What is the Great Deep?

It is interesting that Great Lakes theorists want to define words their own way in order to support their view points. Take the idea of the Great Deep. How would you define that term?

    On a Great Lakes Theorist website, the following statement is provided: “The Book of Mormon refers to the Pacific (or Atlantic) Ocean as the “Great Deep” “Great Water” “Irreantum” “Many Waters” and “Deep."
    Actually, the Book of Mormon does not refer to the Pacific or Atlantic oceans by name, nor by geographical reference. We can assume that is correct and most likely is, but we cannot arbitrarily say outright since the Earth was divided in Peleg’s time, but we do not know in what shape it was divided for the Old Testament and Book of Ether does not tell us that.
    But let us precede as though the Earth in the days of the Jaredites and later Nephites were more-or-less configured as it is today.

The World's Oceans are all tied together and is really one very large area of water and all of the Great Deep is tied together

   The point is, the website article is trying to tie the world’s oceans into the one, singular meaning “the Great Deep,” “Great Waters,” “Many Waters,” “Raging Deep,” “the Deep,” “Waters of the Great Deep,” and “Irreantum.” However, they do not include “Ripliancum,” which by interpretation means waters that are large, or to exceed all” (Ether 15:8).
    We know that Irreantum, which means “many waters,” would be the Sea of Arabia where Lehi stopped at the place he called Bountiful since his journey from Jerusalem is well described. And  “many waters” fits the Sea of Arabia, which flows into the Indian Ocean which flows into the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans and into the Southern Ocean.
    So why are we discounting Ripliancum, which means “large or to exceed all” when the Jaredites had already spent 344 days crossing the Great Deep?
    Since the Great Lakes theorists has to discount any water within or around the Land of Promise, which is what this article on the website is meant to do, by isolating all the oceans far away from where the Land of Promise was located, Ripliancum is discarded and turned into a secondary water area--Lake Ontario in the Great Lakes model.
    Yet, in all of this, they have to ignore Jacob’s comment about being on an island in the midst of the sea over which they sailed from Oman/Arabia to the Western Hemisphere or the Americas. “The Lord has made the sea our path and we are upon an isle of the sea” (2 Nephi 10:20).
    So let’s take a look at their argument and their article outlining it: 
    Theorist: “And when my brethren saw that I was about to build a ship they began to murmur against me saying: Our brother is a fool for he thinketh that he can build a ship; yea, and he also thinketh that he can cross these great waters” ( 1 Nephi 17:17). 

Tehom (Hebrew  תְּהוֹם‎‎) literally the Deep or Abyss (Greek Septuagint:abyssos) refers to the Great Deep of the primordial waters of creation in the Bible. Tehom is a cognate of the Akkadian word tantu and Ugaritic t-h-m which have similar meanings

     Response: First, at the time we are dealing with and the people we are following, these oceans were not separate and did not have different names. It was all “the sea.” When he first saw it, Lehi named this sea “Irreantum,” meaning many waters. And to he and his family and party, the sea was huge. Secondly, looking out from the Bountiful shore along the southern coast of Arabia, they would have seen the Sea of Arabia, which is 1.491 million square miles in size. That his brothers called it “Great Waters” is understandable, standing on the shore, or looking out from a hill or even mountain, you see nothing but water. 

    Theorist: “And they journeyed in the wilderness and were brought by the hand of the Lord across the great waters into the land where Mosiah discovered them; and they had dwelt there from that time forth” (Omni 1:16). 
Response: First, we have to keep in mind that the Hebrews and Jews had no word for “ocean.” Their word was “sea,” which was yam (yawm) and literally meant “sea,” and interpreted as “sea” 278 times and “seas” 27 times in the Bible, but also was used for seacoast (5), and seashore (9). It could also mean “west” (translated 59 times), “west side” (4), “western” (1) and “westward” (12), as well as “south” (1); secondly, in this case, the Mulekites were led across the same Great Waters or deep ocean. Consequently, the word “yam” meant a body of water, and the term Great or Deep, referred to its size. That is, to get from one continent (Asia) to another (Americas), Nephi’s ship had to sail across the deep ocean—the Great Deep, the Raging Deep, the Great Waters. 
    Theorist: “Behold O Lord, wilt thou suffer that we shall cross this great water in darkness?” (Ether 2:22); “And thus the Lord caused stones to shine in darkness, to give light unto men, women, and children, that they might not cross the great waters in darkness” (Ether 6:3). 
    Response: The same can be understood from the Jaredite responses, i.e., the barges they built had to cross the great ocean. So we can interpret Great Waters as Ocean in our English vocabulary. 
    Theorist: “And it came to pass that I looked and beheld many waters; and they divided the Gentiles from the seed of my brethren…separated from the seed of my brethren by the many waters… he went forth upon the many waters, even unto the seed of my brethren, who were in the promised land…beheld the many waters” (1 Nephi 13:10-13). The theorist quotes one more mention of “many waters” separating the nations of the Gentiles (1 Nephi 13:29), again referring to the deep oceans of the world and those separating the Western Hemisphere (Atlantic). 

Response: First, we see that the great oceans are being referred to here, and now we see that the Hebrews referred to both the Pacific and Atlantic as “Great Waters,” and “Many Waters.” Second, we see that the waters being mentioned and called the Great Deep, Many Waters, Great Waters, etc., border the promised land as “he went forth upon the many waters, even unto the seed of my brethren, who were in the promised land). 
    Theorist: “O Lord, look upon me in pity and turn away thine anger from this thy people, and suffer not that they shall go forth across the raging deep in darkness; but behold these things which I have molten out of the rock (Ether 3:3); and when they were buried in the deep there was no water that could hurt them” (Ether 6:7); he remembered what the Lord had done in bringing Jared and his brother across the deep and he did walk in the ways of the Lord and he begat sons and daughters.(Ether 10:2) 
     Response: From this we learn that the Raging Deep, Great Deep, the Deep are all the same waters. 
    Theorist: “My God hath…led me through mine afflictions in the wilderness; and he hath preserved me upon the waters of the great deep” (2 Nephi 4:20). And behold, I prepare you against these things; for ye cannot cross the great deep save I prepare you against the waves of the sea, and the winds which have gone forth, and the floods which shall come. Therefore what will ye that I should prepare for you that ye may have light when ye are swallowed up in the depths of the sea?” (Ether 2:25). 
    Response: “First, we learn that the Great Deep and the Deep are the same area of seas or oceans; and second, we find that the depths of the Sea and the Great Deep are the same. 
    Theorist: “And there were no more wars in the days of Shule; and he remembered the great things that the Lord had done for his fathers in bringing them across the great deep and into the promised land…” (Ether 7:27).
    Response: From this we learn that the Great Deep bordered on the Land of Promise, for they went from the sea (crossing the great deep) into the land, that is the promised land. 
    Theorist: “While they were buried in the deep…they were encompassed about by many waters (Ether 6:7) 
    Response: Thus we see that the term “Great Deep” and “Many Waters” also have the same meaning. 
    Theorist: “And we did come to the land which we called Bountiful, because of its much fruit and also wild honey; and all these things were prepared of the Lord that we might not perish. And we beheld the sea, which we called Irreantum, which being interpreted, is many waters” (1 Nephi 17:5). 

Response: Thus we see that the words or terms Sea (that stretches out from the shore at Bountiful), Many Waters, and Irreantum, all mean the same thing.
    So using the exact scriptures that the Theorist presents to prove his point, we can see that all these waters mentioned are the same waters, whether the Deep, Great Deep, Raging Deep, Great Waters, Many Waters, and even Irreantum all mean the same thing. 
    Theorist: [his conclusion} At no point in time however are these terms used to describe the waters that border Book of Mormon lands. 
    Response: Which is not true at all. Using his very own words and how he used them, we find that the Great Deep bordered on the Land of Promise, for they went from the sea (crossing the great deep) into the land, that is the promised land; and “…we see that the waters being mentioned and called the Great Deep, Many Waters, Great Waters, etc., border the promised land as “he went forth upon the many waters, even unto the seed of my brethren, who were in the promised land.” Here we have a specific instance of the scriptural record showing that the Great Deep bordered the Land of Promise. In addition, using Jacob’s words, we find that the Land of Promise is an island in the sea over which they sailes (2 Nephi 10:20).