ANSWERS: 10
  • not yet but the fight goes on.
  • I believe from a program of which the name escapes is the following. It was not actually the "Red Sea" that was parted the Bible was mistranslated and that it was actually "The Sea of Reeds" which is not in the same place but does exist. However my other answer is, has it ever been proven that it did not happen.
  • I saw something on some channel (discovery or history channel, something like that) that said there are certain times when the red sea is very very low at a certain spot (several inches deep) and you can walk across, and that's what they feel was the case. I didn't see the entire show, something about the science of the bible. What I did see was pretty interesting, though. But, really, who will ever really know what happened back then? All we have is translated materials...nobody will ever really know if any of it really happened, stuff happened but the writers were very dramatic, or it was all translated incorrectly or how someone wanted it translated!
  • It hasn't been proven. I don't know if it ever would or could be proven. They did do a show on the History channel about biblical stories and the parting of the red sea was mentioned. From what I gathered they said it MIGHT have been possible. If there had been a strong constant wind at just the right time it could have actually created a temporarily passable land bridge through it. The show was mostly speculation, though.
  • You can't prove a miracle; you can "prove" the reliability of the text that mentions the miracle, that the text we have is true to what was originally written, you can prove that what is written is what was intended to be read that way. But to scientifically prove a miracle would make it- well, not a miracle! God could have used natural ways to do his works, but I doubt you'd ever be able to prove it; and even if you did, it would do nothing to convince skeptics of the reliability of the Bible.
  • 'Exodus Decoded', a documentary made by James Cameron, explores the Red Sea parting, as well as the other plagues on Pharaoh. This may be the documentary everyone else is talking about. He believes a series of earthquakes caused a tsunami on the Sea of Reeds. Pretty interesting stuff! Here's the official website and a good article about it: http://www.theexodusdecoded.net/index.html http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article601300.ece
  • Not sure. But the Bible tells me it happened. That's all I need to know.
  • First of all, science prove nothing. Rather than go into this again, let me just refer you to another question where I go into this point in depth (http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/16188). Second, I have heard a number of theories trying to explain this miracle. However, the one that I would favor would actually be a hybrid of two others. Both of these require the acceptance of the idea that Red Sea is a mistranslation and that it really should be reed sea. a reed see is a swampy area that has shallow water (only about 6 inches deep) in the area of the norther end of the Red Sea. The first theory proposes that a wind came up and dried up one of these areas allowing the children of Israel to cross over on dry land. Then the winds died and the waters returned. The problem with this theory is that you then have to explain how it is that the return of ankle deep water could kill all of the hosts of Egypt as is indicated by the account in Exodus. The second theory is that the effect was cause by a tsunami. The land dried out because the approaching wave pulled the water our of this low-lying area again allowing Israel to cross on dry land and then the wave came in killing the Egyptians. The problem with this theory is that there would not have been enough time for the camp of Israel to move the vast numbers of people that they would have had through the affected area in the time between the withdrawal of the water and the arrival of the tsunami. However, if we combine these two theories we get a plausible explanation. The winds came up and dried out the reed sea allowing Israel to cross in dry land. Once the camp of Israel was clear of the area and the Egyptian made their attempt to cross, then the tsunami came in and washed away the Egyptians. This is, in my opinion, a plausible explanation for the event. However, given my assertion above and the explanation of that assertion in the linked answer, it can never be proven. We may find evidence to support this theory, but we will never be able to prove it because there there are not records that can correlate the events of Exodus precisely enough with the geologic record to prove that the conditions necessary to produce a tsunami happened at precisely the time that the armies of Egypt were trying to catch up to the Camp of Israel.
  • There is a traditional route of the Exodus which has the children of Israel wading in shallow water through an area north of the Gulf of Suez while the tide was out. This area cannot be the crossing site as it does not match the biblical account. A shallow area of water could not drown all of the Egyptian army. Also, they were to leave Egypt proper before encountering the Red Sea crossing. After crossing the Red Sea, the Bible says they encountered the mountain of God or Mount Sinai which is in Midian. Midian is not in the area we call today the Sinai Peninsula. It is instead in Saudi Arabia and can be found on most maps in that location. There is no archaeological evidence of the forty year existence of the children of Israel in the Sinai Peninsula. The children of Israel lived in the Nile delta area or the land of Rameses, and first encamped at the northern end of the Gulf of Suez or Succoth at the beginning of the Exodus. This was the first point where they went into the camping mode. Then they traveled through the wilderness of the Red Sea, or what we call today the Sinai Peninsula, and encountered the Gulf of Aqaba. (I Kings 9:26 calls this the Red Sea.) Additionally there were mountains obstructing their escape. To the south the mountains came down to the sea, as mentioned by Josephus, "For there was [on each side] a [ridge of] mountains that terminated at the sea, which were impassable by reason of their roughness, and obstructed their flight" Antiquities of the Jews, Bk. 2, 15-3. You can see the mountains at the beach today. The people were about to turn against Moses because he had led them to an area where they were trapped and would surely die, or so they thought. Bones of horses and men, along with chariot wheels and axles have been found at this crossing sight. Does this prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that this is indeed the crossing site of Israel? I can't say but as we all know, there will always be scoffers and skeptics on matters such as these but the evidence is there for any and all to investigate.
  • A volcanic explosion is the key to explaining the entire Exodus story. Caused by earthquakes along the fault line running through the city of Mycenae, a massive eruption blew out massive chunks of rock and earth which caused a temporary increase in water levels around the Mediterranean Sea (a tsunami, if you will). My best guess is that the earthquakes created a fault on the sea floor, draining off some of the water and allowing the hebrews (they were not Israelites yet, as they had yet to get to Israel)to cross. In my opinion, this is where science and religion collide; God may not have caused the plagues or other Exodus miracles, but He knew they would happen and set the events in motion through interactions with the hebrews.

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