Content provided in partnership with

Biblical pseudoarchaeology by a Swedish professor of medicine

Skeptical Inquirer, Nov-Dec, 2004 by Martin Rundkvist

The Exodus Case: A Scientific Examination of the Exodus Story--And a Deep Look into the Red Sea. Lennart Moller. Translated into English by Margaret Backman. Forlaget Scandinavia, Copenhagen, 2002.

ISBN 87-7247-230-8. 315 pp. Hardcover, $34.95.

Lennart Moller specializes in the earth hazards of air pollutants and e damage to DNA that they cause. Since 2001, he has been a professor of environmental medicine in the department of bioscience at Karolinska Institutet, one of Europe's largest medical universities and Sweden's main center for medical training and research. Beside his academic duties, Moller is an active member of Evangeliska Fosterlands-Stiftelsen, founded in 1856, a missionary organization within the Church of Sweden. He has edited and authored books on ethics and Gospel exegesis and recently a volume on biblical archaeology, The Exodus Case.

Most Popular Articles in Reference: The importance of understanding organizational culture; Credit card attitudes and behaviors of college students; What factors attract foreign direct investment?; Libraries Need Relationship Marketing - mutual interest marketing concept, ...; How to set performance goals: employee reviews are more than annual critiques; More »

This book is the fruit of extensive travels in the Near East and Egypt. Its stated main purpose is to test a hypothesis: that the biblical texts of Genesis 11:27 through Exodus 40:38 are historically correct. A secondary purpose is to evaluate and expand upon the works of the late Ron Wyatt (1933-1999). Moller's book is presented with an explicitly scientific impetus. Moller wishes to subject his hypothesis to an unprejudiced test and encourages the reader to be critical but keep an open mind.

So far, so good, it may appear. But there are disturbing signs already in the hook's introduction. First, it is naive to judge these long texts, preserved through thousands of years of oral and written traditions, as either true or false in their entirety. Academic historians evaluate discrete factual statements, not entire books at one go. But Moller emphasizes that he is neither a theologian, a historian, nor an archaeologist. In fact, he underlines that he does not know what these disciplines believe regarding the questions he takes on. Moller feels that he can thereby offer a fresh perspective.

Then there are the references to Ron Wyatt. If ever there was a true native of Daniken Laird, it was Wyatt. His writings on biblical archaeology are such extreme flights of fancy that even many creationist debaters dismiss them as wild imaginings.

While ostensibly scientific, Moller's perspective is at the same time explicitly antirational (p. 15). We should not be too sure of ourselves and our powers of reasoning. Only God is perfect, says Moller, and humankind is frail and weak. Look at the Titanic, it sank even though it was supposed to be unsinkable! This is, put mildly, a weakness in Moller's "research strategy." Moller is a Christian and thus strongly biased toward the belief that the hypothesis that he sets out to test has been formulated by God himself.

Successful scientists believe in all statements until they have been disproved, according to Moller. Having offered this parody of Puppet's criterion, he sets out on his biblical trek through time and space from Abraham in Ur to Moses on Mount Sinai. Soon it becomes clear that Moller is not in fact trying to disprove his hypothesis. Quite the contrary; he searches intensively for anything that fits with it. The idea that the selected texts are historically true is not a hypothesis for Moller, it is the basic axiom of his investigation. To the extent that he takes his pseudo-Popperian philosophy of science seriously at all, Moller appears to feel that the task of disproving the hypothesis is the reader's job, nor his.

Moller's attitude toward established academic disciplines is cheerful and completely fearless. Where a less courageous author might have checked a few handbooks for current thinking on the issues at hand, Moller stomps in brandishing revealed truth and starts from zero. The book interfoliates a Bible summary with absolutely vertiginous speculations in archaeology, history, geology, and onomastics (the study of the origins and forms of words). Gomorrah was located on the plain between the hilltop stronghold of Masada and the Dead Sea. The reason that there is now only a gypsum formation to be seen there is that the wicked city was built of limestone and destroyed in a rain of burning sulphur: limestone + sulphur = gypsum! Joseph, son of Jacob, is identical with Imhotep, the architect of the Stepped Pyramid at Saqqara. This identification moves the Third Dynasty a thousand years forward in time from its accepted date. This does not appear to trouble Moller, as he feels that the dynastic chronology of Egypt contains serious uncertainties. Moses is identical with Pharaoh Tutmosis II, as indicated by, among other things, the fact that the Pharaoh is depicted with a hooked nose, suggesting a Hebrew heritage! And so on.

Wherever Moller goes, what he sees turns out to be relevant to his search. He finally finds Mount Sinai in the northwest of Saudi Arabia (across the Bay of Aqaba from the actual Sinai peninsula), where he gets into trouble with local authorities who thwart his truth-seeking ambitions and erect a fence around the rediscovered altar of Moses.

Biblical pseudoarchaeology by a Swedish professor of medicine

Skeptical Inquirer, Nov-Dec, 2004 by Martin Rundkvist

Find Research Guides for:

Find Featured Titles for: Health

Most Popular Articles in Reference

Most Popular Publications in Reference