Episode 157: Exodus - New Information, (14 of 26)

09/13/13 • 5 min

For more information and sources you could check out http://akinforthetruth.net. In our effort to trace the Exodus, we can produce an outline of what we have learned so far as follows: 1) As stated in Galatians 4:25, and confirmed by ancient historians and modern archaeology, Mt. Sinai, or Mt. Horab, is in Arabia, near the ancient, recently discovered city of Midian, not near the southern Sinai Peninsula of Christian lore; 2) the Biblically asserted times and location of Joseph and the Hebrews is archaeologically supported to be in Goshen (Tel El Daba); 3) knowing the location of these two, even if approximate, along with the geography of the land and knowledge of other nations and where they were located during those times; 4) the enslavement of the Joseph’s family sometime after his death, the forced labor of these people by the Egyptians to make bricks for Egyptian building projects is archaeologically supported, for example by wall paintings showing Semites engaged in brick-making from the tomb of Rekhmire, to Pharaoh Amenhotep I; 5) at least some of these Hebrew settlements were destroyed, covered at some locations by Hyksos buildings (eg the palace at Tel El Daba); 6) the early dates presented by these Scriptural assertions and archaeological finds implicate the Hyksos invaders, who ruled Egypt for about 108 years, were the ones who did not know Joseph and who initially enslaved the Israelites; 7) the presence of what was considered by the Egyptians and Canaanite nations as nomads, were present in Canaan, and were threatening the very existence of the nations in Canaan, as documented by mid-1330s BC letters from , the Egyptian vassal ruler of in the period; 8) the nation of Israel is specifically named in the Israel stele, a 13th century tablet found in a 3200 year-old poem, written by Merneptah; 9) the gulf of Aquba, rather than the traditionally-held Gulf of Suez, is the better candidate by far for the Red Sea crossing, and Nuweiba Peninsula seems the only feasible crossing point along that Gulf; 10) Undersea research at the gulf where it extends beyond Nuweiba reveals a 5000 foot and more wide land-bridge, ancient Egyptian wagon-wheel and axle shaped coral formations, making a foot crossing, given a remarkable sea parting occurs first; 11) after locating Mt. Sinai and the Red Sea Crossing, the route from Goshen seems clearly to be along common trade routes used at the time, across the Sinai Penisula. An independent confirmation obtained during historical and scientific research is always nice to get. For more information and sources you could check out http://akinforthetruth.net.

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Episode 156: Exodus - New Information, (13 of 26)

Now, shortly after Josephus, the Greek geographer Ptolemy identified Madian as located in the Arabian Peninsula. 1900 years later, archaeologists excavated this city, that, according to ancient records, had once stood near Mt. Sinai. The ruins of Madian lie just outside the present existing town of El Bod, located near Saudi Arabia’s northwest coast. Now 15 miles east of El Bod is a mountain of interest, perhaps the best candidate as the true Mt. Sinai. It is, as cited by Josephus, the tallest mountain in northwest Arabia, standing at over 8000 feet, named Jabel Allos. I identified this mountain as that presently called Jabal Al Lawz (Mountain of Almonds), Latitude 28° 40' 60 N, Longitude 35° 17' 60 E. There is no solid proof as to whether this or any other particular mountain is the actual Mt. Sinai, and that question is not particularly important as far as our discussion is concerned. To me, the main set of questions that are resolved by locating the general area of Mt. Sinai is that we may thus be able to follow a path that is supported by the historical and archaeological evidences and documentation normally associated with true history. For more information and sources you could check out http://akinforthetruth.net.

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Episode 158: Exodus - New Information, (15 of 26)

For more information and sources you could check out http://akinforthetruth.net. Yam Suph is mentioned 23 times in the Old Testament, traditionally understood to refer to the salt water inlet located between Africa and the Arabian peninsula, known in English as the . More recently, alternate understandings of the term have been proposed for those passages where it refers to the Israelite as told in Exodus 13-15. These proposals would mean that Yam Suph is better translated in these passages as or Sea of Seaweed. First Kings 9:26 identifies "yam suph" with the Red Sea (at Eilat on the Gulf of Aqaba). This Yam Suph also describes the body of water crossed by Moses and his people. The Biblical reference to this body as the “great deep” matches the geography of the Gulf of Aqaba, which, bordered by steep and treacherous mountain ranges, plunges more than a mile below sea level at some points. And, recall it satisfies another Biblical description as outside the borders of Egypt.