What does the biblical parting of the Red Sea mean?

@izzythepush,

izzythepush wrote:

Like hell you didn't know I was British.

Ha, i honestly didn't. And if we had an exchange at one time when that was relevant, it didn't come to mind during our most recent exchanges...so what's going on?

i mean, why would i lie?

1 Reply

@Razzleg,

Why does anyone lie?

1 Reply

@izzythepush,

ffs

Has anything i've written, either directed at you or even, simply, to your knowledge, targeted British people? Or any nationality, nation, etc? Either directly or by innuendo?

i'm a misanthrope, not an elitist...

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@Razzleg,

Who are you trying to convince, me or you?

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@izzythepush,

Well, y0u, i think? Right? You think i'm exhibiting prejudice, yes? How so? i can't pretend that i don't have my blind spots. How have i offended you as a British person, or as a member of any group, re: that group?

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@Razzleg,

I think you're better off trying to convince yourself.

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@fresco,

fresco wrote:

I doubt whether the composers of the OT had any philosophical or poetic prowess. Like most early theistic narrative I suggest this is nothing more than a picturesque expression of 'trust in the omnipotent being and all will be resolved''.

So you think that the composers/writers of "Job", of "Psalms", "Proverbs" or of "Ecclesiastes" lacked "philosophical or poetical prowess"? Your judgement, in this instance, is gross. These books, whatever you may think of them, have haunted the Western imagination for centuries; they are not negligible works. You can disagree with what you perceive to be the "meaning" of this sort of text, but if you dismiss the import of these writings you fail to recognize the gravitas of the "religious" experiences they express, and the universality of the existential needs they presuppose.

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@izzythepush,

So you think that my posts are xenophobic? In what way? or are you just drawing this out to antagonize me? Trust me, you won't exhaust my desire to argue. i'm trying to be cool right now, but I'm perfectly comfortable seeking ways to become increasingly and annoyingly argumentative (without being xenophobic, just petty).

BTW...what do you think of Genesis? Big fan of Moses, yes - no? The creation storv ("stories", really), Abraham and Isaac? Any thoughts about the OP?

2 Replies

@Razzleg,

I thought Genesis were better before Peter Gabriel left.

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@farmerman,

Quote:

didnt know of global tectonics in the least, and had no idea about the RED SEA/AFAR Triple point where diveregent AND convergent plates meet.

I can hear the incredulous wailing, as the story-teller invents tectonics to explain sea shells on the mountain. The assembled multitude are aghast at the story until he invents a god to make it happen.

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@ekename,

exactly. Why must facts spoil a good story.

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@Razzleg,

With repect to my use of the term OT , I was specifically refering to the pentateuch, perticularly Exodus , in which the Red Sea incident appea, since this was the thread target. But perhaps 'prowess' was the wrong choice of word given the multiple authorship ...intent' would have been better. Your argument about extension of 'OT' to non focal texts is spurious. The bee stays in your bonnnet methinks !

1 Reply

@Razzleg,

Coincidently, I am just watching a BBC programme on the writing/translation of the King James Bible by committee ! ...apparently a political project driven by a King obsessed with the intricacies of language, especially poetic metaphor, with final copy subject to testing by its impact when read aloud !

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@izzythepush,

Well, yeah, obviously,

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@fresco,

fresco wrote:

With repect to my use of the term OT , I was specifically refering to the pentateuch, perticularly Exodus , in which the Red Sea incident appea, since this was the thread target. But perhaps 'prowess' was the wrong choice of word given the multiple authorship ...intent' would have been better. Your argument about extension of 'OT' to non focal texts is spurious. The bee stays in your bonnnet methinks !

is Φ meaning or import directly related to intent?

PS: good job on watching a television program? i guess. --- what about it?

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@fresco,

fresco wrote:

Coincidently, I am just watching a BBC programme on the writing/translation of the King James Bible by committee ! ...apparently a political project driven by a King obsessed with the intricacies of language, especially poetic metaphor, with final copy subject to testing by its impact when read aloud !

The KJB is indeed a charming and melodious translation of the Vulgate (the canonic Latin translation of the Bible). They made a few errors here or there, eg the invention of Lucifer.*

Reading poems or literature out loud is a very good way to test their melody. Flaubert was doing it all the time.

* The original Hebrew (Isaiah 14 11-13) was comparing Babylon to the "bearer of light" ie the Morning Star, planet Venus, which shines high in the sky during some periods but will disappear from the sky later on, implying that the mighty Babylonian empire would be destroyed one day. The vulgate correctly translated that to the "bearer of light" ie "lucifer", a word which does also refer to the Morning Star in classic Latin poetry. The KJB translators misunderstood this as a name for Satan.

1 Reply

@Olivier5,

Good points !
Like the adage 'history is written by the victors', we might argue that 'meaning furnishes the needs of the reader'
.(Derrida rides again ?)

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@fresco,

I havent done much Derrida and just said that 2 days ago on another topic...
You for instance are a perfect example of a biased reader incapable of digest anything distinct from your own world view.

Let me ask you a question Fresco can you give a true definition of mind, language, free will, and subjectivity? I am just asking because you are so assertive on your own belief system that one wonders how come you posit transient knowledge paradigms...

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@fresco,

You're the living proof of that. Whatever anyone writes, you always read the same "Derrida for dummies".

Far more interesting in my view is the complex relation between the beauty of a text, its multiple meanings, and their impact on readers, and the daunting difficulty in translating that complex bundle of beauty and meanings into another language. Translations of the Bible texts offer some great examples of that, to the point where translation of the bible was at some points in time seen as sacrilegious by both the Catholics and the Jews. Similarly, the Quran is seen as fundamentally untranslatable by Muslims.

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@Olivier5,

EDITED
Initially adversial twaddle. Try reading my Derrida comment again.I'll give you a bit of help this time.

....Derrida rides again ?....

Your later comments about translation are generalizations of little interest to me without a metatheory about the translation process. The question raised here is whether Derrida made any progress in that direction. I have no opinion either way.

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What does the biblical parting of the Red Sea mean?

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