For more information and sources you could check out http://akinforthetruth.net.

Last time we looked at powerful inferences of discovered chariot-wheel and axle – shaped coral discovered, photographed and videoed, on the sea floor at the gulf of Aqaba, as it extends from the Nuweiba Peninsula. We noted that these formations exclude any recent site-seeding, or planting of evidence, because, though one could have dropped chariot wheels and axles into this area, no one can simulate coral shaped like chariot wheels and axles. The coral had to have been shaped over a very long time period. Additionally, the deterioration of the base materials beneath these coral formations is very compelling. It testifies to very old age.

But this evidence, found undersea to confirm the reasoning, Scriptural inference and archaeological evidence that brought us to the Nuweiba Peninsula, does not exist in a vacuum. Further understanding is provided by other undersea observations.

These observations help speak to the question “Even if the nearly inconceivable miracle of parting this sea happened, how could men, women, young and old, and children, with all their belongings, and wheeled carts, cross this sea floor”. Nearly all of the Gulf of Aqaba’s sea floors are thick with coral, craggy and/or sharp rock outcroppings, and very steep.

As one should expect, the mountainous terrain surrounding the Gulf of Aqaba continues beneath the surface of the sea, and so the sea floor is treacherous and steep. So Moller decided to further investigate in the Spring of 2000. 

For more information and sources you could check out http://akinforthetruth.net.

As mentioned last discussion, when searching the Aqaba Gulf basin for any indications of the Exodus events recorded in the Bible, researchers knew exactly what they were searching for.

Now the sea floor off the Nuweiba shoreline has coral, scattered about, making undersea research complicated. As a living organism that tends to adhere to solid objects, not sand or silt, coral, as it grows, will often do so along the lines of the object that it adheres to, defining the original shape of the object. So thereby the coral could preserve the look of the object, long after the object itself has deteriorated and disappeared in the sea water.

In his undersea research in the area, and the video-tape documentation, Dr. Moller observed that the coral formations found off the Nuweiba Peninsula differed distinctly from that of corals elsewhere off the Gulf of Aqaba coast.

For example, since the sea bed was mostly sand or silt where he was looking, he noted that coral was formed as one would expect when at a site of scattered debris and wreckage.

Furthermore, very unique shapes, distinctly circular and attached to shaft-looking formations at right (90 degree) angles were seen at a number of spots on the sea floor. These formations contrast sharply with those found off the north and south coasts of Aqaba, which form dense reefs, often covering acres.

The formations off Nuweiba are generally much smaller, and are scattered randomly along the sea floor.

For more information and sources you could check out http://akinforthetruth.net.

As we have seen the Nuweiba Peninsula geologically, geographically and hydrologically matches conditions as described in Exodus. We have the common travel routes across Sinai Peninsula, sharply defined by impassable, craggy rock outcroppings and mountains, through which eroded stormwater beds, called wadis, snake.

We also note that they open up to a large, wide beachhead, large enough to facilitate the encampment of millions. It extends like a large delta from several wadis, and thus, to get out, the Israelites would have to backtrack or travel as far as they could northward along an arduous shoreline.

Of course, there, along the shoreline on their east side, as far as the eye could see, was the wide and very deep Gulf of Aquaba, an arm of the Red Sea.

We are now at the point in our effort to trace the steps taken by the Israelites, from Goshen to Mt. Horeb, or Sinai, during the Exodus, where we would like to explore whether any physical evidence exists at present, indicating that the Red Sea Crossing occurred from Nuweiba Peninsula.  

At this point in our ongoing discussion we find the Israelites hemmed in by the mountains on the west, rough terrain on the north and south, and the Gulf of Aqaba Red Sea extension on the east, encamped on the vast Nuweiba beachhead, with no where to go, except to return via the wadi from which they came.

So now we look at Exodus 14:9, where it is recorded “Then the Egyptians chased after them with all the horses and chariots of Pharaoh, his horsemen and his army, and they overtook them camping by the sea, beside Pi-hahiroth.”

It is recorded thusly that the Egyptians, upon overtaking the Israelites “seized on the passages by which they imagined the Hebrews might fly, shutting them up between inaccessible precipices and the sea; for there was on each side a ridge of mountains that terminated at the sea, which were impassible by reason of their roughness, and obstructed their flight; wherefore they pressed upon the Hebrews with their army…”

Moses didn’t know what to do.

A well known trade route that travels from northern Egypt southward along the Suez east coastline, then, just as Moses had when fleeing to Midian 40 years earlier, sharply turning northeastward through the mountains and onto the desert plains, a flat and compacted route well suited for travel as it skirted along north of the Sinai’s rugged mountain ranges, is the only route that remains.

It is estimated that, since Scripture states that the Israelites traveled towards the city day and night (guided and covered by day by a cloud and lit and led by a fire at night), that they could have made this journey in less than the three weeks granted by Scripture.

Exodus 14:2 tells us “And the Lord spoke to Moses saying “Tell the sons of Israel to turn back and camp before Pi-hahiroth between Migdol and the sea. For Pharaoh will say of the sons of Israel, “They are wandering aimlessly in the land, the wilderness has shut them in”.”

For more information and sources you could check out http://akinforthetruth.net.

Last time we concluded that the Gulf of Aqaba, not that of the Suez, for historical and archaeological and Biblical reasons, is the better candidate for the miraculous Red Sea crossing recorded in the book of Exodus.

So, if the Gulf of Aqaba is that referred to by Scripture, where along its Eastern shore would we be able to mark Israel’s crossing? Two possibilities can be located. The first is found near the southern tip of the Sinai…a world famous and popular location because of its spectacular coral reefs and aquatic life, called the Straits of Tiran.

The Straits of Tiran are the narrow sea passages, about 13 km (8 miles) wide, between the Sinai and Arabian peninsulas which separates the Gulf of Aqaba from the Red Sea.

It is named after Tiran Island located at its inflow, on which the Multinational Force and Observers has an observation post to monitor the compliance of Egypt in maintaining freedom of navigation of the straits as provided under the Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty.

Aside from being quite out of the way in any direct path towards Midian and Mt. Sinai, it is noted that the steep, jagged terrain and coral-covered floor would be impossible for men, women, children, carts, as well as Egyptian chariots, to traverse, even if the water had been miraculously removed.

However, while traveling nearly 70 miles northward along the Aqaba coast one encounters a large beach-head on the Sinai side, somewhat centered on the Aqaba coast, called the Nuweiba Peninsula. Nuweiba lies on a large flood plain measuring about 40km² (25 square miles), sandwiched between the Sinai mountains and the Gulf of Aqaba, and is located some 465 km (289 miles) southeast from Cairo and 70 km (43 miles) south of the Israel-Egypt border.

Is Nuweiba large enough to accommodate such a large population of, perhaps three million, as is implied by Scripture? 

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 Red Sea. More recently, alternate understandings of the term have been proposed for those passages where it refers to the Israelite Crossing of the Sea as told in Exodus 13-15. These proposals would mean that Yam Suph is better translated in these passages as Sea of Reeds 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. 

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, vizier 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 Abdi-Heba, the Egyptian vassal ruler of Jerusalem in the Amarna period;

8) the nation of Israel is specifically named in the Israel stele, a 13^th 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.

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.

In our recent discussions we have brought forth the idea that Midian, not Southern Sinai Peninsula, is the real location of Mt. Sinai. Now, let’s take a closer look at some evidences of this idea.

Long before Christian tradition placed Mt. Sinai in the Sinai Peninsula, some 750 years earlier, in about 250 BC, the translators of the Septuagint, those 70 or so scholars in Alexandria, assumed in their translation of the Exodus account, merely as a matter of fact, that Mt. Sinai is in Arabia.

Three centuries later the Jewish historian/philosopher Philo, in his work “ the Life of Moses” placed the mountain “east of what was later called the Sinai Peninsula, and south of Palestine”^,. Philo was a Jewish philosopher who was born in Alexandria, Egypt. His family was powerful and influential with ties, through his brother Alexander's son by marriage, to the daughter of Herod Agrippa. 

Whereas Philo’s Greek predecessors, Eratosthenes, Herodotus, Hesiod and Hecataeus, (with the exception of Strabo) ignored Israel, Philo focused on Israel. Philo was just one generation ahead of Josephus, who used Philo as a resource. For example, both Philo and Josephus say that Mt. Sinai was "the highest of the mountains" of the region. Philo views portions of Arabia as the land of Midian. He does not repeat the errors of his Greek predecessors by saying Goshen was part of Arabia. He seems to have had a working knowledge of both the Gulfs of Suez and Aqaba. 

For more information and sources you could check out http://akinforthetruth.net.

We mentioned in the last chapter that it was when Moses was in Midian that he encountered God at Mt. Horeb (Mt. Sinai). So, according to the Bible, we should be looking there, not all the way down at the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula. 

As it can be seen on most ancient maps, and as is well attested historically by such as Philo, Josephus and others, the land of Midian was in Arabia, with, along its west border, the Gulf of Aqaba (Red Sea). This is where Moses first settled after fleeing Egypt, and then encountered God at Mt. Horeb (Sinai), and where he brought Israel directly after crossing the Red Sea.

And Paul in Galatians tells us in Galatians 4:25, as we will discuss later, that Sinai is in Arabia.

For more information and sources you could check out http://akinforthetruth.net.

For your consideration...the following is an excerpt from a radio spot on KAPL 1300 AM radio, Jacksonville, Oregonhttp://www.kaplradio.com/ called " Akin For the Truth", or at KCGP LP 106.7 Radio, andhttp://www.calvarygp.com/taxonomy/term/83. For other tools, you may want to check out our Website at akinforthetruth.net.

Finally, there is a somewhat interesting website, a work in process, at jackakinforthetruth.com

To listen to the entire spot on this Podcast (a few minutes long), click the little microphone icon....Jack

As we mentioned last time, in our effort to retrace the Exodus, we must now turn back to the central question, “So Where is Mt. Horeb, Mt. Sinai?” In Exodus 3:12 we read:

And the Lord said to Moses, “When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain”.

For more information and sources you could check out http://akinforthetruth.net.

For more information and sources you could check out http://akinforthetruth.net.

For your consideration...the following is an excerpt from a radio spot on KAPL 1300 AM radio, Jacksonville, Oregonhttp://www.kaplradio.com/ called " Akin For the Truth", or at KCGP LP 106.7 Radio, andhttp://www.calvarygp.com/taxonomy/term/83. For other tools, you may want to check out our Website at akinforthetruth.net.

Finally, there is a somewhat interesting website, a work in process, at jackakinforthetruth.com

To listen to the entire spot on this Podcast (a few minutes long), click the little microphone icon....Jack

Last chapter we found from the Israel stele that Israel was mentioned by name as a nation during the reign of Merneptah, who reigned from 1213 – 1203 BC, during the time of the Judges, two centuries before the anointing of King Saul by Samuel, and the reign of David. Such an Egyptian campaign easily fits into the scenario we find in Israel during the time of the Judges, when various foreigners would, from time to time, venture into Canaan and, for a while, conquer Israel, or sections of it.

This time period would therefore, by Scriptural record, be during the somewhat disheveled period of Israeli history.

For more information and sources you could check out http://akinforthetruth.net.

For your consideration...the following is an excerpt from a radio spot on KAPL 1300 AM radio, Jacksonville, Oregonhttp://www.kaplradio.com/ called " Akin For the Truth", or at KCGP LP 106.7 Radio, andhttp://www.calvarygp.com/taxonomy/term/83. For other tools, you may want to check out our Website at akinforthetruth.net.

Finally, there is a somewhat interesting website, a work in process, at jackakinforthetruth.com

To listen to the entire spot on this Podcast (a few minutes long), click the little microphone icon....Jack

As we discussed last time there is, based on fairly recent archaeological work in the delta regions of Egypt, no real doubt that a substantial Israeli population lived in Goshen prior to the Hyksos invasion, and, further, that the existence of Israel has also been documented to exist just a few hundred years afterwards.

“What documentation?” you might ask. If the Biblical account of Jewish history is accurate, then it would be expected that there should also be some archeological evidence of a large Israeli population in Canaan a few hundred years later.

Back in 2002 I noted in the reference book “Archeology and the Bible”, by Thompson, resident at the Cairo Museum, dated to more than 3200 years ago, a poem, written by Merneptah (1213-1203) and found in a stele,

the then Pharaoh of Egypt, boasting of his victories in battles held in Canaan, this quote “Israel is laid waste“.

The Merneptah Stele 

For more information and sources you could check out http://akinforthetruth.net.

For your consideration...the following is an excerpt from a radio spot on KAPL 1300 AM radio, Jacksonville, Oregonhttp://www.kaplradio.com/ called " Akin For the Truth", or at KCGP LP 106.7 Radio, andhttp://www.calvarygp.com/taxonomy/term/83. For other tools, you may want to check out our Website at akinforthetruth.net.

Finally, there is a somewhat interesting website, a work in process, at jackakinforthetruth.com

To listen to the entire spot on this Podcast (a few minutes long), click the little microphone icon....Jack

Last chapter we summarized, as we adjust our guess regarding the area of location of Mt. Sinai to a more Scripturally and historically supported area, that the path from Goshen, the trek across the Sinai Peninsula, and the Red Sea encampment and crossing are adjusted as well, with stunning results. And so we began our retracing of the Exodus at the beginning….Goshen, Egypt. We saw that the earliest remains of Asiatics at Tell el-Daba included houses and tombs (12th Dynasty, mid-19th century BC). Called Rowaty (“the door of the two roads”) at that time, this Asiatic settlement was probably Rameses (Gn 47:11, 27; a later name for the same site) where Jacob and his family settled in Goshen. One particular house and tomb excavated there may actually be Joseph’s. Interestingly, directly atop this Jewish settlement was found a later and larger early Hyksos palace (13th Dynasty), making the dating of the Jewish settlement a very secure one. The palace was likely owned by the first Hyksos Pharaoh, “who did not know about Joseph” (Ex 1:8), who began pressing the Israelites into slavery, and had them build the store city of Rameses (Ex 1:11; a later name for this Hyksos city).

Recent archaeologists protest at the notion of slaves having been used to build Egyptian projects. But what real evidence do we have? 

For more information and sources you could check out http://akinforthetruth.net.

For your consideration...the following is an excerpt from a radio spot on KAPL 1300 AM radio, Jacksonville, Oregonhttp://www.kaplradio.com/ called " Akin For the Truth", or at KCGP LP 106.7 Radio, andhttp://www.calvarygp.com/taxonomy/term/83. For other tools, you may want to check out our Website at akinforthetruth.net.

Finally, there is a somewhat interesting website, a work in process, at jackakinforthetruth.com

To listen to the entire spot on this Podcast (a few minutes long), click the little microphone icon....Jack

Last time we were reading Genesis 47: 5 and 6, which records Pharaoh’s response to Joseph’s request to bring his family into Egypt. There the Bible records “Then Pharaoh spoke to Joseph, saying, “The land of Egypt is before you. Have your father & brothers dwell in the best of the land, Let them dwell in the land of Goshen.”  

We then put forth the question, “Have there been any relatively recent archaeological evidences supporting this Scripture?” Simplest answer… Yes. 

For more information and sources you could check out http://akinforthetruth.net.

For your consideration...the following is an excerpt from a radio spot on KAPL 1300 AM radio, Jacksonville, Oregonhttp://www.kaplradio.com/ called " Akin For the Truth", or at KCGP LP 106.7 Radio, andhttp://www.calvarygp.com/taxonomy/term/83. For other tools, you may want to check out our Website at akinforthetruth.net.

Finally, there is a somewhat interesting website, a work in process, at jackakinforthetruth.com

To listen to the entire spot on this Podcast (a few minutes long), click the little microphone icon....Jack

Last chapter we began our series on the Hebrew Exodus by observing that much of the theory about the Exodus in modern times has been, it seems to be turning out, based on Christian lore and myth, rather than any real historic or archaeological bases.

As a consequence, it would seem that findings along the lines of these theories had been found wanting, fueling skepticism among critics. Even archaeological and historical defenders of Scriptural accuracy find themselves rationalizing or otherwise scrambling for explanation because of the obvious lack of any evidence of the Exodus.

Fortunately, as was mentioned already, recent discoveries appear to have shed bright light on the subject, in some ways revolutionizing our understanding of the Exodus, and in other ways bringing us back to what we perhaps should have known all along. 

For more information and sources you could check out http://akinforthetruth.net.

For your consideration...the following is an excerpt from a radio spot on KAPL 1300 AM radio, Jacksonville, Oregonhttp://www.kaplradio.com/ called " Akin For the Truth", or at KCGP LP 106.7 Radio, andhttp://www.calvarygp.com/taxonomy/term/83. For other tools, you may want to check out our Website at akinforthetruth.net.

Finally, there is a somewhat interesting website, a work in process, at jackakinforthetruth.com

To listen to the entire spot on this Podcast (a few minutes long), click the little microphone icon....Jack

Last time we were identifying a question that does, to many, present a serious challenge to the historicity of the Exodus, namely; “why does there seem to be such a large body of missing archaeological evidence for such a grand event?”

So the question is, I think, rightly asked, that, if such a miraculous, titanic event as the Exodus actually occurred: this sudden, monumental occurrence, the birth of a nation by a series of unparalleled miracles, then why has so little evidence been found? Was the Biblical record accurate, real, or just an elaborate legend? 

Well, now a lot of evidence has been found, once we get on the right track…the Biblical track. 

For more information and sources you could check out http://akinforthetruth.net.

For your consideration...the following is an excerpt from a radio spot on KAPL 1300 AM radio, Jacksonville, Oregonhttp://www.kaplradio.com/ called " Akin For the Truth", or at KCGP LP 106.7 Radio, andhttp://www.calvarygp.com/taxonomy/term/83. For other tools, you may want to check out our Website at akinforthetruth.net.

Last time we noted how that much of the theory about the Exodus in modern times has been, it seems to be turning out, based on Christian lore and myth, rather than any real historic or archaeological bases.

So we posed the question “Is there really no reliable evidence that the Exodus took place? Can it be possible that the Scriptural records, found so historically accurate by both critics and defenders alike in so many instances, could have made such a blatant blunder as to report such huge and historically significant errors about the very origin of the nation of Israel?” 

Listen for more.

For more information and sources you could check out http://akinforthetruth.net.

For your consideration...the following is an excerpt from a radio spot on KAPL 1300 AM radio, Jacksonville, Oregonhttp://www.kaplradio.com/ called " Akin For the Truth", or at KCGP LP 106.7 Radio, andhttp://www.calvarygp.com/taxonomy/term/83. For other tools, you may want to check out our Website at akinforthetruth.net.

Finally, there is a somewhat interesting website, a work in process, at jackakinforthetruth.com

To listen to the entire spot on this Podcast (a few minutes long), click the little microphone icon....Jack

Have you ever heard it said, or read somewhere that the story of the Exodus, that incredible, monumental series of events, hasn’t really left an archaeological footprint? Indications that these huge scenes, such as the parting of the Red Sea (wherever that was), a trek across the desert by millions, destruction of hundreds of Hebrew-seeking, Egyptian  chariots don’t seem to have turned up, though diligently searched for by archaeologists, historians and pilgrims, for centuries.

Let's see if we can't find a bit more on the subject, when considering new information and studies.