{"id":10458,"date":"2007-06-20T20:20:37","date_gmt":"2007-06-21T01:20:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/?p=10458"},"modified":"2025-02-13T15:19:38","modified_gmt":"2025-02-13T21:19:38","slug":"why-does-your-map-show-israel-in-egyptian-territory-when-the-bible-says-they-left-egypt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-does-your-map-show-israel-in-egyptian-territory-when-the-bible-says-they-left-egypt\/","title":{"rendered":"Why does your map show Israel in Egyptian territory when the Bible says they left Egypt?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\t

Question:<\/h2>\n

Why does your map of the Exodus route so blatantly defy what the Scriptures tell us happened and instead follows the theories of secular men?<\/p>\nDoesn’t the Bible tell us that the Hebrews left Egypt completely the day following Passover (Exodus 12:51)? Don’t all accounts of when the Hebrews entered Elim or Sinai use Nisan 15 as a start date?
\nSo why does your map show the Hebrews clearly in Egypt until the Red Sea Crossing? The west side of the Gulf of Suez has\u00a0always\u00a0<\/strong>been Egypt; this is not arguable. Egyptian ports, fortresses, and monuments ring this area.\n

Why are you trying to deceive people and put a stumbling block before them? Scripture says the Hebrews were pushed out of Egypt on the same day Jacob went in 430 years earlier. There was no camp at your Succoth, where the Papyrus of Anastassi clearly shows the region as part of Egypt, where Edomite shepherds needed permission to come and graze. Your Migdol is on the doorstep of Heriopolis, and your Red Sea crossing location is practically on top of a famous port in ancient Egypt.<\/p>\n

If you wish to claim “the borders of Egypt changed,” the burden is on you to prove it. Find the ancient documents that show Egypt did not claim the western shore of the Suez as her own. Explain why the fortress of Tharu, famed for being the key border fortress and entry point into the Delta, which any Christian can visit for themselves today,\u00a0is three miles east of Ismailya, the Suez Canal, \u00a0east of the Bitter Lakes, Ballah, Timsah and all the other points you have the Hebrews wandering to the west of in your very strange and anti-biblical map..<\/p>\n

And finally, why do you have the Hebrews leaving from the city of Rameses? Does no one here really read their Bible? Are we not told that during the plagues the Hebrews were in their homes in Goshen? Did not the hail not fall in Goshen where God said His people lived?? Didn’t the people sacrifice lambs and splatter blood on their own doorposts? So why do you follow secular men who have no regard for biblical accuracy and in one night have all Israel move backward to Rameses to start their journey? Isn’t it more likely they left from the land of Rameses, not Rameses a city?<\/p>\n

Does no one here believe in the absolute accuracy of the Bible versus the theories of people like Naville and Hollady?<\/p>\n

Bottom line, if they were indeed “out<\/strong>” of Egypt Nisan 15, there is simply no way they crossed the Red Sea from the west side of the Suez, which was then as it is now, Egypt, and if you claim otherwise please be kind\u00a0enough to\u00a0prove it.<\/p>\n

The records regarding the borders of ancient Egypt are available to anyone. Try Breasted’s “Records of Ancient Egypt” where the writings of the Egyptians speak for themselves.<\/p>\n

Please show me, and everyone else you have deceived with this map, that you have the knowledge to support what you say. At present, this is very much in doubt.<\/p>\n

I believe in biblical accuracy. The Hebrews were brought out of Egypt by God’s mighty hand in one <\/b>day. Even Naville, the one who named what everyone now says is “Succoth” said this was an Egyptian district next to the walled capital of an Egyptian Nome. Christians latched on to this notion without thinking. If it is in Egypt it cannot be Succoth. Period.<\/p>\n\t

Answer:<\/h2>\n

I assume you are talking about the Exodus map.\"\"<\/p>\n

My interest lies in the Scripture and not in getting routes defined that require a knowledge of modern archeology.\u00a0 So — I will answer your biblical questions and ignore the archeology.\u00a0 If you have a better map that is not copyrighted, I’m sure that it can be considered for posting.\u00a0 All other things considered, though, the route is accurate enough for illustrative purposes.<\/p>\n

Here is one record of Israel’s journey that I think it will be highly instructive.<\/p>\n

“These are the journeys of the children of Israel, who went out of the land of Egypt by their armies under the hand of Moses and Aaron. Now Moses wrote down the starting points of their journeys at the command of the LORD. And these are their journeys according to their starting points: They departed from\u00a0Rameses<\/strong>\u00a0in the first month, on the fifteenth day of the first month; on the day after the Passover the children of Israel went out with boldness in the sight of all the Egyptians. For the Egyptians were burying all their firstborn, whom the LORD had killed among them. Also on their gods the LORD had executed judgments. Then the children of Israel moved from Rameses and camped at\u00a0Succoth<\/strong>. They departed from Succoth and camped at\u00a0Etham<\/strong>, which is on the edge of the wilderness. They moved from Etham and turned back to Pi Hahiroth, which is east of Baal Zephon; and they camped near\u00a0Migdol<\/strong>. They departed from before Hahiroth and\u00a0passed through the midst of the sea<\/strong>\u00a0into the wilderness, went three days’ journey in the Wilderness of Etham, and camped at\u00a0Marah<\/strong>. They moved from Marah and came to\u00a0Elim<\/strong>. At Elim were twelve springs of water and seventy palm trees; so they camped there. They moved from Elim and camped\u00a0by the Red Sea<\/strong>. They moved from the Red Sea and camped in the\u00a0Wilderness of Sin<\/strong>. They journeyed from the Wilderness of Sin and camped at\u00a0Dophkah<\/strong>. They departed from Dophkah and camped at\u00a0Alush<\/strong>. They moved from Alush and camped at\u00a0Rephidim<\/strong>, where there was no water for the people to drink. They departed from Rephidim and camped in the\u00a0Wilderness of Sinai<\/strong><\/em>” (Numbers 33:1-15).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

According to Moses, they set out from Rameses on the 15th of the first month, had four camps (Succoth, Etham, Migdol, and next to the Red Sea), then crossed the Red Sea.\u00a0 Even if you were to assume that each camp represented just one night’s stay each, that would still be 4 days from the day of leaving Rameses until crossing the Red Sea.<\/p>\n

The map follows this route very well — given that it marks with some uncertainty where Migdol and Pi Hahiroth are located.<\/p>\n

So, there is a seeming contradiction in how Numbers clearly describes the route and the clues that are gathered from other locations such as Exodus.\u00a0 Exodus 12:51 says, “And on that very day the LORD brought the Israelites out of Egypt by their divisions.<\/em>”\u00a0 A little review of some of the previous verses in Exodus 12 should easily bring us to the conclusion that the “very day” that is talked about here is the day after the Passover, the 15th of Nisan.<\/p>\n

The solution to this seeming contradiction is that we are trying to reconcile the Hebrew way of describing things with our American way of describing things.\u00a0 For example, all references to travel toward Jerusalem describes the travel as “up to Jerusalem” no matter what direction they are approaching Jerusalem from.\u00a0 This is because the Jews did not describe travel by ordinal directions of “North” being equivalent to “up”.\u00a0 They said Jerusalem was “up” because its elevation was higher than the surrounding towns, therefore you always climb when traveling there.<\/p>\n

The same is likely of the Exodus. The Israelites left Egypt on a particular day, not because they crossed the geographical boundary of Egypt, but because they left the political control of Egypt.\u00a0The important point is not how far they traveled in one day, but that they walked out in front of everyone under their own authority.<\/p>\n

I believe all of your remaining points were dependent on your early points, so there should be nothing further left to explain.<\/p>\n

Darrell Hamilton<\/p>\n\t

Additional Sources:<\/h2>\n