The Three Times God Parted The Waters

The Three Times God Parted The Waters

There are only four times in the Bible that it is said that God parted the waters, and if we look at geology and weather patterns three of the events are supported by known physics and geology, while the fourth is a clear case of a successor manufacturing a miracle.

Here is the breakdown of the events in chronological order.

Moses Parts The Red Sea

1. Moses and the Red Sea:

The Event: Exodus 14

The Date: Approx. 1446 BC

The Evidence: The Bible explicitly states the cause: a "strong east wind" that blew all night. This is a documented fluid dynamic phenomenon called Wind Setdown, when wind blows at hurricane force (60+ mph) across a shallow, enclosed basin it exerts physical stress on the water, pushing it downstream. Computer modeling confirms that this can expose underwater land bridges. In modern times, residents and military personnel in the Suez region have historically observed water levels in the harbor and nearby shallow lakes dropping dramatically during powerful storms. The "East Wind" is a periodic weather event in the region, and when high-pressure systems align these winds occur naturally. We don’t know the depth of the water 3,500 years ago, nor do we know the ancient topography of the sandbars which have shifted over the millennia due to monsoons and currents, nor do we know the exact location of the crossing. So while the "East Wind" mechanism is scientifically valid, this most famous parting of the waters event cannot be explained with the same certainty as the events at the Jordan River.

Joshua Parts The River Jordan

2. Joshua and the Jordan: The Priests and the Ark

The Date: Approx. 1406 BC

While many people are unaware of the other three times the Bible says God parted waters, there are three incidents said to have happened along the Jordan River. The first involved Joshua.

The Story: The Bible (Joshua 3:15–17) describes the priests carrying the Ark of the Covenant approaching the river during flood stage. The moment the feet of the priests touched the water's edge, the water flowing from upstream stopped and "rose up in a heap very far away, at Adam" (modern-day Damiya), while the water downstream drained away into the Dead Sea, allowing the people to cross the Jordan River at the city of Jericho.

Elijah Parts The River Jordan

3. Elijah and the Jordan: The Prophet's Departure

The Date: Approx. 852 BC

The Gap: This event takes place roughly 550 years after Joshua.

The Story: In 2 Kings 2, Elijah approaches the Jordan River with his apprentice Elisha. They arrive at the exact same location near Jericho where Joshua had crossed centuries earlier. Elijah takes his cloak, historically known as a mantle, rolls it up, and strikes the water. This garment, likely made of animal hair, was the physical symbol of his God-given authority and prophetic office. The Bible says the water parted to the one side and to the other, and the two men crossed over on dry ground. Shortly after, Elijah is taken up in a whirlwind.

Elisha Pretends To Part The River Jordan

4. Elisha and the Jordan: The Return

The Event: 2 Kings 2 (Part II)

The Account: The Bible states that Elisha returned to the riverbank after he and Elijah crossed. He strikes the water and the Bible says it parted for him just like it did for Elijah. He then crosses back over on dry ground, cementing his status as the true successor. Elisha likely struck the dry ground or a puddle with the cloak to put on a show for the fifty "sons of the prophets" watching from a distance.

The Scientific Reality: The Landslides at Adam

Here is where history confirms the stories of Joshua and Elijah but exposes the story of Elisha as fake. We can at least explain with good timing how both Joshua and Elijah were able to cross the Jordan River, and just like the parting of the Red Sea it requires no miracles and therefore no faith. The Jordan Valley is a seismic rift zone with unstable cliffs made of soft, crumbly clay and limestone. The location mentioned in the Bible, "Adam" is a specific choke point upstream from where they crossed. When earthquakes hit, these cliffs collapse into the river, creating a temporary earthen dam at Adam, right where the Bible specifically describes the water "rising in a heap" for Joshua. The same circumstances would also explain the story of Elijah.

A Pattern Of Landslides At Adam 

These crossings of the Jordan River happened 15 miles downstream near Jericho. When the landslide dams the river upstream the water downstream drains away into the Dead Sea leaving the riverbed at Jericho bone-dry for a documented duration of 16 to 48 hours three times in the last 800 years:

1267 AD: Blocked for 16 hours (one account says 10 hours).

1546 AD: Blocked for 2 days.

1927 AD: Blocked for 21 hours.

The historian Nowairi recorded that on the night of December 7, 1267, the water "ceased to flow" and the riverbed was left dry. He noted that the "water remained cut off" from midnight until the "fourth hour of the day," allowing the Sultan’s workmen and soldiers to enter the riverbed to complete work on a bridge's foundations on dry ground.

Garstang’s first-hand archaeological reports and his book The Story of Jericho recorded that during the 1927 earthquake the mud cliffs at Damia (Adam) collapsed into the river. He wrote that the flow was suspended for 21 hours, and that at Jericho "the river-bed was so dry that people were able to walk across it," at the exact same location where Joshua, the Ark, Elijah, and Elisha are all said to have crossed, and where the Sultan's army walked on the dry river bed in 1267. These events fall into a pattern, every 250 to 400 years or so an earthquake at Adam blocks the Jordan River at Jericho.

This documented 10 hour to 2 day blockage is the basis for why the story of Elisha parting the water cannot be true, if the water was blocked for Elijah, it was still blocked for Elisha and it would be another 250 to 400 years before the Earth built up enough stress to have another earthquake that causes another blockage at Adam, making Elisha's claims of parting the water with the cloak appear to be nothing more than a power grab to make it into the list of prophets.

Conclusion

So that's it then, the Bible claims that there are four times that God parted the waters for people, and three of them appear to be documented historical events given the specific circumstances described in the Bible: an East Wind is a Wind Setdown event, water piling up at Adam is a known physical phenomenon caused by earthquakes in the Jordan Valley that allows people to cross at Jericho, but the three documented times that happened in the last 800 years lasted for 10 to 16 hours, “two days," and 21 hours, so the river was still dry for Elisha after he crossed with Elijah. I admit that all of this is empirical and agnostic, and that many people approach the Bible based on faith. But when the Bible gives blatantly scientific evidence that has been reproduced time and time again all throughout history, the Bible reveals itself not to be a book of miracles performed by prophets of God with his power, it is a history book that documented actual seismic and weather events in history that were later recast as miracles, it doesn't take faith to understand that three of the times God parted the waters are easily explained by very, very good timing, and that one of them just cannot be true.

Historical Reference List

• ​The Holy Bible. King James Version. Joshua 3:15–17; 2 Kings 2.
• ​Nowairi (al-Nuwayri). Nihayat al-arab fi funun al-adab. (13th-century primary chronicle detailing the 1267 AD blockage and the Mamluk army's work in the dry riverbed).
• ​Garstang, John. The Story of Jericho (1940). (Archaeological record of the 1927 earthquake, documenting the 21-hour river stoppage and eyewitness accounts of the dry crossing).
• ​Nur, Amos. Apocalypse: Earthquakes in the Archaeology of the Holy Land. Princeton University Press. (Geophysical analysis confirming the "Adam" choke point and seismic patterns in the Jordan Rift Valley).
• ​Braslavski, Y. (1938). The earthquake and the stoppage of the Jordan River in 1546. (Historical research documenting the two-day riverbed exposure).