Book Review: Lost Sea of the Exodus, A Modern Geographical Analysis, By Dr. Glen A. Fritz

Lost Sea of the Exodus, A Modern Geographical Analysis, By Glen A. Fritz, 2016, Published by GeoTech, San Antonio TX.

I just finished reading this wonderful and fascinating book. I very much enjoyed reading the book because it contributes to showing that the Bible is historically reliable and a strong foundation for our faith. After reading this book I am confident that Dr. Fritz has demonstrated that the Yam Suph spoken of by Moses in the book of Exodus is today’s Gulf of Aqaba.

Moses Has Struck the Rock with His Rod, and Water Is Coming Out. Caption: “Moses has struck the rock with his rod, and water is coming out. For the people had no water to drink. Then God told Moses to strike the rock, and he said the water would come. So Moses struck the rock with his rod, and water came out of it, enough for all the Israelites to drink. They are catching it in bowls and cups and drinking it. For they are thirsty, and weak, and sick, because it has been so long since they had any water. God was good and kind to the Israelites to send them water out of the rock. He never forgets to be kind to his people.” Illustration from the 1897 Bible Pictures and What They Teach Us: Containing 400 Illustrations from the Old and New Testaments: With brief descriptions by Charles Foster

The book is derived from his doctoral dissertation in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Environmental Geography at Texas State University-San Marcos.

Dr. Fritz has traveled in Israel, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan and has studied Ancient Hebrew.

Dr. Fritz has done a thorough analysis of the Biblical text and compared his findings with the Geography of the region. Here are some of his findings:

Yam Suph, the Hebrew name for the sea that parted in the Exodus, has traditionally been called the “Red Sea” and placed in the Gulf of Suez near Egypt. More recently, many scholars have defined it as the “Reed Sea” and assigned it to various inland Egyptian estuaries. However, such locations do not harmonize with the Biblical data that clearly identify Yam Suph as the modern Gulf of Aqaba.

The confusion began over 2,000 years ago with the Greek Septuagint Bible which equated the Hebrew Yam Suph with the Greek concept of the Red Sea. The Greeks were unaware of the Gulf of Aqaba, which caused the Gulf of Suez to become the default site for Yam Suph. The geographical ignorance of the Gulf of Aqaba persisted until the 19^th century, allowing the Red Sea tradition to dominate without challenge.

The various “Reed Sea” theories, which are now favored of the Red Sea tradition, mainly hinge on the linguistic theory that suph referred to vegetation. But these supposed botanical meanings are readily discredited by basic linguistic analyses of the Hebrew vocabulary related to suph.

A Gulf of Aqaba location for Yam Suph invalidates all the theories that have placed the Exodus sea crossing near Egypt. More importantly, it mandates that Mount Sinai must be sought in the region of ancient Midian in Northwest Saudi Arabia, not within the Sinai Peninsula as previously thought.

Dr. Fritz uses scientific method to demonstrate that his theory that Yam Suph is the same as the Gulf of Aqaba is correct.

Glen Fritz and Tim Mahoney discuss Glen’s Book, Lost Sea of the Exodus

See also: Documentary Review: Patterns of Evidence, The Exodus

See also: Documentary Review: Patterns of Evidence the Moses Controversy

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