Can Archeologists Uncover Actual Proof Of The Old Testament? | The Exodus | Unearthed History

[Music] thank you [Music] [Music] in a land synonymous with ancient Mysteries and Timeless Wonder where the treasures of antiquity reveal glimpses of a glorious past it is here at the crossroads of Biblical history and an extraordinary civilization that one story still captivates the human imagination as perhaps no other Ever Told [Music] story and the Mystery of the Exodus The Exodus story is very important for a number of reasons it's a story of Liberation from bondage it's a story of victory over oppressors it's a story of how one individual can make a tremendous difference I think it's right at the roots of our ethical system if not our religious system The Exodus in Jewish tradition it's that which defines it was a people God brought them out made them his own entered into a covenant relationship with them on Mount Sinai [Music] The Exodus story has endured for more than three thousand years and the power of its message and imagery is undeniable [Music] cultural significance of the Old Testament narrative doubts about its authenticity have long existed Scholars generally have rejected the historicity of The Exodus account and this is because of this lack of direct evidence outside the Bible that would substantiate these events and this is why you have in scholarly circles great skepticism about whether we can ever establish firmly a root of the excess or even if there was a Exodus the skepticism of the archaeological Community has triggered many questions about the biblical narrative [Music] Israel's Exodus from Egypt actually occur if it did then why has so little evidence been Unearthed where the people and events described in the biblical account real or nothing more than elaborate fiction [Music] during the next hour we will travel from the Nile Delta to the depths of the Red Sea to investigate these questions in the light of new evidence and discovery [Music] on this journey we will explore and test the biblical record for if there's any historical truth to accounts of The Exodus then some evidence of Moses and the children of Israel should still exist even if it lies buried under water and sand join us now as we probe ancient Mysteries to examine the Exodus story against the testimony of Science History and archeology [Music] [Music] thank you [Music] Ben Farrow spoke to Joseph saying the land of Egypt is before you have your father and brothers dwell in the best of the land let them dwell in the land of Goshen [Music] any attempt to weigh the historical validity of The Exodus must begin here in the Nile Delta the Biblical land of Goshen for according to the scriptures this is where Israel first settled in Egypt thank you nearly 4 000 years ago the Hebrew patriarch Joseph then a prisoner in Egypt is said to have interpreted Pharaoh's dream foretelling seven years of abundant Harvest followed by seven years of devastating famine after delivering this prophecy Joseph was commissioned to oversee the Harvest and storage of grain throughout the land and when famine struck news of Egypt's abundance spread quickly to its neighbors there is again plenty of extra biblical as well as biblical evidence of constant moving back and forth between Palestine and Egypt particularly in times of felon [Music] when famine ravaged Keenan fear of starvation LED Joseph's father his 11 brothers and their wives and children to leave their Homeland and make the 200-mile journey Southwest into Goshen [Music] and as Egypt prospered under Joseph's leadership a grateful Pharaoh offered his family permanent sanctuary in the richest area of the empire [Music] the biblical record dates these events at early in the 19th century BC but have archaeologists ever confirmed that a significant Canaanite population once inhabited Northeastern Egypt during this time over the past four decades extensive investigation has established the presence of ancient Israel in the Nile Delta in 1966 just outside the small town of cantir an Austrian research team headed by Dr Manfred B Tech made the first of a remarkable series of discoveries foreign s at an excavation site called Tel eldaba are remains of what is now believed to be the earliest Israelite settlement in Egypt studies of pottery fragments and construction techniques have verified that primitive mud walls here were once part of an unfortified Village built by Canaanite farmers in the middle of the 19th century BC Manford b-tec's work has provided us with the only tangible evidence for the presence of Israelites in Egypt the earliest Asiatic occupation at Tel aldaba is in area F stratum D2 and this is a very interesting level because the people living there were pastoralists living a very simple lifestyle they had very small structures that they lived in evidence for keeping animals in pens and so on this dates to the time of Jacob of Joseph it's at the right place it's an Asiatic culture obviously these people were not local Egyptians they had migrated into this area from the land of Canaan and so this could very well be evidence for the Israelites in Egypt while Excavating in these cornfields Manfred btec's team made another intriguing find in a plot of land later identified as area F they uncovered the ruins of a village [Music] in this small village there in stratum D2 dating to the time of Joseph all the remains are Asiatic in nature the material culture there is Asiatic nothing is Egyptian [Music] a map of the excavation site confirms its distinctly Israelite Origins and there was one house in particular which was larger than the other houses and it was laid out in kind of a horseshoe fashion around a central Courtyard and then around this rather large structure were smaller structures and this perhaps may be the very first house built using this design archaeologists immediately recognized that the design of this horseshoe shaped dwelling was identical to structures built in Israel centuries later it was a prototype of Hebrew architecture constructed near the time Joseph was believed to have lived in Egypt [Music] and Joseph died but the children of Israel were fruitful and multiplied and the land was filled with them then there arose a new king over Egypt who did not know Joseph and he said look the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we come let us deal with them lest they join our enemies and fight against us [Music] the scriptures tell us that following Joseph's death Pharaoh drove the Israelite population into slavery several archaeological discoveries have also confirmed this aspect of the biblical account [Music] excavations throughout the Nile Delta have Unearthed walls of mud brick resembling those the Bible states were once molded by the hands of Israelite slaves foreign this practice was vividly Illustrated in an 18th Dynasty tomb painting depicting foreign slaves making bricks from mud and straw [Music] an inscription on the mural Echoes the slave master's dreaded warning the rod is in my hand be not idle [Music] another mural carved in a tomb wall during the 15th century BC shows Canaanite slaves working in The Vineyards of Goshen fragments of the Brooklyn Papyrus dating back more than 3 700 years Spencer of domestic slaves from one Egyptian owner to another each slave was listed by name more than half the names noted were characteristically Hebrew [Music] there is now little doubt that a significant Israelite population lived in Egypt for several hundred years after the time of Joseph yet if biblical accounts of The Exodus are historically viable then there should also be evidence of Israel's arrival in Canaan the promised land sometime between the 14th and 12th centuries BC such evidence does exist [Music] more than 3 200 years ago the Pharaoh mernepta ventured out of Egypt on a military campaign through the land of Canaan [Music] later in a poem proclaiming his victories he boasted that Israel is laid waste this inscription dates from about 1210 BC and establishes that the Israelites had arrived and settled in Canaan well before manepto's conquest at the end of the 13th century [Music] additionally at talamana in Egypt archaeologists have uncovered a series of letters on cuneiform tablets many were authored by Canaanite rulers early in the 14th century BC [Music] letters contain desperate pleas to the Egyptian pharaoh Akhenaten for military assistance to defend Canaan from nomadic Invaders one of them warns that if Pharaoh does not act all Kanan will be lost the Invaders were identified by the name Hopi rule and this is kind of a generic term for stateless individuals people who weren't connected with any particular urban center and so the Israelites undoubtedly would have been referred to as either apiru or asiatics by the Egyptians I do think of the term operator is the origin of the term Hebrew the name apiru referred to the Hebrew people then the tel armana inscriptions provide strong evidence for the presence of Israel and Canaan they also suggest Israel may have entered the country earlier than Scholars had previously thought at the beginning of the 14th century BC recent excavations of the Canaanite city of hotzor could also support a 14th century Israelite invasion evidence has been uncovered that this city was destroyed at least twice During the period described in the biblical books of Joshua and judges scattered among the remains of a large Palace were Egyptian and Canaanite Idols their heads and hands intentionally chiseled off archaeologist amnan bentur has concluded by process of elimination that the invading Israelites must have ravaged tatsur for neither the Egyptians nor the indigenous Canaanites would have purposely destroyed their own Gods so we should expect s in Canaan for the conquest and when we examine some of the places that are named in the Book of Joshua we do indeed find archaeological evidence to back up the biblical account theological evidence shows that Israel appeared in the promised land between 1400 and 1200 BC and if it also documents a Hebrew population in the Nile Delta for centuries before these dates then one conclusion follows the Israelites must have migrated from Egypt into Canaan and an exodus actually occurred [Music] [Music] when you have brought the people out of Egypt you will worship God on this mountain [Music] took place then a new question arises what path did the children of Israel follow in their flight from Egypt temp to test the biblical record must Focus along the route that the Bible itself specifies [Music] Scholars have proposed many theories but each must account for one fact according to the Book of Exodus after leaving Goshen the Israelites first set out for the Holy Mountain where they were to meet and worship God Moses and his people traveled to a mountain known in the scriptures by two names orib and Mount Sinai controversy has long surrounded its actual location if you read the literature on the identification of Mount Sinai you'll probably find 15 or 20 mountains which have been named by Scholars with scholarly arguments as to why this rather than that is Mount Sinai it's chaos of of critical conflict of the many sites proposed for the mountain the most well-known stands in the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula each morning throughout the year Pilgrims from around the world climb to the 7 500 foot Summit of what is generally considered to be Mount Sinai few who walk these well-worn steps realize exactly how this mountain was first identified as the place where the Israelites encountered God in the third Century CE you have the rise of the Christian monastic movement Christian ascetics going off in the desert to get along with God following very consciously the patterns of Moses and Elijah and some of the Christian ascetics in Egypt moved into the Sinai Peninsula that was their new area for the desert the new area in which they would seek God get along with God no civilization there hardly any cities or Villages except along the coast and for them they had engaged in an exodus from Egypt they came out of Egypt lived in the Sinai Peninsula and this was their Holy Land they read the biblical text with an allegorical approach they see symbols and images of things everywhere and then you looked around the large mountains their Jebel mutes and some other it looks a lot like what probably Mount Sinai might have looked like so already probably by 350. it seems that some of these monks developed the tradition of identifying uh Jebel Musso Deborah Katrina one of these other mountains in this Sinai Peninsula with the mountain in which Moses himself had actually ascended by early in the 4th Century A.D Christian pilgrimages to this mountain had become commonplace and today a chapel and a monastery stand at the base of this traditional site of Mount Sinai since 1956 archaeological teams have searched for evidence that Moses and the Israelites once camped here for nearly a year after their flight from Egypt well the department of Antiquities brought together bands of archaeologists both Israeli and non-israeli to try to do the most comprehensive survey imaginable because they knew that Sinai was going back to Egypt so there was intense surface exploration and when we go to Sinai we can't find anything it is popular Russia so far as the period of Moses is concerned it was uh empty when it was under Israeli control they found nothing really which would suggest Israeli interest in that area out of over 8 000 inscriptions from the southern half of the Sinai Peninsula only a handful our Hebrew Aramaic hardly any and so the tradition of identifying one of the mountains in the Sinai Peninsula with the mountain of Moses was the Christian invention purely a Christian invention without any Jewish precedence whatsoever no Jews were ever interested in the Sinai Peninsula with any respect anyway to Moses [Music] does the lack of Hebrew tradition and archaeological evidence discredits the biblical record as many Skeptics have argued or does it indicate that Mount Sinai stands somewhere other than the Sinai Peninsula on this second question the Bible appears to speak quite clearly [Music] now it came about in those days that Moses went out to his Brethren and looked on their hard labors and he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew and when he saw there was no one around he struck down the Egyptian and hid him in the sand when Pharaoh heard of this matter he tried to kill Moses but Moses fled from the presence of pharaoh and settled in the land of Midian scriptures indicate that 40 years before The Exodus Moses fled from Pharaoh by traveling East to Midian an ancient Territory located entirely in what is now Saudi Arabia if Moses were fleeing from incarceration in Egypt for murdering an Egyptian then this would be an ideal place to to find Refuge it is outside of the control and influence of Egypt Moses decision to hide in Midian may have been influenced by the presence of the Egyptian Military in the Sinai Peninsula 3 500 years ago Pharaoh's soldiers supervised the construction and operation of copper and turquoise mines throughout the southern Sinai inscriptions on their walls and the surrounding ruins of ancient temples still provide graphic evidence of Egypt's presence here during the years of Moses exile it is doubtful that as a fugitive Moses would have lived or traveled anywhere in the South Sinai with an army committed to his capture close at hand the prospects of sanctuary and Midian however were far greater [Music] separated by the Red Sea from the Egyptian Army in the Sinai Peninsula Moses married a midianite woman tended the flocks of his father-in-law Jethro and lived in obscurity for 40 years until the day he wandered to the base of Mount Sinai there God spoke through a burning bush and revealed his plan to free Israel from bondage given the biblical record some believe that Mount Sinai must be in Midian but is there any other evidence to support this Theory [Music] several Jewish documents some written 600 years before Christian Traditions locate the Mountain of God in midianite territory [Music] in 250 BC a council of 70 Scholars translated the Hebrew Bible into Greek for the first time their translation of The Exodus account presupposed that Mount Sinai stood in the Arabian peninsula three centuries later the Jewish philosopher Philo placed the mountain east of the Sinai Peninsula and south of Palestine [Music] in time the Apostle Paul who was educated under the rabbi Gamaliel also located Mount Sinai in Arabia so Paul and Philo when they use the word Arabia they're not thinking of the Sinai Peninsula once again I think that point needs to be emphasized very clearly that terminology Arabia in the first century Greek geographers usually have in mind this the Arabian Peninsula that's how that term is used [Music] perhaps the most specific description of Mount sinai's location can be traced to the first century historian Josephus who wrote it was the highest of mountains near the city of madion [Music] shortly after this account median was identified in the Arabian Peninsula by the Greek geographer Ptolemy and 1900 years later archaeologists excavated this city that according to ancient records had once stood near Mount Sinai [Music] the ruins of madion lie just outside the modern-day town of albad near Saudi Arabia's northwest coast Josephus and other texts seem to be fairly clear in Jewish tradition and locating Mount Sinai somewhere in the region around the city of madion so the notion that Mount Sinai is not in the Sinai Peninsula is something that many scholars have argued for years and the notion that Sinai should be placed in Northwest Arabia specifically I would say probably in Continental scholarship in other words German and French Scholars it might even be safe to say it's the dominant idea I think there's an increasing opinion that Mount Sinai is to be found in North Western Arabia [Music] if there is historical evidence to support the location of Mount Sinai in Arabia is there any specific mountain in this region that fits the biblical description fifteen miles east of the Saudi Arabian town of el bahad such a mountain May well stand it is called jabel a laws I have been always interested in archaeological finds I could confirm the truths of the Bible I felt then I want to come in here to Saudi Arabia and see it for myself I want to be able to say I have seen this place in 1996 Vivica pontien entered Saudi Arabia on a work permit during the following year she made several trips to jabel a laws [Music] it was very difficult to find the mountain I think I had been there for seven months before I came to the mountain the first time we went around looking for it in the desert I did five long day trips a different five different occasions just looking and looking for this place throughout her search panthian encountered a strong local tradition that Moses had once lived in Arabia it seems to be a tradition among the locals there that this mountain range is called Jebel Musa they call it that and many places have the name of Moses like there are wells near there that they call ajin Musa or birmusa which means The Well of Moses when Pantheon finally reached to Bell all laws her attention was drawn to specific features of a mountain that resembled the biblical description most prominent was a jagged Peak more than eight thousand feet in elevation and blackened as if scorched by fire [Music] and at its base an enormous pile of Boulders at least 15 feet high and 60 feet across the flattened top of this structure had the appearance of being man-made and etched into its Rock faces where petroglyphs of bovine creatures cattle and Bulls [Music] the distinctive horns in some of the inscriptions resemble those found on pictures of sacred Egyptian apis pools could these Stones be the remains of an Israelite altar once built at the base of the Holy Mountain conclusive investigation is not possible at this time for Saudi law severely limits All Foreign research [Music] they have put up archaeological signs that tells this is an archaeological area and you're not supposed to trespass here so it's evident that the Arabs themselves consider this to be some old sites of archaeological interests [Music] satellite photos of the area have revealed another geographical feature that parallels the biblical account a sprawling plane of more than ten thousand acres flat surrounded by mountains and adjacent to the dried bed of an ancient river it could have provided an ideal place for the Israelite encampment 3 500 years ago [Music] it's west of the mountain stands another possible link to the Exodus account towering Rock 60 feet high it is split from top to bottom and evidence of water erosion is etched into its base oh many features of jabel allahs reflect the biblical account of Mount Sinai and has the highest mountain in Northwest Arabia it matches ancient Jewish historical records based on the textual evidence law laws is as good a guess as any might even be the best guess it's definitely better than anything in the Sinai Peninsula and probably better than any other guest we have it'd be nice to have some excavation and that's really a decideronomy need excavation we need somebody who's competence trained archaeologists to go in record the material carefully submitted for dispute and debate among other Scholars because there's too many gaps in our knowledge the Intriguing similarities between jabel all laws and the biblical record May indeed stimulate new investigation here yet whether or not future excavations confirm this site as the actual Mountain of God a considerable body of documentary evidence indicates that Mount Sinai is located somewhere in Northwestern Arabia as a result we have two points by which to plot the first stage of Israel's Exodus for Goshen provided a beginning and Midian a destination and direction and between them must lie a body of water [Music] as for you lift up your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it and go through the midst of the sea on dry land [Music] The Exodus account States while on their journey to Mount Sinai the children of Israel encountered a seemingly insurmountable obstacle the Waters of the Red Sea most searches for their Crossing Point have centered on five sites that straddle the eastern border of Egypt as defined in ancient times three of these sites are Inland saltwater Lakes manzala to the north timsa and the great Bitter Lake another location the dry bed that was once Lake Bala has also been considered the fifth possibility is on the Northern end of the Gulf of Suez at a beach whimsically named on tourist Maps as Pharaoh's bath 3500 years ago each of these bodies of water would have been relatively shallow ranging in depths from about 3 to 50 feet not surprisingly naturalistic explanations for the Israelites Crossing are common here including a receding tide or strong wind that could have lowered water levels enough to allow for passage on foot however no direct evidence has ever emerged at any of these traditional sites to confirm the Exodus narrative nor does their geography resemble biblical descriptions of the beach where Pharaoh's Army confronted Moses and his people for Pharaoh will say of the sons of Israel they are wandering aimlessly in the land the Wilderness has shut them in as Israel approached the Red Sea Pharaoh received news that they had wandered into a dense Wilderness of mountains and canyons [Music] in contrast to the biblical account the terrain near the lakes and Gulf on what was then the eastern border of Egypt is predominantly flat wide open expanses of desert [Music] and when Pharaoh Drew near the children of Israel cried out to Moses is it because there were no graves in Egypt you have taken us away to die in the wilderness why have you so dealt with us to bring us up out of Egypt [Music] the Bible states that immediately prior to crossing the Red Sea the children of Israel were gathered on a beach somewhere outside the borders of Egypt in fact the specific phrase out of Egypt is used in relation to their place of encampment several times in the book of Exodus creating an obvious contradiction between the scriptures and familiar interpretations of the story [Music] for if traveling west to west to east the Hebrews were trapped on the shore at any of the traditional Crossing sites they would still have been clearly within the borders of Egypt when God parted the waters was it not you who dried up the sea the Waters of the great deep who made a road in the depths of the sea popular theories that claim the Israelites walked through a shallow lake or Marsha reads also contradict descriptions in the biblical record the Hebrew writers refer to the Exodus Crossing Point as a great deep the mighty Waters and the depths of the sea [Music] and the Egyptians pursued and went after them into the midst of the sea then the waters returned and covered the Chariots the horsemen and all the army of pharaoh not even one of them remained [Music] in the first century historian Josephus numbered the Egyptian Army at 250 000 men Skeptics have long questioned how every Soldier and horse in an army of that magnitude would have drowned in a Shallow Lake they could have easily traveled around no direct evidence of a Crossing anywhere along the eastern border of ancient Egypt has ever been discovered as a result accounts of The Exodus are often dismissed as fiction or Legend however this absence of evidence could again indicate that archaeologists have been looking in the wrong places for if the biblical descriptions are accurate then the Red Sea of Moses and the Israelites may be located somewhere other than the lakes and Gulf that separate Egypt from the Sinai Peninsula [Music] well I'm a scientist so I try to analyze things and I try to go to the bottom with different issues and the goal for this trip is to look at the Bible text as a book of History a book of historical events and that they describe something that really has happened and then from the text try to understand what what really could have happened in the spring of 2000 Dr Leonard Muller took part in an expedition through Egypt and the Sinai Peninsula Mueller is a medical research scientist at The karolinska Institute in Stockholm Sweden he is also trained in the field of marine biology his skills in analytical research coupled with a deep interest in biblical archeology had drawn him to the Middle East on many occasions now as a member of an international team organized by Discovery media Productions he had come to the Gulf of Aqaba to renew his search for evidence of the Israelites Exodus Journey for several years Mueller studied historical and documentary evidence suggesting Midian as the probable location of Mount Sinai he realized that to reach the Mountain of God the Israelites would have first crossed a body of water located east of Egypt's ancient borders [Music] is always on the east coast of the Gulf of Akama and the mountain was in the Lano median there Moses saw the burning bush Etc so if the mountain is on the east coast of the Gulf of Akbar and if the land of median is there and if all these events took place there they have to cross some water to get there and therefore the Gulf of Aqaba is a great interest as the right arm of the Red Sea the Gulf of Aqaba separates the Sinai and Arabian peninsulas mola recognized several specific connections between the gulf and biblical accounts of The Exodus example is found in the book of First Kings in approximately 950 BC King Solomon is said to have built his Navy near alath an ancient city on the northern coast of the Gulf of Aqaba [Music] according to the Hebrew text this gulf where Solomon's ships were harbored was called yon suf most likely we talk about the Red Sea as the Gulf of akaba we know that it's called yam suf which is the Red Sea we know that King Solomon had his Fleet in yamsuf this Hebrew name yam suf also plays a prominent role in The Exodus account for it is used to identify the waters crossed by Moses and his people the geography of the Gulf of Aqaba also resembles biblical descriptions of the yamsuf god once parted for Israel Akbar is extremely deep plunging more than a mile in some spots it is adjacent to a dense Wilderness of rugged mountains foreign and it is located clearly outside the borders of Egypt as recognized during the time of Moses [Music] these similarities to the scriptures have led Leonard Mohler and others to theorize that the Gulf of Akbar is the Red Sea Of The Exodus story and if they are correct then two distinct possibilities for a crossing point exist the first is located on the bottom of the Sinai Peninsula at The Straits of Tehran this channel five miles across is one of the most popular Recreation areas on Earth as spectacular reefs and marine life attract divers from throughout the world but the Topography of the seafloor here would have made an Israelite Crossing highly unlikely for less than a mile offshore a Subterranean Canyon plunges nearly a thousand feet at a grade so steep passage on foot across Jagged coral beds would have been virtually impossible even if the waters were miraculously removed [Music] 70 miles north of The Straits near the center of the akaba coast another potential Crossing site extends into the sea it is called the Nueva peninsula [Music] it sort of breaks out from the mountain ranges I mean there's nothing south of it nothing north of it you know if you follow the shores suddenly this this peninsula just breaks out from the mountain range into a large Plains this is probably the only place at the Gulf of Aqaba the western shore where he could gather as many people as the Bible states that they were Satellite photographs of the Nueva Peninsula clearly reveal its distinctive geography this triangular shaped Beach would be the focus of a remarkable search for evidence of the Israelites Journey [Music] when Pharaoh let the people go God did not lead them on the road through the Philistine country for he said if they face War they might change their minds and return to Egypt so God led the people around by the desert road toward the Red Sea if the Israelites traveled from Goshen to the Aqaba Coast then the biblical description of their route to Freedom is very specific they walked a road through the Sinai desert in the direction of the Red Sea during the time of The Exodus three main roads existed in the Sinai the way of the Philistines traced the Mediterranean Coast past a series of Egyptian Military outposts understandably the Israelites did not follow this path the way of sure an inland Trail terminated not on the shores of yamsuff but in the vast desert of Southern Canaan only the southernmost Road a trade route that stretched from Egypt to the top of the Red Sea and then on to Midian matched the biblical description it's a route that runs through more or less Central Sinai from the Egyptian cities which are in the Now Delta and then on down to to Northwestern Arabia this is a period where the incense route was beginning to develop so we do know we do have evidence of travel back and forth between Egypt and what they would call Midian located above the peninsula's rugged mountain ranges this trade route was well suited for travel as its flat hard-packed terrain made long Journeys on foot manageable and commonplace when Moses fled from Pharaoh after killing an Egyptian slave master he would have followed this route to sanctuary in ancient Midian then 40 years later he led his people out of Egypt over the same desert road again [Music] and the Lord was going before them in a pillar of cloud by day to lead them and in a pillar of Fire by night to give them light that they might travel by day and night Swedish Bibles they were traveling both day and night they had this Pillar of Fire leading them and enlightening them and at day it was this Cloud that I guess also overshadowed them because of the heat of the day so they could travel both day and night by walking through the desert during the cooler hours of the early morning and night the Israelites could have crossed the Sinai in approximately three weeks the time allowed by the biblical record the scriptures imply they had a significant head start on the Egyptian Army for many days passed before Pharaoh decided to bring Israel back into captivity then while his army prepared to give Chase he received a surprising report of Moses path through the wilderness now the Lord spoke to Moses saying tell the sons of Israel to turn back and Camp before P hahiroth between migdal and the sea for Pharaoh will say they are wandering aimlessly in the land the Wilderness has shut them in and it says in the scripture that they churned and that could be interpreted in different ways but our understanding is that they churn southwards and Pharaoh then was so certain about that they were trapped within the peninsula this satellite photograph defines the Israelites unexpected change of course they had entered a winding Maze of dry riverbeds that branched off the southern trade Road in a twisting path to the coast and within this Canyon Called wadiwatir Moses and his people were hemmed in between walls of rock two thousand feet high [Music] once you're into this worry you can't turn either left or right you have to go just follow it all the way [Music] you have huge mountains on each side so you can't get anywhere else except fall of this body [Music] you can see the the mountains are high and they're coming closer and closer and the road is going you know how do you say back and forth between those mountains after walking 18 miles through the Wadi the Israelites caught their first glimpse of the mouth of the canyon and an even greater obstacle that now stood before them suddenly as you get through after a long while you know this big plane just opens up you know into the Red Sea upon exiting the wadiwatier Moses would have assembled his people at a place called pihahiroth though its location remains controversial the meaning of this Hebrew name May point to the sight of the Israelites encampment for the word Piha Heroes translates mouth of the gorges a perfect description of this speech formed by sand and rock washed through the canyon by seasonal rainfall from here according to the scriptures Moses and his people could travel no further [Music] then the Egyptians chased after them with all the horses and Chariots of pharaoh his Horsemen and his army and they overtook them camping by the Sea beside p hahiroth [Music] foreign the historian Josephus provides another clue about the location of pihahi roof for his description of the Israelites crisis matches the terrain surrounding Nueva Beach [Music] now when the Egyptians had overtaken the Hebrews they also seized on the passages by which they imagined the Hebrews might fly shutting them up between inaccessible precipices and the sea for there was on each side a ridge of mountains that terminated at the sea which were impassable by reason of their roughness and obstructed their flight when and if they ended up at this peninsula then of course they would have been in a very desperate situation and according to the Bible mostly didn't know anything what to do he was completely trapped the people wanted to kill him surrounded by mountains the sea and they couldn't go anywhere at Nueva Beach the Israelites were surrounded by mountains to the North and South an ocean to the east and the Egyptian Army to the West hopelessly trapped it is not difficult to understand their anguished cry to Moses why did you lead us out of Egypt to die in response Moses again looked to God for deliverance then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea and the Lord swept back the sea and turned the sea into dry land so the waters were divided in all of scripture there may be no more dramatic image [Music] thank you [Music] the biblical account of an ocean divided Israel's passage to safety and the destruction of Pharaoh's Army Define naturalistic explanation but if these events did occur then physical evidence could still lie off the shore of the Nueva peninsula for more than 20 years divers and explorers from three continents each intrigued by Clues linking the Gulf of Aqaba and the biblical yamsuf have come to Nueva Beach seeking possible evidence of an Israelite Crossing thank you their search focused on the 600 chariots the Bible says were destroyed in the Red Sea inscriptions thousands of years old and the few chariots recovered from ancient tombs revealed much about the construction of these legendary vehicles of War could any of them actually be found on the sea floor of the Nueva peninsula the first time I came to Nevada the purpose was to verify to document and to establish hypotheses that this could be a link in The Exodus pathway based on his analysis of documentary evidence Leonard Muller had long suspected the Aqaba Coast as the probable location of the Red Sea Crossing [Music] in 1997 he heard reports from other divers who claimed to have found unusual Coral structures some resembling the shapes of cherried Wheels Mueller decided to investigate these claims for himself [Music] the first time I was diving there of course we were then looking for possible artifacts and I had seen on some pictures what we could look for I was skeptical and excited because if this is the place for the Crossing then of course that's that's a big thing so I was excited about that but I was also skeptical because 3500 years that's a long time but if Nueve is the crossing site and then of course you would expect to find remains of the Egyptian Army like others who had explored Nueva before him Mohler immediately recognized the difficulty of this search if we assume that the number of artifacts were spread out on the seabed sooner or later corals would start to grow on them and of course if you have a number of layers or Coral growing on something it's very hard to distinguish the structure that was there from the very beginning [Music] though the coral complicates any search here it may have been instrumental in preserving the shapes of ancient artifacts a coral is a living organism that will not begin to grow on a foundation of sand or silt instead it must first attach itself to a solid object where it will sometimes conform to the shape of its host [Music] so for instance if it would grow on a wooden artifact the wood would normally disappear in the sea Waters after a time but if you have corals growing on the wooden artifact the coral could have the shape of the wooden artifact and then the corals would consume the wooden material over periods of time but still keep the shape of the wooden artifacts during the course of his explorations moner observed that the pattern of coral growth at Nueva differed from other parts of the Gulf unlike the coral of the northern and southern ends of Aqaba which often forms large dense reefs some covering many acres [Music] the formations at Nueva Beach are generally smaller and Scattered randomly across the sea floor diaper is familiar with the area have compared the distribution of coral here to a junkyard and the aftermath of a disaster this description is fitting and among the strange formations in these Waters many display features indicative of human engineering foreign at the Nevada location we look for certain structures and you try to look for 90 degree angles or circular objects we like structures so that is what you scan for so to speak when you die there are situations where you see something that looks like an axle a hub something that looks like a wheel and you say to yourself This is not a coral reef this is a coral growth on an artifact and that is what's different to me when I compare corals at other locations around the world since the earliest Explorations at Nueva one distinctive type of formation has often been identified on the sea floor a slender table-like structure sometimes standing on end with a coral encrusted base a Straight Shaft and a circular top it's a 90 degree angle a right angle between something that looks like an axle and the wheel and you can see this in different varieties and it looks very different from normal Coral growth and it is like a man-made structure with a coral growth on it [Music] While most of the possible artifacts found off the coast of Nueva are covered with coral one significant Discovery was not [Music] there is one find at the Nevada location that is of great interest and that is the gilded wheel it is a wooden basic structure of the wheel and is covered with gold or electrum it's a mixture of silver and gold and corals have not been able to grow on it it's been very well preserved although it's very fragile it seems like the wooden content has been dissolved so I mean you could break it if you would try to remove it [Music] after its Discovery The Fragile wheel shaped veneer was photographed then left in place on the sea floor foreign ER analysis revealed that its dimensions and design resembled four spoke chariot wheels painted on an 18th Dynasty tomb wall near the biblical date of The Exodus [Music] after reviewing photographic evidence and making several Dives of his own Mueller concluded that a more systematic investigation of the Nueva seafloor was warranted he realized that the limited diving time afforded by scuba equipment would never allow an extensive search of the area a higher level of Technology was necessary and in the spring of 2000 the discovery media team lowered a robotic camera into these waters for the first time [Music] this has never been done no one have been in the area at all with a remote controlled camera foreign [Music] from the ship the camera was maneuvered across the sea floor transmitting video images for study and evaluation we have been down to some 80 90 meters so we can go deeper down that we can't do with ordinary diving and we can be down as long as we like as in his previous searches at Nueva molar scrutinized the coral for specific shapes you can see at a seabed here there are some structures that are just a little bit about the surface of the seabed they have a cross-like appearance it's 90 degree angles and there's a hole in the middle so the Hub would be here possibly up there yeah and the wheel would be in a circle around this would be the rims oil here okay so this could be a Spoke here possible possibly a Spoke yeah what would the diameter of that room be that's a good question but did we would expect it to be about one meter about three feet wide okay in diameter oh the robotic cameras survey revealed many shapes and objects familiar to Mueller including Coral formations with right angles arches discs and straight shafts fused into larger masses that had the appearance of Twisted wreckage [Music] unable to go back and forth with a remote control camera we can repeatedly see that these strange structures we are looking for are there not at one place but you see them again and again and again and this could be the outer rim of a wheel going around like the abundance of these unusual Coral structures was even more apparent when tapes of the Expedition were carefully scrutinized during the months following the search at Nueva standing on the seabed when you sit and look at these films that has been taken by the remote camera you see all these strange artifacts or Pearl growth on some artifacts or structures that appear repeatedly time after time at different locations at this spot and you can sit there and think well what is this this doesn't look like normal Coral growth and it's amazing to see that so many things and such large areas down there that are like a man-made structure [Music] while the robotic camera logged hours of video documentation Vivek upon Tien and other divers on a second research vessel used metal detectors to evaluate specific structures on the sea floor pan Tien and her colleagues realized that the wheels of many Egyptian chariots were often reinforced with bronze they hope to find evidence of the metal encrusted in Coral a scan of this formation indicated a circular metallic pattern around its Edge perhaps evidence of the broken rim of a chariot wheel other Coral formations examined also contain fragments of metal Vivica pontian's interest in this research was heightened by a discovery she had made three years earlier eight miles due east of the Nueva peninsula [Music] during her stay in Saudi Arabia pontian not only searched for Mount Sinai she also made several Dives in an attempt to document evidence of the Egyptian Army on the Saudi side of the Gulf [Music] Bible tells that Israel saw the Egyptians lying dead on the shore after they came across so I figured there must be some stuff on the Saudi side at one spot there is like a very shallow sort of land tongue going out in a straight angle towards Nueva you tell it by the shift of the color of the waters you can see how it was dark or as far out you know so I thought this would be interesting for exploration so we did some Dives near to that [Music] the scattered irregular Coral formations on the Saudi side of Akbar resembled those previously found off the Nueva peninsula in the midst of them panchien photographed this circular object attached to what appears to have been a broken axle or hub this discovery was significant for two reasons Pantheon had documented the coral encrusted form of a wheel with Dimensions similar to ancient Egyptian artifacts directly across from the proposed Nueva Crossing site [Music] her find also provided independent confirmation of earlier evidence establishing wheel-like formations on both coasts of the Red Sea in accordance with descriptions in the biblical record the Lord looked down on the Egyptian Army Army and he made the wheels of their chariots come off [Music] a common question is why didn't you bring up artifacts and there are several answers to that the best thing to do when you find something is just to keep it in position document it but keep it in position it's very easy to destroy anything and that thing it's illegal to remove artifacts but also you're not allowed to bring up any corals from the Red Sea while Egyptian environmental laws prohibit removal of any coral for scientific dating and Analysis photographic evidence May provide a link to the time of The Exodus [Music] Scholars have recognized that the design of The Chariot wheel can be used to identify specific periods in Egyptian history [Music] in the waters of Aqaba it appears that remnants of four and six spoke wheels have been discovered [Music] these designs were used simultaneously only during Egypt's 18th Dynasty and no later than about 1400 BC time frame that coincides closely to the biblical date of The Exodus [Music] the discoveries made between Nueva Beach and Saudi Arabia have been fascinating but they also raised some obvious questions if God parted these Waters How could a large group of people including the elderly and the very young have walked across the Gulf of Aqaba and since we know that the Gulf of Aqaba is terribly deep because there is a very deep section in the crust of the earth that goes from the Dead Sea through Gulf of Aqaba down through the main part of the Red Sea and down into Ethiopia and it's called The Rift Valley there the imposing terrain of the Great Rift Valley is evident in the Towering mountains that line the Aqaba Coast they drop straight down into the sea creating an underwater canyon more than a mile deep a seemingly impassable divide even if devoid of water while surveying the subsurface Topography of the Nueva Crossing site evidence was uncovered that could help explain how Israel walked from one Coast to the other [Music] at its deepest points the Gulf of Aqaba plunges more than 5500 feet yet the ocean floor off the coast of Nueva Beach Rises up several thousand feet from this trench creating a wide flattened Ridge that the Israelites could have crossed once the Red Sea was divided [Music] [Applause] [Music] simulated to scale in this computer animation the view of the Gulf South of the Nueva Peninsula is striking Chasm deeper than the Grand Canyon extends more than 50 miles its steep shorelines stand in sharp contrast to the shallow grade of the gently sloping Ridge that extends from Nueva Beach to Saudi Arabia it is a ridge that resembles what the Old Testament prophet Isaiah once called a pathway through the mighty Waters foreign the robotic camera was used to evaluate the physical characteristics of this undersea Ridge for the first time [Music] it's just flat extremely flat and very wide there are no corals there are no pieces of rock and we follow that far out in the Gulf of aqibah it go deeper and deeper but it was very flat all the time and the interesting thing is also that the material on the seabed is not mud as it is in the Gulf of Swiss or at other places it's a thin layer of sand or silt it is easy to walk on it if you take away the water and there will be no limit to to have enormous amount of people there except the water of course but that's that's not our problem that's God took care of that thus says the Lord who makes a way through the sea and a path through the mighty Waters come and see the works of God he turned the sea into dry land and they pass through on foot [Music] while the existence of an underwater Ridge stretching from Nueva Beach to Saudi Arabia may make it easier to understand how the Israelites could have crossed the akaba Gulf it does not explain the actual parting of these Waters in the manner described by the writers of the Exodus account [Music] my understanding at Nevada is that if the water was removed so they could cross there it is nothing that we could explain from a scientific point of view period if you look at the Red Sea Crossing as it's described in the Bible but you clearly see there is this situation where a wind has come up and has dried out to land for them to cross but then there's this element where the waters have formed a wall to the left and the right of the Israelites as they pass through and they say that two or three times so it's it's quite clear in their memory that the waters were like a wall and there's just no naturalistic explanation for something like that foreign for those who accept the idea that God could have divided the Red Sea by performing a miracle the lack of naturalistic explanation poses no difficulty Scholars however have generally assumed that Miracles are impossible because they violate the laws of nature as a result any document based on a miraculous event must be historically unreliable for this reasoning the widespread is not without opposition [Music] some Scholars including the late Oxford philosopher and writer C.S Lewis I've noted that accounts of biblical Miracles display features of genuine historical literature Lewis in particular argued that Miracles properly understood never violate natural law it is inaccurate to define a miracle as something that breaks the laws of nature it doesn't laws of nature tell what will happen provided there's no interference a miracle is an interference with nature by a supernatural power miraculous elements in a Biblical narrative do not therefore preclude its historicity [Music] C.S Lewis believed that Miracles are acts of God and therefore entirely possible if there is a God to take action if you assume that God doesn't exist then Miracles are impossible of course but if God does exist then there's the possibility that Miracles could have occurred so when we're looking at the events in the in the Bible like this we have to be objective when we come to the evidence we have to look at the data and say is it really clear enough that a miracle might have really occurred here if we objectively look at the evidence then and it really seems to lead in the direction of something miraculous then we need to be open to that after More Than A Century of research where does the body of available evidence for the Exodus now lead foreign s have attempted to trace the path of Israel's journey to Mount Sinai the routes they have most frequently proposed have yielded little or nothing in the way of actual confirmation [Music] yet today another theory for the Israelites path far different from traditional ideas May provide a trail of direct evidence for both a miracle and the historical validity of The Exodus account oh beginning in northeastern Egypt Egyptian records and archaeological excavations document the presence of a Hebrew slave population several centuries prior to the probable time of The Exodus evidence also shows that the Hebrews later appeared in Canaan the promised land after centuries of bondage [Music] historical documents and possibly archaeological evidence locate the Mountain of God in Northwest Arabia the site of biblical medium [Music] and a trade route leading to Midian intersected by a system of riverbeds terminating at the akaba coast matches biblical and historical descriptions of the Israelites path to the Red Sea [Music] there in the waters of Nueva Beach structures resembling 18th Dynasty chariot wheels lie embedded in coral on an elevated Ridge that connects the Sinai and Arabian peninsulas [Music] so then you have a lot of a lot of things that you can put together to build a picture like a puzzle and we find artifacts and we find geography locations and surroundings so to speak around this that fits the text very well a good scientific theory explains a lot of evidence very simply and coherently and there's a pattern that's coming out of this evidence that really suggests that the biblical record has a lot more historical content to it than what Scholars have been willing to Grant in the past so the question no longer is why don't we find any evidence for the Exodus but instead what do we do with this evidence that we now have that clearly seems to support the biblical record scriptures tell us that nearly 3 500 years ago God parted the Waters of the Red Sea and led the Israelites to Freedom did it happen here did it happen at all is the biblical description factually accurate [Music] as with any historical investigation we may never know with absolute certainty and so perhaps belief in The Exodus will always require a Measure of Faith [Music] but facts and Faith need not conflict as recent discoveries suggests for history and Archeology have now uncovered compelling reasons to reconsider the extraordinary claims of The Exodus story [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music]

Channel: Unearthed History - Archaeology Documentaries

Views: 510,513

Keywords: Ancient Egypt, Ancient Mysteries, Archaeological Excavation, Archaeological Research Team, Archeological Research, Biblical Accounts, Exodus Archaeology, Expedition Findings, Faith-based Research, Groundbreaking Findings, Historical Analysis, Historical Interpretation, Investigative Journey, Mysterious Past, Mythical Tales, Proof, Religious Traditions, Research Insights, Theology Investigation

Id: 0EMIcSjc7zU

Length: 85min 7sec (5107 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 20 2023