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The story of “Moses split the sea into two so the Jewish group could cross, then drowned the Egyptian soldiers” is a famous miracle in the Catholic Bible.

This story has been widely spread over thousands of years and many literary and cinematic works also mention it as the power of God expressed through the character Moses. Under scientific light, Dr. Parker at the United States Oceanography Center (NOAA) also sought to explain this myth and he said that it was the special tidal regime, plus geographical and astronomical understanding. of Mr. Moses is the key to a bold plan. So how can a person actually split sea water in half? Is there a helping hand from a supernatural being?

Summary of the story

Moses (Latin: Moyses, Vietnamese read as Moses or Moses) is a leader, prophet, and proclaimer of the law according to the Catholic Bible. He was the man called by God to lead the Jewish people out of Egyptian slavery. According to the Bible, Moses was the son of a Jewish woman and was adopted to become a member of the Egyptian Royal Family (at which time the Pharaoh issued an order to kill Jewish baby boys). After growing up, he was called by God to carry out the mission of liberating the Jewish people from slavery, crossing the Red Sea, entering the desert and returning to the Promised Land.

During the journey, Moses borrowed God’s power to perform many miracles and one of them was to split the sea water in half, so that the people could pass through the bottom of the sea and reach the other shore. As soon as he got ashore, the Egyptian army’s pursuit group also arrived and at that time, he stretched his arms above the sea, closing the wall of water to submerge the entire army. The above story is the subject of many epic films, the most famous being “The Ten Commandments” by director Cecil B. DeMille in 1956 or “Exodus: Gods and Kings” by director Ridley Scott (released on September 19). December 12, 2014) all mention this miracle.

Director Ridley Scott’s “scientific” explanation

Director Scott said that in the movie “Exodus: Gods and Kings”, he exploited the story of “water splitting” from a “more scientific” perspective instead of viewing it as a power of God. Accordingly, Scott explains that the ability to split sea water is due to an earthquake leading to a tsunami, and before the tsunami hits, the coastal waters often recede very far, leaving behind a shallow seabed before the tsunami. bad waves come. However, the above explanation presents a problem: The water receding time before the tsunami is only about 10 to 15 minutes, too little for the entire group of Jews to cross the temporarily shallow seabed.

Furthermore, Moses could not have known about the upcoming earthquake and tsunami unless God told him. Of course, this both scientific and magical explanation is quite suitable for an epic movie like “Exodus: Gods and Kings”. However, scientists have many other explanations based on nature to be able to form a temporary road under the Red Sea. Accordingly, the key point is the tide, a natural phenomenon that Moses calculated and coordinated with his bold plan. With this, Mr. Moses can completely predict when the “road” will appear.

From profound knowledge to a bold plan of “Moses the hydrologist”

In fact, there are many locations in the world where the low tide can expose a shallow seabed, creating a path for a few hours and then at high tide, The road will quickly disappear. In 1798, French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte and a group of his soldiers rode across the Gulf of Suez (the northern end of the Red Sea divided into two branches by the Sinai peninsula forming two gulfs, Suez in the west and Aqaba in the East). This is also the place where Moses and his people are said to have crossed the Red Sea. Here, at low tide, a shallow strip of land about a mile long (about 1.6km) was exposed below the seabed, but then the tide suddenly rose and many of Napoleon’s soldiers drowned.

According to records in the book of Exodus (in the Old Testament), the Jews camped twice before crossing the sea, the last time was on the western shore of the Gulf of Suez. At that time, Pharaoh’s pursuing soldiers were approaching, people could see the dust clouds caused by the chariots from quite a distance. This was another important sign for Moses, allowing him to calculate how long it would take for the Egyptian army to reach the coast.

For a long time, Moses had lived near the wilderness and he knew which point on the coast to choose so that the caravan could cross the Red Sea at low tide. He has knowledge of astronomy, observing the night sky and using methods dating back to ancient times, he can predict tidal activity based on the position and degree of waxing and waning of the Moon. In contrast, the Pharaoh and his advisors lived along the Nile River, connected to the Mediterranean Sea, where the tidal difference was very low, only a few centimeters. Therefore, the Pharaoh’s army probably knew little about the tides and did not know the danger they faced.

Predicting when the tide will be low, when the strip of land below will appear and how long it will last, and when it will suddenly disappear, Moses can completely plan to help the Jewish people escape. . Therefore, he chose the full moon day for the sea crossing because at that time, the time between maximum and minimum was greatest and the group would have more time to cross. At the same time, this is also the time when the tide is lower than normal, and the high tide is also higher than normal, suitable to drown Pharaoh’s army.

Determining the exact time is the key to making the plan work perfectly. Moses had to calculate so that the last Jewish people would just cross the strip of land under the sea and the tide would rise immediately. At that time, the Egyptian soldiers followed closely behind and fell into the trap set up. If the cavalry and chariots caught up before the tide rose, Moses would have prepared some delaying tactics. On the contrary, if the pursuing army arrived after high tide, many people would have safely crossed the sea and Moses could have some of his men return to the bottom of the sea to lure the army to pursue to ensure the destruction of the opponent.

The Bible mentions strong winds from the East blowing all night and pushing the water to the sides. Ocean physicists say that wind blowing in shallow currents often carries more water than when blowing over deep water bodies. Therefore, this strong wind that happened to blow throughout the night would help the water level drop even further, providing more opportunities for Moses’ plan to succeed. For centuries, people believed that the appearance of this wind was the Divine intervention to help the people. However, it is unclear whether Moses knew about the advantage that the wind brought. But one thing is certain: he considers the tide forecast to be the decisive factor.

When Napoleon and his soldiers almost drowned in 1798 at the northernmost point of the Gulf of Suez, the water level at low tide was about 1.5 to 1.8 meters (possibly 2.7 to 3 meters). if the wind blows in the right direction). However, according to the remaining evidence, the sea level during Moses’ time was higher than when Napoleon crossed the sea. Therefore, the Gulf of Suez will extend longer to the North and the tidal range will also be larger. And if this is true, then when the tide rises, the “wall of water” can completely engulf the Egyptian army as recorded in the Bible.

If indeed, all the developments in the process of implementing Moses’ plan took place as the above hypotheses, then he deserves to become a great tide forecaster in history, not simply a miracle of God. God. Perhaps God created a strong wind to blow all night to help the plan be more complete, but according to the above evidence, it is clear that most of the plan outlined by Moses was based on his profound knowledge and experience. . The entire story above was written by Dr. Parker in the book: “The power of the sea: tsunamis, storm surges, toxic waves and our quest to predict natural disasters.”