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  • From: Dave Washburn <dwashbur AT nyx.net>
  • To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [b-hebrew] Thera quote
  • Date: Thu, 26 Aug 2004 11:32:49 -0600

I'd like to address this to the folks who see a connection between Exodus
events and the Thera eruption. The following quote appears in the current
issue of BAR. Ziony Zevit is reviewing a BBC production hosted by Jeremy
Bowen, called Moses And The Exodus. Here is what he says in response to the
show's suggestion that Thera explains the Red Sea crossing, the plagues, the
pillar of fire and cloud, etc.

--
The Thera hypothesis (a 16th-century B.C.E. event) renders irrelevant
archaeological and topographical data from the Late Bronze Age (14th-early
12th centuries B.C.E.) presented early in the show as demonstrating authentic
background. The Thera eruption is chronologically incompatible with the Late
Bronze Age materials. Moreover, it is highly unlikely that the Thera cloud
ever reached Egypt--given the counter-clockwise direction of winds around the
Mediterranean--and that anyone in Egypt would have been able to see the ash
cloud hundreds of miles away no matter how high (the earth is round).

The show leaves the incorrect impression that the Thera hypothesis is new,
when in fact it is not. Few historians, if any, consider it viable nowadays.

It remains the plaything of disasterist interpreters of history.
--
(BAR, Sept/Oct 2004, p. 61-62)

In light of recent discussion about this on the list, I'd be interested in
how
some of you folks respond to these comments.

--
Dave Washburn
http://www.nyx.net/~dwashbur
"No good. Hit on head." -Gronk




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