[BITList] CROSSING THE RED SEA

[HUGH]

John,

Very interesting, but I'm still waiting for the proof that was promised near the start - I guess that puts me in the camp of the damned, or pretty near it.  I've been knocking my head against a proof of a mathematical conjecture for a number of years - unfortunately, the fact that all the evidence short of a proof indicates the conjecture is sound does not justify claiming it is sound.  Maybe I should take up Bible-based archeology as an easier option.

Modern thinking about the Red Sea crossing seems to be that there was an event at the root of the story, though it wasn't the Red Sea, but the Reed Sea, a vast salt water swamp that the goodies traversed on foot with the aid of local knowledge at low tide.  It wasn't a chariot-friendly route.  Whether it, if it happened, was part of an exodus from Egypt is anybody's guess - there is no evidence in the Egyptian record of any mass exodus of Israelites, or of their stay there in the first place.  My view of the Joseph story is that it is a superb example of the sort of tale told around campfires or at dinners by bards - Greek and Roman histories are full of them.  The Joseph story ranks up there with any of the Greek myths.  In all of them the origins have been lost millenia ago.  Some would argue they are more powerful than the truth.  Perhaps what's wrong with many of us is that we have lost our myths.

Hugh.
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