I'm sure Flowperson will appreciate the sentiment when you meet him/her on the other side. That gentle soul is no longer with us...That was an excellent post flow. It indicates Some of the ideas of what happened in the Exodus can be explained by plausible scientific information, plate tectonics.
Exodus has been debated, but one argument against it was the story that Jews were working on a City of Rameses in the Nile Delta. No city was found...until last year. Archaeologists digging in the silt deposits of the Nile have found a large ruin of a city that was incomplete. It apparently had some identification as the City of Rameses. This make one important item of the Exodus story, verified. Egyptian records show a pharaoh Tutmoses? who reigned 90 years followed by his son (Pepi or some say Amenhotep) who had a short reign after which Egypt was in a state of disarray, without defences. Upper Egypt was in defiant rebellion. Egypt's Canaanite protectorates were left defenceless as the troops returned to Egypt. This explains why they were so easily conquered later on by the Hebrew Army after 40 years of battle hardening experience.
All of this would be compatible with the loss of the Pharaoh and his army. I would like to see more divers looking for remnants of Pharaoh’s army in the Red Sea or the Sea of Reeds (more likely a direct route from the city of Rameses site.)
The Book of Exodus describes Moses following a cloud of smoke by day and a column of fire by night. In 1625 BC, the island of Santorini's volcano Thera erupted in a massive volcanic event. The area contains the convergence point between 4 tectonic plates with subducting zones. One major fault line is the Dead Sea fault that may have destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.
This huge eruption destroyed Santorini in the Aegean Sea, quakes extended for hundreds of miles in what geologists call an Earthquake storm. One quake causes another, and another, etc. Huge subduction zones may cause giant waves or Tsunamis, and they can cause Mt. St. Helens type volcanic eruptions. This could have manifested as a wave of water emptying the Sea of Reeds or Suez Lakes and lowering the water temporarily. Then the Tsunami would come with perhaps a wave 50-100 metres high.
Thera had erupted giving off a column of smoke and fire. If the Hebrews were following the column of Fire from the volcano, they crossed the Sea of Reeds or Sinai Lakes. The water would recede emptying the Sea of Reeds and lowering the lakes temporarily. Then the Tsunami would come with perhaps a wave 50 metres high. To the Hebrews this was a miracle allowing their crossing to Sinai and higher ground. They reached the other side safely. If Pharaoh’s chariot army pursued them across the mud flats, possibly getting bogged down, they then saw that 50+ metre wall of water rushing fast over them.
There are several conflicting dates for Thera and the Exodus. I think the differences could be a simple error in calculating the actual dates.
Amergin
v/r
Q