Do you know the precise origin of the following textually related quotations?
- The Bible is like a stream of running water in which a lamb may walk and an elephant may swim.
- The Bible is like a body of water in which a child may wade and an elephant may swim.
Photo © Olivier Blaise
I’ve heard this quoted in many sermons (sometimes with “drown” swapped for “swim”), and I’ve seen it quoted in many books (sometimes in commentaries on John’s Gospel). It vividly illustrates that some parts of the Bible are simple and straightforward and that others require the highest level of historical and theological integration. Most people, however, quote this without attributing a source (e.g., “it has been said that”). Others attribute it (almost always without documentation) to Augustine, Gregory the Great, or John Owen.
After looking into this a bit (with the help of my friend Mark Snoeberger), I think that the original source of this quotation is from Gregory the Great’s commentary on Job (Moral. inscr. 4 [CCL 143:6]):
Scripture is like a river again, broad and deep, shallow enough here for the lamb to go wading, but deep enough there for the elephant to swim.
That translates the Latin original, included here with more context (note the bold words):
Habet in publico unde parvulos nutriat, servat in secreto unde mentes sublimium in admiratione suspendat. Quasi quidam quippe est fluvius ut ita dixerim planus et altus in quo et agnus ambulet, et elephas natet.
Cf. John Moorhead (Gregory the Great [Routledge, 2005], pp. 21, 161n41):
In a famous image, Gregory explains that the Bible is like a river in which a lamb can walk and an elephant swim.
Gp ad Leand. 4. This memorable image gains in force because Gregory again uses sounds, in this case a sequence of vowels, to emphasise the point: agnus ambulet et elephas natet. This expression occurs in a letter to a distant friend, rather than in a work originally delivered orally, suggesting that Gregory expected even his written words to be apprehended aurally.
Maybe… Tarzan the Great?
Oh wait. He’s later.
The same question was asked on the Puritan Board with the same conclusion. See also Google Books and Archive (p. 5 bottom of the footnote).
They said Tarzan too? Cool!
What I want to know is if all elephants swim or if that one has been trained to do so?
What a picture!
Jim
I have read someone who attributed the saying to Chrysostom’s comment on John’s Gospel. However, your research agrees with that of Craig Koester. I will need to correct my reference when I use the imagery. Thanks.
Jim,
I’m not an elephantologist, of course, but it doesn’t seem abnormal for elephants to swim. There’s some really cool footage of it in one of the Planet Earth DVDs. Cf. my two posts on that:
1. Planet Earth: A Theological Documentary
2. Piper on “Planet Earth”
Joseph Hall used a similar phrase in the 17th century, but as a rebuke for the unlearned lay-people to stay close to shore & leave the deep waters for the elephants like himself.
The video you posted is now blocked by BBC. :(
The question you pose, however, is delightful.
As has already been pointed out, Gregory the Great is the one with whom the quote in that language originates, though it is frequently (though wrongly) attributed to Augustine.
The closest quote to this in Augustine is as follows…
Augustine (354-430) commenting on v. 4 of Psalm 8: Out of the mouths of infants and suckling children you have perfected praise, in the sense that those who want to gain knowledge of your magnificence should begin from belief in the scriptures. Your magnificence is raised above the scriptures because it surpasses and stretches beyond the proclamations of all words and tongues. Therefore God has brought the scriptures right down within the range of infants and nurslings, as it is sung in another psalm: He bowed the heavens and came down (Ps 17:10 (18:9)). This he did on account of his enemies who, being enemies of the cross of Christ through their pride and talkativeness, cannot be of any use to infants and nurslings, even when they say some things that are true. This is how the enemy-cum-defender is toppled. Whether it is wisdom of the very name of Christ which he gives the impression of upholding, nonetheless it is from the step of this very faith that he mounts his attack on that truth which he is so ready to promise. It is crystal-clear that he does not have the truth, for by attacking its first step, which is faith, he proves he has not the faintest idea how to climb up to itBy this means, therefore, that rash and blind person who promises truth but who is also its enemy-cum-defender is toppled. This happens when the heavens are seen as the works of God’s fingers, that is, when the scriptures, brought right down to the slowness of babies’ comprehension, are understood. They raise these infants up to the very things of which they tell with such conviction; but the infants are now well nurtured and strengthened to scale the heights and understand things eternal, through the humility of faith rooted in a history which has been worked out within time. Those heavens, that is, those books, are indeed the works of God’s fingers, for it was by the operation of the Holy Spirit in the saints that they were written. Those who sought their own glory rather than the salvation of humankind spoke without the Holy Spirit, in whom are the depths of the mercy of God. John E. Rotelle, O.S.A., ed., The Works of Saint Augustine, Part 3, Vol. 15, trans. Maria Boulding, O.S.B., Expositions of the Psalms, Psalms 1-32, Psalm 8.8 (Hyde Park: New City Press, 2000), p. 133.