The passage of the Red Sea with the destruction of Pharaoh’s army was one of the great miracles of Jewish history which the people loved to recall. There are three distinct references to this event in the NT. In Acts 7:36 St. Stephen mentions it as manifesting the glory of Moses. In Hebrews 11:29 it is referred to as a striking instance of what faith can do. But the chief reference is in 1 Corinthians 10:1-2, where St. Paul, in warning the Corinthians of the danger of neglecting their Christian benefits, quotes Israel’s escaping from Egypt as an illustration. Of several great benefits bestowed by God on His people Israel one was that they all passed through the Sea; while a second was that they were all baptized in the Sea as followers of Moses. But all their great benefits did not save them when they afterwards became disobedient. St. Paul here conceives the passage through the Red Sea to have been an initiatory rite like baptism (see G. G. Findlay, Expositor’s Greek Testament , ‘1 Corinthians,’ 1900, p. 857).

J. W. Duncan.