Chaos Waters

Once I learned that water represented elemental chaos for near eastern peoples, so many texts opened up for me. This one simple cultural fact can enlighten so much of the Bible. It helps us understand the flood, the splitting of the Reed Sea, Jesus' walking on water, the war between God and the seas and rivers in verses like Habakkuk 3:8, and the drying up of the seas at the end of times in Revelation 21:1. And over, and over again, the text of the Bible is opened up by knowing this one simple cultural fact: water was for the ancient peoples of the middle east symbolic of elemental chaos. Get it in your head, repeat it, absorb it. It may seem abstract, but it really changes the way you look at not just the Bible, but everything.