Did They Cross the Red Sea

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Did They Cross the Red Sea?
Out of Egypt
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A question of faith

• The boy and the skeptic
• Why does it matter?
• To know what we can
• To not assert things not true
• As additional evidence for our faith
• How many possible crossing points are there?

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Red Sea (Gulf of Suez)
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Lake Menzaleh
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Lake Ballah
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Lake Timsah / Great Bitter Lake
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Lake Serbonius
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Gulf of Aqaba (North)
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Gulf of Aqabah (Central and South)
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Two Questions

• Did Moses write that they crossed the Red Sea or
  the Reed Sea?
• If they crossed the Red Sea, did they cross the
  Gulf of Suez or the Gulf of Aqabah?

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Yam Suph (Red Sea or Reed Sea?)

• The argument
• The sea that the NASB, in accordance with
  established tradition, calls the Red Sea in
  Hebrew Yam Suph, i.e. Sea of Reeds . . . .
  Reference can hardly be to the northern end of
  the Gulf of Suez since reeds do not grow in salt
  water. The Zondervan NASB Study Bible
• Yam means sea, but what does suph mean?

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Suph

• Exod 23
• But when she could no longer hide him, she took
  an ark of bulrushes for him, daubed it with
  asphalt and pitch, put the child in it, and laid
  it in the reeds by the rivers bank.
• The argument continues since suph refers to
  reeds, and reeds dont grow in saltwater, yam
  suph must refer to some freshwater lake with reeds

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Moses in the suph

• We all remember the pictures
• They all show the basket in a reedy area of the
  river
• But is that an accurate picture of what the text
  says?

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What is suph?

• But when she could no longer hide him, she took
  an ark of bulrushes for him, daubed it with
  asphalt and pitch, put the child in it, and laid
  it in the reeds by the rivers bank. Ex 23

Bulrushes (Heb. gome) Baskets were made
from freshwater reeds Most pictures show
Moses basket among bulrushes
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What is suph?

• What about other reeds?
• Heb arah paper reeds papyrus
• Heb qaneh reed calamus
• Isa 196-7
• Describes three kinds of plants to be destroyed
  along the Nile (qaneh, suph, arah)
• So suph IS NOT bulrushes, papyrus, or calamus

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What is suph?

• Jonah 25
• The waters surrounded me, even to my soul  The
  deep closed around me Weeds were wrapped around
  my head.
• Jonah was drowning in the Mediterranean Sea
• His head was wrapped in weeds
• The word weeds is suph
• Was his head wrapped in freshwater reeds?
• No, suph clearly refers to seaweed
• But if suph means seaweed, how could Moses
  basket have been placed in suph?

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What is suph?

• Along the Nile River near cities and villages
  throughout Egypt, young boys in boats use
  monofilament nets to capture tiny bream-like fish
  along the rivers banks. Usually there is only
  one boy per boat thus he must manage the narrow
  boat, the net, and a pole or rudder against the
  Niles current as he moves along the shallows. It
  sounds nearly impossible, especially considering
  the unrelenting power of the longest river in the
  world.
• The Egyptian boys, however, use a proven
  technique to master the rivers current. When
  they need to stay in one place in order to toss
  their nets into a school of fish, they do not
  wedge the boats into standing reeds. Not only
  would the rivers current and the mass of the
  boat easily bend or break the reeds and allow the
  vessels to be pushed on downstream, the reeds
  would interfere with their fishing. Instead, the
  young fishermen force their boats into the midst
  of the ever-present kelp-like, aquatic weeds,
  which grow from the bottom of the Nile and mat
  heavily on the surface. This freshwater seaweed
  then securely holds their boats in place for as
  long as they care to fish. WHAT AND WHERE WAS
  THE RED SEA, SEA OF REEDS, OR YAM SUPH OF
  THE EXODUS?, The BASE Institute, 2002

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What is suph?
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What is suph?

• Suph is a word to describe seaweed of either the
  freshwater or saltwater varieties
• In Arabic suph means wool
• This word suph means a woolly kind of sea-weed,
  which the sea casts up in great abundance on its
  shores. Eastons Bible Dictionary
• So Ex 1522, would literally be Then Moses led
  Israel from the sea of seaweed. (yam suph)

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Is yam suph identifiable?

• Exodus 1019
• And the LORD turned a very strong west wind,
  which took the locusts away and blew them into
  the Red Sea. There remained not one locust in all
  the territory of Egypt.
• Ex 1014-15 say the locusts covered all the land
  of Egypt covered the surface of the whole land
  the land was darkened
• Egypt has 386,000 sq mi of land, mostly desert
  (Tx Az)
• The fertile Nile Valley has 20,000 sq mi of land
  (WV)
• The largest freshwater lake on east border of
  Egypt?
• 125 sq mi (1/3 the size of Indianapolis)
• How big is the Red Sea? 174,000 sq mi (Ca)
• Which could have drowned all those locusts?

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Is yam suph identifiable?

• 1 Kings 96
• King Solomon also built a fleet of ships at
  Ezion Geber, which is near Elath on the shore of
  the Red Sea, in the land of Edom.

• Clearly yam suph is the Red Sea as we know it
  today
• But which branch of the Red Sea did they cross?
• The Gulf of Suez
• The Gulf of Aqabah

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Further proof

• Acts 736 Heb 1129 (Gk eruthros thalassa)
• In Greek eruthros thalassa well-known and
  referred to the bodies of water today called Red
  Sea, Indian Ocean, and Persian Gulf

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Suez or Aqabah?

• Distance and Time
• To cross the Sinai on foot was a 7 day journey
  for ancient Egyptians on foot on the road
• It required food and water
• It is desert, no grazing
• Num 335-8 says they made it to the sea in 3 days
• They had many animals
• God did not provide any miraculous provisions
  until AFTER crossing the sea Ex 1523

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Suez or Aqabah?

• Known locations
• Rameses
• Wilderness of Shur Ex 1522
• Location undisputed from frequent references in
  Egyptian records

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Logistical problem with Aqabah

• Those claiming the crossing was at Aqabah say it
  was at one of three sites where there are
  underwater bridges
• (Aqabah is mostly 5,000 feet deep)
• These bridges are only a few hundred feet below
  sea level
• Quartermaster General of the US Army said to move
  2million people across the width of the Red Sea
  (10-15 miles) in one night would require a path
  at least 3 miles wide
• All Aqabah bridges are less than ¼ mile wide
• The crossing would have taken almost 2 weeks

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Sinai/Egypt Blank Map
Objections to Suez
But in Exodus 18 they are in Midian and Midian
is east of Aqabah In Exod 1511 the people have
left Egypt, but Egypts border was at the land of
Midian
Archaeologists have proven that Egypts eastern
border was the Wilderness of Shur Also Midianite
settlements have been found in Sinai and
Canaan (Jeffrey Harrison, To the Ends of the
Earth)
Egypt
Midian
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A scriptural objection to Suez?

• God promised a certain land to the people of
  Israel (as pictured in the days of Solomon)
• The children of Israel did not enter the land
  until they crossed the Jordan
• Therefore they must have crossed Aqabah in order
  not to enter the promised land earlier

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Answer to the objection

• Num 34 and Josh 15 both detail precisely the
  borders of the promised land
• The southern border ran from south edge of Dead
  Sea to the river of Egypt
• Solomon extended the kingdom beyond the Promised
  Land
• So there is no requirement to cross Aqabah

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Conclusion

• Did they cross the Red Sea?
• Yes, the Scriptures leave no doubt
• Did they cross the Gulf of Suez?
• Yes, again the evidence of Scripture leaves no
  doubt
• Others can, and will, continue to dream up other
  sites for the crossing and earthly explanations
  for the parting of the sea
• But we accept Gods word, it is the answer of
  faith

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