Akin for the Truth

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 13th 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.