The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 4) — Page 120
CH. 20 79. "Then Pharaoh ṬĀHĀ PT. 16 فَأَتْبَعَهُمْ فِرْعَوْنُ بِجُنُودِهِ فَغَشِيَهُمْ مِّنَ pursued them with his hosts, and the "10:91; 26:61. condensed and annotated by later editors, and fused by them into a general narrative; and the Biblical chronology of the period, though containing trustworthy material, is known to be largely artificial. Apart from the Biblical records any historical information on the subject is meagre. Various theories, however, are held about the Exodus. Some of these are as follows: 1. The view that the Israelites left Egypt with the Hyksos (1580 B. C. ) at the beginning of the XVIIIth Dynasty, or shortly afterwards, and lived a nomadic life of about 200 years in the desert previous to entering Canaan. But evidently this view seems to do violence to genuine Hebrew tradition. 2. The theory which dates the Exodus in the XVIIIth Dynasty, but about 1445 B. C. just after the long despotic reign of Thutmose III and during that of his son Amenhotep II (1447-1420 B. C. ). This theory too lacks the support of trustworthy historical material and Hebrew tradition. 3. The hypothesis which connects the Exodus with the religion's revolution attempted by Amenhotep IV, otherwise known as Akhenaten (1383-1366 B. C. ) This view would place the Exodus about 1350 or 1345 B. C. This seems to be more plausible than the first two views. which receives much support from historical data, archaeological research and Hebrew tradition is that the Exodus occurred in the Nineteenth Dynasty (1328-1202 B. C. ), in the reign of Merneptah II or Mereneptah II (1234-1214) and still seems the most probable. It appears to have taken place about 1230 B. C. According to this view the Pharaoh of and his successor Merneptah II, the the oppression would be Rameses II Pharaoh of the Exodus (Peake's Commentary on the Bible, pp. 119, 955 & 956). Incidentally, it may be stated here that the striking of the water of the sea with his rod by Moses had no cause and effect connection with the actual parting of the sea. It was merely a sign or a Divine intimation that it was the time of the ebb tide and that the Israelites should hasten to cross. God had so arranged that when Moses reached the sea the tide was about to go back, so that as soon as he struck the sea with his rod in obedience to Divine command, it began to recede and a dry path was made for the Israelites. The striking of the water with his rod by Moses and the recession of the sea coincided. This constituted a miracle because God alone knew when the sea would recede and He had commanded Moses to strike its 4. But the theory, largely prevalent waters at the time of its recession. 2034