The Exodus Decoded

The Exodus Decoded
File:Exodus Decoded DVD Cover.jpg DVD cover art
Genre	Documentary Religion
Created by	Simcha Jacobovici James Cameron
Written by	Simcha Jacobovici
Directed by	Simcha Jacobovici
Country of origin	Canada Egypt Greece
Original language(s)	English
Production
Producer(s)	James Cameron
Running time	92 minutes
Distributor	A&E Television Networks NewVideo
Release
Original network	The History Channel
Original release	April 16, 2006 (2006-04-16) (location)

Search The Exodus Decoded on Amazon.

The Exodus Decoded is a 2006 documentary film by "investigative archaeologist" and filmmaker Simcha Jacobovici and producer/director James Cameron. It aired April 16 on The History Channel. The documentary proposes naturalistic origins for the plagues of Egypt as described in the Book of Exodus.

Premise

The documentary deals with The Exodus, the founding myth of the Israelites. While few mainstream historians would consider the Book of Exodus as a reliable narrative, the film presents a speculative question as to whether that the events as described, particularly relating to the plagues of Egypt, could be explained naturalistically. Central to its thesis is the volcanic eruption of Thera/Santorini.

A suggested date of 1500 BC is made for the Exodus, during the reign of pharaoh Ahmose I. The "palpable darkness" described as the 9th plague, is hypothetically attributed to the cloud of volcanic ash caused by the Minoan eruption. A conjectural limnic eruption in the Nile Delta, similar to that of the Lake Nyos disaster in 1986, is explored as a further source of mass death.

The documentary first aired in Canada on April 16, (Easter Day) 2006 (Discovery Channel Canada).

Presented evidence

Egyptian

• The Hyksos Expulsion, contemporaneous Egyptian records of the driving out of the mysterious Hyksos people. Jacobovici suggests that the Hyksos and the Hebrews were one and the same, a thesis he supports with Egyptian-style signet rings uncovered in the Hyksos capital of Avaris (30°47'14.71"N, 31°49'16.92"E) that read "Yakov/Yakub" (from Yaqub-her), similar to the Hebrew name of the Biblical patriarch Jacob (Ya'aqov).
• The Ahmose stele, also called the Tempest Stele. Pieces of this stone tablet were unearthed in Karnak by Henri Chevalier in 1947. In it an unknown god incurs one of the same plagues described in the Biblical account (darkness, also described as "a great storm"). The Exodus Decoded official website quotes the stele, "How much greater is this the impressive manifestation of the great God, than the plans of the gods!" An alternative reading is "Then His Majesty said 'How these (events) surpass the power of the great god and the wills of the divinities!'".
• Ahmose I. Jacobovici suggests that the name of the Pharaoh at the time of the Exodus may have been a pun (paronomasia). Jacobovici states that in Hebrew, the Egyptian name Ahmose would mean "Brother of Moses." Yet in Egyptian, "Mose," "Moses," "Mes," etc. means "son of." and "Ah" is a common part of Egyptian royal names referring to the moon god Iah. The documentary also examines the mummy of Ahmose's son, Ahmose Sapair, who appears to have died at the age of 12. In the Bible, the pharaoh loses a son to the Plague of the Firstborn.
• Serabit el-Khadim turquoise mine, a labour camp in the Sinai with a Semitic alphabetic inscription that reads "O El, save me from these mines." He argues that the use of "El" suggests that it was written before the alleged revelation at Sinai, supporting the thesis that Hebrews were enslaved in Egypt, although this inscription was undated.

Mycenaean

• Gravestones. Jacobovici suggests that three of the stones marking the wealthy tombs of Grave Circle A in Mycenae depict the parting of the Sea of Reeds. The stones, Jacobovici claims, show a man on a chariot in pursuit of a man on foot carrying a long, straight object. Jacobovici proposes that the man on the chariot is Ahmose I, the man on foot is Moses, and the long, straight object is the staff of Aaron. Above and below the scene are rows of swirls which, in Jacobovici's interpretation, represent the parting waters. He admits, however, that archaeologists have typically interpreted the scene as a chariot race, with the long, straight object being a spear or sword.
• A Gold ornament excavated from one of the tombs in the Grave Circle is believed by Jacobovici to show the Ark of the Covenant against a background of the tabernacle altar. However, when you compare the photo of the gold ornament to the Biblical story of God telling Moses how to build the Ark, the descriptions differ in several ways. Jacobovici suggests that members of the Tribe of Dan may have emigrated to Mycenae after the Exodus. This, the documentary suggests, is why Homer refers to the buried at Mycenae as "Danaoi." The Greek myth states, however, that the Danaoi were descended from the Argives under the matriarch Danaë.

See also

• Passage of the Red Sea
• Mount Sinai (The modern one; for the biblical mountain see Biblical Mount Sinai)
• Thera (Santorini) eruption Association with the Exodus
• Plagues of Egypt
• Digging for the Truth, showcased a similar special in 2006 concerning the inhabitants of Atlantis.
• Lost Worlds
• Biblical archaeology
• John Allegro

• Passover
• Ashura

External links

• The Exodus Decoded on IMDb Search this movie on
• New York Times review by Virginia Heffernan
• The Exodus Decoded Trailer on Youtube Films
• The Exodus Decoded on Youtube SyndicadoTV

This article "The Exodus Decoded" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:The Exodus Decoded. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.

This page exists already on Wikipedia.

📰 Article(s) of the same category(ies)

• Dead at 17
• The Yo-Yo Gang
• Heroes of the Golden Masks
• The Other Half (2006 British film)
• Hi, My Name is Dicky
• Get Thrashed
• Falling in Love with the Girl Next Door

---