Some suggest that the volcano was Santorini/Thera which blew around 1626BC. However, if a volcano, my bet is for Etna which had a major blow in 1500 plus/minus 50 years. I have seen photos of a recent ash track for Etna which blew in over Libya and then curved east where it would have blown over the southern part of the Nile. A heavy fall of volcanic ash/dust into the Nile could have caused a red tide bloom, killed fish who eat frogs eggs, plague of frogs, dead frogs and fish, plague of flies, illnsss from water (remember phisteria?), bad health effects on cattle, etc.
Furthermore my studies of volcanism and earthquakes have shown that major events can be very widespread geographically. There are major lava fields in Saudia Arabia. I don’t know their ages. There is a phenomenon known as inflation in which as a magma pool builds up under the earth and causes the surface land to rise. In recent past there was a 300 foot rise in land near a Japanese volcano (Usu?). So I theorize a mild inflation of land enabling the land to rise above the sea and then a deflation to allow the water to cover the land again. Deflation occurs as the volcano blows its top. Remember the “pillar of fire by night and the pillar of smoke by day”? I read that far off shore when Mt. Pelee blew in 1902, a ship at sea experience considerable atmospheric heat and sharks were leaping out of the overheated water. Then the sea suddenly dropped 4 feet at the same time that Pelee blew its major pyroclastic blast.
I read in the Bible that the Exodus took place 400+ years after the time of Abraham, and 400+ years before David built the Temple. Does anyone know exactly where in the Bible it says this? The figure I read would put Exodus well before the reign of Ramases the great. Who I figure was strong enough to swat down those pesky slaves. I see it as happening around the time of Hatshepsut (1473-1458) and Tutmosis III (1479-1425)—Eighteenth Dynasty, dates approximate. I have even fantisized that Hatshepsut is the one who reared Moses and Tutmosis was jealous which was why he had to flee the first time. There is a period of about 33 years between the death of Hatshepsut and the death of Tutmosis. Add a few more years to include the period when Hatshepsut was loosing her strength and Tutmosis gaining his power, plus the time for the information to reach Moses out in the wilderness, and you have the 40 years before he felt it was safe to bring his tribe into Palestine. Egypt had been making regular military incursions into that area both before and after the time of Moses, and tribute was paid.
In addition, Egypt had regular dealings with Crete, and as a member of the court, Moses would have met and talked with these people. They could have given him information on the effects of a major volcano on distant places. He could have used such information to intimidate the Pharoah. Anyway, that’s my theory and I’m sticking to it. Does anyone have those Bible dates for me??
Your theory is built on many maybes, what ifs, could bes, etc.
The figure I read would put Exodus well before the reign of Ramases the great. Who I figure was strong enough to swat down those pesky slaves. I see it as happening around the time of Hatshepsut (1473-1458) and Tutmosis III (1479-1425) -- Eighteenth Dynasty, dates approximate.Speaking of chronology revisions and pseudochronologies, the New Kingdom dates are off. This has been confirmed at least twice using RC dating -- which is why Zahi Hawass (among others) claim that RC dating doesn't work right on Egyptian artifacts. The actual canopic jars of Ramses II had their contents (his guts) RC dated a few years back, and (just as Velikovsky wrote in the 1970s) the conventional date is wrong by over 700 years.