RED SEA, PASSAGE OF (red se, 1:4s'saj Ov).
The grand event associated with the Red Sea is the passage of the Israelites and the overthrow of the Egyptians (Exod. xiv :15). This miracu lous event is frequently referred to in the Scrip tures (Num. xxxiii :8; Deut. xi :4 ; Josh. ii :to ; Judg. xi :t6 ; 2 Sam. xxii :16 ; Neh. ix :9-t ; Ps. lxvi :6 ; Is. x :26; Acts vii :36 ; 1 Cor. :I, 2; Heb. xi :29 ,etc.). The place of the crossing has been a matter of much controversy. It should be re marked, as preliminary to this discussion, that the head of the gulf is probably at least 5o miles farther south than it was at the time of the Exodus. If the Red Sea then included the Bitter Lakes of Suez and the Birket et-Timsah ("Lake of the Crocodile"), the crossing may have been farther north than would now appear possible. Thus the predictions of Isaiah xi :is ; xix :5. "The Lord shall utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian Sea," "The waters shall fail from the sea," are fulfilled.
Stanley says that the place of passage has been extended by Arab tradition down the whole Gulf of Suez.
The following are the principal theories re specting the place of crossing of the Red Sea : (1) The modern theory of Schleiden, revived by Brugsch, that the Israelites did not cross the Red Sea, but the Scrbonian bog. This conflicts
with the plain narrative of Scripture, which says they crossed the Red Sea. And it also requires that Rameses be transferred to Zoan, about 4o miles farther north than Brugsch had positively fixed it from the inscriptions, in his earlier works.
(2) The tradition of the peninsular Arabs, which places the crossing south of Jebel Atakah. But the physical features of the country are against this place, for the mountains shut down to the sea, leaving only a footpath impracticable for such a host to pass, and this mountain ex tends for about 12 miles.
(3) AI. de Lesseps puts the passage between the Crocodile Lake and the Bitter Lakes, while M. Ritt finds it along the dike at Chaloof. If the Red Sea extended to these points its depth and breadth then have not been proved sufficient to meet the Scriptural conditions (Schaff, Bib. Dict.). (See EXODUS, TI1E.)