Biblical Hebrew Forum

[JimStinehart AT aol.com]

James Christian:
 
Do you have any support from the secular history of the ancient world that  
the expression "sea the salt" referred exclusvely to the Dead Sea, and  
could not refer either to the oceans generally, or to any other salt sea, in  
particular the Mediterranean Sea?  Ugaritic literature suggests a notion of  
a god of the salt sea, meaning the oceans in general, which would  reference 
in particular the Mediterranean Sea.  From your knowledge of  the Greeks, I 
am quite sure that the Greeks often referenced the Mediterranean  Sea as 
being a salt sea.  Although that of course is from a much later time  period, 
the concept is the same.  If you have any ancient secular  historical 
support for your key contention that "sea the salt" could not  possibly refer 
to 
the oceans or the Mediterranean Sea, that would greatly  strengthen your 
case.  But if you have no such support, and I myself have  found nothing 
along 
those lines in the secular history of the ancient  world, then I reiterate 
that the Bible refers to people who sail the  Mediterranean Sea as "salts".  
That supports my view that a reference to  "sea the salt" could well be a 
reference to the Mediterranean Sea.  The  valley of siddim was near the sea 
the 
salt.  The valley of siddim was not  destroyed and replaced by a sea the 
salt.  YHWH in chapter 19 of Genesis  promises Lot that Zoar will not be 
destroyed, suggesting that any divine  destruction was localized, and did not 
include Zoar.  Other than your  peculiar reading of the word HW) at Genesis 
14: 
3, nothing in the Bible suggests  that the valley of tilled fields was 
destroyed and replaced by the Dead  Sea.  Rather, under a normal reading of 
the 
word HW), the valley of tilled  fields was near the salt sea.  The valley of 
tilled fields is still there  as we speak, and did not become the Dead Sea.
 
Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois