The Lost Sea of the Exodus: A Modern Geographical Analysis

Some 3500 years ago, a sea miraculously parted in an event called the Exodus, but its location has been uncertain for millennia. Its identity has now been deciphered, and can be stated in one sentence. The real enigma is why its identity remained shrouded in mystery for so long. The explanation is deserving of a book! Yam Suph, the Hebrew name for the sea that parted, has traditionally been called the Red Sea and placed at the Gulf of Suez near Egypt. More recently, many scholars have defined it as the Reed Sea and assigned it to various inland Egyptian estuaries. However, such locations do not harmonize with the biblical data that clearly identify Yam Suph as the modern Gulf of Aqaba. The confusion began over 2,000 years ago with the Greek Septuagint Bible, which equated the Hebrew Yam Suph with the Greek concept of the Red Sea. The Greeks were unaware of the Gulf of Aqaba, which caused the Gulf of Suez to became the default site for Yam Suph. The geographical ignorance of the Gulf of Aqaba persisted until the 19th century, allowing the Red Sea tradition to dominate without challenge. The various Reed Sea theories, which are now favored over the Red Sea tradition, mainly hinge on the linguistic theory that the Hebrew word suph referred to vegetation. But, these supposed botanical meanings are readily discredited by basic linguistic analyses of the Hebrew vocabulary related to suph. A Gulf of Aqaba location for Yam Suph invalidates all of the theories that have placed the Exodus sea crossing near Egypt. More importantly, it mandates that Mount Sinai must be sought further east, in the region of ancient Midian in northwest Arabia, not within the Sinai Peninsula as previously thought. Having meticulously identified the Sea of the Exodus as the Gulf of Aqaba, this work then provides a detailed geographical overview of the likely route used by the Hebrews to reach this sea. In the process, enigmatic biblical places like Migdol, Etham, Pihahiroth and Shur are defined and explained. A must-have, fact-filled reference for any student of Near Eastern or biblical history. 352 pages and 180 maps, charts and illustrations.