Israelite Passage Of Red Sea

Chronicle (Levin), 10 August 1948, Page 5

Israelite Passage Of Red Sea

LONDON, August 9. The tlieorv tliat the Israelites, ■wheu leaviug Fgypt, did not pass thiough tlie Red Sea hut tli rough a lako a lo ii._ way northwest of the point at "ivhicl. it had been generally helieved ti:crossing- t*ook piace, has been advauce l hy memhers of the Fniversity of Oalifornia African expeditiou, in a prelim inary report puhlislied in "Science. " According to the version whicli had been reconstructed from the best de, ductions and available records, the r.sraelites lieaded south from Suceorh in Goshen aiul remained in Fgyptia-i territory until they reaehed the head oi' the-Reii Sea near where the citv >.f Snez is now loeated. The Universitv oi California group, after examining tluterritory and in the liglit of an exten sive historieal liackground, reaehed ttm •onclusion tliat- tlie bsraelities, ylid-Ti'r tuni soutlnvard at Succoth hut coa tinued eastward and that the miracle of the dry crossing took piace on tli •• fmke or Sea of Reeds, ono of a string of lakes. Dr. Wendell Phillips, leader of the expedition, in his preliminarv report. states: "It how hecomes eertain tli it Ihe route of the Israelite exodns de scrihed iii the Bihle as passing from Ramases (San el Hagar) through Pit liom and Succoth (Tel el Mas-Ivhutah. nest of Isinailia) cannot have passcd through the R^d Sea, hut must ha.m been farther north through the hody of water called ' Lake (or sea) of Reeds'. ' T ti hoth the Biblical and Egyptian re .■ords of the 13th century B.C. (the ao proximate date of the Israelite exodus), tlre point where Moses produc ed drinking water wit^ his inagic rod n* the Desert of Sliur, is identified. It i i ten miles s'outh of Suez. According t,i the IMosaic account., the Israelites liid been travelling three days in the Desert of Sliur when the water inagic was pvrformed. If a drv crossing through water had been made near Succoth, this. would have provided about a 60niile ro'ute through the Desert which would have been mucli more lilce three-day travel distanee.