Peter Kirk wrote:
The Red Sea may not have reeds growing in it (contrary to Patterson's
TWOT article, they do not grow in sea water, but then Hebrew professors
should not be relied on as authorities on botany), but, as I have seen,
it does have mangroves growing in it - currently only a few, but they
may have been more common millennia ago. This would distinguish the Red
Sea and its branches from the mangrove-less Mediterranean. So if suph is
a more generic term for aquatic plants, this would be a good label to
distinguish the seas.
As I wrote in my original posting, Israeli geographer Menashe Harel claims
that reeds do not grow by bodies of salt water (I understand him to mean the
specific bodies of salt water adjoining Egypt and Syro-Palestine, though he
may have intended something more general) ...
..., but they do grow by brackish
water, such as were the Bitter Lakes before the Suez Canal.
Harel is considered one of Israel's foremost geographical authorities, and I
imagine he wouldn't be wrong on this one.
Therefore one must cnsider the possibility that "yam suph" can refer to two
different bodies of water in the Bible, that of Ex. 14, and that of 1 Kings.
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