The Red Sea Myth

There are numerous reasons and evidences to confirm that the Book of Mormon is fiction. One of the strongest evidences is the claim that the Israelites miraculously crossed the Red Sea to escape the Egyptians:

In the night time, “It was a cloud of darkness to them . . and Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the Lord caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided.”

“And the children of Israel went into the midst of the sea upon dry ground . . . and the Egyptians pursued and went in after them, etc.” (Exodus 14:20-23)

The Bibles does not positively identify the sea involved as the Red Sea—but merely calls it, the sea. The Israelites’ exact route is unknown. Where the crossing took place is but a matter of calculation and guess work. And it is an established fact that the physical face of that area has changed, and is still changing. Pertaining to the crossing the Bible dictionary tells us:

“On the whole it is becoming more probable that the place where Israel crossed was near the town of Suez, on extensive shoals which run toward the southeast, in the direction of Aym Musa (the walls of Moses). The distance (at that point) is about three miles at high tide.” . . .

“The latest theory is that which Brugsch-bey has lately revived, that the word Yam Suph (in Hebrew) used as Red Sea, really translates as REED SEA, or sea of weeds (or rushes) and refers to the Serbonion bog in the north eastern part of Egypt; and that the Israelites crossed here, instead of the Red Sea.” (Smith’s Bible Dictionary, p. 558)

And at low tide the distance would logically be considerably shorter. Too, the returning tide could well account for the drowning of Pharaoh’s pursuing army. (Exo. 14:27-28)

The National Geographic Magazine featured an article, In the Steps of Moses, January 1976, pages 2-37, that confirms the above. But the Book of Mormon, instead of being correct and independent of the early questionable scriptures, if it were true and genuinely divine, appears to have copied from the Bible errors and all, even perpetuating earlier errors. One may read in the Book of Mormon:

“Let us (the Nephites) be strong like unto Moses; for he truly spake unto the waters of the Red Sea, and they divided hither and thither.” (1 Nephi 4:2)

The evidence now points to the Israelite crossing having been across the shallow REED SEA, and not across the Red Sea; but one could not know that form reading the Book of Mormon, alleged by the Mormons to be “the most correct of any book on earth.” Such a tentative geographical identity would allow for such an error in the Bible, but not surely “the most correct of any book on earth.”