Book: Between Migdol and the Sea: Crossing the Red Sea with Faith and Science
Topic: The Hebrew Exodus from Egypt
Author: Carl Drews
Description
Between Migdol and the Sea (2014) presents a scientific view of Moses and the Israelites crossing the Red Sea, as described in the biblical book of Exodus. The crossing site is located in the eastern Nile delta, where the Pelusiac branch of the Nile river once flowed into a large coastal lagoon known as the Lake of Tanis. This research was published in several peer-reviewed publications (see below); the book presents the Tanis hypothesis for a general audience.
Between Migdol and the Sea contains two major themes:
1) The Hebrew Exodus from Egypt really did happen.
Migdol includes a detailed chronology that places the Exodus in 1250 BC, during the New Kingdom reign of Pharaoh Rameses II.
Four candidates for Mt. Sinai are examined for agreement with the geography of the Exodus.
Chapter 9 contains an extensive rebuttal to the claims of biblical minimalists Israel Finkelstein and Neil Silberman in The Bible Unearthed (2001).
2) Faith and science can and should be compatible with each other.
The religious and scientific views of an event or natural phenomenon do not have to be in conflict.
Between Migdol and the Sea demonstrates that when readers of the Bible are willing to consider other interpretations of the text, and when scientists are willing to acknowledge the limits of scientific inquiry, then Science can become the study of God's creation and His marvelous works. Faith and science both seek the Truth. Chapter 12 explains how these two disciplines should be mutually supportive and in harmony.
- New book about the Hebrew Exodus from Egypt October 1, 2014
- Kindle e-book: Between Migdol and the Sea November 28, 2014
- Historicity of the Exodus December 4, 2014
- God’s role in crossing the Red Sea December 11, 2014
- Movie Review: Exodus Gods and Kings December 14, 2014
- Moses, Tides, and Miracles of Timing January 28, 2015
- Crossing the Red Sea is indeed a miracle May 7, 2015
- Saving Lives With Ocean Models May 14, 2015
- Crossing the Red Sea? Not at Aqaba, Nuweiba, or Tiran July 21, 2015
- Don’t Believe “The Bible Unearthed” January 18, 2016
- Examining Exodus 14 with the Geosciences February 13, 2016
Book available at:
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News Coverage and Blogs
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Between Migdol and the Sea, by William Connolley at Stoat Science Blogs; 7 November 2014.
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The parting of the Red Sea: nature or divine intervention?, by Adam Woods at the London Daily Telegraph; 3 December 2014.
- No, really: There is a scientific explanation for the parting of the Red Sea in Exodus, by Chris Mooney at the Washington Post; 8 December 2014.
- The Science of the Red Sea's Parting: It is physically and scientifically possible for a body of water to part, by Rachel Nuwer at Smithsonian.com; 8 December 2014.
- Between Migdol and the Sea made the Amazon Best Seller list for Science & Religion (13 March 2015).
- Scientific Evidence for the Parting of the Red Sea, blog by Taryn Dryfhout, 28 August 2015.
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A divisão do Mar Vermelho pode ser explicada pela ciência, by Gabriela Neri at Veja Brazilian weekly news magazine (Portuguese), 11 November 2015;
The parting of the Red Sea can be explained by science (English auto-translation of Veja article by Google).
- A well researched, well written, & very refreshing read!, Migdol book review at Amazon UK by DMtkv, 21 July 2016.
- The Power of the Human Spirit, by Jonathan Sacks at the Algemeiner Jewish and Israel news, 7 February 2017.
- Opinion: Science is scared of religion, by Zulfikar Abbany at Deutsche Welle, Easter Sunday, 1 April 2018.
- Are miracles 'outside the realm of science'?, by Zulfikar Abbany at Deutsche Welle, 11 April 2018.
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Assuming the exodus happened - where and when?, by David Corder at
theoutwardquest, 30 April 2018.
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Voice of Islam (UK) Breakfast Show, with Miracles as the discussion topic, 31 July 2019. Available as a podcast; Carl Drews introduced at 30:10.
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Movie: Patterns of Evidence: The Red Sea Miracle Part 2 produced by Tim Mahoney of Thinking Man Films. Opens live on the Internet: Friday, 17 July 2020. View the trailer.
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Video:
New Beginnings | Pastor Dan Hansen + Carl Drews | Exodus 12, Sunday worship service at Faith Community Lutheran Church in Longmont Colorado, filmed on January 20, 2021.
Author Pages
Related Publications
Master's thesis: "Application of Storm Surge Modeling to Moses' Crossing of the Red Sea; and to Manila Bay, the Philippines",
Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, University of Colorado - Boulder, 2009.
The thesis document is published by ProQuest,
and is also available through the Chinook Library Catalog of the University of Colorado at Boulder.
Drews, Carl, Weiqing Han, 2010:
Dynamics of Wind Setdown at Suez and the Eastern Nile Delta.
PLoS One, doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0012481.
Drews, Carl, 2011:
Could wind have parted the Red Sea?.
Weatherwise, doi: 10.1080/00431672.2011.536122.
Drews, Carl, 2013:
Using wind setdown and storm surge on Lake Erie to calibrate the air-sea drag coefficient.
PLoS One, doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0072510.
Drews, Carl, and Thomas J. Galarneau Jr., 2015:
Directional Analysis of the Storm Surge from Hurricane Sandy 2012, with Applications to Charleston, New Orleans, and the Philippines.
PLOS One, doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0122113.
Drews, Carl, 2015:
Directional Storm Surge in Enclosed Seas: The Red Sea, the Adriatic, and Venice.
Journal of Marine Science and Engineering, doi: 10.3390/jmse3020356.
Drews, Carl, 2015:
Examining Exodus 14 with the Geosciences.
Near East Archaeological Society Bulletin (NEASB)
Volume 60, pages 1-15.
To obtain a copy of
this paper,
please contact the Near East Archaeological Society.
NCAR hosts the pre-print manuscript.
Additional articles hosted here
Puzzles in the Book
I have included a few hidden references for the curious reader. In the first two chapters, find allusions to:
- American General George Patton (1885 - 1945)
- The Battle of Leyte Gulf (1944)
- The Charge of the Light Brigade during the Crimean War (1854)
- King Abdullah II of Jordan (1962 - )
- Tarik is patterned after two historical/literary characters, one ancient and one modern.
Who are they? The first is fairly obvious. The second is much harder.
The second one appears in Abraham Rabinovich's book The Yom Kippur War (2004).
In Migdol Chapters 3-12, find:
- The Boromir meme from Lord of the Rings: "One does not simply walk into Mordor."
- Why did the windshield wipers on the 1960 Rambler American speed up while you were shifting gears?
- Where is there an allusion to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1979), by Douglas Adams?
- How did Rameses II survive the Tenth Plague (death of the first-born son)?
The answer is on page 18 of Kitchen "Pharaoh Triumphant" (1982),
but it was given earlier in my blog series on Google Plus (read about Queen Tuya).
- What perfect square and perfect cube sum to equal the number of seeds painted on the back trunk of the watermelon car?
The answers to solved puzzles will be posted on Google Plus after the 2015 Academy Awards.
Further Reading
- Was There an Exodus? by Joshua Berman, March 2 2015. (Yes!)
Many are sure that one of Judaism’s central events never happened. Evidence, some published here for the first time, suggests otherwise.
Joshua Berman is professor of Bible at Bar-Ilan University and at Shalem College in Israel, and a research fellow at the Herzl Institute. In this lengthy article at Mosaic magazine, Dr. Berman describes the evidence in favor of a historical Hebrew Exodus from Egypt. Although written independently, his reasoning has many simularities to the points I raise in my book Between Migdol and the Sea. "Many major events reported in various ancient writings are archaeologically invisible." There were not millions of Israelites. Archaeology has confirmed many aspects of the Exodus narrative that a later fabrication would be unlikely to get right. And Egyptian descriptions of the Battle of Kadesh have close parallels in the Exodus 14-15 account of crossing the Red Sea.
Last update: May 26, 2024
Copyright 2014 by Carl Drews.