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Document Details :

Title: The Protest Motif in the Sea Narrative (Ex 14,11-12)
Subtitle: Form and Structures of a Pentateuchal Pattern
Author(s): VERVENNE, M.
Journal: Ephemerides Theologicae Lovanienses
Volume: 63    Issue: 4   Date: December 1987   
Pages: 257-272
DOI: 10.2143/ETL.63.4.556342

Abstract :
With the exception of the Sinai pericope, the narratives of the Israelites' wilderness wandering are interconnected by several motifs, and especially by the protest motif. The people are opposed to Moses (and Aaron), and implicitly to Yahweh, in the desperate situations of their thirst and hunger. They protest against the dangerous journey to the 'Promised Land' and question the authority of Moses. In Deut 1,20-46 as well as in Deut 9,7-10,11; Ps 78; 106; Neh 9, these crises are called to mind. The Sea Narrative also contains a protest motif which is found in the vv. 11-12. There the Israelites strongly protest the exodus from Egypt. That Ex 14,11-12 should be understood as a protest motif can hardly be doubted. This article will primarily consider whether or not the form of this protest, in the context of the Sea Narrative, shows similarities with the protest motif in the so-called Wilderness traditions.

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