The Sea Gave Up Its Dead
Out at the unit, when we were in our study of the book of Revelation, we paused to ponder a curiosity in Revelation 20.13:
Then the sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them; each one was judged according to their works.
We felt we understood what it means that "death and Hades" give up the dead, but what does it mean when it says "the sea gave up the dead"?
Are the dead in the sea?
In answering the question, I pointed to the next chapter to make an observation about the new heavens and the new earth:
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.
The sea doesn't exist in the new creation.
Two answers present themselves. First, in the ancient imagination, the sea represented a primordial and destructive chaos. You see a hint of that cosmology in the open lines of Genesis, where the waters of the deep are described as tohu wa-bohu, translated as "waste and void." In the various acts of creation God brings order and structure to this formless chaos. And yet, that destructive power persists. For example, in the flood narrative God allows the destructive powers of chaos to break free, effectively rebooting the world and starting over.
Given this, the declaration in Revelation that "there is no sea" means that, in the New Creation, the destructive power of chaos has been finally and permanently eradicated.
Concerning the sea as a location of the dead, ancient peoples speculated those lost at sea resided in its depths. Those dying at sea didn't go underground, to Hades, like those who died on land. This is the old mariner's tale that those who die at sea go down to Davy Jones's locker. In short, both land (Hades) and the sea were realms of the dead.
Consequently, both land and sea give up their dead in the general resurrection.
Having been brought up in a fishing community where all too many men were lost at sea, this phrase has no puzzlement whatsoever. The answer is yes, many dead husbands, fathers and brothers are in the sea. Hades, or the world of the dead, may be metaphysical, but the sea is cold, hard fact.
That said, there is a power in the verse that speaks strongly of resurrection. Relatives may go to the graveside to mourn, but they cannot do so on the seabed. Graves opening is imaginable, but the resurrection reaches to the unreachable places.
That said, I do agree with what you say about the imagery of the sea representing chaos. I don't see "the sea was no more" as literal. And I once knew a Fishermen's Missioner who, when conducting a fishermen's funeral, would omit "the sea was no more" from the reading - wisely, IMO. Despite its dangers, these were men whose lives revolved around the sea. No sea to them would be like saying no land to a farmer.
(And in a less serious vein, I once read a comment by an atheist that the Bible says heaven has no sun, no sea and no sex, which didn't sound like heaven to him!)
Thanks! Helpful.