Parting of the Red Sea explained (again)

[Mighty_Emperor]

#936, Tuesday, January 20, 2004

City Scientists Say Red-Sea Miracle Can Be Explained

By Galina Stolyarova
STAFF WRITER

"And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the Lord caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided. And the children of Israel went into the midst of the sea upon dry ground: the waters were a wall unto them on their right hand, and on their left."

Exodus 14

Two Russian mathematicians have attempted to explain the miracle of the parting of the Red Sea, which according to the Old Testament and the Torah allowed the Jews to escape slavery in Egypt.

The Egyptians who followed them were drowned in the waves as they attempted to follow, the Bible story says.

St. Petersburg mathematician Naum Volzinger, who wrote a study in collaboration with colleague Alexei Androsov, who lives in Hamburg, is a senior researcher with the Institute of Oceanology of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

He said the Red Sea might have parted under special conditions, which their study has discovered.

The study focuses on a reef that runs from the well-documented starting point of the Jews to the north side of the Sea. In Biblical times the reef was much closer to the surface, Volzinger said Monday in a telephone interview.

The study took almost six months to complete and was a purely mathematical task, he said.

Called "Modeling of the Hydrodynamic Situation During the Exodus," and published in the Bulletin of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

"In purely professional terms, I can say that it was done through a system of differential equations," Volzinger said.

Put simply, the task facing the scientists was to establish the conditions under which the waves might have parted.

The questions the Russian researchers were interested in for the Exodus study were, for instance, the speed of the wind and the strength of the storm needed to leave the reef high and dry at low tide; how long would the reef stay would dry and how quickly the waters would return.

"If the [east] wind blew all night at a speed of 30 meters per second then the reef would be dry," Volzinger said. "It would take the Jews - there were 600,000 of them - four hours to cross the 7 kilometer reef that runs from one coast to another. Then, in half an hour, the waters would come back."

At the Institute of Oceanology, Volzinger researches various ocean phenomena, including flooding and tidal waves.

The miracle of the parting of the sea is mentioned in the Shema, one of the most important Jewish prayers, which is said by religious Jews three times daily. Not only did the Jews cross the sea to escape from slavery in Egypt, but the Egyptians who followed them drowned in the sea, according to the book of Exodus in the Old Testament and in the Torah.

Mark Grubarg, the head of the Jewish community in St. Petersburg, said the spiritual value of this miracle is immense for Jews.

"Jews were the first nation in history to accept monotheism but they could hardly assert it while in slavery in Egypt," Grubarg said. "God told them to return to the Promised Land, and this is why it was so important. When the Jews reached the sea, they needed a miracle to complete their journey, and they were granted that miracle as a reward for their strong faith. The idea of monotheism is reflected in the Shema prayer."

This extraordinary event has long preoccupied people's minds: Medieval philosopher Thomas Aquinas said the parting of the Red Sea was possible.

A number of researchers around the globe have tried to determine the probability of such an event taking place and to calculate the odds but now Volzinger and Androsov decided to focus on what it would take for the miracle to happen.

Volzinger said he and Androsov studied the issue "strictly from Isaac Newton's point of view" as he puts it. "I am convinced that the God rules the Earth through the laws of physics," he smiles. Yet he acknowledges the religious importance of the miracle. "To fulfill their historical mission, the Jews needed to return to a free land," the scientist said.

"The miracle really did influence the formation of the nation's character, strengthening the belief in their historical path," Grubarg said.

When the Jews reached the shores of the Red Sea they were divided as to what to do next. One quarter wanted to return to Egypt, longing for guaranteed meals despite the humiliation of slavery; another quarter considered a hand-to-hand fight with the enemy; another quarter resorted to prayers, and only the remaining 25 percent believed they should head towards their land across the sea - because God told them to do so.

"There is so much wisdom to learn from that episode - from just how easily many of us can forget and even accept the horrors of slavery to the importance of being able to listen to God and follow him without any doubts," Grubarg said. "Naturally, for us, the parting of the Red Sea was a miracle and nothing else."

Volzinger said he hasn't yet informed any religious organizations about the scientists' findings and they haven't had any reaction yet.

But the parting of the Red Sea, Volzinger argues, isn't likely to happen again. The reef has now been severed to create a passage for ships and the water is now much deeper. Unless, that is, another miracle occurs.

http://www.sptimes.ru/archive/times/936/top/t_11445.htm

 

[Abraxas12]

I understand that there is a theory that the Red sea is a mistranslation of Yam Suph or reed sea .

 

[Jerry_B]

I'm not sure why people feel the need to explain this supposed event - they don't, for example, try to do something similar with other miracles (i.e. any miraculous acts said to be carried by Jesus). One would've thought that they'd just let it stand as a tale, rather than a description of an actual occurance.

 

[Breakfastologist]

I have heard the Reed sea theory too - there was that "theory of exodus" program on last summer that suggested that the phenomenae described in the Exodus were caused by the Santorini explosion - the pillar of fire by day and pillar of lightning by night and so on, also some (or possibly all) of the plagues.

If the red sea was actually the Reed sea (and we do tend to make assumptions based on english translations of latin or greek translations of aramaic translations of early hebrew accounts) which is a swampy area of the nile delta, iirc, then the eruption could have caused a tsunami effect where the (fairly shallow) waters receded for a while then a big old wave came crashing in.

Even if this is the case, moses and his crew would have had to be very jammy for everything to happen at the right time, or had god on their side, so it's not exactly a faith-shaking possibility.

I think there is more discussion on that from about the time the program was on if you search around a bit.

 

[Anonymous]

If the red sea was actually the Reed sea (and we do tend to make assumptions based on english translations of latin or greek translations of aramaic translations of early hebrew accounts) which is a swampy area of the nile delta...

The Reed Sea version is supported by the Hebrew text of Exodus: the Hebrew name given is apparently 'yam suf', which should actually be translated as 'Sea of Reeds'.

 

[stonedog3]

Jerry B.. they do, they do....

dunno why. Either it works for you or it doesn't. An explanation of Could isn't the same as Did.

Most of the time I am just itching to smack both sides!

I know, I know... not a rational fortean response!


Kath

 

[Mythopoeika]

I'm not sure why people feel the need to explain this supposed event - they don't, for example, try to do something similar with other miracles (i.e. any miraculous acts said to be carried by Jesus). One would've thought that they'd just let it stand as a tale, rather than a description of an actual occurance.

I have a theory about the 'water into wine' miracle.
Jesus found some water, and some clear alcohol (perhaps something distilled like vodka), and some raw grape juice. He mixed them together in the right proportions, and - hey presto! Fortified 'wine'. An early 'alcopop'.
Just my mad theory.

 

[Kondoru]

600K people? in 4 hours??

And the Jews werent the first monotheists, it was either our old pal Akhenaten, or Zorozaster.

I favor it being an exagerated tale of a tsnami myself.

 

[Breakfastologist]

I read a review of a book in FT that suggested that the Jews were the priests and followers of Akhenaten cast out when egypt returned to pantheism. I'm not sure it was based on any evidence, though.

 

[Anonymous]

I read a review of a book in FT that suggested that the Jews were the priests and followers of Akhenaten cast out when egypt returned to pantheism. I'm not sure it was based on any evidence, though.

Probably Gary Greenberg's The Moses Mystery: The African Origins of the Jewish People (reprinted as The Bible Myth: The African Origins of the Jewish People). It is based on evidence: but it's textual evidence, derived from close comparisons of the Biblical texts with surviving texts of Egyptian (and, to a lesser extent, Assyrian and Babylonian) myth, which means, of course, that no matter how good a case he makes it will still, inevitably, be dismissed out of hand by anyone who doesn't want to accept it, regardless of the quality of the scholarship.

That said, I haven't actually read it myself, but I'm reading (actually dipping in-and-out of) the follow-up (101 Myths of the Bible) and if it follows the same pattern, then Greenberg's his own worst enemy: time and again, he follows up reasonable, well-argued sections with short bursts where he stretches likelihood to the thinnest extent possible, and he proceeds right from the start as though his theory about the Hebrews having fled Egypt after the death of Akhenaten is already proven beyond doubt. Obviously he shouldn't have to repeat the content of his previous book, but a more conservative expression of the same ideas would probably be considered more seriously by other biblical scholars than what I've seen. I reckon.

 

[Kondoru]

Its like a book I have, `The Original jesus` by Gruber and Kersten, about buddism. Its a fastinating piece of work, but where are the counter arguments? and the arguments counter to them?? Plus, inevitably there is a paying cult following....