Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Hedrick Gary <GaryH AT cjfm.org>]

With all due respect, the late Ron Wyatt was a nut. He claimed to have found 
the Ark of the Covenant in a secret chamber beneath Galgotha (so that the 
blood of Jesus actually dripped down through fissures in the ground onto the 
Mercy Seat), but never shared the location with anyone other than his own 
business associates. He claimed to have submitted the blood for DNA testing 
but never revealed what lab did the workup on the samples. He wanted to go on 
tour and display the "Ark," along with its contents (including the tablets of 
the Law), but those plans were interrupted by his untimely death.

Wyatt, who was a nurse by profession (not an archaeologist), used 
carefully-staged and choreographed videos to "prove" his discoveries--and 
some of that footage used to be accessible on the WWW. Personally, I thought 
the videos were impressive. But then I also thought Jurassic Park was 
impressive.

And yes, Wyatt also claimed to have found the "true" location of Israel's 
crossing of the "Red Sea" (which he thought was the Gulf of Aqaba), including 
Pharaoh's chariot wheels. But anyone who's ever seen the sea bed just off the 
coast of Eilat (southern Israel) knows that coral formations that look like a 
small wheel with "spokes" are very common. They are a naturally-occurring 
phenomenon. You can see them from the glass bottom boats, for instance, or 
even from the Underwater Observatory south of Eilat. Maybe that's where Wyatt 
got the idea.

It's true that the "golden chariot wheel" was not a natural formation--at 
least not the one I saw in the photograph on his website years ago. But 
Wyatt's own son later admitted that his father staged the so-called "golden 
chariot wheel" discovery. Check out http://www.tentmaker.org/WAR/

Bottom line: anyone who bases any conclusions about the Pharaoh of the Exodus 
on this sort of pseudo-archaeological "National Inquirer" silliness is 
barking up the wrong tree. It's better to stick with the Hebrew text itself, 
pertinent linguistics, and verifiable history for purposes of confirmation.

Gary Hedrick
San Antonio, Texas USA

On Feb 16, 2010, at 8:05 AM, K Randolph wrote:

> James:
> 
> The “chariot wheels” are the only artifacts that Ron Wyatt claimed to have
> found that don’t have disproof from archeologists. The “golden one”, if it
> were genuine, would have been gold leaf over wood: the ship worms would have
> made short work of the wood and the gold leaf is too weak to stay in shape
> on its own. Even if corals originally grew on the wheels (highly unlikely)
> their growth rates would have long ago obliterated the wheel shapes, in far
> less time than the 2000+ years since the 18th dynasty. Therefore, this claim
> that these are chariot wheels from the Exodus is phony.
> 
> Karl W. Randolph.
> 
> On Tue, Feb 16, 2010 at 1:16 AM, James Christian
> <jc.bhebrew AT googlemail.com>wrote:
> 
>> I can't find them again but most of the pictures I saw online were of
>> barely visiable chariot wheel shaped coral formations. The coral having
>> grown on the wooden frames of the wheels. The only one that is in tact is
>> the golden one in the photo. Obviously gold being a metal and in a low
>> oxidation environment would have better chances of remaining in tact. In 
>> any
>> case, what I found extremely interesting was the claim of finding 4, 6 and 
>> 8
>> spoken chariot wheels identifying the 18th dynasty. The reason I found this
>> particularly interesting was because of other indicators which have had me
>> looking at the 18th dynasty for some time.
>> 
>> James Christian