Friday, April 3, 2020

Jan Assmann on the Question of Whether the Sea of Reeds (yam sûf) is the Red Sea




. . . it is far from clear what the “Sea of Reeds” (yam sûf) actually refers to: is it an inland body of water bordering on the Mediterranean—here Lake Serbonis seems the most likely candidate—or the Red Sea The account given in chapter 14 offers two versions of what happened, one better suited to the Red Sea, the other to Lake Serbonis. According to the first version, the sea is “divided” and the waters tower on either side of the passing Israelites like a wall (“and the waters were a wall unto them on their right hand, and on their left” [Ex 14:22]—one of the legendary special effects in Cecil B. DeMille’s film, The Ten Commandments). This scene brings to mind the Red Sea, which is deep enough and is also affected by strong tides, making it at least conceivable that the Israelites could ford across at low tide and the Egyptians be caught out as the tide turned. According to the second version, a strong wind blows from the east throughout the night to dry out the sea, which then floods back over the Egyptians:

And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and YHWH caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea dry land (Ex 14:21)

This far more realistic variant could have been seat at Lake Serbonis, a flat and treacherous body of water near the Mediterranean coast that in ancient times is said to have swallowed up entire armies (Thus, according to Diodorus, Ataxerxes III lost part of his army at Lake Serbonis during his second campaign in 343 BCE [Diodorus, Bibliotheca historica 16.46.5]. According to the same source, a similar fate befell Antigonos Monophthalmos in 305 BCE [Diodorus 20.73-4). Textual criticism ascribes the more realistic version to a pre-Priestly source, whereas the more miraculous version involving the parting o the sea belongs to the Priestly Source. (Jan Assmann, The Invention of Religion: Faith and covenant in the Book of Exodus [Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2018], 147-48)

Further Reading

M.H. Woudstra on "Red Sea" as a Correct Translation of yām sûp

The Red Sea and the Book of Mormon

Jeff Lindsay, Feeling Blue about the Red Sea in the Book of Mormon? (Mormanity Blog)