h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/classic/F150575?thread=2524084&post=31101982#p31101982 Hi, I remember you said with the David and Goliath entry that you're interested in evidence for biblical events. I'm working on an entry about Moses, and can't figure out if there's evidence for the Exodus or not. (I posted a few links in the above thread.) Do you know anything on the topic?

Hi Leo,

Oddly enough, in my list of 'Ideas for Guide Entries' (on my PS) I've listed 'Moses (who was he). Can't recall off-hand what I had in mind, so I'll check my file later.

Just been listening to a BBC Radio 4 programnme about St Helena who, according to legend, discovered wood from the Cross of Christ, below what is now the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. I've noticed that I also have her on my list of Entries to write - I might start it tonight. Can't quite recall what I had in mind when I wrote 'magi, Coloogne Cathedral and Tyrolean Purple afer her name; I think it was to do with a putative link with the Shroud of Turin in which I'm also interested. I'm interested because we named our daughter Helen and all people named Helen or Ellen owe their name to St Helena.

I'll get back to you re Moses.

Well, there's a book called 'The Moses Legacy' by Graham Phillips, published in 2002. It puts forward a powerful argument for the cause of the Ten Plagues of Egypt as being a massive volcanic explosion.

By examining the effects of the eruption of Mt St Helen's in Washington State in 1980, he argues that all these 'plagues' could've been the reult of a far larger explosion of the Aegean island of Thera some 1400BC

The explosion of Mt St Helens caused a massive cloud of ash which obscured the sun for hours for 500 miles around.

Hot volcanic ash fell like hailstones, flattening crops far and wide. As a result of the acidic dmeating everything, hundreds of people were afflicted with skin sores and rashes. Cattle died.
This ties in with God commanding Moses to scatter 'handfuls of ashes from a furnace... and it will cause boils that break out on man and beast.'

Fish were found floating dead in the water which had to be purified before it could be drunk - as in the Biblical descr. of ancient Egypt where ' the fish died, the river stank and the Egyptians could not drink of the river' (Nile)

Shortly after the eruption of Mt St Helens there was a plague of frogs in Washington State. There were apparently so many that driving overr the squelchy mass became dangerous. They clogged up waterways and infested houses and gardens. The reason for this is that the volcanic ash had killed off fish, but not submerged tadpoles. Tadpoles hatched and multiplied in unpreedented numbers because they were not eaten by predators. Likewise, the Bible talks of frogs in such numbers that 'they gathered them together in heaps and the land stank'.

While some insects would've been killed, others survived in the larval stage or as eggs underground. Insects reproduce at an alarming rate in vast numbers, and swarms searching for food ahead of the ash layer are apparently a common aftermath of volcanic explosions. The survivors of the eruption on Martinique in 1901 were apparently attacked by swarms of flying ants.

Plagues of locusts, of course, can occur at any time.

Even the strange colour of the river can be ascribed to a single cause and, indeed, such an event happened in North Carolina, USA. Local newspapers relished in reporting that the Neuse River, near the town of New Bern had been visited by 'biblical plagues'. The basic cause of this was pollution, in that case from pig farms. A micro-organism in the river mutated, multiplied and turned poisonous; causing sores and skin lesions to those who came into contact with it. A billion fish in the river bled to death, turning the river red.

The explosion of Mt St Helen's (atwith a force equivalent to 50 million tons of TNT) was, however, trivial to that of Thera. Krakatoa, in 1853 was even bigger than St Helens, was bigger still, being heard in Melbourne some 3000 miles away.

The Mt Thera explosion was six times bigger than Krakatoa - a staggerng six billion tons!. All that remained afterwards was the cresecent-shaped edge to its crater, now known as the island of Santorini. According to an oceanographer, Dr David Stanley, 'this was the biggest explosion in 10,000 years' and, at the time, scribes as far away as China recorded that the sun grew dim. It was the explosion of Thera that put paid to the Minoan civilisation on Crete, and some haveclaimed that it was resposible for the demise of Atlantis.

It is known that, on the day Thera exploded, the wind was blowing to the south east, because the dust from it settled on the Mediterranean sea floor. South east from Santorini lies Egypt. Volcanic ash from Santorini has been found in Egyptian sands. Its clouds of sulphur-dust would've settledon the Nile, cutting off light and oxygen. It would kill the established life of the river, giving the poisoning microbes a chance toflourish, and set off the sequence of plagues.

So, when did Thera explode? Scientists (geophysicists) have obtained icce cores from Greenland and found a massive increase in acidity dating to around 1390 BC - with a possible error of +/- 50 years. This tme range embraces the best estimates for the date of the Exodus. of the Israelites from Egypt.

Anyone who experienced first hand the eruption of St Helens would've noticed thunder and hailstones. Hail was the seventh of the Biblical plagues. Seven cubic miles of dust were blasted out of Thera and the 9th plague was 3 days of darkness. When the Hebrews under Moses finally persuaded Pharoah to let them go, far over the horizon was Santorini, throwing a cloud of dust some 125 miles into the atmosphere - a pillar of fire by night.

Now, following the explosion of Santorini, the waters of the Mediterranean are thought to have rushed into the hole in the sea floor where Mt Thera had been, causing a massive tidal wave. However, it would not've been able to part the waters of the Red Sea as described in the Bible. When Exodus refers to the Red Sea, the original Hevbrtew words were 'Yam Suph, which translated as 'Sea of Reeds' (This mistake occurred when the OT was translated from Hebrew into Greek about 300BC.

Phillips postulates that this Reed Sea refers to Lake Manzala on the coast, which stretches from northernmost tip of the Nile delta eastwards towards where Port Said now stands.

To cut a longer story short, asthe sea withdrew following the eruption, it caused the water level to drop in L. Manzala, exposing a submerged causeway. ByThe Israelites were able to make their way across but, when the Egyptian tried to follow, an incoming tsunami wiped them out.

Hope this helps.

Not exactly archeological evidence, but entertaining nonetheless. Very cool too.

I was actually looking for something along the lines of artifacts or hyroglyphics or something.

Well, another thing is that the Pharoah's chariot base was found in the Nile delta, and excavated. It was large enough to have accommodated some 600 chariots. It's location means that the Egyptians might have been just two hours behind the fleeing Israelites - just enough to give an appropriate time lag between the draining iof the water from the swamp, and the tsunami that followed.

Archaeologists also believe they've found the mountain that Moses ascended to collect his stone tablets. According to the Book of Numbers, Moses' brother Aaron was b=uried on this same mt and Josephus located this to be near the ancient city of Petra. In Moses' time this was the mountainous land of the Edomites who were Hebrews. They lived in a valley reached only through a deep gorge which is still known to the local,Bedouin as the Valley of Moses, leading to a spring called the Spring of . It was here that M was s'posed to have struck the rock causing water to gush out.
The mt. above is now called Jebel(Mount) Madhbah. On a plateau nr the summit is a courtyard cut into the rock surrounding a stone platform and altar. There is also a stone tomb which could be that of Aaron.


According to Josephus' account, there was also a Syrian royal princess (named Termut). Among her pupils was a boy called Kamose, of unknown parentage. Kamose is mentioned in her tomb inscription as having later become chief steward to Pharoah in charge of the slave workers of the Israelites...

Sounds good so far.

If my history is correct, Josephus lived around 2 thousand years after the exodus. How does he know all this stuff?

Dunno, but it's an account much closer to the time than we are now. Obviously, the Exodus was 'pre-history'

It might be worth 'Googling' what could be the keyfacts in all this to check how much is recognised by mainstream archaeology.

As I've saoid elsewhere, it's fascinating to me how much in the Bible can bee explained by reference to modern day phenomena. So, in terms of the Exodus it's interesting/fascinating that the Santorini event can be dated using Greenland ice cores; which then seems to map to best estimates of the Exodus date.

It's fascinating to think that all those 10 plagues can be explained by (extreme) volcanic activity, and it'd be interesting to check that mainstream science does recognise that all those events were observed with Mt St Helens

It'd be interesting to check that archaeologists agree that Pharoah's chariot station has been found (I didn't read all the info on the 2 ewebsites you gave on your other thread, but I don't believe all the stuff about chariot wheels etc having been found, but it'd be interesting to check again on where they saiud these'd been found, and whether it correlates to L. Manzala).

Also, be interesting to check on what's officially recognised about the archaeology of Jebel Madhbah.

Also, it'd be interesting to 'Google' say 'Termut, Kamose, Tuthmosis III' in various combinations to see if anything 'official' comes up.

(BTW I don't know anything about the author Graham Phillips, whether he's a scientist, archaeologist, amateur historian or just an 'Erich von Daniken type' So, I don't know how credble his book is - but it seems to tie in with a serious TV documentary I saw two or three years ago.

There's also the account of the burning bush. I seem to recall that there's a shrub that occurs in the Holy Land which is full of volatile oils, and thus combusts easily.

This quote may also be of interest to you when you write up your account. (It's from a few pages I tore out of 'Awake' magazine of the Jehova's Witnesses, dated 8 April, 2004. It has an article called 'Moses, Man or Myth?'.
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'Many scholars today dismiss these events as fiction. "The fact is" says Christianity Today, "that not one shred of direct archaeological evidence has been found for [the years] the children of Israel sojourned in Egypt". While direct physical proof may be lacking, there is considerable indirect evidence that the Bible account is credible. In his book 'Israel in Egypt', Egyptologist James K Hoffmeier says: "Archaeological data clearly demonstrates that Egypt was frequented by the peoples of the Levant [countries bordering on the eastern Mediterranean], especicially as a result of climatic problems that resulted in drought... Thus, for a period roughly from 1800 to 1540BC, Egypt was an attractive place for the Semitic speaking people of western Asia to migrate".
Furthermore, it has long been acknowledged that the Bible's account is accurate. The book 'Moses-A life' reports: "The biblical account of the oppression of the Israelites appears to be corroborated in one often-reproduced tomb painting fromancient Egypt in which the making of mud bricks by a gang of slaves is depicted in explicit detail" (The aricle includes a reproduction of the tomb painting)

Ref the 'burning bush' (nb thought possibly to be a species ofr 'gas plant (fraxinella), I just found the following answer to a question, on a website:

'There is one *important* difference between the burning bush(es) the scientists found and biblical ones: the biblical one talked to Moses...

Maybe Moses was sitting there haveing a smoke, which started the fire.
then the effects of what he was smokeing made him hear the voice'.

Yeah, I was wondering how you get from combustable bush to talking bush!

Thanks tons, BigAl. I think I've got enough to go on for now.