📖 Biblical Definition
The Red Sea is the body of water through which God divided a path for fleeing Israel and drowned Pharaoh's pursuing army (Ex 14). Hebrew Yam Suph (Sea of Reeds) likely refers to a specific portion of waters near the eastern Egyptian frontier. The crossing is one of the great salvation-events of the Old Testament; Paul reads it typologically as baptism (1 Cor 10:1-2); Hebrews lists it in the faith-hall (Heb 11:29).
📜 Webster 1828 Definition
Hebrew Yam Suph; the sea through which Israel crossed at the Exodus; type of baptism.
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Exodus 14 records the crossing: walls of water on right and left, Egyptian army drowned, Israel saved. Exodus 15 (the Song of Moses) celebrates: I will sing unto the LORD, for he hath triumphed gloriously: the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea.
Typological reading: 1 Corinthians 10:2 says Israel were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea. The crossing prefigures the saint's baptism into Christ — passage from bondage to freedom through water.
📖 Key Scripture
Exodus 14:21 — "And the LORD caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea dry land."
Exodus 14:30 — "Thus the LORD saved Israel that day out of the hand of the Egyptians."
1 Corinthians 10:2 — "And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea."
Hebrews 11:29 — "By faith they passed through the Red sea as by dry land."
⚠️ Modern Corruption
Modern Christianity often treats the Red Sea as a Sunday-school story; the New Testament reads it as covenantal-typological foundation.
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Paul's typological reading (1 Cor 10:1-13) makes the Red Sea, the manna, the rock, and the wilderness Israel's journey types of the Christian life. The household reads its own pilgrimage with that template.
The crossing's sheer drama — nation against army, water walls and dry path, Pharaoh drowned — is meant to be remembered. The household's annual reading of Exodus 14 keeps the salvation-memory vivid.
🔗 Greek & Hebrew Roots
Hebrew Yam Suph; sea of reeds.
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Hebrew yam — sea.
Hebrew suph — reeds; possibly related to soph (end / boundary).
Usage
"Type of baptism: passage from bondage to freedom through water."
"One of the great salvation-events of the Old Testament."
"The horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea."