CARMEN MARIS ALGOSI: AN EXEGETICAL STUDY OF EXODUS 15:1-18 by Robert V. McCabe, Jr. Submitted in partial fulfillment of requirements for the degree of Master of Theology in Grace Theological Seminary May 1981Carmen Maris Algosi: An Exegetical Study of Exodus 15:1-18 Robert V. McCabe, Jr.Th. M.February 20, 1980Professors Fowler and ZemekThe literature of the ancient Near East has given the invitation for a conservative interpreter to do an exegetical, study of Exodus 15:1-18. The purpose of this thesis was to use the historical grammatical hermeneutic to examine the interpretative problems in this pericope of Hebrew poetry. The problems focused upon the interpreter's hermeneutical approach, the interpretation of key terms, the examination of some of the textual problems, and an analysis of the important syntactical elements in the Song of the Reed Sea.The usage of form criticism and tradition history as an hermeneutical approach was examined in reference to the critical interpretative considerations. It was demonstrated that the title "Song of Miriam" was affected by a traditio-historical hermeneutic. It was observed that the usage of the form-critical and traditio-historical approach in answering the question about unity way not built upon objective proof but rather it was built of evolutionary presuppositions. Mosaic authorship was defended n light of the themes shared both in this song and the other books of the Pentateuch. A conservative date in the fifteenth century B.C. was confirmed by a number of philological arguments. The genre of this song has also been affected by form criticism. Five of the most prominent explanations of the Gattungen were examined and it was concluded that Exodus 15:1-18 may have had a number of literary types and hence it is an enigma for form critical purposes. It was also demonstrated that the traditio-historical interpretation of the setting has divorced Exodus 15:1-18 from its historical setting. The salient point of the strophic structure is the refrains in verses 6, 11, and 16. In light of the confusion in the various metrical studies, it was concluded that this was an invalid method of study.Chapter IV dealt with the exegesis of this song. This involved an examination of problem terms. In many cases the cognate Semitic languages had to be consulted. It was discovered that Moses made use of parallel pairs. The abundance of them apparently implies that the poet had at his disposal a literary tradition from which he could draw these fixed pairs. In the process of inspiration, the Spirit of God guided Moses so that he used this literary tradition to help in composing the Song of the Rees Sea. The textual problems were considered in light of the assumption that the Masoretic Text was terminus a quo in textual criticism. The syntactical aspects of this passage were examined. Ugaritic was of great benefit for this aspect of research. Its importance was most profound for the examination of an example of three-line staircase parallelism in verse 11. In light of this study, it would be appropriate to conclude that the Song of the Reed Sea is a classic example of archaic Hebrew poetry.Accepted by the Faculty of Grace Theological Seminary in partial fulfillment of requirements for the degree Master of TheologyExamining Committee Donald Fowler George ZemekTABLE OF CONTENTSPageCHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1A Statement of Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1The Importance of This Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5The Method of This Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6The Limitations of This Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11CHAPTER II. PRELIMINARY INTERPRETATIVE CONSIDERATIONS 12Title . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12Song of Miriam . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12Song of Moses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13Song of the Reed Sea . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14Unity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15Authorship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21Date . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26Late Date . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26Earlier Date . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28Conservative Date . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Philological Arguments for a Conservative Date . . . . . . . . 29CHAPTER III. CRITICAL INTERPRETATIVE CONSIDERATIONS . . 40Genre . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40The Gattungen Is a Hymn . . . . . . . …