Editing Crossing the Red Sea (section)

=== Crossing location ===
[[File:ISS035-E-007148 Nile - Sinai - Dead Sea - Wide Angle View (cropped).jpg|thumb|Satellite overview of the relevant bodies of water]]
{{Further|Yam Suph}}
The most popular interpretation holds that the crossing was of the modern [[Red Sea]], potentially at its widest and deepest place. Such an interpretation emphasizes the miraculous nature of the Exodus. Ken Ham states "there is no need to come up with a naturalistic explanation of a supernatural event. The Bible gives us a record from the ultimate Eyewitness, the God of Creation. [...] We must be careful to avoid limiting our faith to only those acts of God that we can explain according to the laws of the physical world. He miraculously created those physical laws, and He can miraculously use them or override them as He chooses."<ref name="DrewsPost"/><ref>{{cite web |title=Red Sea Parted "Naturally"? |url=https://answersingenesis.org/bible-history/red-sea-parted-naturally/ |website=Answers in Genesis |language=en}}</ref>

The Hebrew term for the body of water that the Israelites crossed is ''[[Yam Suph]]''. In Exodus 2:3-5, Isaiah 19:6-7, and Jonah 2:5, ''suph'' is translated as reeds, rushes, [[marsh]]es, or weeds.{{sfn|Hoffmeier|1999|p=200}}{{sfn|Fritz|2016|p=xx}} A fair rendering of the Hebrew would therefore be "sea/lake of reeds".<ref name="Kitchen">{{Cite book|title=[[On the Reliability of the Old Testament]]|last=Kitchen|first=Kenneth A.|publisher=Wm. B. Eerdmans|year=2003|isbn=978-0802849601|pages=261–63|author-link=Kenneth Kitchen}}</ref> This literal translation is attested by Coptic Bohairic translations, Aramaic Targums, Martin Luther, John Calvin, and C. F. Keil,{{sfn|Hoffmeier|1999|p=204}} although it has been challenged by Bernard Batto.{{sfn|Hoffmeier|1999|p=200}} In the [[Septuagint]], Jews who lived in Alexandria, Egypt, during the 3rd century BC, translated ''Yam Suph'' in Exodus as the Greek  Ἐρυθρὰ θάλασσα (''Eruthra Thalassa'' or [[Erythraean Sea]]), where ''Eruthra'' literally means "Red". This is a historicized translation,{{sfn|Hoffmeier|1999|p=205}} not a direct translation, as ''suph''  in Hebrew does not mean "red".<ref name="Kitchen"/> The Septuagint mainly translates ''yam suph'' as the Erythraean Sea, but exceptions include I Kings 9:26 (''ἐσχάτης θαλάσσης'', ''eschátis thalássis'' or "the end of the sea"),{{sfn|Hoffmeier|1999|p=205}} Jeremiah 49:21 (''thalassi'''), and Judges 11:16 (''thalasses siph'').{{sfn|Hoffmeier|1999|p=200}} The Erythraean Sea is translated in the Latin Vulgate and modern English translations as the [[Red Sea]],{{sfn|Hoffmeier|1999|p=200}} but in classical sources the Erythraean Sea often referred to the northwestern part of the [[Indian Ocean]] in general, including the modern Red Sea, the [[Gulf of Aden]], the [[Gulf of Aqaba]], the [[Arabian Sea]], and sometimes the [[Persian Gulf]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Casson |first1=Lionel |title=The Periplus Maris Erythraei: Text with Introduction, Translation, and Commentary |date=5 May 2012 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-1-4008-4320-6 |page=5 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qQWYkSs51rEC&dq=erythraean%20sea&pg=PA5 |language=en}}</ref> Most maps depicted these bodies of water with grossly distorted proportions, omitting gulfs and other features altogether, and Greco-Roman writers used only imprecise allusions.{{sfn|Fritz|2016|pp=xvii}} The salt-water reeds suggested by ''yam suf'' flourished in many shallow lakes and marshes around these areas.<ref name="Kitchen"/>{{sfn|Hoffmeier|2005|pp=81-85}} Snaith suggests that these are vague terms and Hoffmeier concludes one should be cautious in relying on them to settle the crossing location.{{sfn|Hoffmeier|1999|pp=206-207}}

Many sites have been proposed.<ref name="Rudd"/> In 1896, Haynes proposed that the body of water crossed was [[Lake Timsah]], a [[salt lake]] north of the [[Gulf of Suez]], and the nearest large body of water after Wadi Tumilat.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YzQe_4Waz34C&q=The+Land+That+I+Will+Show+You:+Essays+in+History+and+Archaeology+of+the+Ancient+Near+East|title=The Land that I Will Show You|last=Van Seters|first=John|publisher=Sheffield Academic Press|year=1997|isbn=978-1850756507|editor-last=Silberman|editor-first=Neil Ash|pages=273|chapter=The Geography of Exodus|via=Google Books}}</ref>{{sfn|Fritz|2016}} Lake Timsah was connected to [[Pithom]] in Gesem at various times by a canal, and a late 1st millennium text refers to Migdol Baal Zephon as a fort on the canal.<ref name="auto">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9_7lSWFMCX4C&q=Russell%20E.%20Gmirkin,%20%22Berossus%20and%20Genesis|title=Berossus and Genesis, Manetho and Exodus: Hellenistic Histories and the Date of the Pentateuch|last=Gmirkin|first=Russell|date=15 May 2006|publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing USA|isbn=978-0567025920|access-date=27 October 2016|via=Google Books}}</ref> Schleiden and Brugsch proposed Sirbonis Lake.<ref name="Rudd">{{cite web |last1=Rudd |first1=Steven |title=Nuweiba Beach Red Sea crossing: Rejected, debunked, refuted |url=https://www.bible.ca/archeology/bible-archeology-exodus-route-ruling-out-candiates-excluding-red-sea-crossing-points-kadesh-barnea.htm |website=www.bible.ca}}</ref> [[Kenneth Kitchen]] and James Hoffmeier support the isthmus of [[Suez]] north to the [[Mediterranean Sea]]. Hoffmeier equates ''yam suf'' with the Egyptian term ''pa-tjufy'' (also written ''p3 twfy'') from the Ramesside period, which refers to lakes in the eastern [[Nile delta]].<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Archaeology of the Bible|last=Hoffmeier|first=James K.|publisher=Lion Hudson|year=2008|isbn=978-0825461996|pages=54|author-link=James K. Hoffmeier}}</ref> He also describes references to ''p3 twfy'' in the context of the Island of Amun, thought to be modern [[Tell el-Balamun]],{{sfn|Hoffmeier|2005|p=86}} the most northerly city of Pharaonic Egypt, located about 29&nbsp;km southwest of [[Damietta]].<ref>AJ Spencer (2009), ''Excavations at Tell el-Balamun 2003-2008'', British Museum.</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.britishmuseum.org/research/projects/excavation_in_egypt/introduction_tell_el-balamun.aspx|title=Tell el-Balamun: A City of the Nile Delta of Egypt|publisher=[[The British Museum]]|access-date=22 October 2012}}</ref> Drews objects that the isthmus is oriented primarily north-south, and consequently, a wind setdown effect with an east wind is not possible.<ref name="Drews"/> Naum Volzinger and Alexei Androsov believe that a reef running from Egypt to the north side of the Red Sea used to be much closer to the surface at approximately 1500 BC  and therefore a crossing in the northern part of the Gulf of Suez is plausible. <ref>{{cite journal |last1=Voltzinger |first1=N. E. |last2=Androsov |first2=A. A. |title=Modeling the Hydrodynamic Situation of the Exodus |journal=Izvestiya, Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics |date=11 June 2002 |url=https://www.pleiades.online/cgi-perl/search.pl?type=abstract&name=physatm&number=4&year=3&page=482}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Viegas |first1=Jennifer |title=Study: Red Sea Parting Possible |url=http://dsc.discovery.com/news/briefs/20040202/redsea.html |work=Discovery Channel |date=2 February 2004|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050706080033/http://dsc.discovery.com/news/briefs/20040202/redsea.html |archive-date=2005-07-06 }}</ref>

Alan Gardiner proposes the northeast Nile Delta, in the "marshy and watery region that now comprises the southern extremity of [Lake] Menzaleh". Carl Drews propose that the Israelites crossed a 3-4 km land bridge along the Lake of [[Tanis]], in the Nile delta.<ref name="Rudd"/> Circa 1250 BC, this lake would have been a shallow, reed-filled brackish lagoon.<ref name="Drews"/> Ron Wyatt, Lennart Mueller, Bob Cornuke, and Glen Fritz propose Nuweiba Beach in the [[Gulf of Aqaba]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://jabalmaqla.com/israelites-red-sea-crossing-location/|title=Egypt-to-Saudi Arabia Red Sea Crossing Candidates|date=July 22, 2019|website=Jabal Maqla|access-date=July 22, 2019}}</ref> Sir Colin Humphries proposes Elat. Steven Rudd proposes the Straits of Tiran.<ref name="Rudd"/>