Written and Directed by Simcha Jacobovici

A review by Robert L. Smith

Jewish Canadian filmmaker, Simcha Jacobovici (Yak-ko’-bo-vich), created a modern detective thriller by solving the ultimate archaeological mystery of the epic Biblical Exodus story.  Jacobovici’s attempt to solve the 3000 year old question, “Is the Exodus fact or fiction, and if fact, how could it possibly be true?” leaves believers completely convinced, even though some scholars remain skeptical.

Jacobovici is known as “The Naked Archaeologist,” on the History Channel documentary series for VisionTV, the two-time Emmy Award winning producer and director shows viewers Biblical archaeology like they’ve never seen it before.  “My goal,” says Jacobovici “is to demystify the Bible in general, and archaeology in particular, to brush away the cobwebs and burst academic bubbles.”

The Exodus Decoded, which premiered on the History Channel on Sunday, 20 August, 2006, purports to prove the existence of the Israelites in Egypt, postulates scientific explanations of the ten plagues Moses called down upon the Pharaoh, including the parting of the sea and subsequent escape of the Israelites and the destruction of the pursuing Egyptian army, as well as the location of this epic journey leading to the plausible location of the sacred Mt. Sinai , and the finding of an artifact depicting the Arc of the Covenant.  The film is partially narrated by film director James Cameron, and includes scenes from “Raiders of the Lost Arc” to stimulate the feeling of adventure.

Pointing out that scholars believe this epic tale to be a myth, Jacobovici pieces together archaeological discoveries of the last century to bring the fragmentary jigsaw puzzle into amazing focus until myth becomes strikingly believable.

Over 100 years ago archaeologists unearthed a broken stone monument at Karnack, a village of east-central Egypt on the right bank of the Nile River on part of the site of ancient Thebes, erected by a Pharaoh named Ahmose I, from the eighteenth dynasty, who lived around 1550 BCE.  The Ahmose stele, now in the basement of the Cairo Museum , and discovered by Henri Chevalier, may hold the key to the Exodus enigma.  It tells of a furious storm, which is very unusual in the dry arid climate of Egypt .  Hieroglyphic inscriptions on the stone mirror the Biblical tale.  The Bible tells of a great storm at the time of the Exodus.  The Ahmose stele also tells of an incessant tempest all over Egypt and that Egypt was enveloped in darkness when the God manifested his power.   Jacobovici states that in Hebrew, the Egyptian name Ahmose would mean "Brother of Moses.”  The Ahmose stele tells that the statues of the God’s of Egypt were toppled to the ground (probably from an earthquake storm). 

In the 17^th century BCE, (according to traditional chronology), the Hyksos who, like the Israelites, were Semites, invaded Egypt and ruled Lower and Middle Egypt for over 100 years, forming the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Dynasties of Egypt (c. 1648–1540 BC). (Wikepeidia).  In the 1960’s the ancient Hyksos capital Avaris was discovered north of Cairo .  The Hyksos were expelled in a mass exodus, known as the Hyksos expulsion, by Pharaoh Ahmose I about 1500 BCE. 

Most scholars date the Hebrew Exodus to 1270 BCE during the rein of Ramses II, but he Bible gives evidence that the exodus occurred about 480 years before the rein of Solomon in the middle of the 15^th century BC, or 1470 BCE, less than 100 years from the traditional date of the Hyksos expulsion. (Prof. John Bismon, Trinity College ). 

Jacobovici, like the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus before him, equates the Hyksos with the Israelites, and postulated a new date for the Exodus around 1500 BCE.  Israelites arrived in Egypt some 200 years before their Exodus, which would have been 1700 BCE, the same time as the arrival of the Hyksos in Egypt .  Hebrew Bible calls the Israelites, “God’s People,” or “Amo Israel .”  About 400 Km south of Avaris is the tomb of Beni Hassan, which dates to about 1700 BCE.  A perfectly preserved wall painting records a migration into Egypt from the area of modern Israel .  Bearded Semites are depicted riding donkeys and bringing their families and flocks into Egypt and wearing multi-colored tunics, like the Biblical Israelites.  The Hieroglyphic inscription on this painting calls these people the “Amo,” or God’s People. 

As confirmation that the Israelites where the same as the Hyksos, Jacobovici explores the artifacts unearthed at the archaeological excavations of Avaris, and finds that nine signet rings made of clay were found bearing the inscription Yakov (or Jacob).   The Bible tells that Joseph wore a ring with the seal of Pharaoh.  Joseph, son of Jacob, would have been identified by his family name.  A Hebrew name on an Egyptian royal seal seems to directly connect Avaris with the Joseph and Jacob of the Bible. 

Searching for additional proof that the Israelites were actually in Egypt during that period, Jacobovici explores the turquoise mines at Serabit el-Khadin 400 Km south of the Nile delta in the Sinai desert, where he knows the Egyptians employed slave labor.  Miraculously, he finds a 3500 year old alphabetic inscription, “El, save me,” chiseled in the wall of the copper mines, the second oldest alphabetic inscription known.  The Egyptians at that time used hieroglyphic symbols, unlike the Hebrews who used an alphabetic form of writing, and worshiped one God named Elohim, not the multiplicity of Gods worshiped by the Egyptians.

Based on the Ahmose stele which tells of a great storm and darkness that enveloped Egypt , Jacobovici looks for a volcanic eruption as the likely cataclysmic event described in the carving.

Around 1500 BCE was there was such an eruption of the Santorini volcano in modern Greece , one of the most cataclysmic events in history.  Island of Santorini , is 700 Km from the Egyptian coast, and this was one of the worst volcanic eruptions in human history bringing to an end the Minoan civilization that once flourished here.  Jacobovici theorizes that such an eruption would have been preceded by numerous earthquakes, since the Nile delta is in an earthquake zone.

By now Jacobovici has correlated the Pharaoh named Ahmose, the Hyksos expulsion, the Exodus, and the Santorini eruption all to 1500 BCE.  He then explores possible scientific explanations for the Biblical story of Moses’ ten plagues, and the parting of the sea.

The ten plagues of Moses. 

1. The Nile river was turned to blood.  When earthquakes trigger gas leaks, such as at Lake Nyos , Cameroon in 1986, the water suddenly turned blood red, due to an underground gas leak.  Bottom layers contained high concentrations of iron.  When the gas brought this iron to the surface, it formed iron hydroxide or rust, which caused the reddish color to the surface of the lake.  Earthquakes could cause the gas leaks.  Water becomes devoid of oxygen.  Everything in the water would die except frogs, which unlike fish, could hop out.  The lack of clean water then leads to lice, flies, and bacterial epidemics.
2. Frog epidemics.
3. Lice.
4. Flies
5. Epidemics.
6. Boils and blisters for men and animals.  At Lake Nyos , Cameroon , carbon dioxide mixed with air and put people into a kind of coma, reducing circulation to the skin resulting in boils  and blisters.
7. Hail of ice and fire mixed together.  An Egyptian papyrus, called the Ipuwer Plague Papyrus, dated by many scholars to the Hyksos period says that Egypt was struck by a strange hail made of ice and fire mingled together, what scientist describe as volcanic hail.  When the ash cloud from the volcanic eruption goes into the upper atmosphere it causes a hail storm which then falls to the earth along with the volcanic ash.
8. Locusts.  The volcanic eruptions and the hail would have caused large swarms of locusts which are common in this part of the world to land in Egypt .  Cold weather produces a drop in their body temperature and makes them land in mass.  They swarm in groups of 40 to 80 million locusts per square Km. 
9. Darkness.  Finally, the major Santorini eruption.  Santorini pumice was found in Avaris that dates to 1500 BCE.  Santorini ash was found in the Nile delta.
10. Death of every first borne male.  In the1986 enigma at Lake Nyos , Cameroon , carbon dioxide gas that turned the lake blood red had reached a critical point.  Surface of the lake was keeping the gas dissolved in the water until another earthquake caused a landslide of rock into the lake breaking the surface pressure and releasing the gas.  The invisible fog of carbon dioxide then rolled across the land suffocating everything in its path.  Those on higher ground found 1800 people dead and hundreds of animals dead. Then the cloud simply dissolved into the atmosphere, leaving no trace of its deadly effect.   The Bible tells that the selectivity of the deaths of the firstborn males caused Pharaoh to let the Israelites go.  The Egyptian custom was for the firstborn sons to sleep on beds near the ground while their brothers slept in lofts and roof-tops.  Archaeologists at Avaris have discovered mass graves dating to 1500 BCE containing only males who were all buried at the same time.  The mummy of Pharaoh Ahmose’s son Prince Sapair, preserved in the Cairo Museum , shows that he died at the age of 12.

The parting of the Sea.  The Hebrew text names the sea that Moses parted Yam Suf.  Jacobovici says that the correct translation of Yam Suf is “reed sea”, not Red Sea .  Reeds, or marshes, grow in sweat water, not salt water, in lakes, not oceans.  In the Ismailia Regional Museum , Jacobovici found an ancient hieroglyphic inscription, the El Arish inscription, on a granite monument that tells the entire story of the Exodus from Pharaoh’s point of view, and that provides the exact location of Yam Suf.  If also provides the first archaeological evidence of the parting of the sea.  Moses is called the Prince of the desert.  The Israelites are called the evil ones.  There is a symbol, three waves and two knives, suggesting the parting of a sea or body of water.  The engravings on the stone identified the place where the water was parted as Pa Tufe, the marshy sea.  Tuff, the Egyptian word for reed, is the same word as Suf in Hebrew, now called the El Balah Lake, which in Hebrew means the lake where God devoured.  This ancient lake survived until the 1850’s when the Suez canal drained its waters.  Jacobovici  speculates that seismic activity associated with the earthquakes could have caused temporary drainage of the REED Lake or Sea, and a subsequent tsunami could have buried the perusing Egyptian army.  The missing piece to the puzzle however is the lack of discovery of chariots and horses bones in the dry El Balah Lake bed. 

In 1992, perfectly preserved Minoan paintings were discovered at Avaris, proving that in Biblical times this city was populated not only by Israelites, but also by people from ancient Greece , indicating that there was commerce between the Hyksos and the Minoans on the island of Santorini .  Jacobovici concludes that some of the people who followed Moses in the Exodus, or Hyksos expulsion, did not follow him to the Promised Land, but instead boarded ships and sailed to Greece .  In 1972, while digging among the ashes of Santorini in Greece , archaeologists made a startling discovery linking this area of the world with the Exodus.  They found Minoan style wall paintings and a map depicting an ancient journey from Egypt to Greece , which may be the oldest map in the world.  It depicts an ancient Egyptian city which is believed to Avaris. 

The Bible tells that Moses and his followers left Egypt with great quantities of Egyptian swords and gold.  Jacobovici takes us to Mycenae , 50 Km from the coast on the Greek mainland, where in 1876, Heinrich Schliemann, the excavator of Troy , at Myceane found 3500 year old tombs.  They contained a treasure trove of swords and Egyptian gold.  The bodies in the tombs were dated to1500 BCE, and the grave stele of Mycenae, now in museums, have images on the gravestones, in three different panels which depict in graphic detail the Egyptians pursuing Moses, who turns his staff on them, and then the chariots are turned over, and buried in the sea. Using computer animation, he brings the figures of Moses and the pursuing Egyptian off of the stone and recreates the chase, where Moses turns to face his enemy, who is then swallowed in the tidal waves that sweep over him.

In a new scene, the video goes on to show oil and gas fires of Kuwait, suggesting that similar fires could have resulted from the earthquake activity, which would explain the pillar of smoke by day and a pillar of fire by night which the fleeing Israelites would have seen in the Exodus as described in the Bible. 

From El Balah Lake Jacobovici continues to follow the Exodus trail in search of Mt. Sinai , where Moses received the Ten Commandments while the children of Israel wandered in the desert for forty years.  He discounted the traditional cite of Mt. Sinai, showing that it did not fit the Biblical descriptions, and focused instead on  the two central routes that existed from Egypt to Israel.  Northern and southern routes were ruled out. 

1. Mt. Sinai is a 14 day journey from Elim, just south of Lake El Balah, called the springs of Moses.   Assuming travel of 15 Km per day, he drew an arc on his map of the area.
2. Exodus 3:1-2 says that God appeared to Moses on Mt Sinai, while grazing the flocks of his father in law, a Mideonite (before the Exodus).  Timna, the only place where Mideonites lived in the area.  Assuming a traditional distance for grazing sheep, he drew another arc, which intersected with the first.
3. Deut 1:2  states that Mt. Sinai was an 11 day journey from Kadesh Barnea.  Drawing another arc bisecting the first two defined an area which included several mountains which could have been Mt. Sinai .

The Bible tells of plateau around Mt. Sinai where hundreds of thousands of Israelites gathered to listen to Moses as he read the Ten Commandments from a cleft in a rock on the mountain.  It also says there was a fresh water spring on the top of the mountain which is very unusual for desert mountain.  Jacobovici found a mountain which met all of the required criteria, including numerous grave sites, and sacrificial monuments around the base of the mountain.

As if this wasn’t enough evidence for confirmation of the Exodus epic, Jacobovici turned his thoughts to the Tabernacle of Moses and its sacred Arc of the Covenant, which has been the quest of adventurers and treasure hunters ever since it was lost following the destruction of Solomon’s Temple by the Babylonians in 597 B.C.   Remembering the Egyptian gold and swords discovered in the tombs at Myceane in Greece , Jacobovici explored the National Archaeological Museum of Athens in search of some gold artifact which might possibly describe the elusive Arc of the Covenant.  The Bible says the tribe called Dan helped craft the Arc of the Covenant.  Homer called the people buried at Mycenae Danites.  Once again, miraculously, he found three gold pieces of jewelry which he cleverly decoded as a view from the Holy of Holies in the Tabernacle of three objects:  the Arc of the Covenant in front of the ramp leading to the alter, and the alter of the Tabernacle.  Using computer animation once again, he was able to separate the ramp and the alter, which are describe in the Bible to reveal the Arc of the Covenant which had gold crowns on each corner with two birds with spread wings on each end.

By citing scientific explanations for the miraculous events of the Exodus epic of the Bible, Jacobovici does not deny the hand of God, but suggests that he used the forces of nature to preserve his people.  However, he leaves it to the viewer to draw his own conclusions.

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This feeble attempt to review this incredible work of Biblical archaeology research is a poor substitute for viewing this amazing film which is available on DVD for less than $20 on various web sites.  You’ll have to see it to believe it, even though some conventional archaeologists and scholars are yet to be convinced.  I, for one, can’t imagine a much stronger case for evidence of the Exodus.