Illuminati-R-Us

So I am watching some latter day remake of the Ten COmmandments: Exodus: Gods and Kings

It is a grittier version of the same old story, and we are just coming to the part where they have to cross the sea, and Moses splits the waters.

I read the various arguments for historical accuracy, and one common theme is the eruption of a volcano in the Mediterranean caused a tsunami which drew back the waters before crashing them back onto the hapless Pharoah Phorces. But as far as I know, the bible calls it the Sea of Reeds, while common parlance is it was the Red Sea. Gulf of Suez. But whatever we call it, wasn't it on the south side of the Sinai? Or the Suez or whatever we call that strip? And if so, how would wave action in the Mediterranean have any effect at all on waters on that side? Or am I confused?

I don't think you could even have a tsunami in a body that small.

When Thera blew apart, it could easily send a large wall of water across the pond, whether it counts as a tsunami I know not.

Yeah, okay. I wasn't debating the word choice. I just don't know if a body of water that size can have that kind of event.

Well truth be told, neither do I, but it is moot in my mind if the parting of the seas took place on the red sea. Yet the "theory" remains.

I remember seeing a show on one of the channels that seemed to think the Sea of Reeds was part of the Nile Delta. If that's correct then the tsunami theory could be plausible. I also remember a theory about a strong North wind that pushed the water South, exposing a land bridge.

Or maybe Moses raised his staff to the sky and God did it.

I think it's generally accepted that the Sea of Reeds is in the Nile Delta. It's highly likely that, if indeed there, it would have been affected by the Thera event.

ETA - although the whole story is probably a conflation of a few different ancient myths.

OK. I never studied it, I always had the idea the exodus left Memphis more or less to the east, which aimed them at the gulf of Suez. That and the Red Sea is also sometimes called the Reed Sea. Didn't think they went along the Nile to the sea and around.


I agree the myth is likely a mish mash, I was more interested in the arguments for and against various things.

Huzzah for "Pharoah's Phorces"!

Lance wrote:I remember seeing a show on one of the channels that seemed to think the Sea of Reeds was part of the Nile Delta. If that's correct then the tsunami theory could be plausible.

That is my understanding, not the Red Sea but the Sea of Reeds, which may have been Lake of Tanis, or Yam Suph.

Heid the Ba' wrote:Huzzah for "Pharoah's Phorces"!

Pharaoh's Phloating Phorces!

Hey, but that's the problem, right? They were phoundering, not phloating.