Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadJames Hastings Dictionary of the Bible: Sea
Subjects in this Topic:
SEA in Scripture generally means the Mediterranean, when the context introduces no distinction by which the particular sea is defined, e.g. in Num_33:8, Jos_24:6 f. etc. ‘The Great Sea’ is the Mediterranean (Num_34:6, Eze_47:10 etc.). ‘The Sea of the Arabah’ is the Dead Sea (2Ki_14:25 etc.). The ‘Sea of Chinnereth’ is the Sea of Galilee (Num_34:11 etc.). The ‘Sea of the Philistines’ is the Mediterranean off the Philistine coast (Exo_23:31). Yâm Sûph, ‘Sea of Weeds’ (Exo_10:19 etc.), is identical with ‘the Red Sea’ of Heb_11:29, Jdt_5:12 etc., and is always so translated. The Nile, as in modern Arabic (el Bahr), is called ‘the sea’ (Isa_18:2 etc.), so also the Euphrates (Isa_21:1, Jer_51:36). ‘The sea’ of Jazer is a scribal error (Jer_48:32; cf. Isa_16:8). yâm, ‘sea,’ Is the usual word for ‘West’; the Mediterranean forming the W. boundary of Palestine (Gen_12:6 etc.). The phrase ‘from sea to sea’ (Amo_8:12 etc.) probably signified the ends of the earth. The Influence of the Babylonian myth of the conflict of the gods with the primeval sea may be traced in certain Scripture representations of the sea (Job_7:12 etc. See art. ‘Cosmogony’ in Hastings’ DB [Note: Dictionary of the Bible.] ). Tĕhôm (EV [Note: English Version.] ‘deep’) of Gen_1:2 etc. resembles the Bab. [Note: Babylonian.] Tiâmat. By the dismemberment of this monster the ordered world is produced (Gen_1:6). The turbulent and dangerous character of the sea is often referred to in Scripture (Psa_46:2; Psa_89:9, Isa_17:12, Jer_49:23 etc.). From the sea came up the monsters of Daniel’s vision (Dan_7:2 ff.); so also in the Apocalypse (Rev_13:1). If in the literature of the Hebrews there is manifest a certain horror of, and shrinking from, the sea, which seem strange to a seafaring people, we must remember that, as a nation, Israel never knew the sea; nor need we wonder if, viewed from their mountain heights, stretching vast and mysterious into the far horizons, it seemed to them the very home of storms and vague terrors. So when the Jewish seer depicts the future home of the blessed there is ‘no more sea’ (Rev_21:1). Cf. Dualism, 1, Rahab, 2.
W. Ewing.