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Documentary sets new date for Exodus By ETGAR LEFKOVITS The Jerusalem Post Jul. 3, 2006
A new documentary by a Canadian Jewish filmmaker argues that the Exodus did happen, but that it took place a couple of hundred years before the commonly-accepted time frame.
The Exodus Decoded, a two-hour documentary by award-winning Israeli-born filmmaker Simcha Jacobovici, suggests that the Exodus of the Jews from Egypt as recounted in the Bible occurred around 1500 BCE, about 230 years before the date most commonly accepted by contemporary historians.
The 10 plagues that smote the Egyptians, according to the Bible, are explained in the documentary to be the result of a volcanic eruption on a Greek island that occurred 3,500 years ago.
The documentary, which is narrated by the director James Cameron (Titanic), identifies a 3,500-year-old gold image - found in a museum in Athens - as that of the lost Ark of the Covenant. It also cites a hieroglyphic inscription discovered in an Egyptian museum that attests to the Exodus.
The film also claims to reveal the "true location" of Mount Sinai, where Moses received the Ten Commandments according to the Bible.
None of the relics - or arguments - cited in the made-for-TV, state-of-the-art film, which is the result of six years of research, has been accepted by archeologists or any prominent archeological institution as proof for Jacobovici's theory.
And Jacobovici, who has produced an array of documentaries over the last two decades on subjects ranging from suicide bombing in Israel to the ebola virus to the global sex trade, readily agrees that he is no archeologist. But he asserts that this makes him no less qualified to investigate historical facts.
"I bring with me the same skills you bring to any investigation, whether it is sex trafficking, politics, terror or the Biblical archeological story," said the two-time Emmy award-winner, denouncing "minimalists" who say that the Exodus - and the Bible - is a fantastic fairy tale.
"I think it is a mistake when you have a situation in archeology where some academics have set themselves up as some sort of priesthood between us and the Bible," he added.
Jacobovici set out on his Exodus quest after doing a documentary in the 1990s on a group of people on the Indian-Burma border who claim to be the lost Israelite tribe of Menashe. That film was met with widespread criticism by people Jacobovici branded as "so-called experts." Jacobovici said he himself was skeptical of the tribe's Israelite claims until he researched the subject.
Similarly with the new Exodus documentary, he asserted that with his hefty $3.5 million budget, a lack of preconceptions, and none of the restrictions of conventional archeological wisdom, he was free to reach what he insists are credible conclusions about the Exodus.
The 55-year-old director, whose original claim to fame was his first-ever documentary Falasha: Exile of the Black Jews, made two and half decades ago and which focused on Ethiopian Jewry, said his research for the lost tribes film spurred him to question the widely accepted assumptions about what he called "the founding story of Western civilization" - the Exodus of the Jews from Egypt.
Six years later, mixing science, religion and a variety of archeological findings, Jacobovici is convinced that he has seen the light. Most of the archeological findings cited come from Egypt, with others from Greece. He said he researched in six countries, including Israel and the UK.
The film, which was first broadcast in Canada in April, premieres Friday at the Jerusalem Film Festival. It will be shown in the US on August 20 on the History Channel.
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Interesting. This is the first time I've heard of this documentary, but I have long known of the theory connecting the exodus to the eruption of Mt. Palea Kameni of the Greek Island of Santorini. The eruption was so powerful and devastating that it sank most of the island and hurled up a dust cloud that darkended the skies around the Mediterranean basin for weeks!
Santorini is considered a good candidate for the lost city of Atlantis.
Posts: 26252 | From: Atlanta, Georgia, USA | Registered: Feb 2005
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I agree with Djehuti about Atlantis, Santorini is a logical choice. As for the exodus, there is no real eveidence that it ever happened. Certanily it did not happen as it was described in the Bible.
-------------------- God Bless President Bush Posts: 5822 | From: USA | Registered: Jan 2004
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quote:Originally posted by Horemheb: As for the exodus, there is no real eveidence that it ever happened. Certanily it did not happen as it was described in the Bible.
Actually we have ancient accounts from the time when Santorini's volcano erupted and the evidence looks much more compelling and more logical.
The effects of the eruption certainly explains the 7th plague of "burning hail" and the 9th plague of "darkness" which lasted 3 days.
Posts: 26252 | From: Atlanta, Georgia, USA | Registered: Feb 2005
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The reason why this seems so fscinating to people is that so many people want to tie themselves to this so-called biblical chosen people. This I believe leads people to bend facts to fit their story of how things were. Why didn't all the people of egypt leave if these so-called plagues effected the whole population? Surely it would be important enough for someone to write about so where are the extra-jewish sources? Why just the Hebrews? This is pseudoscience at its worst. I've got nothing against the jews but come on these peoples creation MYTH is no more important or "true" than any one elses.
Posts: 167 | From: usa | Registered: Jul 2004
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Kifaru tell me about it makes no sense at all they just want us to believe there story because if we dont they will call us Anti-Semitic and Anti-Jewish its hard to critically anaylize peoples religion because they get all emotional and start to cry.
-------------------- Hikuptah Al-Masri Posts: 526 | From: Aswan Egypt | Registered: Jun 2006
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