A fact from Dear Lord and Father of Mankind appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 15 August 2006. The text of the entry was as follows:
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A question arises: Since the Sea of Galilee never was in Syria, did the author misinterpret a Hebrew word - or was it just poetic license? Many would see a link between the New Testament miracle of the calming of the stormy sea (Luke 8.24) and Psalm 107.29 which says "He calms the storm, so that its waves are still."
The Hebrew word used here for a storm is סערה (transliterated in spoken Hebrew as s'arah) however the consonantal letters would resemble SYRH. Maybe others would like to comment?
copied from edit made to article page by EAnnP to talk page by me: —User:MDCollins (talk) 23:05, 1 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]
If you take a look at Sea of Galilee, the "modern history" section suggests that certainly after the British/French occupations in the 1920s, the lake was divided down the middle, but all parties had fishing rights on it (including Syria). While that is after Whittier's death, there is a big gap in history preceding that invasion missing in that article. In any case, whether Galilee (Lake Tiberias) belongs to Syria or not, it does border it, as [map] indicates (although the Golan Heights are under Israel occupation at the moment), so perhaps Whittier (and others) regarded it as a "Syrian" sea. My knowledge of the region isn't enough to help any more than that I'm afraid, but there is probably enough background there to suggest that the poetic license (if any) is small and that the historical context probably justifies its use in the hymn. There is also enough New Testament background regarding Syria as being an important area in during the time of Jesus. Whether the Sea is Syrian now or not is a rather moot point, because it would be rather pointless changing texts every time the political situation changes.—User:MDCollins (talk) 11:14, 3 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]