Chapter 5 - SEA AND DESERT: SYMBOLIC GEOGRAPHY IN WEST SEMITIC RELIGIOUS THOUGHT

Summary

In recent discussion of the biblical expression yam sûp it has been proposed that instead of the usual rationalizing exegetical tradition, which seeks to locate the sea-crossing in Exodus 14–15 within the real geographical area between Egypt and Palestine, we should read an original yam sôp or yam sûp in Exodus 15.4, and understand the water traversed to be ‘the sea of extinction’. This has two obvious advantages over the conventional view: it solves the problem of the relationship between yam sûp as somewhere along the course of the Suez Canal or one of the lakes or lagoons of the region, and the same usage in Hebrew to denote either the Gulf of Suez (as perhaps in Exodus 10.19) or the Gulf of Aqaba (as in 1 Kings 9.26), or even the assimilation of the two to the Red Sea itself, as was presumably understood by the time of LXX (Erythra Thalassa, see now Chapter 12). It also opens up the exegetical possibilities raised by the idea that Egypt is a symbolic ‘Land of Death’ in biblical thought. This may not be the idea behind, but is certainly enhanced by, the usage in Genesis in particular, where the common terminology of movement to and from Egypt is the verbs yārad and (ālâ. Particularly striking are the following associations of verses, where a reference to Joseph's descent into Egypt is followed by Jacob's response: Genesis 37.25 and 35, Benjamin's descent, with Jacob's response: 44.23, 26 and 31, and the latter two together in 42.38.