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Psalm 106 describes God drying the Red Sea with a shout. Pseudo-Philo incorporates this detail into the crossing narrative, where Moses strikes the sea with his staff and God rebukes it.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Psalms 106:9
Hebrew Bible
7 Our ancestors in Egypt failed to appreciate your miraculous deeds. They failed to remember your many acts of loyal love, and they rebelled at the sea, by the Red Sea. 8 Yet he delivered them for the sake of his reputation that he might reveal his power. 9 He shouted at the Red Sea and it dried up; he led them through the deep water as if it were a desert. 10 He delivered them from the power of the one who hated them and rescued them from the power of the enemy. 11 The water covered their enemies; not even one of them survived. 12 They believed his promises; they sang praises to him.
Pseudo Philo Biblical Antiquities 10:5
Classical
5 God said, “Because you have cried out to me, take your rod and strike the sea, and it will be dried up.” When Moses did all this, God rebuked the sea, and the sea was dried up; the waters stood still and the depths of the earth appeared, and the foundations of the world were laid bare at the sound of the fear of God and at the breath of the anger of the Lord. 6 Israel crossed over on dry land in the middle of the sea. The Egyptians saw and went on pursuing them, and God hardened their minds, and they did not realize that they were entering the sea. So while the Egyptians were in the sea, God commanded the sea once again and said to Moses, “Strike the sea once more.” And he did so. The Lord commanded the sea, and it returned to its waves and covered the Egyptians and their chariots and their horsemen, to this day.
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Notes and References
“... Pseudo-Philo often draws upon parallel accounts in order to enrich the retelling of the biblical narrative. When the daughter of Jephthah faces death because of her father’s vow, she alludes to Isaac’s willingness to be sacrificed (LAB 40.2). Similarly, Samuel’s avowal of innocence alludes to Moses’ response to the accusations of Korah (LAB 57.2; 1 Sam. 12.3; Num. 16.5). Pseudo-Philo’s story of Abram’s experience in the fiery furnace is in part inspired by the experience of the three friends in Daniel 3. Pseudo-Philo’s retelling of the crossing of the Red Sea is enriched with allusions to Pss. 18.15 and 106.9, while his description of dissension and division among the tribes (LAB 10.3) has been influenced in part by Judg. 5.15-16. The description of the events at Sinai is also influenced by allusions to other parts of Scripture. The account of the life of Kenaz in LAB 25–28, Pseudo-Philo’s lengthiest departure from the biblical narrative, is heavily influenced by Scripture. Bauckham cites some two dozen biblical passages that are instrumental in shaping the story. ...”
Evans, Craig A.
"Luke and the Rewritten Bible: Aspects of Lukan Hagiography" in Charlesworth, James H., and Craig A. Evans (eds.) The Pseudepigrapha and Early Biblical Interpretation
(p. 188) JSOT Press, 1993
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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