
2 Textual analysis: the documentary hypothesis and the narrative of the Red Sea passage
3 Locating the crossing
4 Cause of the Passage
5 Notes
6 External links
7 Reference

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Narrative

The narrative according to the Book of Exodus, chapters 13:17-15:12Template:Ref

Pharaoh, the ruler of Egypt, has agreed to allow the Israelite slaves to leave Egypt peacefully. God instructs Moses to lead them out, not "by way of the land of the Philistines", but by the Red Sea wilderness. Guided by a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night, they travel from Succoth to Etham, "on the edge of the wilderness," where they make their encampment.

But it is not God's intention that the Israelites should leave Egypt without hindrance: "I will become glorified through Pharaoh and his entire army ... and Egypt shall know that I am the LORD." God therefore has Moses turn the Israelites back again and camp "in front of Pi-hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea, in front of Baal-zephon." There they see the Egyptians and become frightened, but God commands Moses: "Raise your staff; stretch your hand over the sea and split it. The Children of Israel will come into the Sea on dry ground. I am even now strengthening the heart of Egypt, and they will come after them..." The angel of God and the pillar of cloud moves between the Israelites and the Egyptians, separating them, and "neither one approached the other all night long." God sends "a strong east wind all night," and next morning the Israelites enter the sea "on dry ground, and the water was like a wall to them on their right and on their left." The Egyptians follow, but God clogs the wheels of their chariots (or removes their chariot-wheels), and "Egypt said, 'I will flee from before Israel, for the LORD is fighting with Egypt on their behalf.'" Then God commands Moses to stretch out his rod again, and "The waters returned, and covered the chariots and the horsemen of Pharaoh's entire army, who were coming after them in the Sea; not one of them remained." Chapter 14 concludes: "On that day, the LORD saved Israel from the hand of Egypt, and Israel saw Egypt dead upon the seashore. Israel saw the great power that the LORD had used against Egypt, and the people feared the LORD; they had faith in the LORD and in His servant Moses."

Verses 1-18 of chapter 15 constitute the "Song of the Sea", described as the song of rejoicing sung by Moses and the people of Israel. Being poetic rather than descriptive it lacks a plot, but some key elements can be picked out: "The LORD... has become my salvation; ... The LORD is a man of war; ... Pharaoh's chariots and his army He cast into the sea; and his select officers are drowned in the Red Sea ... At the blast of Your nostrils the waters piled up, ... The peoples have heard, they tremble; ... Now are the chiefs of Edom confounded; the leaders of Moab, ... all the inhabitants of Canaan have melted away ... they are as still as stone, till Your people, LORD, pass by, ... You will bring them in, and plant them on the mountain of Your heritage, ... The LORD will reign for ever and ever." Verses 20 and 21 begin a repetition of the song, this time from the mouth of Miriam, sister of Aaron, but it is cut short at the second line.

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Textual analysis: the documentary hypothesis and the narrative of the Red Sea passage

The documentary hypothesis is a hypothesis that the first five books of the Torah (the Christian Old Testament) represent a combination of documents from different sources, and that the various narratives it contains were composed many centuries after the events they describe. The hypothesis represents the consensus of current scholarly opinion - the Vatican estimates that 90% of academics in the field of biblical scholarship support it.

The Jahwist source, or J, is thought to have been composed in the 8th century BC century in the kingdom of Judah, by the priests of the temple of Jerusalem, who, among other things, claimed descent from Aaron and a monopoly on the right to conduct sacrifices.Template:Ref Wherever possible, J highlights the role of Aaron and downplays that of Moses. The Elohist source, or E, is believed to have been composed at roughly the same time as J, but by the non-Aaronid priests of the northern kingdom of Israel, who were not descended from Aaron and who were profoundly hostile to the priesthood in Jerusalem.Template:Ref E makes Moses the hero wherever possible. After the fall of the kingdom of Israel in 722 BC the two were combined into a single source known as JE, which retained the separate narratives without attempting to iron out differences. Later still, during the reign of Hezekiah, (c. 716 BCE-687 BC), an Aaronid priest of Jerusalem re-wrote J and E to empahsise the prerogatives of Aaron and the role of God in Israelite history, producing the Priestly source, P.Template:Ref The Song of the Sea is a hymn of victory which presents the destruction of Pharaoh's army with few of the narrative details of the three narratives.Template:Ref All three - J, E and the Song of the Sea, which was already embedded in both - were finally combined into a single text soon after 459 BC, when the Persians allowed the Jews to return from their exile in Babylon. The text we have in our Bibles today is then the result of this final redaction, which was done in a spirit of inclusion and retaining as much as possible of the old holy books.

According to the narrative hypothesis, the verses from the story of the passage of the red sea originate as follows:

The narrative in E is the briefest and the least miraculous, although God is present: He leads the Israelites out of Egypt, not by "the way of the land of the Philistines," i.e. the Mediterannean coast, "which was near," but "through the way of the wilderness of the Red Sea." The Egyptians pursue the Israelites, who complain to Moses that he has led them to their deaths; but "the angel of God which would go before the camp of Israel moved, and went behind them," and removes the Egyptian chariot wheels (or clogs them), "and drove them on heavily." There is no actual mention of the crossing of the Red Sea, but E ends with Miriam, sister of Aaron, leading the women of Israel in the Song of the Sea.

J begins with the Israelites being led out of Egypt by God in a pillar of smoke by day and a pillar of fire by night. Pharaoh changes his mind about his decision to allow them to depart, and chases after them with his chariots. Moses tells the people not to be afraid, for God will aid them. The pillar of smoke then stands between the Israelites and the Egyptians all night, separating them, while God sends a wind to blow back the sea. In the morning "the LORD looked unto the host of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and of the cloud," the waters returned, "and Israel saw the Egyptians dead upon the sea shore." The J narrative ends with Moses leading the Israelites in singing the Song of the Sea.

P has the most elaborate account, and the most active role for God. It is P that introduces the itinerary of Pi-hahiroth, Migdol and Baal-zephon, who tells us that is part of God's plan to send Pharaoh after the Israelites in order to demonstrate His power, and who shows us God commanding Moses to stretch out his rod and divide the waters, "a wall unto them on their right hand, and on their left," so that the Egyptians are destroyed when Israelites cross over and the two walls collapse.

The Song of the Sea, which according to the hypothesis is the version the others are based upon, (together with lost oral traditions), is a song of triumph over the defeated enemy: "With the blast of thy nostrils the waters were gathered together, The floods stood upright as an heap, and the depths were congealed in the heart of the sea." The Song concludes with rejoicing at the effect that God's destruction of the Egyptians will have on the Israelites' future enemies: "Sorrow shall take hold on the inhabitants of Palestina, the dukes of Edom shall be amazed; the mighty men of Moab, trembling shall take hold upon them; all the inhabitants of Canaan shall melt away. Fear and dread shall fall upon them."

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Locating the crossing

(See also The Exodus)

The most precise information on the site of the crossing is provided by the Priestly source, at Exodus 14:2, where God says to Moses: "Speak to the Children of Israel, and have them turn back and encamp before Pi-Hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea, before Baal-zephon; you shall encamp opposite it, by the sea." All three names appear to be Hebrew rather than Egyptian. The meaning of "Pi-hahiroth" is unknown, although pi means "mouth" and ha is the definite article; "Migdol" and "Baal-zephon" mean "watchtower" and "Lord of the North" respectively. None of the three have been located, despite considerable effort.Template:Ref

In the absence of any identification of Pi-hahiroth, speculation has centred on the general rather than exact place where the crossing was made. The body of opinion is that it was on the Gulf of Suez near the present city of Suez. An alternative view is that Hebrew yam suph should be translated as "Sea of Reeds" rather than as "Red Sea", which would allow a crossing of the marshes at the head of the gulf rather than the deep waters of the gulf itself, an interpretation supported by the Elohist source's reference to the Egyptian chariot wheels becoming "clogged." The Jahwist source, in contrast, clearly believes that the Egyptians were drowned - "Israel saw the Egyptians dead upon the sea shore" - and a similar picture comes from the Song of the Sea. Many others have considered that the crossing took place through the open sea, and, for example, have suggested that the crossing was opposite the Wady Tawarik, where the sea is some 11 km (7 miles) broad. A suggestion by the adventurer Ron Wyatt that the crossing point was in the region of the Gulf of Aqaba has not attracted widespread support.Template:Ref

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Cause of the Passage

The passage may have been based on a real event with a physical cause. The eruption of the Santorini volcano could have caused some of the plagues which allegedly afflicted the Egyptians, see Biblical records and the Thera eruption . The eruption would have generated a Megatsunami estimated controversially at 600-foot. Tsunami expert, Floyd McCoy wrote,

“We find evidence, believe it or not, on the deep ocean floor. The tsunamis actually scraped across the bottom of the ocean floor in the Mediterranean and disturbed the sediment. We can find that sediment. That gives us some indication of the directions they went. The computer model showed us waves radiating out all over the Mediterranean, reaching the Nile Delta.”

A Tsunami or Megatsunami would cause water from the sea, and from connecting rivers and lakes to recede temporarily, see Signs of an approaching tsunami. The Israelites could not at all easily have crossed the Red Sea in the two hours that the waters would have receded. In any case Santorini is in the Mediterranean, and the Red Sea isn't. They could however have crossed a smaller inlet, cove, lake or river. Later the returning wave would easily have had the force to destroy the Egyptian army. A Tsunami at Mindoro in 1994 entered a lake roughly a mile inland proving this is possible. [1]

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