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Other Miracles of Exodus


Along with the plagues against Egypt there are a number of other miracles worthy of note for the various reasons. One of these is the story of the burning bush (Ex. 3:2, 3 KJV, key Hebrew words in brackets):

And the angel [mal'ak] of the LORD [YHWH] appeared unto him in a flame [libbah] of fire [aysh] out of the midst of the bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned [ba'ar] with fire [aysh] and the bush was not consumed. And Moses said, "I will now turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt [ba'ar]."

Hebrew, which usually has few words that have multiple meanings, here has a plethora of words relating to "flame", "fire" and "burn." Another Hebrew word related to this concept is "saraph,' which means "fiery." In Num. 21:6, the "fiery serpents" God sends to bite the back-sliding Israelites are in Hebrew "saraphim."

While the word "saraph" does not appear in the verses of Exodus 3 relating to the burning bush, the reason for the bush 'burning" but not being consumed would be that the flame within it was the visual manifestation of the angelic, or divine.

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Re: Other Miracles of Exodus


I give that story less credence than I do to the myth of spontaneous human combustion.
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Re: Other Miracles of Exodus: The miracle at the sea, part 1


Of course, the grand finale of the Exodus has to be the miracle at the sea. When we unravel the contradictory verses and separate the threads, this is the version we get from P:

Ex. 14:16, 17 God tells Moses, "Lift up your rod, and stretch out your hand ove the sea and divide it, that the peopel of Israel may go on dryland through the sea. And I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they shall go in after them.

Ex. 14: 21a, 21c - 23 Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea . . . and the waters were divided. And the people of Israel went into the midst of the sea on dry ground, the waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left. The Egyptians pursued, and went in after them into the midst of the sea, all Pharaoh's chariots and horsemen.

Ex. 14:26, 27a, 28, 29 Then the LORD said to Moses, "Stretch out your hand over the sea, that the water may come back upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots, and upon their horsemen." So MOsees stretched forth his hand over the sea . . . . The waters returned and covered the chariots and the horsement and all the host of Pharaoh that had followed them into the sea; not so much as one of them remained. But the people of Israel walked on dry ground trhough the sea, the waters being a wall to them one their right hand nd on their left.
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Re: Other Miracles of Exodus: the miracle at the sea, part 2


The J version of the miracle at the sea begins with Ex. 14:19, 20, when the angel of God, in the form of a pillar of cloud, went from in front of the Israelites and stood between them and the Egyptians during the night. . . . Verse 21b a fragment, continues the story (emphasis added):

. . . and the LORD drove the sea back by a strong east wind ALL NIGHT, and made the sea dry land.

J next shows up in verses 24 and 25b:

And in the morning watch the LORD in the pillar of fire and cloud looked down upon the host of the Egyptians and discomfited the Egyptians . . . and the Egyptians said, "Let us flee from before Israel; for te LORD fights for them against the Egyptians.

The final installment of J is Ex. 14:27b:
 
. . . and the sea returned to its wonted flow when the morning appeared; and the Egyptians fled into it, and the LORD routed the Egyptians in the midst of the sea.

This is a bit choppy, so lets put these sheared fragments back to gether again with elipses marking the areas where P and E material was inserted:

. . . when the angel of God, in the form of a pillar of cloud, went from in front of the Israelites and stood between them and the Egyptians during the night. . . . and the LORD drove the sea back by a strong east wind ALL NIGHT, and made the sea dry land. . . . And in the morning watch the LORD in the pillar of fire and cloud looked down upon the host of the Egyptians and discomfited the Egyptians . . . and the Egyptians said, "Let us flee from before Israel; for te LORD fights for them against the Egyptians. . . . and the sea returned to its wonted flow when the morning appeared; and the Egyptians fled into it, and the LORD routed the Egyptians in the midst of the sea.
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Re: Other Miracles of Exodus, the miracle at the sea, Part 3


The differences between the P and J versions of this story are as follows.

In P God tells Moses directly to stretch his staff over the sea and DIVIDE it. He also tells Moses he will harden the hearts ofthe Eguyptians and cause them to PURSUE the Israelites into the sea. They do, nd God then tells Moses to stretch his staff over the sea again, causing it to return and drown the Egyptians.

In J God doesn't communicate with Moses. A wind blows the sea back ALL NIGHT. God looks down on the Egyptians out of the pillar of cloud and terrifies them. They FLEE into the sea - as opposed to PURSUING the Israelites. The Israelites haven't fled into the dry seabed in this version. The wind stops blowing, and the waters return and drown the Egyptians.

Finally, we have the E fragment. Exodus 14:24, 25 say:

And in the morning watch, the LORD in the pillar of fire and cloud looked down upon the Egyptians, and discomfitted the the host of the Egyptians CLOGGING THEIR CHARIOT WHEELS SO THAT THEY DROVE HEAVILY; and the Egyptians said, "Let us flee from before Israel; for the LORD fights for them against the Egyptians.

If we take out the capitalized section, leaving only an elipsis in its place, the verses flow muc more smoothely:

And in the morning watch, the LORD in the pillar of fire and cloud looked down upon the Egyptians, and discomfitted the the host of the Egyptians . . .; and the Egyptians said, "Let us flee from before Israel; for the LORD fights for them against the Egyptians.

Thus, vs. 25a, ". . . clogging their chariot wheels so that they drove heavily . . ." is intrusive and belongs to another thread: E. Thus, all that E says is that God clogged the wheels of the chariots, allowing the Israelites to escape.

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Re: Other Miracles of Exodus


If you actually believe all that nonsense about the Hebrews having been slaves in the first place, seeing that we now know that the pyramids and temples of Egypt were built by paid labourers, and if you believe that some Egyptian prince took it upon himself to remove the 'slaves' from his father, and that the pursuing Egyptians actually were wiped out by the water of the Red Seas, then the whole parting of the waves thing could be explained by a tsunami as a result of the that wiped out the Minoans c1700 BCE, and using my previous 'broken telephone' theory, it was merely added to the story to give it some extra dramatic touch.
Actually, it's a whole lot of mythological claptrap.
It's all rubbish, it never happened, because the Egyptians didn't write the story down, and they were great story writers.
The Anointed
This book might interest you Tim.
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Re: Other Miracles of Exodus


In all probability, the Hebrews in Egypt, who only constituted a minority of those who formed a confederation or amphictyony worshipping Yahweh, were "guest workers" who were no longer welcome at a time of financial crisis. This would have likely occurred as the "Catastrophe" that ended the Late Bronze Age began to unfold.

I suspect that the E account that Yahweh clogged the wheels of the Egyptian chariots and made them run heavily is the closest to any historical account of what was eventually mythologized as the Miracle at the Sea. In all probability, hebrews being harassed on their way out of Egypt were fleeing on foot from chariots and turned their handicap to their advantage by fleeing across a tidal flat, possibly as the tide was coming in. The pursuing chariots were mired in wet sand, while those on foot made their getaway.

As to a tsunami, I don't think that is the source of the miracle. Rather, as I will note in my next post, it relates to the combat myth.
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Re: Other Miracles of Exodus


OK, it was just an idea that possibly a tsunami could explain some of the odd things the Bible couldn't.
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Re: Other Miracles of Exodus


Politics and religion have always been entwined. When the city of Babylon rose to a position of preeminance in Mesopotamia, the Babylonians created a new creation epic, Enuma elish, in which the patron deity of their city, Marduk, became the creator of the ordered cosmos. He did this by killing the original creatrix of the world, a great sea serpent named Ti'amat, and making the cosmos out of her divided body.

The Hebrew word for the "deep" is tehom. It's feminine plural ("deeps") is tehomot, which is cognate with Ti'amat. Plural forms in Hebrew were often used as what are called intensives, a form of the word that intensifies the meaning. So, for example, Elohim can either mean "gods" or "the god of all gods." Tehomot can mean "deeps" or "the deepest (part of the sea)."

Many scholars have noted strong similarities between the P creation story in Genesis 1 and Enuma elish, except for the fact that it lacks a combat between Yahweh and a chaos dragon personifying the sea. However, there are illusions scattered through the Old Testament to a battle in the past between Yahweh and a sea / chaos dragon, as, for example, Psalm 74:13, 14:

Thou didst divide the sea by thy might;
    thou didst break the heads of the dragons of the waters.
Thou didst crush the heads of Leviathan,
     thou didst give him as food for the creatures of the wilderness.

Here, dividing the sea is synonymous with killing the great sea dragon. Likewise, in the P version of the Miracle at the Sea - the same one used by Cecil B. DeMille - Moses divides the waters, and the Israelites walk dry-shod between towering walls of water.

Often, in various books of the Bible, the sea also personifies the nations of the earth other than Israel. So the sea here also represents the Egyptians it swallows up.



    
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Re: Other Miracles of Exodus


While the J version of the Miracle at the Sea is not as dramatic - or cinematic - as P's parting of the Red Sea, it still has mythic power. Here it is again in sequence.

1) Ex. 14:19: The angel of God, in the pillar of smoke and fire, goes from in front of the children of Israel to behind them, interposing the pillar of fire between them and the Egyptians.

2) Verse 20: As a result of this, during the night they are separated from each other.

3) Verse 21: Also during the night, Yahweh causes a strong wind to blow that pushes the sea back, exposing the seabed.

4) Verse 25b: In the morning Yahweh looks down at the Egyptians out of the cloud and terrifies them. They flee into the seabed.

5) Verse 27b: As the Egyptians flee into the exposed seabed. Yahweh lets the wind drop and allows the waters rush back and drown them.

6) Verses 30 and 31: Finally, (though not previously noted in these posts) the Israelites see the dead bodies of the Egyptians piled up on the shore.

God, in this version does show mastery over the sea (Yam in Hebrew), much as Baal shows mastery over the god Yam (Sea). The question that comes up, considering that both J and P have accounts of the Egyptian army being tossed into the sea, is: Was this based on a real event?

Last edited by Tim Callahan, 6/4/2009, 7:09 pm
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