How literal is literal?

[Paraleptopecten (Timothy Campbell)]

@Combine_Advisor

how over 2,000,000 Israelites fled Egypt

@Paraleptopecten

That is based on a particular reading of the translated text. The Hebrew words for “thousand”, “group”, and “chieftan” are written the same (LP) (the last one has different vowels from the earlier two).

If we take the thousands values as numbers of family groups, and the number after that as individual males between 20 and 60, then we get about 600 family groups and 5,500 adult males, and given population demographics of the day, about 20,000 individuals. This also gives a plausible population growth rate of 2.85 surviving children per couple (for 25-year generations).

The sea monster is interpreted in a variety of ways, including a dinosaur, a mythological device borrowed from surrounding cultures to demonstrate that God is in control of everything, or in the case of Rahab, a nickname for Egypt.

@Combine_Advisor

how the Flood swallowed the highest of mountains by several meters

The word in Hebrew is the same as “high hills”. If this was in a flat basin, then those hills could be as little as 10 m tall.