Biak Chinpar's Book Review: The Miracles of Exodus by Colin J. Humphreys

The biblical story of Exodus has been a controversy topic for many religious scholars and archaeologists. Many scientists state that the ten plagues and the crossing of Red Sea and Jordan River were scientifically unreasonable. The author of the book, Colin Humphreys, who is a world-renowned scientist explained the scientific truth behind the Exodus miracles.

When it comes the ten plagues, Humphreys gave reasonable explanations for the natural mechanism for each plague. In this review, I will mainly concentrate in four plagues that brought disaster to Egyptians because of Pharaoh’s stubbornness.
(a)   For the first plague, the river of blood (Exodus 7: 20-21), the author said that the river of blood might be due to the “Red Tides,” caused by algal blooms in the river. The main culprit of red tide is a harmful alga called dinoflagellates that can produce neurotoxins that can kill fish and other animals whose habitat is the water. As a biologist, I learned that these algae bloom in summer with warm temperature, longer daylight hours, and high nutrient content of the water. Humphreys stated the first plague took place in September, which is the best time for algal blooms. This polluted water and harmful toxins from the algae killed all the living creatures in the water. Overall, we can say that, “the red blood color of the Nile estuary was due to a combination of red soil particles and red pigments from harmful algal bloom,” (Humphreys, 115).
(b)  Thus, the second plague, an invasion of frogs (Exodus 8:1-14), is a natural consequence of mass death of fish from the polluted waters of the Nile that drives the frogs to land to get hunt for food and warmth. Therefore, the frogs invade of the houses, bedrooms and the like.
(c)   The third and fourth plagues, swarm of gnats and flies (Exodus 8: 17-24), would then be a consequence of the frog invasion because frogs are natural predators of these vermin. The frogs’ deaths means they lost their predators and gained breeding places in the rotting bodies of dead frogs, so they can breed rapidly and grow to large numbers.
(d)  The nine plague, darkness, could be “khamsin-sandstorm” that commonly occurs in Egypt during the spring. Looking at Hebrew calendar, it is likely that the darkness occurred in late March or early April, which is the season where khamsin mostly takes place in Egypt.
While all of these plagues happened among Egyptians, the author said that all the Israelites were unaffected due to them living in different geographical region, the land of Goshen. So they are isolated from Egyptians and unaffected by the plagues. Also, in Exodus 8:22, God said, “But on the day I will deal differently with the land of Goshen, where my people live; no swarms of flies will be there.”
            

After all of those ten plagues happened, Israel faced the big obstacles, crossing through Red Sea, and later, in Joshua’s time, of the Jordan River. Many people said that the crossing of these two did not make any sense with natural phenomenon and concluded that the crossing did not take place. Again, Humphreys provides reasonable natural mechanisms to dispute the critics. He stated that Moses and the Israelites crossed a lake called the Reed Sea instead of Red Sea. It was mistranslation of the Bible; the word “yam suph” literally meant “Sea of Reeds,” which might be misinterpreted “Red Sea” later. Sea of Reeds is the one we know now at the north of the Gulf of Aqaba at Taba. From a distance it has a red hue to its water, due to having red coral just below the water surface. So, it was called the Red Sea due to having “large red patched of color on it at certain times of a day.” This suggests that the word “yam suph” mean “Sea of Reeds” which we now know as the north horn of the Gulf of Aqaba. As for the crossing of the Red Sea, the author suggested that it might be, “the combined effects of changing atmospheric pressure and wind set down could well have meant the water of the Gulf Aqaba receded by about one mile, enabling the Israelites to walk across on the dry land,” (Humphrey, 250).

The crossing of Jordan under Joshua is the final stage of full journey and it was before the Israelites ready to enter the promised land of Canaan. Humphreys stated the crossing of the Jordan River was able to happen due to “an earthquake-induced mud slide,” which let the water of Jordan piled up and eventually allowed the Israelites to cross through the river. This hypothetical assumption is approved by Psalm 114; “When Israel cam out of Egypt…. the sea looked and fled, the Jordan turned back, the mountain leaped like rams, the hills like lambs…. tremble, O earth, at the presence of the lord.” The author stated that this statement of “the mountain moving and the earth trembling” is reasonable explanation of some kind of an earthquake.  

To conclude, the miracles of the ten plagues, the crossing of Red Sea and of the Jordan River can be explained by using scientific reasoning given in Colin Humphrey’s The Miracles of Exodus. All of these combine to suggest that the Exodus actually happened and was not a fable. As Dennis Prager said, other biblical stories like King David would not take place if the Exodus never happened. In the Ten Commandments, God said, “I am the Lord you God who brought your out of the Land of Egypt,” which clearly confirmed that the Exodus was actually happened. 

Humphreys, Colin. The Miracle of Exodus. New York: HarperCollins, 2004. Print.

Prager, Dennis. "Did the Exodus Happen? | Dennis Prager." Jewish Journal News. Jewish Journal, 16 Apr. 2014. Web. 04 Apr. 2016.