Did A Volcanic Eruption Trigger the Biblical Parting of the Red Sea?

'Titanic' director., James Cameron, believes a tsunami sparked by a volcanic eruption may have killed Pharaoh's army and sparked the ten plagues of Egypt.

Here's the story: Volcanic eruption 'triggered biblical parting of Red Sea'

I'm not sure about the whole Red Sea is really the "Reed Sea" business, and it certainly seems a bit far fetched when they get around to explaining the deaths of all the firstborn males, but some of it sounded plausible, and God often does work through secondary causes.

What do you think?

Comments

[David]

It always seems to me a bit silly when we go back and time and try to explain the miracles with implausible natural occurrences. In any case, God could have triggered the natural event.

The main point of these Biblical stories is the meaning and the truth that is communicated by God. The OT stories were not intended to be newspaper coverage. We can argue until the cows come home about the historicity of the events. It's like arguing about whether there really existed a family behind the parable of the prodigal son. Maybe there was such a family, maybe not. Either way, the meaning is the same.

BTW, I’m not advocating discounting the historicity of the events, just pointing out the intent behind having the stories in the Bible.

[JMC]

God works more through secondary causes than through direct ones, though there are two things that must have been direct. One was the death of only the firstborn males, except in the houses that were marked with lamb's blood. Natural phenomena are not that selective. The other is the parting of the Red Sea, or Sea of Reeds, whichever it was (who cares?). While seismic activity certainly could have caused a strip of land to rise from the sea bed, how do they explain that the bible states that the water was like a wall on their right and on their left? That it was TWO tsunamis approaching from OPPOSITE DIRECTIONS simultaneously? If you believe that one, I've got a bridge in Brooklyn for sale...

[SMB]

With regard to the "Red" Sea versus "Reed" Sea, in the Hebrew version of Exodus, it reads Reed Sea. In the Septuagint, it reads Red Sea. When the Jewish scribes translated the Hebrew to Greek, they made the change because by then it was called by a different name.

The think I find odd in the whole article is that I would think the tsunami would have been almost immediate. The other effects discussed would have taken place over a much longer period of time. This reversal of timing is difficult to reconcile with the account in Exodus.