The Parting of the Sea
How Volcanoes, Earthquakes, and Plagues Shaped the Story of Exodus
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- $21.99
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- $21.99
Publisher Description
For more than four decades, biblical experts have tried to place the story of Exodus into historical context--without success. What could explain the Nile turning to blood, insects swarming the land, and the sky falling to darkness? Integrating biblical accounts with substantive archaeological evidence, The Parting of the Sea looks at how natural phenomena shaped the stories of Exodus, the Sojourn in the Wilderness, and the Israelite conquest of Canaan. Barbara Sivertsen demonstrates that the Exodus was in fact two separate exoduses both triggered by volcanic eruptions--and provides scientific explanations for the ten plagues and the parting of the Red Sea. Over time, Israelite oral tradition combined these events into the Exodus narrative known today.
Skillfully unifying textual and archaeological records with details of ancient geological events, Sivertsen shows how the first exodus followed a 1628 B.C.E Minoan eruption that produced all but one of the first nine plagues. The second exodus followed an eruption of a volcano off the Aegean island of Yali almost two centuries later, creating the tenth plague of darkness and a series of tsunamis that "parted the sea" and drowned the pursuing Egyptian army. Sivertsen's brilliant account explains inconsistencies in the biblical story, fits chronologically with the conquest of Jericho, and confirms that the Israelites were in Canaan before the end of the sixteenth century B.C.E.
In examining oral traditions and how these practices absorb and process geological details through storytelling, The Parting of the Sea reveals how powerful historical narratives are transformed into myth.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Sivertsen, long-time editor of the Journal of Geology, has combed the scientific literature-including Near Eastern and Egyptian archeology, Biblical studies, anthropology, biochemistry and medicine-to answer the question, is the Bible's Exodus story based in historical events? While her affirmative conclusion may not be surprising, the evidence that takes her there is. Her most revolutionary discovery is that the original, oral history of the Exodus story conflates two historical events, separated by several hundred years-clarifying what had been a major chronological obstacle to previous efforts trying to correlate it with the volcanic eruption of the Santorini-Thera in 1625 B.C. Siversten locates a different eruption, the 1450 B.C. submarine explosion of the island of Yali, which would have caused the tsunami that inundated Egyptians in the "Sea of Reeds." Providing what may be the most coherent correlation yet of ancient Egyptian history, the archeology of both Egypt and Palestine, and the biblical traditions of pre-literate Israel, Sivertsen also thoroughly documents and explains each interdisciplinary facet (including volcanism and tectonics as well as oral transmission in non-literate societies). This outstanding accomplishment should be a source of research direction for years to come.