NCHS AP English Language

Ship's Biblical relevance

In Moby Dick, the Pequod encounters many ships trying to find the whale, including the Samuel Enderby, Albatross, Town-ho, Rose Bud, Bachelor, Delight, Rachel, Jeroboam, and Virgin/Jungfrau. Since the novel has patterns of Biblical references throughout the course of the plot, some of these ships can be identified with the Bible, such as the Jeroboam and the Rachel, the 2 most prominent biblical ships.

In 1 Kings 11, Jeroboam rebelled against King Solomon, who tried to kill Jeroboam because a prophet told Jeroboam he would take the dynasty out of Solomon’s hands. On board the ship Jeroboam, a crazed crewmember claiming to be the angel Gabriel warns everyone that Moby Dick is really a god reincarnated. These two stories parallel each other because in both a prophet warns not to pursue their wishes, Jeroboam wanting to gain Solomon’s kingdom and Ahab commanding to kill Moby Dick.

In Genesis 26, Rachel, the younger daughter of Laban, and Jacob wanted to marry, and when they finally did, Rachel could not produce any children for Jacob to carry on his name. She was willing to let her husband sleep with their servant in order for his genealogy to be passed down. In the Rachel from Nantucket in the novel, the captain of the ship is searching for his lost son, and claims that Ahab owes him a favor, to help him in his search. Both Rachel’s in the stories want to find a child that is lost or nonexistent, but the Rachel in Moby Dick finds a means of getting another “child,” or Ishmael when the Pequod is attacked by the Whale.

Written by: Caroline Ward and Amy Coates

posted by Caroline Ward @ 2:07 PM