The Seven Seas and Four Rivers that Surround Eretz Yisrael (Bava Batra 74b), and Its Comparative Context
"The Seven Seas" is a figurative term for all the seas of the known world. The phrase is used in reference to sailors and pirates in the arts and popular culture and can be associated with the Mediterranean Sea, the Arabian Seven Seas east of Africa and India [...]
The terminology of a "seven seas" with varying definitions was part of the vernacular of several peoples (as in the prior mentioned seas of Arabic literature), long before the oceans of the world became known (to those peoples). The term can now also be taken to refer to these seven oceanic bodies of water [...]
The term in modern usage originated from Greece, where the seven seas were considered as:
The Adriatic Sea
The Aegean Sea
The Black Sea
The Caspian Sea
The Mediterranean Sea
The Persian Gulf (then considered a sea)
The Red Sea
The meaning of septem maria1 in Ancient Rome is different from the phrase "seven seas" in the modern era. The navigable network in the mouths of the Po river discharges into salt marshes on the Adriatic shore and was colloquially called the "Seven Seas" in ancient Roman times [...]
The Persians used the term "the Seven Seas" to refer to the streams forming the Oxus River [...]
The Babylonian Talmud mentions seven seas and four rivers that surround the land of Israel [...]
According to this and other passages, the Talmudic Seven Seas include:
Sea of Tiberias (Lake Tiberias or The Sea of Galilee)
Sea of Sodom (The Dead Sea)
Sea of Helath (The Red Sea)
Sea of Hiltha (Birkat Ram)
Sea of Sibkay (Lake Hula)
Sea of Aspamia (A lake said to be north of Apamia on the Asi River, possibly the formerly flooded Al-Ghab Plain)
The Great Sea (The Mediterranean Sea)
The Seven Seas and Four Rivers that Surround Eretz Yisrael (Bava Batra 74b)
Bava_Batra.74b.12 (added numbering):
כי אתא רב דימי אמר רבי יוחנן, מאי דכתיב: ״כי הוא על ימים יסדה, ועל נהרות יכוננה״?
אלו שבעה ימים, וארבעה נהרות, שמקיפין את ארץ ישראל.
ואלו הן שבעה ימים:
ימה של טבריא,
וימה של סדום,
וימה של חילת,
וימה של חילתא,
וימה של סיבכי,
וים אספמיא,
וים הגדול.
ואלו הן ארבעה נהרות:
ירדן,
וירמוך,
וקירומיון,
ופיגה.
When Rav Dimi came from Eretz Yisrael to Babylonia, he said that Rabbi Yoḥanan said: What is the meaning of that which is written: “For He has founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the floods” (Psalms 24:2)?
These are the seven seas and four rivers that surround Eretz Yisrael.
And these are the seven seas:
The Sea of Tiberias,
the Sea of Sodom, i.e., the Dead Sea,
the Sea of Ḥeilat,
the Sea of Ḥeilata,
the Sea of Sivkhi,
the Sea of Aspamya,
and the Great Sea, i.e., the Mediterranean.
And these are the four rivers:
The Jordan,
the Jarmuth,
and the Keiromyon,
and the Piga, which are the rivers of Damascus.
This translates to “seven seas” in Latin, the Latin word mare means “sea”