Don't Know Much About the Bible - Kenneth C. Davis [53]
Most scholars recognize that even if “Red Sea” had been correct, the Israelites would have crossed the Gulf of Suez, the northern arm of the Red Sea that reaches into Egypt, separating the Sinai Peninsula from Egypt. However, “Red Sea” is now recognized as a mistranslation. The commonly accepted correction is “Sea of Reeds,” a mysterious body of water that has not yet been identified with certainly. One possible alternative is Lake Timsah, a shallow lake north of the Gulf of Suez. Another is the marshland on the Nile Delta where papyrus reeds commonly grow. An alternative suggestion is that the correct translation is “Sea at the End of the World,” suggesting that the Israelites were leaving the known world of “Egypt” for a mysterious wilderness. The route to the Sinai is also a subject for speculation. The most commonly accepted Exodus route is south out of Egypt into the Sinai desert following the eastern shore of the Gulf of Suez to a temporary camp near the biblical Mount Sinai. This theory places Mount Sinai in the far south of the Sinai Peninsula, and is now traditionally associated with Jebel Musa (“Mount of Moses”) in the southern Sinai Peninsula. That identification was made, however, by Christians around the fourth century CE. Others argue for a more northern route to “Shur,” another obscure reference in Exodus, which places Mount Sinai/Horeb at Jebel Halal, much farther north on the peninsula, closer to modern Israel. The most recent theory to make headlines is that laid out in The Gold of Exodus, which places Mount Sinai in the Arabian desert. In Howard Blum’s book, two amateur archaeologists claim that they found Sinai in a secret excavation performed without the permission of the Saudi authorities. Their claim has not yet been authenticated by anyone else.
Short of new discoveries, all of these theories of the Exodus remain just that. What is far more widely accepted is that the number of Hebrews who left Egypt had to have been far smaller than the hundreds of thousands mentioned in the Bible. There are several possible explanations for this incredible number. One is that the number in Exodus reflects a census made much later, in Israel. Others suggest a mistranslation of “thousand.” If the word “thousand” is read instead as “troop,” or a “contingent” of six to nine men each, it is far more plausible. A third suggestion is that in biblical numerology this figure represented a “perfect” number.
Besides “downsizing” the number of Israelites who depart from Egypt, most historians now accept the idea that other tribes who would later call themselves Israelites were already settled in Canaan when the wilderness contingent eventually arrives, as the Bible version itself later shows in Judges. This “revision” makes the Exodus an event that happened to a smaller number of Israelites who left Egypt and gradually relocated to Canaan in a natural wave of emigration rather than the “Conquest.” But over time, that story was gradually expanded and embellished into the national epic that only emerged after centuries of retelling.
BIBLICAL VOICES
Sing to the Lord, for he has
triumphed gloriously,
horse and rider he has thrown into
the sea. (Exodus 15:21)
“The Song of Miriam,” a victory chant led by the sister of Moses after the Israelites crossed the Sea of Reeds, is thought to be one of the oldest poetic verses in Hebrew scriptures; some scholars suggest that it may have been composed by an eyewitness to the event.
PLOT SUMMARY: THE TEN COMMANDMENTS
Having safely arrived in the Sinai desert, the Israelites find themselves dry but hungry. Like kids in the backseat on a long car trip, they start to complain, a problem that will become persistent for Moses. They are thirsty. They are hungry. These are not happy campers. Things were much better back in Egypt. It is not a flattering portrait of a group recently released from slavery and saved by God’s miraculous intervention.
God again provides food in the