Kurtz (History of the Old Covenant [Clarke's transl. Edinb. 1859, 4 vols. 8vo], i, 357 sq.) has an extended observation on the time that elapsed upon the route from Rameses to the Red Sea, which he argues must have been more than the three days that appear in the narrative (by implication only, however, for there is no express statement to that effect). We condense his
statements into the following points : (1.) Jewish tra- dition assigns seven days, and this seems to have been the origin of the Passover week. (2.) The term 2?S73, "journey," denotes only an encampment, while the suc- cessive days of travel are expressed by D*1^, or " day's journey." (3.) In Numb, x, 33, we find stations three days apart, with no locality named between ( the same, we may add, is the case in xxxiii, 8, 16). (4.) It would have been impossible for the Israelites all to rendezvous at one place and start together, especially as they all kept the Passover in their own homes the preceding night, and were not allowed to leave till morning (Exod. xii, 22). (5.) The distance, under any calculation, was too great for a three days' continuous march. (<>.) The message to Pharaoh of their move- ments at Etham (xiv, 5) requires at least four days from that point to the Red Sea — two for him to get the information, and two more for his army to be got ready and overtake the Israelites. To these arguments we may add the fact that a whole month was consumed (Numb. xxiii, 3; Exod.xvi, 1) in making the first eight stations (Numb, xxxiii, 5-11), containing — so far as the narra- tive directly states — but ten days of marching. As the remainder of the time could hardly have been all spent in camp— of which, moreover, there is no mention in the account — there arises a suspicion that the most promi- nent stations only are named, or those where more than one night's halt was made, or some noteworthy incident occurred. Of course the fugitives would travel faster, longer, and more continuously, till they were escaped from Egypt, and more leisurely after the event at the Red Sea had relieved them from danger. Be all this as it may, it is in an}' case clear that they could as easily journey from Ajrdd to the mouth of Wady Tawarik in one day as they could from Tell Ramsis to Ajrud in two.
5. Capt. Moresby ( in Aiton's Land of the Messiah, p. 118 sq.) is of the opinion that the Israelites crossed at Ras Tarafineh, south of Mount Abu-Deraj, some sixty miles belowr Suez, where the sea is twenty miles wide and two hundred and fifty feet deep. This accords with certain traditions of the Arabs of the Desert, who name the warm springs in the rocks opposite after Pharaoh. The inducement, however, to this view seems chiefly to be a desire to exaggerate the miracle.
6. The last and most preposterous theory broached is that of Dr. Beke (Sinai in Arabia [Lond. 1878]), who contends that the eastern arm of the Red Sea, i. e. the Gulf of Akabah, and not the Gulf of Suez, is that which the Israelites crossed. He is driven to this conclusion by his chimerical idea that Mount Sinai is not the tra- ditional mountain in the peninsula, but Jebel Baghir, east of 'Akabah. See Sinai.
Among the localities named, the choice really lies be- tween Suez and Ras Atakah, and of these we decidedly prefer the latter.
Besides the works cited above, and the commentaries on Exodus, the question has been discussed by the fol- lowing among the more modern writers: Kit to, Pictorial History of the Jews (Lond. 1843. 2 vols, small 4to), i, 187 sq. ; Latrobe, Sciipture Illustrations (ibid. 1838, 8vo ), p. 29 sq. ; Raumer, Beitrage zur biblischen Geo- graphic (Leips. 1843, 8vo), p. 1 sq. ; Sharpe, in Bart- lett's Forty Days in the Desert (Lond. 2d ed. large £vo), p. 23 sq.; Wilson, The Lands of the JIM (Edinb. 1847, 2 vols. 8vo), i, 149 sq. ; Olin, Tr<ir<!.< in Egypt, etc. (N. Y. 1843, 2 vols. 12mo), i, 342 sq. ; Durbin, Observa- tions in the East (ibid. 1845, 2 vols. 12mo), i, 120 sq.; Porter, in Murray's Hand-booh for Syria ( Lond. ed. 18G8, 12mo), i, 9 sq. ; Palmer, Desert of the Exodus (X. Y. reprint, 1872, 8vo), p. 42 sq.; Bonar, The Desert of Sinai (ibid, reprint, 1857, 12mo), p. 82 sq. : Morris, Tour through Turkey, etc. (Phila. 1842, 2 vols. 12mo), ii, 219 sq.; Strauss, Sinai und Golgotha (Berl. 1850, 12mo), p. 147 sq. One of the most recent monographs on the subject— that of Unruh, Der Zvg <}• r Israelites aus Aegypten nach Canaan (Langensalza, 1860, 8vo) —
REDDITIO SYMBOLI
!<7L'
redemption
after extending the Gulfoi Suez bo Tar nortli as nearly to join a deep bay of the Mediterranean, locates Succoth at the narrow isthmus, Pi-hahiroth ai Sue/., and the oth- er scriptural localities | Etham, Migdol.and Baal-zephon | east of the gulf, which on this view was not actually crossed at all. This is the rationalistic theory fully carried out. The lively writer i Kinglake) of Eothen (Lond. 1844; X. V. 1845, 12mo), p. 188, thus briefly puts the main points of the controversy: "There are two (/pinions as to the poinl at which the Israelites passed the Red Sea. One is that they traversed only the very small creek at the northern extremity of the inlet, and thai they entered the bed of the water at the spot on which Sue/, now stands; the other that they crossed the sea from a poinl many miles down t In- coast The I Ox- ford theologians, who. with Milman, their professor, be- lieve that Jehovah conducted his chosen people without disturbing the order of nature, adopt the tirst view, and suppose thai the Israelites passed during the ebb-tide, aided by a violent wind. One among many objections to this supposition is that the time of a single ebb would not have been sufficient for the passage of thai vasl multitude of men and beasts, or even for a small fraction of it. Moreover, the creek to the north of this point can he compassed in an hour, and in two hours you can make the circuit of the salt marsh over which the sea may have extended in Conner times. If, therefore, the Israelites crossed so high up as Suez, the Egyptians, mi- le" infatuated by divine interference, might easily have recovered their stolen goods from the encumbered fugi- tives by making a .slight detour." See Exode.