Posted on 06/12/2003 6:15:39 PM PDT by blam
Mount Sinai was volcano in Saudi Arabia, says scientist
By Roger Highfield Science Editor
(Filed: 13/06/2003)
Mount Sinai, where Scripture says Moses received God's Law, is located in Saudi Arabia, not Egypt's Sinai Peninsula - moving a key site for Judaism into the nation where Islam was founded, according to a Cambridge professor.
Science also backs traditional beliefs that the Israelites' exodus from Egypt was led by Moses, roughly the way that the Bible tells it, according to Prof Colin Humphreys of Cambridge University.
Prof Humphreys, a churchgoing Baptist and materials scientist, outlines his ideas in his forthcoming book: The Miracles of Exodus: A Scientist's Discovery of the Extraordinary Natural Causes of the Biblical Stories.
While other scholars have proposed that Sinai was in Arabia, Prof Humphreys argues that the holy mount must have been an active volcano, since it shook and emitted fire and smoke (Exodus 19:18). And he has carefully examined records ancient and modern to fix the site.
His candidate: present-day Mount Bedr in north-western Saudi Arabia, since there were no ancient volcanoes in what was later named the Sinai Peninsula.
Prof Humphreys also thinks that near Mount Bedr, Moses experienced God's call at the "burning bush". He suggests that this was caused by flammable natural gas or volcanic gas escaping from the ground.
The Book of Exodus obviously underwent later editing, he said, but the evidence strongly suggests witness material that might well come from Moses himself. The book is "amazingly accurate and coherent", he said.
Prof Humphreys also offers other "naturalistic" explanations for wondrous events. For instance, he thinks that escalating natural disasters explain each of the 10 "plagues" that forced Pharaoh to let the Israelite slaves depart. The Nile "turned to blood" meant that toxic red algae killed fish, the dead fish forced frogs ashore, gnats and flies were drawn to the dead fish and frogs and the insects transmitted a virus that killed livestock.
The bible says it was a wall of water to the left and to the right. It doesn't look like wading to me. Like I said just wait, scientists will be shown the fools they are for these silly theories soon. I think science is great, I subscribe to scientific mags. But I would think any scientist that knows anything about dimensions and quantum mechanics can see that God isn't impossible and that there is much more to this universe than we can sense with our body's organs.
I have read descriptions of Egyptian disasters which would comport nicely with the events of the Exodus. Problem is they don't fit the established chronology. Obviously no major calamity took place during the reign of Ramses the Great! How about some unknown pharaoh, one deliberately forgotten, whose statuary and writings were deliberately expunged? Maybe one whose reign was so disastrous it led to the First Interregnum?
"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.
oldies:
"Doubting the Story of Exodus."
Source: Jewish World Review
Published: April 23, 2001 Author: Dennis Prager
Posted on 04/23/2001 12:15:31 PDT by jasowas
http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3ae47f533d21.htm
Pharaoh's chariots found in the Red Sea? ( Holy Moses! )
World Net Daily | June 21, 2003 | Joe Kovacs
Posted on 06/21/2003 1:52:07 PM EDT by UnklGene
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/933215/posts
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Posted on 09/26/1999 19:55:16 PDT by logos
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Furthermore, Galatians 4:25 states, “Now Hagar stands for Mount Sinai in Arabia.”
It seems Paul in the New Testament was very clear where Mount Sinai was located. The area currently known as the Sinai Peninsula gets its current name from the mountain that was named as being Mount Sinai by Constantine's mother. The mountain named Mount Sinai located in the modern Sinai Peninsula looks nothing like the Bible's description of Mount Sinai.
The real Mount Sinai, as pointed out by Ron Wyatt and others, is located in the Northwestern Arabian Peninsula. It is located where the Midianites lived and Moses spent the years before he returned to Egypt to lead the Israelites out of bondage. It is also near the eastern shore of the Gulf of Aqaba. Ron Wyatt and other archaeologist claim to have found the remains of chariots in the gulf.
Most importantly the Bible itself says Mount Sinai is in Arabia. There is also the claim that at least one of the the two pillars placed on each end of the raised causeway has been found.
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