The Thing About Hiking

 There are about a thousand problems with the information, stories and relative facts given by the Bible that I have.  

So this is one of the problems.....when the day comes that Moses takes his crew across the Red Sea.  From that day (or evening), there's this space of forty years discussed before they reach the 'promised' land.

This geographic area just east of the Red Sea?  Well....in today's world, before you reach the border of Israel....it's an area of 450 km long and 200 km wide.  If you were walking....at least in a straight line, you'd reach the 'promised' land in six days (depending on your pace and breaks).

For some general comparison, it'd be like putting on the tennis shoes and hiking from North Alabama to Nashville.  

Using the basic idea of 40 km a day (25 miles) as your objective, then this Moses hike consumed 146,000 km.  

Just walking from north Alaska to the southern tip of Argentina?  Well.....that's about 8,500 miles (give or take).

So these folks would have hiked on with Moses at least four times the round-trip from Alaska to Argentina.

People just accepting that?  No....even in these days....after about a hundred days....someone in the group would have asked where the map was and if there was some clear understanding about the end-point.

So the story has to be a bit manufactured...suggesting that maybe Moses lacked a map, and that forty years might have been just stated for dramatic effect.  Maybe the five to ten days of hiking felt like forty years....at least in the minds of some folks.