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Science Explains Bible's Red Sea Miracle This is what the book
of Exodus says about the parting of the Red Sea: Another part of the Old Testament was recently proven true. Find out more! Using a system of differential equations, Naum Volzinger, a senior researcher at St. Petersburg's Institute of Oceanology, and his Hamburg-based colleague Alexei Androsov established the conditions under which the waves might have parted. Here's the mathematics behind the miracle: There is a reef in the Red Sea exactly at the documented spot where the Jews escaped Egypt. In ancient times, the reef was unbroken and much closer to the surface of the sea than it is today. The Bible story cites the "strong east wind that blew all that night." So mathematically, the two scientists considered wind speed, the strength of the storm that would leave the reef high and dry at low tide, how long before the waters returned, and how quickly they returned. Volzinger, who specializes in ocean phenomena, flooding, and tidal waves, calculated that the wind had to have blown at a sustained speed of 67 miles per hour to make the reef. Once the reef formed, he told the St. Petersburg Times, "It would take the Jews--there were 600,000 of them--four hours to cross the 4.2-mile reef that runs from one coast to another. Then, in half an hour, the waters would come back." This is very surprising! Guess who doesn't believe in God? The story says that when the Egyptian army followed them into the Red Sea, they drowned. "I am convinced that God rules the Earth through the laws of physics," he said. The study, which took almost six months to complete is titled "Modeling of the Hydrodynamic Situation During the Exodus" and has been published in the Bulletin of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Mark Grubarg, the head of the Jewish community in St. Petersburg, said the spiritual value of this miracle is immense for Jews. |