The Polar Ice Caps and the frozen realm
Posted on September 29, 2024 by Patrick Shabi with an estimated reading time of 9 minutes
Last updated on September 29, 2024
“From the chamber of the south comes the whirlwind, and cold from the scattering winds of the north. By the breath of God ice is given, and the broad waters are frozen.” (Job 37:9)
In the late 19th century, the era of exploration and the allure of discovering new lands began to diminish as the world became “smaller.” By this time, most of the Earth had been explored due to prioritization based on resources and perceived competitive advantage that a place could give. The only places that remained unexplored were extreme frontiers, such as the North or South Pole. Like with so many things, scientific progression prevented humanity from exploring these unknown areas. As time progressed into the 20th century, technological advancements began to allow humans to explore these new frontiers by creating vehicles that could withstand the harsh and hazardous environment, and gear that would allow us to survive in these extreme conditions.
A portrait of Robert Peary (1856-1920) taken in Cape Sheridan, Canada in 1909.
Today, a debate has emerged regarding this new age of exploration into these more hostile environments: who was the first person to reach the North Pole? Unlike Antarctica, a landmass capable of preserving human relics and exploration, the North Pole and its surrounding regions are a vast expanse of ice with extreme conditions, rarely making it to freezing (32 degrees Fahrenheit), even in the summer months. These extreme conditions make travel to the North Pole by ocean difficult, since oftentimes extreme and rapidly changing conditions would get vessels stuck in ice, causing the men on board to die of exposure (freezing to death) or starvation. As a result, travel to the North Pole by land, via Greenland, became the preferred method. Many historians believe Robert Peary was the first person to make it to the North Pole, with his explorations beginning in 1886. Through a series of eight expeditions, he is recorded as finally reaching the North Pole on his last expedition in 1909.
There are also historical records of other people who may have seen the polar ice caps before Robert Peary in 1909. However, none of those people reached the North Pole as Robert Peary did. Further, we can see from the historical record that all of this exploration took place in the 1800s. There is no record that anyone saw the polar ice caps before this date due to the challenges of travel and surviving there, as discussed earlier.
How then does the Bible make mention of the polar ice caps millennia before the first recorded siting?
Althought there’s much debate on the subject, many sources consider the book of Job as the oldest book in the Bible, with most sources dating this book to before the 6th century B.C. The author of Job 37 writes, “From the chamber of the south comes the whirlwind, and cold from the scattering winds of the north. By the breath of God ice is given, and the broad waters are frozen (Job 37:9-10).” Later in Job 38, God is recorded answering Job by saying, “From whose womb comes the ice? And the frost of heaven, who gives it birth? The waters harden lie stone, and the surface of the deep is frozen (Job 38:29-30).”
Picture of the polar ice caps in its natural landscape. Taken in 2018.
According to Dr. Henry Morris (founder of ICR), the book of Job interestingly “refers to cold, snow, ice, and frost more than in any other book of the Bible” despite Job living in the land of Uz, located in modern-day Syria (although the climate was different in Syria at the time of Job, Syria is still nowhere close to the polar ice caps). We should take note of the words used in this passage, such as in Job 37:10. The words for “broad waters” clearly describes massive bodies of ice when looking at its context and the meaning of the original Hebrew words. Then in Job 38:30, God’s response to Job is recorded and He states the surface of the deep as being frozen. The word “deep” in this verse comes from the Hebrew word “tehom”, which refers to not only the deeps, but also to an abyss, and great quantities of water. These passages together clearly show us that it isn’t surface water being described in these passages (as some scholars try to argue due to the implications of the alternative). In actuality, thick quantities of ice, miles deep, are being described in these passages, just like the polar ice caps - the only places on Earth that match this description.
As we’ve seen with so many other discoveries, Robert Peary (or whoever else may have been the first to discovered or make it to the North Pole) only “re-discovered” the polar ice caps. The knowledge of the polar ice caps, and what lies at the poles, was actually inspired by God to be put into the Bible over 1,500 years before they were re-discovered in modern times.