Lakes are gatherings but only the greatest water is seas
Basil is continuing his literal exposition of the third day when God gathers the waters.
Even wells are man-made gatherings of waters. Moisture sown through the earth flows together into its hollowed place. So the title of gathering does not mean chance heaps of water. It means the outstanding and greatest gathering, in which the whole element appears together.
Fire is broken into small pieces for our use here, yet it pours together in full in the upper air. Air also divides into small portions, yet together it embraces the whole region around the earth. So it is with water. There are some small and divided formations, yet there is one gathering that separates the whole element from the rest.
The lakes are clearly gatherings of waters, both those in the northern regions and those around the Greek land, occupying Macedonia and Bithynia and Palestine. But my present subject is the greatest of them all, which rivals the earth itself in size. No one will deny that those lakes hold an abundance of water, yet no reasonable account would call them seas. This holds even if some have salt and an earthy quality like the great sea, such as the Asphaltitis lake in Judea and Serbonis between Egypt and Palestine, stretching alongside the Arabian desert. These are lakes, but the sea is one, as those who have traveled around the earth report. Even if some think the Caspian Sea lies enclosed by itself, if we must attend to the maps of those who have investigated, its parts break through to one another and all open together into the greatest sea. In the same way they say the Red Sea joins with the sea beyond Gadeira. At this point someone asks, “How then did God call the systems of the waters seas?” The waters did run together into one gathering. But the systems of the waters, that is, the gulfs cut off in their own shape by the surrounding land, these the Lord called seas. There is a northern sea and a southern sea, an eastern sea and another western one. The open seas also have their own names: the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara, the Dardanelles, the Aegean and the Ionian, the Sea of Sardinia and the Sea of Sicily, and another Tyrrhenian. There are countless names of the open seas, and to list them precisely now would be long and full of lack of taste.
For this reason God called the systems of the waters seas. The sequence of my argument has brought me to this point, but let me return to the beginning. And God said, “Let the waters be brought together into one gathering, and let the dry land appear” (Genesis 1:9). He did not say, “Let the earth appear.” He refused to display it again as unformed, since it lay as mud and mixed with water, and had not yet received its own form and power. At the same time the Creator made the dryness of the earth older than the birth of the sun, so that we would not assign to the sun the cause of drying the earth.
Fix your mind on what is written. Not only did the excess water flow off the earth. Whatever water had mixed with it through its depth also withdrew in obedience. It yielded to the compelling command of the Master.
Greek
Καὶ γὰρ τὰ φρέατα συναγωγαὶ ὑδάτων εἰσὶ χειροποίητοι, ἐπὶ τὸ κοιλανθὲν τῆς γῆς τῆς ἐνεσπαρμένης νοτίδος ἐπιρρεούσης. Οὐ τοίνυν τὰ τυχόντα τῶν ὑδάτων ἀθροίσματα ἡ τῆς συναγωγῆς ἐμφαίνει προσηγορία, ἀλλὰ τὴν ἐξέχουσαν καὶ μεγίστην, ἐν ᾗ πᾶν τὸ στοιχεῖον ἀθρόον διαδείκνυται. Ὥσπερ γὰρ τὸ πῦρ καὶ εἰς μικρὰ κατακεκερματισμένον ἐστὶν ἐπὶ τῆς ὧδε χρείας, καὶ ἀθρόον ἐπὶ τοῦ αἰθέρος κέχυται· καὶ ὁ ἀὴρ διῄρηται μὲν καὶ κατὰ μικρὰ, καὶ ἀθρόως δὲ τὸν περίγειον ἐκπεριείληφε τόπον· οὕτω καὶ ἐπὶ τοῦ ὕδατος, εἰ καὶ μικραί τινές εἰσι διῃρημέναι συστάσεις, ἀλλὰ μία γέ ἐστι συναγωγὴ ἡ τὸ ὅλον στοιχεῖον τῶν λοιπῶν ἀποκρίνουσα. Αἱ μὲν γὰρ λίμναι, αἵ τε κατὰ τὰ μέρη τῆς ἄρκτου, καὶ ὅσαι περὶ τὸν Ἑλληνικόν εἰσι τόπον, τήν τε Μακεδονίαν, καὶ τὴν Βιθυνῶν χώραν, καὶ τὴν Παλαιστινῶν κατέχουσαι, συναγωγαί εἰσι δηλονότι· ἀλλὰ νῦν περὶ τῆς μεγίστης ἁπασῶν καὶ τῷ μεγέθει τῆς γῆς παρισουμένης ὁ λόγος. Ἃς πλῆθος μὲν ἔχειν ὕδατος οὐδεὶς ἀντερεῖ· οὐ μὴν θαλάσσας γε ἄν τις αὐτὰς κατὰ τὸν εἰκότα λόγον προσείποι· οὐδ' ἂν ὅτι μάλιστα τὸ ἁλμυρὸν καὶ γεῶδές τινες παραπλήσιον ἔχωσι τῇ μεγάλῃ θαλάσσῃ, ὡς ἥ τε Ἀσφαλτῖτις λίμνη ἐπὶ τῆς Ἰουδαίας καὶ ἡ Σερβωνῖτις ἡ μεταξὺ Αἰγύπτου καὶ Παλαιστίνης τὴν Ἀραβικὴν ἔρημον παρατείνουσα. Λίμναι γάρ εἰσιν αὗται, θάλασσα δὲ μία, ὡς οἱ τὴν γῆν περιοδεύσαντες ἱστοροῦσιν. Εἰ καὶ τὴν Ὑρκανίαν οἴονταί τινες, καὶ τὴν Κασπίαν περιγεγράφθαι καθ' ἑαυτάς· ἀλλ' εἴ γέ τι χρὴ ταῖς τῶν ἱστορησάντων προσέχειν γεωγραφίαις, συντέτρηνται πρὸς ἀλλήλας, καὶ πρὸς τὴν μεγίστην θάλασσαν ἅπασαι συνανεστόμωνται. Ὡς καὶ τὴν ἐρυθρὰν θάλασσάν φασι πρὸς τὴν ἐπέκεινα Γαδείρων συνάπτεσθαι. Πῶς οὖν, φησὶν, ὁ Θεὸς τὰ συστήματα τῶν ὑδάτων ἐκάλεσε θαλάσσας; Ὅτι συνέδραμε μὲν εἰς συναγωγὴν μίαν τὰ ὕδατα· τὰ δὲ συστήματα τῶν ὑδάτων, τουτέστι, τοὺς κόλπους τοὺς κατ' ἴδιον σχῆμα ὑπὸ τῆς περικειμένης γῆς ἀποληφθέντας, θαλάσσας ὁ Κύριος προσηγόρευσε. Θάλασσα βόρειος, θάλασσα νότιος, ἑῴα θάλασσα, καὶ ἑσπερία πάλιν ἑτέρα. Καὶ ὀνόματα τῶν πελαγῶν ἰδιάζοντα· πόντος Εὔξεινος, καὶ Προποντὶς, Ἑλλήσποντος, Αἰγαῖος, καὶ Ἰώνιος, Σαρδονικὸν πέλαγος καὶ Σικελικὸν, καὶ Τυρρηνικὸν ἕτερον. Καὶ μυρία γε ὀνόματα πελαγῶν, ἃ μακρὸν ἂν εἴη νῦν καὶ ἀπειροκαλίας μεστὸν δι' ἀκριβείας ἀπαριθμήσασθαι. Διὰ τοῦτο ὠνόμασεν ὁ Θεὸς τὰ συστήματα τῶν ὑδάτων θαλάσσας. Ἀλλ' εἰς τοῦτο μὲν ἡμᾶς ἐξήνεγκεν ἡ ἀκολουθία τοῦ λόγου, ἡμεῖς δὲ πρὸς τὸ ἐξ ἀρχῆς ἐπανέλθωμεν. 4.5 Καὶ εἶπεν ὁ Θεὸς, συναχθήτω τὰ ὕδατα εἰς συναγωγὴν μίαν, καὶ ὀφθήτω ἡ ξηρά. Οὐκ εἶπε, καὶ ὀφθήτω ἡ γῆ, ἵνα μὴ πάλιν αὐτὴν ἀκατάσκευον ἐπιδείξῃ, πηλώδη οὖσαν, καὶ ἀναμεμιγμένην τῷ ὕδατι, οὔπω τὴν οἰκείαν ἀπολαβοῦσαν μορφὴν οὐδὲ δύναμιν. Ὁμοῦ δὲ, ἵνα μὴ τῷ ἡλίῳ τὴν τοῦ ἀναξηραίνειν τὴν γῆν αἰτίαν προσθῶμεν, πρεσβυτέραν τῆς τοῦ ἡλίου γενέσεως τὴν ξηρότητα τῆς γῆς ὁ δημιουργὸς παρεσκεύασεν. Ἐπίστησον δὲ τῇ ἐννοίᾳ τῶν γεγραμμένων, ὅτι οὐ μόνον τὸ πλεονάζον ὕδωρ ἀπερρύη τῆς γῆς, ἀλλὰ καὶ ὅσον ἀνεμέμικτο αὐτῇ διὰ βάθους, καὶ τοῦτο ὑπεξῆλθε τῷ ἀπαραιτήτῳ προστάγματι τοῦ Δεσπότου πεισθέν.