RED
688
REDUCTIONS
MOBEL, Augustin Reding, Furstabt von Binsiedeln, als Gelehrter
u. Schulmann (Einsiedeln, 1861); Huhteb, Nomenclator, IV
(Innsbruck, 1910), 332-5.
Michael Ott.
Red Sea (Heb. Ydm-SHph; Sept. v ipuSpa eaXaaaa; Greek writings of the Old and New Testaments ^ ipvSpi, 0d\a(r<ni\ Vulg. Marc rubruni). — The name of Red (or Er>-thxa'an) Sea was used by classical his- torians and geographers to designate the waters of the Indian Ocean and the Persian Gulf. In modern geography, it is applied to the north-west arm of the Indian Ocean, some 1400 miles long and King between Arabia on the east and Africa on the west. Under- stood in this latter sense, the Red Sea stretches from the Strait of Bab-el-Mandeb. in lat. 12° 40' N., to the modern head of the Gulf of Suez, lat. 30° S^. Its greatest width is 205 miles, and its greatest depth about 1200 fathoms. At Ras ]Mohammed, in lat. 27° 4.5' N., the Red Sea is di\-ided by the Peninsula of Sinai into two gulfs: that of Suez (anciently HeroopoUticus sinus) on the west, now about 130 miles in length with an average width of about 18, and that of Akabah (anciently Mlaniiicus sinus) on the east, narrower and only about ninety miles long. The Red Sea receives no river of importance, and is noted for its heat. Formerly its commerce was great, and it has much increased since the open- ing of the Suez Canal in 1S69.
The derivation of the Hebrew name Ydm-SAph is uncertain. The meaning of SUph is probably "reeds", and the title Ydm-Siiph (.Sea of Reeds) appears to have been given originally to the upper end of the Ciulf of Suez, which was probably shallow and marshy, and abounding in reeds. More uncertain still is the derivation of the Gneco-Roman name, Erythreean (or Red) Sea. It has been variously explained by the red corals it contains; by the colour of the Edomite and .Arabian Mountains, bordering its coasts; by the glow of the sky reflected in its waters; by the word edom (red), which the Greeks may have rendered literally; by the name of King Erythras, who reigned in the adjacent country.
The Scriptural references to the Red Sea are directly connected with its northern gulfs. Those which concern the Gulf of Akabah, on the north-west, are comparatively few and unimportant. In Ex., xxiLi, 31, that gulf is simply given as the southern limit of the Holy Land; in III Kings, ix, 26; II Par., viii, 17, it is spoken of in connexion with Solomon's maritime commerce, and in III Kings, xxii, 48, in reference to Josaphat 's unsuccessful attempt in the same direction; finally, in Jer., xlix, 21, it is mentioned in a prediction of the utter ruin of Edom. The Scriptural references to the Gulf of Suez, on the north-east, are on the contrary both numerous and important, for it is the miraculous passage of that arm of the Red Sea which is de- scribed in Ex., xiv, celebrated in Moses' Canticle (Ex., x\'), and repeatedly referred to in other parts of Holy Writ, despite the recent theories framed to disprove the traditional identification of the Gulf of Suez with the Red Sea crossed by Israel, at the time of the Exodus. Brugsch and others have in- deed argued that the water which was dried up to let Israel pass was the northern end of the .Sirbonian Bog, on the shore of the Mediterranean Sea, between Egypt and the south-west extremity of Chanaan, but this theory is untenable because contrarj' not only to the statements of the Bibhcal namatives but also to the recent discoveries which have settled the position of Gessen, whence the Israelites set out for Palestine. Again, Beke and others have advanced the view that the eastern arm of the Red Sea, i. e. the Gulf of Akabah, and not the Gulf of Suez, is that which the Hebrews crossed. But this view also is inconsistent with the most natural interpretation of the Biblical data concerning the E.xodus. The traditional iden-
tification of the Gulf of Suez with the Red Sea crossed
by Israel should therefore not be given up.
It remains true, however, that the scholars who most readily admit this identification are still divided with regard to the actual place of crossing. Their disagreement is chiefly due to the difficulty of as- certaining the exact extent of this western arm of the Red Sea at the time of the Exodus. On the supposi- tion that at that time the Gulf of Suez exiended northward through the large Bitter Lake to the Timsah Lake, many writers maintain that the cross- ing was effected at a point between these two lakes then joined only by a shallow connexion. To es- tablish this position, they put forth various argu- ments (historical, geograpliical, geological) which, when closely examined, are found not to substantiate it. In fact, everj- attempt at proving that the Gulf of Suez e.xtended in Moses' time as far as the Timsah Lake, or even as far as the great Bitter Lake, seems to be irreconcilable with the fact that Egj-ptian in- scriptions of the Twelfth Djnasty speak of this latter body of water as an undrinkable "lake", so that, several centuries before the Exodus, the great Bitter Lake itself was no part of the Arabian "Gulf". Apparently, then, those scholars are in the right who think that in the time of Moses the northern limit of the Gulf of Suez did not vary much, if at all, from what it is at the present day, and who maintain that Israel crossed "the sea" at some point in the ^•icinity of the present Suez. This point is, indeed, at a considerable distance from the place where Moses was bidden to change his eastern march and to "turn and encamp" (Ex., xiv, 2); but this verj- dis- tance is required to give time to convey to Pharao the intelligence that the Israelites had fled, and to enable his army to overtake them at a spot whence, humanly speaking, they could not escape (Ex., xiv, 5 sqq.).
The passage of the Red Sea was ever, and indeed rightly, considered by the Hebrews as a most impor- tant event in their national history, and also as one of the most wonderful miracles of the Almighty in behalf of His Chosen People. Endeavours to explain away the miraculous character of the event have signally failed, for none of the documents, regarded by criti- cism as embodied in Holy Writ and as describing this historical fact, treats it as the mere result of natural forces. In I Cor., x, 2, the passage of the Red Sea is referred to as a fitting tvpe of Christian baptism.
Robinson-, Biblical Researches in Pakslint. Ml. Sinai and Arabia Pelma (Boston. 1S41) ; Brcgsch, L'exode el les monuments egypliens (Leipzig, 1875) : Beke, Discoveries of Sinai in Arabia and of Midian (London. 1S7S): DE Saint^Mabtin, Diet, de giog. nnir. (Paris. 1S75-79), V. 245: Bartlett. Prom Egypt to Palestine (New York, 1879); Eeclus. L'Asie anterieure (Paris, 1884): Natille. The Store-City of Pithom and the Route of the Biodus (London, ISSS) ; ViGotrBOUX, La Bible et les d^courertes modemes (Paris, 1896); Les^tre, Le passage de la mer Rouge in Rerue d'apologetiqiu pratique (Paris, 1907); McNeile, The Book of the Exodus (New York, 1908); Toftteen, The Historic Exodus (Chicago, 1909).
Francis E. Gigot.
Reductions of Paraguay. — The Jesuit Reduc- tions of Paraguay, one of the most singular and beau- tiful creations of Catholic missionary acti%-ity, have contributed more than any other factor to fix the name of Paraguay in historj-. They have been the object alike of' the most sincere admiration and the bitterest criticism. An exact account, based on the best sources, should be their best justification.
I. Preliminary Notions. — The founding and the plan of the Reductions cannot be understood and cor- rectly judged except in the light of colonial and political conditions as they prevailed in the Spanish La Plata territory at the time of the arrival of the Jesuits. The country discovered in 1515 by Juan Diaz de Solis had gradually by slow stages been con- quered in sanguinary, and in the beginning, disas- trous battles with the warlike, liberty-loving tribes. Until 1590 the Spaniards bad founded ten cities and
