US researchers think they have narrowed down where Moses parted the Red Sea 3,000 years ago, and also how he did it — with a little help from the wind.
“People have always been fascinated by this Exodus story, wondering if it comes from historical facts,” Carl Drews of the National Centre for Atmospheric Research, the lead author of the study, said. “What this study shows is that the description of the waters parting indeed has a basis in physical laws,” he said.
The Bible speaks of the Israelites going “into the midst of the sea on dry ground” with a wall of water on either side of them as a strong wind from the East blew through the night after Moses stretched his hand out over the sea.
The researchers couldn’t simply refer to the Bible to pin down the geographical location of the crossing because “although the author of Exodus tried very hard to pinpoint where Moses crossed, unfortunately the three place names used are no longer recognised,” Drews said.
Drews and co-author Weiqing Han, an oceanographer from the University of Colorado, focused their search for where the crossing might have happened on a place where there was a bend in the water, ruling out sites used in earlier studies — in the Gulf of Suez or near Aqaba in modern-day Jordan.
The researchers focused on a place with a bend in the water, reasoning that when the wind blows, the water would shift and split at the point of the bend, leaving water on both sides, he explained.
“A bunch of refugees can come running across, and when the wind stops, the water suddenly goes back together again, trapping anyone who’s pursuing,” he said.