Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Tory Thorpe <torythrp AT yahoo.com>]

--- On Tue, 12/2/08, joel AT exc.com <joel AT exc.com> wrote:

> JimStinehart AT aol.com
> Date: Tuesday, December 2, 2008, 9:00 AM
> >1. Does the reference to ?salt sea? (yod-mem he-mem-lamed-heth/YM HMLX, 
> >literally ?salt the sea?) at Genesis 14: 3 refer to the Dead Sea, or to > 
> >>the Mediterranean Sea?
> 
> The Dead Sea. It is a methodological mistake to look at
> the literal meaning of the phrase ("sea of salt") to try to
> figure out which body of water it refers to.  Of course the 
> Mediterranean also has salt, but that fact is irrelevant.

If the presence of salt is irrelevant for the Mediterranean then it must also 
be irrelevant for the Dead Sea.

Tory Thorpe
Modi'in, Israel