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“Ron Wyatt (1933-1999) was a nurse-anesthetist in a hospital in Madison, Tennessee, and a sensationalist pseudo-archaeologist whose work has been debunked thoroughly by professional archaeologists and respected biblical scholars. ... [Wyatt supposedly discovered some 92 relics or sites, including Noah’s home, fences from Noah’s farm, anchor stones from Noah’s ark, Noah’s altar, Noah’s tombstone, wheels from Egyptian chariots in the Red Sea, the Ark of the Covenant, the tables of the Ten Commandments, and a sampling of Christ’s dried blood, supposedly proving the doctrine of the virgin birth by means of a ‘chromosome count.’] ... Wyatt claimed to have discovered the exact place where the Israelites crossed the Red Sea on dry ground, before the waters returned and drowned Pharaoh’s forces. He contended that he explored the floor of the Gulf of Aqaba, using scuba gear. Supposedly, he discovered ‘chariot litter’ in the form of wheels, body frames, and the bones of both humans and horses, scattered over a lengthy area. ... Wyatt claimed that he was using simple recreational scuba equipment when he discovered these wheels, etc., at a depth of some 200 feet in the Gulf. However, ordinary scuba apparatus is designed to accommodate only a depth of approximately 125-130 feet. ... Pharaoh’s army was said to have been destroyed ‘in the middle of the sea’ (Exodus 14:23) which, according to measurements of the British Admiralty, is almost 2,800 feet deep in the midst of Aqaba. ... Then there is the issue of the ‘bones’--of both horses and men--that Wyatt reputedly found. Recall that the destruction of Pharaoh’s army took place about 3,500 years ago. Compare this with the following facts. The Titanic went down in 1912 and 1,553 people were lost in the wreckage. In 1985, [a mere] 73 years following that Atlantic catastrophe, the submerged vessel was discovered and explored and the remains of not a solitary person--neither skin nor bone--was found. Everything had been completely consumed by fish, crustaceans, and the destructive effect of salt water (HRR, 179ff). ... One authority suggests that the video tape Wyatt employed to show these underwater ‘artifacts’ appears to be a hoax; he challenged him to subject the items to a C14 dating test--if indeed he ever had an actual sample of anything (Zias, op. cit.).”

(“Ron Wyatt: The Indiana Jones of the SDA” by Wayne Jackson, The ChristianCourier.com, n.d.)

 


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