Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Jonathan D. Safren" <yonsaf AT beitberl.beitberl.ac.il>]

"Kevin W. Woodruff" wrote:

> >Lacking electronic communications, the word to move would
> >have to have been passed down the line. Then the first echelons would have
> >started moving, then the second, and so on. By nightfall, MAYBE the last
> >echelons would have started to move.
>
> Could that have been the reason for the "pillar of fire?"

[JSafrem] A horde of 2,000,000 stretching out 100-200 km wouldn't have been 
able to
see the pillar of fire, both because of the distance of most of the 
Israelites from
the pillar and because of the curvature of the earth.
And the fact remains that when people begin to move, it takes a while for the 
last
echelons to begin to move, especially when the column is 100-200 km long.

>
> Of course I accept the Exodus account as historical and factual. that would
> influence my interpretation. I suppose there's an advantage to accepting the
> fact that a deity capable of incapacitating a nation like Egypt can provide
> for His chosen people, Israel.

Let's assume for a moment that that's true. In Ex. 19 the Israelites are 
commanded
to wash their clopthing and purify themselves before the Divine revelation on 
Mt.
Sinai. They have maybe 3 days to do it (God is to come down upon the mountain 
on the
third day, not after 3 days). There is no depiction of a Niagara Falls or 
even the
Mediterranean Sea anywhere near Mt. Sinai. So where would they have foun dthe 
water,
and even assuming they did find vast amounts of water, how would 2,000,000 
people
massing at the foot of one mountain have managed to do all this by the third 
day?
The logistics are simply impossible, even with all the miracles God can 
muster.
People remain people, they can only work so fast, and they need legroom.
The whole story falls apart if you want to accept every detail in it as 
accurate.
Take away the 600,000 (men, plus women, children and elderly) and replace it 
with a
few hundred, and the picture changes entirely.
Yours,
--
Jonathan D. Safren
Dept. of Biblical Studies
Beit Berl College
44905 Beit Berl Post Office
Israel