What does the biblical parting of the Red Sea mean?

Norse Societies also have a flood myth but, those guys are so depressed I think they make **** up.

Okay. Thank you for your views. Do you have any ideas about the Virgin birth?

The virgin birth is I think just a way of showing how special an individual was, that he had the favor of the gods. That his very existence was due to divine actions. There are several virgin birth myths across different cultures.

As TomTomBinks said, virgin births and men conceived by gods were not stories unique to Christianity. Check out Bart D. Ehrman's book —
How Jesus Became God

Aphids have virgin births all the time.

Not so much "THE" virgin birth, but virgin birth, (parthenogenesis) among the several species.

Personally, I think referring to non-human life forms as a "virgins" skirts pretty close to anthropomorphism and prefer to use the term "asexual reproduction". I find phrases like "virgin forest" less objectionable, probably because it doesn't connote birth.

Aphids have sex too. They start off pregnant giving birth to other pregnant females then towards the end of the cycle they give birth to a few males to take advantage of the evolutionary benefits of sexual reproduction.

Sorry if I caused any offence.

Wasn't offended at all, izzy — just stating my personal preference. I completely understand what you mean when you use the term; it's commonly used that way.

Oh good.

Spiritual materialism or reification--turning the abstract or a subjective feeling into an objective, concrete reality.

"Hermetic teachings [myth as metaphor] were intended to lead the student to gnosis as an experiential state of the vast unity of humanity and the cosmos, rather than as a literal set of instructions, creeds, or practices [Mosaic].

How do you tie that in with a dualistic Mosaic interpretation, especially since, by your quote, you seem to be drawing a distiction? Biblical dualism is more Christian than Mosaic, which generally refers to Judaism. The term "Mosaic religion" was used as a synonym for Judaism. Hermeticism is a horse of a different color, as it were.

As far as the Red Sea story is concerned, given that the OT was written in Hebrew (without vowels, hence open to ambiguity), any speculation regarding 'philosophical subtext' based on a modern interpretation of layers of translation is equivalent to seeing pictures in cloud formations......There are rooms full of religious Jews who spend there lives 'studying' such cloud formations at close(r) quarters !

Every so often, I have an overwhelming need to weep for humanity.

One possible interpretation of the "slave" term would be "undocumented foreigner", subject to abuse, hard working conditions, etc. Not necessarily chattel slavery.

most public projects in all egypt seemed to be well run and in the hands of technically saavy groups of specialized work gangs. These were the "high iron" workers of the Bronze Age. So yeh, the word "slave" was probably added in Post schism Catholicism to make the story a little more entertaining

Maybe I'm using the wrong term when I say mosaic. But what I'm trying to get across is that the spirit of religious myths has been reified, interpreted as a concrete reality to the point that they have come absurdly in conflict with science. The spirit of religion which emanates from the psyche as the perfume of nature is instead projected as a concrete reality and thrust upon us as a virtue from above.

I was thinking of the Mosaic tradition as a system of rules, laws, and dogma based on the assumption of a reified myth where it is assumed that spiritual myth is describing something material and external to the human mind. This would be in direct contrast to the hermetic tradition.

fresco nailed it. Nothing more need be said. Next case!!

It really seems the ancient Jews were fine with their god being a dick on occasion.

Instead of preventing their enslavement he will decide to help them by parting a sea to help them escape?

Could it be possible that something natural happened instead? Nothing to do with a god but they had no explanation so they assumed god like theistic fashion?

Or the whole thing was made up. Because nothing in Egyptian history records having Jews as slaves. No where and they loved to keep records of everything.