(July 30, 2011 at 11:30 am)Rhythm Wrote: It looks like your selected version of the passages would seem to describe a volcano (or conversely a dragon). Of course we could find passages to describe any idea we wished to describe if we knew what we wanted to find, it is a very large collection of texts. If the narrative originally described a volcano, it is not Santorini. The particular type of narrative that we see in the bible has sources elsewhere, and at earlier and later dates (depending on old/new testament). Am I not communicating this idea very well?
Not a dragon. I've now come across hundreds of verses that point without a shadow of doubt to a volcano. You are right, the verses I'm quoting that suggest a volcano are not describing Santorini. Santorini was the massive volcano that happened around the time, or before, the Exodus is claimed to have occured. That volcano and its massive eruption might well have been remembered by some as being the catalyst that changed the situation in Egypt. It will have caused massive disruption to normal life. Maybe it gave the Hebrews (or the people who became known as the Hebrews) an opportunity to flee. One idea is that they fled with Egyptian gold, hence the reason why (sorry....according to the Bible) the Egyptian army chased them. I read that the Habiru people stole from the Egyptians. Possibly a connection there.
Not only with the Bible be partly or mostly inaccurate but it may well also be baised in favour of the Hebrews. So instead of them being slaves in Egypt, maybe they were thieves, vagrants and people living on the fringe of society. People in need of a fresh start. Now that would certainly be a past in need of removing wouldn't it?
