The Parting of the Sea: How Volcanoes, Earthquakes, and Plagues Shaped the Exodus Story is a book written by Barbara J. Sivertsen in 2009.[1]

The book supports an "early" Exodus hypothesis, prior to the biblical date of c.1440 BCE. According to the author, "The Exodus was in fact two separate exoduses. The first exodus followed a 1628 BCE. 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 … drowned [Tuthmose III and] the pursuing Egyptian army." Sivertsen's account 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. Per this view, the first exodus occurred ca. 1628 BCE. As a result, it is possible that the Israelites were indeed at Jericho when City IV was destroyed ca. 1550 BCE.[2] Also, according to this view, the Israelites and the Hyksos are separate groups of people, and the first Exodus from Egypt occurred before the expulsion of the Hyksos. As a result, this interpretation of the exodus does not suffer from the difficulties that come from identifying the Israelites with the Hyksos rulers of Egypt. This book advocates the High Egyptian Chronology,[3][4] which dates the reign of Thutmose III to the time period from 1504 BCE to 1450 BCE rather than the time period from 1479 BCE to 1425 BCE that it occupies in the Conventional Egyptian chronology. Sivertsen also argues that the mummy from the Deir el-Bahri cache in the Valley of the Kings that was labeled as Thutmose III is actually the mummy of a different person.[5] As a result, it is possible that the second exodus occurred in 1450 BCE (which is close to the traditional early date of 1447 BCE) and it is also possible that the reign of Thutmose III ended at the time of this exodus.

See also

References

  1. ^ Princeton University Press
  2. ^ Bruins & van der Plicht, "Tell es-Sultan (Jericho): Radiocarbon Results of Short-Lived Cereal and Multiyear Charcoal Samples from the End of the Middle Bronze Age," Radiocarbon 37:2, 1995. Available here [1]
  3. ^ Johnson, J.H. and E.F. Wente, eds. (1976). "A Chronology of the New Kingdom (by E. F. Wente and C. C. Van Siclen III)". Studies in Honor of George R. Hughes. The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago. ISBN 978-0918986016. ((cite book)): |first1= has generic name (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |month= (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  4. ^ Casperson, L.W., "The Lunar Dates of Thutmose III," Journal of Near Eastern Studies 45 (1986): 139-50.
  5. ^ Wente, Edward F. "Who Was Among The Royal Mummies?" (This article originally appeared in The Oriental Institute News and Notes, No. 144, Winter 1995, and is made available electronically with the permission of the editor.) Available at [2]
More