Skip to content
You are not logged in |Login  
     
Limit search to available items
Record:   Prev Next
Resources
More Information
book
BookPrinted Material
Author Sivertsen, Barbara J., 1949-

Title The parting of the sea : how volcanoes, earthquakes, and plagues shaped the story of Exodus / Barbara J. Sivertsen.

Publication Info. Princeton : Princeton University Press, [2009]
©2009

Item Status

Location Call No. Status OPAC Message Public Note Gift Note
 Moore Stacks  BS657 .S58 2009    Available  ---
Description xix, 239 pages : illustrations, maps ; 25 cm
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 205-227) and index.
Contents Dating the Exodus -- The coming of the Hyksos -- The Minoan eruption -- The plagues, the Exodus, and historical reality -- Moses and the mountain of God -- The sojourn in the wilderness -- Meanwhile, back in civilization -- The destruction of Jericho -- The conquest and settlement of Canaan -- Back to Egypt -- The formation of the Exodus tradition.
Summary "For more than four decades, biblical experts have tried to place the story of Exodus into historical context--without success. What could explain the Nile turning to blood, insects swarming the land, and the sky falling to darkness? Integrating biblical accounts with substantive archaeological evidence, The Parting of the Sea looks at how natural phenomena shaped the stories of Exodus, the Sojourn in the Wilderness, and the Israelite conquest of Canaan. Barbara Sivertsen demonstrates that the Exodus was in fact two separate exoduses stemming from two volcanic eruptions. Over time, Israelite oral tradition combined these events into the Exodus narrative known today. Skillfully unifying textual and archaeological records with details of ancient geological events, Sivertsen shows how the first exodus followed a 1628 B.C.E Minoan eruption that produced all but one of the first nine plagues. The second exodus followed an eruption of a volcano off the Aegean island of Yali almost two centuries later, creating the tenth plague of darkness and a series of tsunamis that "parted the sea" and drowned the pursuing Egyptian army. Sivertsen's brilliant account explains inconsistencies in the biblical story, fits chronologically with the conquest of Jericho, and confirms that the Israelites were in Canaan before the end of the sixteenth century B.C.E." -- Book jacket.
Subject Bible and geology.
Bible and geology.
Bible stories, English -- Exodus.
Bible stories, English -- Exodus.
Exodus, The.
Exodus, The.
Added Title How volcanoes, earthquakes, and plagues shaped the story of Exodus
ISBN 9780691137704 hardcover alkaline paper
0691137706 hardcover alkaline paper
9780691150215 paperback
0691150214 paperback