Gordon Franz
1. Where do you place Kadesh Barnea? If you can locate Mt. Sinai, then Kadesh Barnea is eleven days journey from the mountain (Deut. 1:2). How long is a day's journey? How does your location of Kadesh Barnea fit with the description of the southern border of Israel (Num. 34:3-5; Josh. 15:1-4)?
2. Where do you place the store city of Rameses and the starting place of the Exodus (Ex. 1:11; Num. 33:3,5)? What is the archaeological evidence for this identification?
3. Where exactly do you place Succoth and Etham and why (Ex. 13:20; Num. 33:5-7)?
4. Where do you place the Wilderness of Shur and why (Ex. 15:22)? The Wilderness of Shur is also called the Wilderness of Etham (Num. 33:8). What is the connection between Etham and the Wilderness of Shur? If there is no connection, why not? How do you have Etham on the west side of the Red Sea (I assume somewhere up the western side of the Sinai Peninsula) and the Wilderness of Etham on the east side of the Red Sea?
5. Migdol means "fortress / tower". Where is a Late Bronze Egyptian fortress at the southern tip of Sinai? Pi Hahiroth means "mouth of the canal". Where are the canals at the southern tip of Sinai? [see Ex. 14:2,9; Num. 33:7]
6. On page 215 of your book you claim that the crossing at the Strait of Tiran is only 2 miles wide. Yet if one looks at a nautical map of the area, it is 4 miles across to the first island, called Gordon Reef, and 11 miles to the Saudi mainland? Please explain this discrepancy. If it's a change in the geology, please document your sources for this change.
7. According to your understanding, do the Israelites wander around Saudi Arabia for 38 years after the 12 spies' incident? What Late Bronze archaeological evidence is there for this wandering?
8. Where do you place Mt. Hor, the burial place of Aaron (Num. 33:38,39)?
9. What is the "road condition" of the 170 miles down the west coast of Sinai, i.e. is it sand, gravel or solid ground? How would these conditions affect the rate of travel?
10. In a public address on May 4, 2001 you claimed, "So they had an underwater land bridge. And the underwater land bridge is about five feet under the water. At the time of the Exodus, it is important to remember it was 20-30 feet higher based on tectonic movement at the shoreline". Would you be so kind as to document your statement: "At the time of the Exodus, it is important to remember, it was 20-30 feet higher based on tectonic movement at the shoreline". What is your evidence for this statement?
11. Was the Enterprise Passage, dropping to a depth of about 700 feet in the Strait of Tiran, in existence 3,500 years ago? If not, how do you know? Would this be a difficult obstacle for the Israelites when they crossed the Red Sea? Could Pharaoh's chariots make it up a 60% incline? Does your land bridge really span the straits "like a stealth aircraft carrier"?
12. Why do the Israelites go from the Red Sea to Elim (which you located at al-Bad) via Marah and then back to the Red Sea before they go to Jebel al-Lawz (Num. 33:8-11). Is there a reasonable explanation for this backtracking?
13. You claim that the Sinai Peninsula is Egypt. Biblically, the Sinai Peninsula is not considered Egypt. A good proof for that from the Bible is Ex. 13:17. The concern of the Lord is that if He took them via the "way of the Land of the Philistines" they would see war and return to Egypt. The "way of the Land of the Philistines" was the northern road across the Sinai Peninsula. The Egyptians called it the "Way of Horus". My question is this: If Sinai was part of Egypt, how do you "return to Egypt" from Egypt?
14. How do you answer the archaeological objections that I raise to your observations in Saudi Arabia? Are the petroglyphs of the bovine Neolithic and considerably earlier than the time of Moses? Are the "caves of Moses" really Nabateans tombs and thus later than Moses? Does the so-called "v-shaped altar" date to the Nabatean period or is it earlier, from the time of Moses?
15. Have you had that "blackened rock" analyzed yet (it has been at least 15 years)? If so, what are the results? If I had a sample, I could have it analyzed by a Christian geologist within a week and at no charge.
16. How do you explain the clear statement of Scripture that Mt. Sinai is outside of Midian (Ex. 18:27; Num. 10:29,30)? "His own land" is Midian.
Revised March 24, 2005.
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