Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Vadim Cherny" <VadimCherny AT mail.ru>]

 Jack,

 As I heard from climatologists, Sinai was not a desert then, but steppe.
Oxen are fine there.

Oxcarts could not cross the Reed Sea: Israelites forded wind-dry marshes,
and Torah specifically mentions that Egyptian chariots -- not anything
else -- were drown there. Egyptian chariots are relatively heavy, thus stuck
in marshes, and oxcarts are still heavier.

 Vadim Cherny
>
>
> > I am confused by your response.  You seem to be suggesting
> > that you are disagreeing with me that the Exodus was a
> > series of miracles.  Your explanations for the appearance
> > of oxen and carts seems to me to suggest that divine agency
> > is not at work in the story of the Exodus.  The text of
> > Genesis (and Numbers) make it quite clear that the author
> > intended for the reader to understand the events to be
> > miracles, i.e. events impossible to explain except by the
> > direct intervention of Yahweh.  As such, things that would
> > not normally occur, do.  Oxen in the desert would be a
> > miracle but that would not really be out of place in the
> > story of Exodus.
> >
> > So, are you sayig that the story as told in Exodus was not
> > miraculous or did I mis-understand your posting.
> >
> >
> > Jack Tladatsi
> >
> >
>