Water, Water Everywhere

Last week I posted an Easter essay, but I did not post a blog for the two weeks before that. That was because we were on a Caribbean cruise and had no internet service. Much of the time, the view out any window or from any railing looked like the photo above. I did not find these views to be comforting; rather, I found them to be a bit disconcerting. I knew there was land nearby and I trusted the captain and crew to get us safely to the next port. None-the-less, I didn’t particularly like the view.

I was struck by the reference in Genesis 7:18-19, “And the waters prevailed, and were increased greatly upon the earth; and the ark went upon the face of the waters. And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth; and all the high hills, that were under the whole heaven, were covered.”

We believe that Genesis was initially written by Moses, based upon his revelations. However, we do not know what exactly he saw that would have precipitated these particular verses. It is possible that these two verses were not in the original Hebrew story, but were added during the Babylonian captivity. In the Epic of Gilgamesh, Tablet XI, Utnapishtim states, “For six days and six nights the winds blew, torrent and tempest and flood overwhelmed the world...The surface of the sea stretched as flat as a roof-top; I opened a hatch and the light fell on my face. Then I bowed low, I sat down and I wept, the tears streamed down my face, for on every side was the waste of water.”

Throughout much of history, even seasoned mariners did not venture out of sight of land. There are only a couple of shipwrecks that have been discovered in the open Mediterranean, away from sight of land, and maybe those resulted from ships being driven into the open sea by gales. The description of Paul’s voyage, recorded in Acts 27:13-44 states that “…when neither sun nor stars in many days appeared, and no small tempest lay on us, all hope that we should be saved was then taken away.” Paul and his companions were ultimately shipwrecked into some land that “they knew not.”

One can only imagine the anxiety of a family more than 2000 years earlier, looking out of their ark and seeing nothing but water. Even the highest mountains were not visible. I experienced those same thoughts as I gazed out onto the “endless” waters of the Caribbean.

Trent Dee Stephens, PhD

trentdeestephens.com

stephenstrent7@gmail.com