THE BIBLICAL EXODUS ACCOUNT

Ron Wyatt.

I detailed some of his known fraud here: http://www.sciforums.com/threads/the-biblical-exodus-account.143851/page-4#post-3268530

The images of the rock carvings that were posted before as proof of the golden calf, etc, they were "discovered" by Ron Wyatt who saw them and declared it was the site of the altar of the golden calf. Ron Wyatt had also declared that he found Noah's Ark, the Ark of the Covenant, Noah's grave, droplet of the blood of Christ and pretty much everything else inbetween. Even his own Church declared him to be a fraud.

The guy was a lunatic and broke so many laws digging and destroying archaeological sites in the Middle East that they kept expelling him from the countries he was illegally digging in, because he claimed to have been led there by god supposedly. In truth, he hasn't found a single thing.

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Umm the site itself, as you are declaring it, is just one of the many many sites with rock carvings in Saudi Arabia. There are literally thousands of them spread out across the country and yes, bovines feature in many places, not just in that particular "site".

The one you believe is "the site", was, as I noted previously, supposedly found by a known fraudster. The story you are peddling here is the one he actually started. The photos and so called evidence you are trying to pass off in this thread is what he "found".

He was apparently led there after discovering chariot wheels, left over from the "Exodus". Chariots and the wheel were not even invented at the time this so called Exodus was meant to have occurred. So first huge fraud there. But then it got worse. Here is a brief history of what you have been trying to pass off as fact here:

Ron Wyatt first proposed the idea that Mt. Sinai was at Jebel al-Lawz. Whatever one may think of Ron Wyatt's "discoveries," he should be given full credit for this discovery. However, I would like to call your attention to a recent book examining the claims of Ron Wyatt. It is entitled Holy Relics or Revelation, by two SDA researchers, Russell and Colin Standish. (Hartland Publications, Box 1, Rapidan, VA 22733. 1-800-774-3566). This book is a careful, meticulous, in-depth study of Ron Wyatt's claims. These researchers "speak the truth in love" but state that Ron Wyatt has not been truthful in his claims.

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Ron Wyatt went to Jebel al-Lawz in Saudi Arabia with his two sons n 1984. They were arrested for entering Saudi Arabia illegally and expelled after 78 days. Eleven months later, Wyatt returned with David Fasold and his "molecular frequency generator" to look for the "gold of the Exodus." Again they were expelled and made to promise that they would not return to Saudi Arabia or talk or write about their findings.

Fasold told Jim Irwin, the Apollo 15 astronaut, of their discoveries. Irwin, in turn, made contact with Bob Cornuke and Larry Williams who eventually went to Saudi Arabia at least twice in order to ascertain whether Mt. Sinai is at Jebel al-Lawz. Both returned home and wrote books about their adventures. Others have since gone and taken video footage of the sites that are now in videos and television programs. The most recent is a video entitled "The Exodus Revealed" by Lennart Moller. He also has a book entitled The Exodus Case. He basically uses Ron Wyatt's material and follows his ideas.

Problems with the Jebel al-Lawz location view

The biggest problem with the identification of Jebel al-Lawz as Mt. Sinai is that it does not meet the Biblical criteria for the site. In my Bible and Spade article I point out three questionable assumptions made by the proponents of Jebel al-Lawz.

The first questionable assumption that the proponents make is that the Sinai Peninsula was considered part of the "Land of Egypt" (Franz 2000: 103-105). The Bible says that when the Israelites left Succoth they were "out of Egypt" (Ex. 13:8-20). The Land of Goshen was the eastern limits of Egypt. Apparently the line of fortresses on the eastern frontier canal was the border between Egypt and Sinai (Hoffmeier 1997: 164-175).

Nadav Na'aman, a professor of Bible geography at Tel Aviv University, made an important point in an article on the "Brook of Egypt". He states, "Traditionally, in the eyes of the Egyptians the Nile or the Isthmus fringes were considered to be their northern boundary, the Sinai peninsula being regarded as part of Asia. This view is diametrically opposite to the northern point of view, according to which the southern limits of Gaza, the southernmost city along the coast of Philistia, and the edges of the urban settlements on its eastern side were thought of as the southern border of Canaan, the intervening desert of Sinai being regarded by the northerners as part of Egypt. In the Late Bronze Age, as the Egyptians came into closer contact with the north, they also became aware of the fact that the Sinai desert was not part of Canaan. Thus, when their scribes were concerned with the southern coastal area exclusively, they considered its border to be the southernmost limits of the urban settlements in this region, Sinai having the status of a kind of 'no-man's land'." (Italics his; 1979:74). Moses never arrived in Canaan so he wrote from an Egyptian, not a Canaanite perspective. Also note that part of northeastern Sinai was Amalekite territory (Mattingly 1992).

The second inaccurate assumption is the claim that Mt. Sinai is in the Land of Midian (Franz 2000:105,106). Most scholars would agree that Midian is in the area of northwest Saudi Arabia, and even part of southern Jordan.

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For example, the so-called "altar of the golden calf" is made up of huge boulders. The Bible clearly states that Aaron built the altar (Ex. 32:5). Yet the proponents of Jebel al-Lawz reconstruct an elaborate scenario whereby the Israelites lifted these heavy boulders into place because they had done heavy manual labor in Egypt. This scenario goes contrary to the Scriptures; Aaron built the altar, not the Israelites. These boulders contain petroglyphs of bovine which the proponents claim is the Egyptian deities Hathor or Apis. Jeff Harrison reports in the video of the proponents that he saw other kinds of animals as well (www.totheends.com). If that is the case, then an explanation for why they are there must be given. An ibex can be clearly seen in a picture in one of their books (Williams 1990: plate 14). Yet more telling is the fact that Moses destroyed the golden calf because it was an idol. If this was the altar, why didn't he remove the petroglyphs as well, after all, they represent graven images! A Saudi archaeologist who did his doctoral dissertation on the petroglyphs in Saudi Arabia informed me that the bovine dated to the Neolithic period, considerably earlier than the Exodus and Wilderness Wanderings. The archaeological evidence goes contrary to the Biblical records and must be rejected.

One claim I have heard from people who have heard the proponents of Jebel al-Lawz is that this "altar" with the bovine petroglyphs is the only one in the area. I was informed by the Saudi archaeologist who did the survey of the area that there were about 300 rock art sites in the northwest Saudi Arabia and about 50 rock art sites with bovine in the al-Bad' / Jebel al-Lawz area. If they were drawn by Israelites, then Hebrew graffiti artists drew them as they roamed the desert drawing what the Lord had forbidden them to make!​

And that is just some of it. It goes on and on and on.

600,000 men, the slaves, their wives, children, the elderly and infirm.. It would have amounted to over a million people. Not a single trace of them and the Egyptians did not even mention it once. Considering how they meticulously noted their history and even the day to day business and way of life in Egypt, you would think that at least one person would have noted that over a million people, which would have amounted to one third of their population, had left. But not a single mention. Not a single pottery artifact to support the biblical stories. Nothing at all. Instead, what we did get was a crackpot, and when I say crackpot, I mean a literal crackpot who also claimed to have found noah's ark, had seen Christ's blood fall in front of him, who claimed to have found the wheels off the chariots involved in the chase of those 1 million + people fleeing Egypt.. When the wheel and the chariot had not been invented when this was slated to have occurred..

Then of course comes his claims that he found rock carvings of bovines.. Tried to claim it was the only place they existed in Saudi Arabia. There are literally hundreds such carvings of bovines scattered around the country.

And again, around the so called altar, not a single piece of pottery, not a single piece of writing, nothing at all to show that over 1 million people had camped nearby.

 

I see.

Your reasoning is that pointing out the absolute lack of evidence, lack of archaeological evidence, how the dates are wrong, the fact that there is no evidence the Israelites were even in Egypt, let alone left it in such a large group which would have constituted about 1/3 of the population of Egypt, the false claims about the rock sculpture, and the boulders themselves, all discovered by a known hack and fraud, just as there is no evidence in Israel of the so called "exodus".. To point all of this out is poor reasoning?

Archaeologists have combed over those sites, especially the sites with such rock carvings. There is not even any pottery to support your claims and your beliefs. Nothing.. Zip.. Zilch.. Nada..