Digging For Truth in the Sinai

Welcome to Haven Today. I’m Charles Morris for day two with an Egyptologist and archeologist, a real life Indiana Jones who just happens to love Jesus Christ and call Jesus his savior. The program is called, “Digging for Truth in the Sinai” and in the next few minutes you’re going to get to hear Dr. James Hoffmeier, a noted scholar in his field, talk about his brand new book, published by Oxford University Press, and his findings related to how the Israelites crossed that sea and whether it’s true or not. Don’t go away. We’re going to open now with the music of Haven from our “Acapella” album.

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Performed by: Haven

We’re back again today on Haven Today coming to you from Chicago and with us Dr. James Hoffmeier. He’s an Egyptologist and Biblical scholar. He used to teach at Wheaton College, now he’s professor of Near Eastern History and Archeology at Trinity International University’s Divinity School. And Jim, welcome back and you’ve got a long title!
JH: I hope we have enough time left for the interview.
CM: I hope so too. We had you on the program yesterday and we talked about modern scholarship and how so much modern scholarship rejects the Bible, particularly the Old Testament, as being true. But we’ve had a lot of great archeological finds in the last couple of hundred years: Dead Sea Scrolls, Tombs in Egypt, and Hollywood’s had some pretty good material. But even in your lifetime, and you’re not that old, you’ve seen archeology change as a science, haven’t you?
JH: Well, indeed. One of the great developments of the past 50 years has been turning archeology into a more scientific discipline than just a glorified treasure hunting. Even Indiana Jones knew this object belonged in a museum, not in a private art collection. But most of the early archeologists were just plundering Babylonian and Egyptian sites looking for things for their museums for their rich benefactors and so on. And how they acquired things, how they obtained it, how they excavated was not nearly as important as what they got. The emphasis has shifted, fortunately, to how we obtain the materials, in what context objects are found, what are they related to. Various forms of scientific analysis would be used to glean all the information we possibly can about a site, the history, the culture. So indeed, there has been significant change, integrating geology with archeology and many other academic disciplines to enrich our understanding of the ancient world.
CM: You have a new book out. We’ll be telling people about that in just a little bit. It’s just out in fact. The ink is almost wet from Oxford University Press. But you’ve been digging in the Sinai region, in fact you’re the excavation director of “Tel El-Borg” - I’m reading this on your shirt – and you’ve been doing that for a number of years and that must really give you a lot of sense of satisfaction to be out there in the field finding things that no one else has found in couple thousand years then, 4000 years I guess.
JH: Well the work in Sinai has been challenging if not impossible for the last half of the, well for much of the 20th century because of all the wars. Between Israel and Egypt, World War 1, World War 2, the 1948 wars, 1956 Suez crisis, the 6 day war, the Israelis end up controlling Sinai. There were some Israeli scholars that did quite a bit of work in Sinai in those days, but only in 1982 did Egypt regain control of the Sinai which it rightfully and legally owned and Egyptologists were for the first time really since maybe the 1920s working in Sinai. And so, really since I first went in 1994 to investigate the site and to find one that I wanted to excavate, I’m the only American archeologist working in the region. There are French archeologists, Egyptian archeologists, Polish archeologists but I’m the only American one who’s working in the area of North Sinai.
CM: Well, why don’t we get down to specifics. I mentioned this on our program yesterday and people can listen to that program again if they want on the internet site, about how scholarship has moved and there have been great discoveries, but we talked about great doubts that have happened in, well, the last couple of hundred years, but it’s gotten worse more in the last 20 years as you were telling us yesterday. Let’s talk about the crossing of, I’m going to say the Red Sea and I’m going to let you correct me. Tell us about that. And tell us, you think you found where they crossed.
JH: Possibly. Let me preface my statement by saying that one of the things that has happened in the past 20, 30 years is that scholars have looked far more critically at the work of earlier generations of scholars. And I think sometimes Christians, Christian scholars, archeologists, in their zeal to try to prove the Bible or to show the Bible’s right or historically reliable have misused archeological data that when on later examination is found out not to support the Bible. A classic example of this was the, the archeologist Edward Naville. He was a Swiss archeologist, a man of faith and he believed in the Bible. He discovered a city that he thought was one of the store cities of Exodus 1:11. And he even found a building that was made with bricks with no straw. And so this went around the world at the beginning of the 20th century as, “Here we have evidence of the Israelites in Egypt and the brick making” and so on. 20 years later another archeologist came along, did further work at this site, analyzed the pottery found in the building and it was realized that the building was from Roman times, so 1300, 1400 years after Moses would have ever been in Egypt. So we always have to be very careful because we do no credit to God or to the scriptures by misusing evidence, even though our motives might be good. This is why, as scholars we have to be careful and not jump to conclusions. And so when we talk now about the sea and the area I’m excavating I do so with utmost caution because I don’t want to be the person who in 20 years is clearly shown to be wrong.
CM: That said, OK; let’s talk about the Yam Suf.
JH: OK. If you have grown up reading most of the English translations of the Bible the sea that the Israelites crossed under the leadership of Moses is called the Red Sea. And if you go to a modern day map of course, you know where the Red Sea is, it’s the northern limits of the Gulf of Suez and the Gulf of Aqaba and stretching down between Egypt and Saudi Arabia and we call that the Red Sea today. The problem is that the Hebrew, the original version of the Exodus story does not say Red Sea, rather it says “the sea of reeds” the Hebrew word used is “suf”. There is no disputing that this means “sea of reeds”. Moses’ mother makes a basket and places Moses among the reeds on the edge of the Nile. It’s the exact same word. So why in Exodus 2 would reeds mean one thing and then later on in the book of Exodus would reeds mean something else. So clearly it means sea of reeds which would seem to rule out what we today call the Red Sea. The Red Sea is really the Greek translation in the Septuagint which was made around 250 BC when the Jews in Egypt were only speaking Greek, so the scriptures were translated into Greek for their benefit and the translators must have looked around and said, “Hmm. I wonder where this could be. Well, it must be what we call today the Red Sea, and they put in the Greek for Red Sea and that’s how it came into our English Translations.
CM: All right. And before you keep going and telling us about what you’re postulating now, we need to tell everybody that if you are old enough to have seen “The Ten Commandments” by Cecil B. DeMille you need to get a little of that out of your mind, right.
JH: Yes, I think so many people, when I talk about my idea about the sea, the sea of reeds, people think, “Well this is just a glorified marsh.” And “Where’s the big miracle?” and again the problem is, instead of reading the Bible, the picture in the mind is from the movie, “The Ten Commandments” and that’s the image in our mind. And if that’s your starting point, then that’s how you’ll read the Bible. If you can lay that aside and read the Bible on its face value you can see something different. First of all, it’s not the Red Sea, it’s not a huge ocean as some people might think.
CM: Where do you think it happened? And you’ve got an article coming out soon. You’re postulating this in your new book. You’ve also got an article coming out in Biblical Archeology Review too soon.
JH: Right. Well the word, “yam suf” in Hebrew means “sea of reeds”. As it turns out, this word suf is probably derived from an Egyptian word which would sound very similar which means reeds. The Egyptian word is “tuf”. And in Egyptian texts we have many references to a body of water, a marshland area, called Patufi, the marshlands, the sea of reeds. And this area is just outside of the Delta of Egypt. And in fact, even today there are a chain of lakes in the Isthmus of Suez between the Mediterranean and the Red Sea. Now one of these lakes is no longer with us. It’s dried out. We can actually see the outline of this ancient lake from satellite images. My geologist who works with me on the project is actually studying this ancient lake. And based on the maps we have and the work we’ve done it’s a lake that was perhaps as long as 10 miles long and at the widest place maybe 6 miles wide and it varies at different sizes, so it’s quite a sizeable lake. Now, what makes me think this lake is the lake in the Bible? From ancient Egyptian texts we have knowledge of a series of forts. The forts stretch from Egypt’s northern frontier and go all the way to ancient Gaza – the name which is still with us – and we have the names of these forts. Now I believe the fort we are excavating is the second fort in the sequence. The first fort has actually been found. A statue has been found there, just this summer another statue was found there and the name of the place has been identified. So the first fort in the sequence of about 11 forts begins with a site called, “Charu” or “Seelay”. We are digging a site that’s only 3 miles from this site and we have 2 massive forts. The one is about 140 yards long by about 80 yards wide. We have the mote and we can date this fort, they fit into the period of the Exodus. So we know the first and second fort in the sequence. Now the exciting part is, our fort is located just on the northern limits on this ancient lake that I believe is the sea of reeds, both of Egyptian texts and Hebrew text of the Bible. In the Egyptian texts that refer to the sequence of forts, the third fort in the sequence is called, “Migdol”.
CM: that’s a Biblical word.
JH: That’s a Biblical word. In Exodus 14:2 we’re told that the Israelites encamped in front of a place called Migdol. And Migdol was by the sea that they crossed through. Now only since the 1980’s has work in excavation work in Sinai allowed us to identify that first fort in the sequence. In 1999 that first statue was discovered, May 1999. I was there the day it was discovered, naming the site. Our site, our fort is just 3 miles away and the third fort in the sequence could be another 3 to 5 miles to the east of our site. If that is correct and we have a correlation between the Migdol of Exodus 14:2 and the Migdol of ancient Egyptian texts and they are one in the same, this means that we are in the neighborhood of the sea crossing which would be to the south of this fort.
CM: I find that pretty exciting Jim and I’m sure you do as well. And if that’s the place, and if you’re a person of faith, you actually believe the exodus is true - and I do myself – and God can use nature in his own hands however he wants to. He didn’t need gelatin like Cecil B. DeMille did to part the Red Sea. This is just another little notch showing perhaps the hand of God at work in history isn’t it?
JH: Well, you’ll notice that the text of the Bible is very clear that God drove an east wind and the wind is what God used, if you remember, after the flood – Noah’s flood – that God caused a mighty wind to blow and drive back the waters. Well, God uses a wind here we’re told in the book of Exodus to drive back the waters and to dry the land allowing the Israelites to pass through. So God the Creator can use whatever phenomenon he wishes – water, wind – to accomplish his wishes.
CM: Well, that’s exciting. And if anybody is really interesting in knowing more we’ll tell them about your book here in just a little bit that you’ve got. Can I throw in one more question? And let me ask you a question about Mt. Sinai. Where is Mt. Sinai? Have you found that yet Jim?
JH: Well in my new book, “Ancient Israel in Sinai” I examine many of the different candidates and I think there may be as many as 14 different proposed Mt. Sinai’s. They range from in Sinai to southern part of Israel, southern part of the modern day country of Jordan and some would place it even in modern Saudi Arabia. I think there are some people today who have been introduced to the idea that Mt. Sinai is in modern Saudi Arabia and they do so based on Paul’s statement in Galatians that Mt. Sinai, which is in Arabia, and based on that they look at modern political maps to determine where Arabia is. The problem with this is that when Paul was speaking in the first century Arabia was not determined by today’s political boundaries. You can go back as early as the Greek historian Herodotus who in his travels upon leaving Egypt refers to leaving Egypt and coming to Sinai of Arabia. So in Greek times and in Roman times Sinai and the name Arabia went together. So when Paul talks about Sinai which is in Arabia – or says Mt. Sinai is in Arabia – of course he’s using Roman period understanding of geography. The people who today try to place it in modern Saudi Arabia seem to be ignorant of where Arabia was in Paul’s day. So very clearly in my mind, Mt. Sinai has to be in Sinai. It’s the only logical conclusion and if you carefully study the geographical references, departing Egypt, going to Mt. Sinai and then going from Mt. Sinai to Kadesh Barnea where Moses sends off the spies and so on. If you look at all that together, the vast majority of historical geographers are of the opinion, as am I, that it would be located somewhere in the southern part of the Sinai Peninsula.
CM: Well you’ve answered that question. No one really knows for sure, right?
JH: Right because none of the positions really have any archeological evidence to support it. By archeological evidence I would mean something like an inscription – and that’s really what it takes. It takes some sort of inscription naming the site. All we have are various types of traditions. The current so called Mt. Moses, Gebel Musa is a tradition that goes back to the 4th century AD. It may be an accurate tradition it may not be an accurate tradition. But there are a number of different mountains proposed and for me the location of the mountain is not nearly as important as what happened there. And of course the book of Exodus provides the foundation for Israel’s relationship with God the Covenant that was revealed at Mt. Sinai. That’s what’s important, not the place. And interestingly one of the things that my book does take up is why we don’t know where Mt. Sinai is and interestingly why is it that Mt. Zion becomes the mountain of importance and Mt. Sinai fades from memory?
CM: Well, that’s taking us to Jesus of course. Jim, you’re a believer in Jesus Christ. Would you mind closing the program in prayer?
JH: Lord we thank you that you who revealed yourself in history past through your Word, you are also the Word that became flesh and dwelt among us. And just as in the Old Testament you manifest your glory in the Tabernacle in the wilderness, so you tabernacled amongst people in the Holy Land. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. And so we rejoice in that truth and the way the two Testaments connect revealing and anticipating your coming and the glory that you revealed at your birth, through your life and ultimately through your death and resurrection. We thank you that we serve a living Savior in whose name we pray, amen.
CM: Dr. James Hoffmeier thank you very much, Egyptologist and Biblical scholar thank you for being with us here on Haven Today.
JH: My pleasure.

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Performed by: Haven

This is Haven Today and the program’s called, “Digging for Truth in the Sinai”. I want to thank our special guest, a real life Indiana Jones for joining us at the program today. I want to thank you for listening as well to Dr. Hoffmeier. Hasn’t it been a wonderful time hearing the discoveries he’s made, digging in the Sinai. Not many people can say they’ve done that. We have available for you his brand new book, just printed and released last week by Oxford University Press. The book is called, “Ancient Israel in Sinai”. And it is an academic book, but if you have a keen interest in the Old Testament, and you like to read, then you will enjoy this book as I have. It’s filled with brand new maps and charts and satellite photos by NASA, things you’re not going to find in books that have been published prior to this. We’re asking that you make a gift to Haven the retail price of the book with shipping and handling, that’s $50 because it is an academic hardback, make it as a gift to Haven and we’ll get it out to you right away. This is not going to be in every bookstore. We’ll also include on CD as a free gift to you the two interviews with this world class scholar and we have the Haven “Acapella” album that you heard starting the program today. You might want that as well. We have that as a thank you for your financial support of $25 or more to Haven Today. Here’s how you can make your gift. You can go online and read more about Dr. Hoffmeier’s book. You can go to haventoday.org, that’s haventoday.org. Or you can call us in a moment. The toll free number in North America is 1-800-65-HAVEN, that’s 1-800-65-HAVEN. And when you get in touch with us, would you let us know the radio station you’re listening to? That helps us too. Here’s our mailing address if you’d like to write to us. Our address is:
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I’m Charles Morris and thanks for being with me and Dr. Jim Hoffmeier. Come back again tomorrow when again Jesus Christ will be lifted up here on Haven Today.