Dissecting Miracles

[Brown]

From ABC News (USA):

In the latest attempt to lend scientific credence to a supernatural event, Naum Volzinger, a senior researcher at St. Petersburg's Institute of Oceanography, and Alexei Androsov, a colleague based in Hamburg, Germany, analyzed conditions that could have made the parting of the Red Sea possible.
...
Volzinger and Androsov calculated that a wind blowing at the speed of 67 miles per hour sustained overnight could have exposed a reef that existed close below the ocean surface. The Israelites could have then fled over the passage before the wind died down and waters rose again, blocking the way for pursuing Egyptian soldiers in their wheeled chariots.

Of greater interest is a potential explanation for the fabled burning bush:

One of the most common bushes in the region is the acacia bush, says Humphreys, a bramble that is known for making good charcoal. If a [volcanic] vent happened to spew hot gasses under an acacia bush, he argues, it could have alighted and appeared to have burned without end.

It is possible that some folks saw a real burning bush, and that it led to the generation of part of the Moses story. There are other examples of strange events reported in the Bible that really do occur, to a degree. Around the Dead Sea, for example, pillars of salt naturally form. Some of them, quite by chance, resemble a human. It is easy to see how a myth could develop that the Almighty turned a person into a pillar of salt.

The novel "The Robe," by Lloyd C. Douglas, includes some natural and plausible explanations for some of Christ's greatest miracles, such as the feeding of multitudes with a small amount of food. What I find interesting is that Lloyd's non-supernatural version of the feeding incident actually encompasses a powerful moral message, whereas the supernatural version does not encompass that message.

 

[Zep]

Long time ago I read of an "explanation" for the "parting of the Red Sea". In fact, there is no reason in the Bible to say that it actually WAS the Red Sea at all, nor that the waters formed huge walls like in the movies. That is, it has all been poetic license.

But let us return to the "source":

Exodus, 14:9
But the Egyptians pursued after them, all the horses and chariots of Pharaoh, and his horsemen, and his army, and overtook them encamping by the sea, beside Pihahiroth, before Baalzephon.

I'm not a Biblical scholar, but if Moses was leading the Jews to the Promised Land from Egypt, then the most obvious route would be well to the north of the Red Sea, more than likely across the swampy eastern Nile delta. (And the place-name "Baalphezon" would suggest something to do with a temple to Baal, reinforcing that this place was on a trade route to the Syrian region.)

Exodus 14:21
And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the LORD caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided.

In a swampy area, probably tidal, it would hardly be a miracle that the water could recede enough for people to walk across SOME solid ground, possibly even rocky outcrop regions. And especially so if the wind blew offshore, as an eastern wind well might in that geographical location.

Exodus 14:27,28 (crunch time!)
And Moses stretched forth his hand over the sea, and the sea returned to his strength when the morning appeared; and the Egyptians fled against it; and the LORD overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the sea.

And the waters returned, and covered the chariots, and the horsemen, and all the host of Pharaoh that came into the sea after them; there remained not so much as one of them.

Well gosh! The chariots had a hard time crossing the swampy, waterlogged, possibly lumpy region. So they were impeded badly. So the drivers got off their chariots and retreated with the horses before nightfall - an obvious move. Then the wind stopped blowing overnight, and the tide came in. The stuck chariots got covered by the incoming tide and probably washed away or were overturned. Result: No chariots in sight the next morning.

Frankly, I suspect it WAS something like this that explains this "miracle". And note: NO mention of the Red Sea in the Biblical account at all! So much for the researchers' veracity...

 

[Soapy Sam]

Stories get retold and they grow in the telling. Particularly war stories, about how the baddies got their comeuppance. The Red Sea, like all other seas, is higher now than it was then.

And feeding a multitude is simple if you get them to share what they all have but were keeping for later. The miracle is getting them to share. That takes charisma.

 

[Silicon]

WHAT?!!?

Of COURSE it was a miracle.

BUSHES never burn naturally.

 

[Agammamon]

If the wind was blowing at 67 mph you're not going to do a whole lot of fleeing. You're going to have enough trouble just standing up.

 

[Brown]

In fact, there is no reason in the Bible to say that it actually WAS the Red Sea at all...

One look at a map should convince anyone that the story does not talk about crossing the Red Sea proper, if you will. If the Israelites had crossed the main body of the Red Sea, they'd have ended up down in Arabia, and would have missed the Sinai peninsula.

...then the most obvious route would be well to the north of the Red Sea, more than likely across the swampy eastern Nile delta.

Exactly right. My understanding is that there is a general consensus that the "crossing" must have occurred to the north of the main body of the Red Sea. And there is some basis for suggesting that the area was rather swampy.

I believe Isaac Asimov's Commentaries on the Bible discusses this issue, and also suggests reasons why the Israelites might have chosen this particular escape route.

 

[wollery]

Umm, not that I'm much of a biblical scholar or anything, but I thought that the whole Red sea thing had been settled. It's a mistransliteration (wow, that's a big word for a Friday!). It should actually be the "Reed Sea", which has been identified as a fairly shallow swampy area in the north east corner of Egypt.

There was even some theory about the "parting" and subsequent refilling being due to a tidal wave that was set off by a huge volcano in the northern Mediterranean which dates to about the right time in history, although that part could be total hokum.