The parting of the Red Sea is one of the most famous events of the Old Testament (Exodus 14):

Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the LORD drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided. And the people of Israel went into the midst of the sea on dry ground, the waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left. ... So Moses stretched forth his hand over the sea, and the sea returned to its wonted flow when the morning appeared; and the Egyptians fled into it, and the LORD routed the Egyptians in the midst of the sea. The waters returned and covered the chariots and the horsemen and all the host of Pharaoh that had followed them into the sea; not so much as one of them remained.

Who hasn’t seen that old movie, The Ten Commandments, with Charlton Heston raising his staff above the sea, which then proceeds to part? (Gelatin was used to portray the “walls” of water.)

Was this a purely natural phenomenon, a miracle performed by God, or a combination? Any of these scenarios is possible in the biblical worldview. As a Christian, I believe — based on numerous and various external reasons — that the Bible is the inspired Word of God.

I set out my case for why I believe this from science and reason in my 2023 book, published by Catholic Answers: The Word Set in Stone: How Archaeology, Science, and History Back Up the Bible. I believe in miracles and an all-powerful God’s capabilities, and also that this event happened in history. The inerrant, infallible revelation of God recorded it, after all, and that’s sufficient for me. But biblical skeptics often assert one or more of the following things regarding this event:

• That it’s impossible because miracles are impossible;
• That its seemingly “mythical” or fantastic character proves that the Old Testament is historically unreliable; and
• That a scientific explanation is not to be had, either.

My own opinion is that this may have been a miracle, or it may have been a natural event. I will present two theories that back up the latter view as a possibility. The first one is presented in my book, and the second I recently discovered.

Carl Drews is a software engineer who has a master’s degree in atmospheric and oceanic sciences from the University of Colorado and a graduate certificate in oceanography. He works for the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). He proposed a serious scientific theory about possible natural events that brought about the parting of the Red Sea.

His theory has been discussed and analyzed in many well-known venues, including New Scientist, The Atlantic, The Guardian and Smithsonian Magazine. National Public Radio provided an overview: 

‘This is something that is known ... as wind setdown,’ Drews tells NPR’s Guy Raz. ...

After modeling a body of water that resembled the waters trapping Moses and the Israelites, Drews enforced the laws of physics and applied a wind stress to the water body. ...

‘The place I picked is not at the Red Sea proper, it’s at the north end of the Suez Canal in one of the shallow lagoons along the Mediterranean Sea.’ ... This is the same area where a British general named Alexander Tulloch witnessed a similar wind setdown event in 1882.

‘He observed a strong east wind blow all night long, and in the morning the water had completely disappeared,’ says Drews. ‘The lake was blown seven kilometers to the west.’

The Guardian cited Drews, explaining how this would work:

The simulations match fairly closely with the account in Exodus. ... The parting of the waters can be understood through fluid dynamics. The wind moves the water in a way that’s in accordance with physical laws, creating a safe passage with water on two sides and then abruptly allowing the water to rush back in.

The model demonstrated that a gap could have opened up “where the Pelusiac branch of the Nile flowed into the Lake of Tanis.” This would result in a land bridge about 3 miles wide and 2 miles long, which would remain open for 4 hours under a wind of 64 miles per hour. Drews set his model (for various scientific reasons) at 3 meters (about 10 feet). If this calculation is correct, it’s more than enough to drown the Egyptian army, too.

A second possible theory is a phenomenon observed every year in the southwest of South Korea. According to Wikipedia:

The tide-related sea level variations result in a land pass 2.9 km (1.8 mi) long and 10–40 meters wide [33-131 feet] opening for approximately an hour between Modo and Jindo islands. The event occurs roughly twice a year, around April–June. (“Modo, Jindo”)

National Geographic has taken note of this, as well, as have many travel sites.

It’s fascinating food for thought. Christians can believe either that God did a pure miracle, or that it was a natural event that happened at the exact time the wandering Hebrews needed it to happen. In this scenario, God, knowing all things, would know that the tidal or wind setdown phenomenon was about to happen, and guided Moses to preside over it. Either way, God was behind it, but from an atheist’s perspective, if some “parting” occurred, it would have been an extraordinarily remarkable coincidence.