The Great Flood
The flood story according to Genesis: (Genesis 6:5 - 10:32)
The flood story according to Genesis: (Genesis 6:5 - 10:32)
"5 Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
6 The LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.
7 The LORD said, "I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, from man to animals to creeping things and to birds of the sky; for I am sorry that I have made them."
8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD.
9 These are the records of the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his time; Noah walked with God.
10 Noah became the father of three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
11 Now the earth was corrupt in the sight of God, and the earth was filled with violence.
12 God looked on the earth, and behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth.
13 Then God said to Noah, "The end of all flesh has come before Me; for the earth is filled with violence because of them; and behold, I am about to destroy them with the earth.
14 "Make for yourself an ark of gopher wood; you shall make the ark with rooms, and shall cover it inside and out with pitch.
15 "This is how you shall make it: the length of the ark three hundred cubits, its breadth fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits.
16 "You shall make a window for the ark, and finish it to a cubit from the top; and set the door of the ark in the side of it; you shall make it with lower, second, and third decks.
17 "Behold, I, even I am bringing the flood of water upon the earth, to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life, from under heaven; everything that is on the earth shall perish.
18 "But I will establish My covenant with you; and you shall enter the ark--you and your sons and your wife, and your sons' wives with you.
19 "And of every living thing of all flesh, you shall bring two of every kind into the ark, to keep them alive with you; they shall be male and female.
20 " Of the birds after their kind, and of the animals after their kind, of every creeping thing of the ground after its kind, two of every kind will come to you to keep them alive.
21 "As for you, take for yourself some of all food which is edible, and gather it to yourself; and it shall be for food for you and for them."
22 Thus Noah did; according to all that God had commanded him, so he did.
Chapter 7
1 Then the LORD said to Noah, "Enter the ark, you and all your household, for you alone I have seen to be righteous before Me in this time.
2 "You shall take with you of every clean animal by sevens, a male and his female; and of the animals that are not clean two, a male and his female;
3 also of the birds of the sky, by sevens, male and female, to keep offspring alive on the face of all the earth.
4 "For after seven more days, I will send rain on the earth forty days and forty nights; and I will blot out from the face of the land every living thing that I have made."
5 Noah did according to all that the LORD had commanded him.
6 Now Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of water came upon the earth.
7 Then Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons' wives with him entered the ark because of the water of the flood.
8 Of clean animals and animals that are not clean and birds and everything that creeps on the ground,
9 there went into the ark to Noah by twos, male and female, as God had commanded Noah.
10 It came about after the seven days, that the water of the flood came upon the earth.
11 In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on the same day all the fountains of the great deep burst open, and the floodgates of the sky were opened.
12 The rain fell upon the earth for forty days and forty nights.
13 On the very same day Noah and Shem and Ham and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah's wife and the three wives of his sons with them, entered the ark,
14 they and every beast after its kind, and all the cattle after their kind, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth after its kind, and every bird after its kind, all sorts of birds.
15 So they went into the ark to Noah, by twos of all flesh in which was the breath of life.
16 Those that entered, male and female of all flesh, entered as God had commanded him; and the LORD closed it behind him.
17 Then the flood came upon the earth for forty days, and the water increased and lifted up the ark, so that it rose above the earth.
18 The water prevailed and increased greatly upon the earth, and the ark floated on the surface of the water.
19 The water prevailed more and more upon the earth, so that all the high mountains everywhere under the heavens were covered.
20 The water prevailed fifteen cubits higher, and the mountains were covered.
21 All flesh that moved on the earth perished, birds and cattle and beasts and every swarming thing that swarms upon the earth, and all mankind;
22 of all that was on the dry land, all in whose nostrils was the breath of the spirit of life, died.
23 Thus He blotted out every living thing that was upon the face of the land, from man to animals to creeping things and to birds of the sky, and they were blotted out from the earth; and only Noah was left, together with those that were with him in the ark.
24 The water prevailed upon the earth one hundred and fifty days.
Chapter 8
1 But God remembered Noah and all the beasts and all the cattle that were with him in the ark; and God caused a wind to pass over the earth, and the water subsided.
2 Also the fountains of the deep and the floodgates of the sky were closed, and the rain from the sky was restrained;
3 and the water receded steadily from the earth, and at the end of one hundred and fifty days the water decreased.
4 In the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the ark rested upon the mountains of Ararat.
5 The water decreased steadily until the tenth month; in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains became visible.
6 Then it came about at the end of forty days, that Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made;
7 and he sent out a raven, and it flew here and there until the water was dried up from the earth.
8 Then he sent out a dove from him, to see if the water was abated from the face of the land;
9 but the dove found no resting place for the sole of her foot, so she returned to him into the ark, for the water was on the surface of all the earth. Then he put out his hand and took her, and brought her into the ark to himself.
10 So he waited yet another seven days; and again he sent out the dove from the ark.
11 The dove came to him toward evening, and behold, in her beak was a freshly picked olive leaf. So Noah knew that the water was abated from the earth.
12 Then he waited yet another seven days, and sent out the dove; but she did not return to him again.
13 Now it came about in the six hundred and first year, in the first month, on the first of the month, the water was dried up from the earth. Then Noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked, and behold, the surface of the ground was dried up.
14 In the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dry.
15 Then God spoke to Noah, saying,
16 "Go out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and your sons' wives with you.
17 "Bring out with you every living thing of all flesh that is with you, birds and animals and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, that they may breed abundantly on the earth, and be fruitful and multiply on the earth."
18 So Noah went out, and his sons and his wife and his sons' wives with him.
19 Every beast, every creeping thing, and every bird, everything that moves on the earth, went out by their families from the ark.
20 Then Noah built an altar to the LORD, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar.
21 The LORD smelled the soothing aroma; and the LORD said to Himself, "I will never again curse the ground on account of man, for the intent of man's heart is evil from his youth; and I will never again destroy every living thing, as I have done.
22
"While the earth remains,
Seedtime and harvest,
And cold and heat,
And summer and winter,
And day and night
Shall not cease."
Chapter 9
1 And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, " Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth.
2 "The fear of you and the terror of you will be on every beast of the earth and on every bird of the sky; with everything that creeps on the ground, and all the fish of the sea, into your hand they are given.
3 "Every moving thing that is alive shall be food for you; I give all to you, as I gave the green plant.
4 "Only you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood.
5 "Surely I will require your lifeblood; from every beast I will require it. And from every man, from every man's brother I will require the life of man.
6
" Whoever sheds man's blood,
By man his blood shall be shed,
For in the image of God
He made man.
7
"As for you, be fruitful and multiply;
Populate the earth abundantly and multiply in it."
8 Then God spoke to Noah and to his sons with him, saying,
9 "Now behold, I Myself do establish My covenant with you, and with your descendants after you;
10 and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the cattle, and every beast of the earth with you; of all that comes out of the ark, even every beast of the earth.
11 "I establish My covenant with you; and all flesh shall never again be cut off by the water of the flood, neither shall there again be a flood to destroy the earth."
12 God said, "This is the sign of the covenant which I am making between Me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all successive generations;
13 I set My bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a sign of a covenant between Me and the earth.
14 "It shall come about, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow will be seen in the cloud,
15 and I will remember My covenant, which is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and never again shall the water become a flood to destroy all flesh.
16 "When the bow is in the cloud, then I will look upon it, to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth."
17 And God said to Noah, "This is the sign of the covenant which I have established between Me and all flesh that is on the earth."
18 Now the sons of Noah who came out of the ark were Shem and Ham and Japheth; and Ham was the father of Canaan.
19 These three were the sons of Noah, and from these the whole earth was populated.
20 Then Noah began farming and planted a vineyard.
21 He drank of the wine and became drunk, and uncovered himself inside his tent.
22 Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside.
23 But Shem and Japheth took a garment and laid it upon both their shoulders and walked backward and covered the nakedness of their father; and their faces were turned away, so that they did not see their father's nakedness.
24 When Noah awoke from his wine, he knew what his youngest son had done to him.
25 So he said,
"Cursed be Canaan;
A servant of servants
He shall be to his brothers."
26 He also said,
"Blessed be the LORD,
The God of Shem;
And let Canaan be his servant.
27
"May God enlarge Japheth,
And let him dwell in the tents of Shem;
And let Canaan be his servant."
28 Noah lived three hundred and fifty years after the flood.
29 So all the days of Noah were nine hundred and fifty years, and he died.
Chapter 10
1 Now these are the records of the generations of Shem, Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah; and sons were born to them after the flood.
2 The sons of Japheth were Gomer and Magog and Madai and Javan and Tubal and Meshech and Tiras.
3 The sons of Gomer were Ashkenaz and Riphath and Togarmah.
4 The sons of Javan were Elishah and Tarshish, Kittim and Dodanim.
5 From these the coastlands of the nations were separated into their lands, every one according to his language, according to their families, into their nations.
6 The sons of Ham were Cush and Mizraim and Put and Canaan.
7 The sons of Cush were Seba and Havilah and Sabtah and Raamah and Sabteca; and the sons of Raamah were Sheba and Dedan.
8 Now Cush became the father of Nimrod; he became a mighty one on the earth.
9 He was a mighty hunter before the LORD; therefore it is said, "Like Nimrod a mighty hunter before the LORD."
10 The beginning of his kingdom was Babel and Erech and Accad and Calneh, in the land of Shinar.
11 From that land he went forth into Assyria, and built Nineveh and Rehoboth-Ir and Calah,
12 and Resen between Nineveh and Calah; that is the great city.
13 Mizraim became the father of Ludim and Anamim and Lehabim and Naphtuhim
14 and Pathrusim and Casluhim (from which came the Philistines) and Caphtorim.
15 Canaan became the father of Sidon, his firstborn, and Heth
16 and the Jebusite and the Amorite and the Girgashite
17 and the Hivite and the Arkite and the Sinite
18 and the Arvadite and the Zemarite and the Hamathite; and afterward the families of the Canaanite were spread abroad.
19 The territory of the Canaanite extended from Sidon as you go toward Gerar, as far as Gaza; as you go toward Sodom and Gomorrah and Admah and Zeboiim, as far as Lasha.
20 These are the sons of Ham, according to their families, according to their languages, by their lands, by their nations.
21 Also to Shem, the father of all the children of Eber, and the older brother of Japheth, children were born.
22 The sons of Shem were Elam and Asshur and Arpachshad and Lud and Aram.
23 The sons of Aram were Uz and Hul and Gether and Mash.
24 Arpachshad became the father of Shelah; and Shelah became the father of Eber.
25 Two sons were born to Eber; the name of the one was Peleg, for in his days the earth was divided; and his brother's name was Joktan.
26 Joktan became the father of Almodad and Sheleph and Hazarmaveth and Jerah
27 and Hadoram and Uzal and Diklah
28 and Obal and Abimael and Sheba
29 and Ophir and Havilah and Jobab; all these were the sons of Joktan.
30 Now their settlement extended from Mesha as you go toward Sephar, the hill country of the east.
31 These are the sons of Shem, according to their families, according to their languages, by their lands, according to their nations.
32 These are the families of the sons of Noah, according to their genealogies, by their nations; and out of these the nations were separated on the earth after the flood."
The Great Flood
The global flood is something that virtually everyone has heard about. Many skeptics wonder, “how could this have happened?'' Many even rule out the existence of God on the very basis that the world does not look how they would think it would after a flood. One thing to keep in mind about the universe is that despite what someone may tell you, the greatest miracle that has ever happened has already occurred. The universe formed and created something out of nothing. Even atheists are beginning to admit that the universe had a beginning. In Genesis 1:1, it tells us “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” If that one statement is true, I think it would be fair to assume that every verse after it is at least possible. There are a few different sets of theories that people have on the flood, some of them are more realistic than others, but God could have done it in any of the following ways:
The Literal Interpretation:
A lot of people take a literal interpretation of the Bible. This means that every event that it says happens, happened perfectly to as the Bible described. This usually leads down a path of a lot of conspiracy theories such as a flat earth. The literal interpretation for the flood is that God flooded the earth by making it rain for 40 days and 40 nights.
Some Bible literalists also study books like the book of Noah, or even the book of Enoch. The book of Noah describes the flood in a much more detailed fashion and states that God opened up the “floodgates,” rather than causing it to rain 40 days and 40 nights. These Floodgates were pockets of underground water that God cause to violently explode out of the ground.
Metaphorical Interpretation:
The metaphorical interpretation varies from Christian to Christian. For example, some claim that it is a metaphor for the meteor that killed the dinosaurs. Now personally that does not make much sense. Most Metaphorical interpretations involve an actual flood. Now some claim that God used evolution to help get all the animals onto the boat, or that it was a local flood and the “world” was just the world that people lived on at this time.
The big issue is that we don't have the evidence we would expect to have from a Global flood. Now, this can be explained in a few ways. One thing to think about is that in Revelation when we are told God created a new heaven and a new earth, he does not have a sea on the new one. Now God is perfect, meaning that the first time he made earth he did so perfectly, with no need to change. Perhaps the earth was made originally with no sea? Geological evidence suggests that instead of 7 continents, earth use to be 1 big supercontinent. What if this supercontinent was Eden? Ezekiel suggests that Eden is on a mountain, and with no sea and 1 big supercontinent. This is exactly how Eden would have looked. This would explain why we don't see the evidence we would expect anywhere on earth because the flood would have pushed Noah's boat to the dry landmass. This also makes sense that this raise in altitude could cause up to 50% less oxygen to be available. This also is because of all the plants that would be destroyed. This is exactly the decrease in oxygen that would have been needed to kill off the dinosaurs. The reason for this is because the dinosaurs were much larger animals, meaning they needed much more oxygen to their brains, etc.
The Supercontinent theory also explains why the continents separated, if a substantial amount of water were to surround the single supercontinent, it's possible it could float, being less dense than the water, and eventually break into pieces and separate.
One thing to keep in mind as you look at these theories is the point of the Bible is not to tell us all these cool stories of things that God did, It is to tell us the story of Jesus, the most important story we will ever hear. I don't think God was as concerned with telling us exactly how it all went down as he was with making sure we understand the teachings of his son, Jesus Christ.
How Did the Freshwater Fish Survive?
A popular question is how did the freshwater fish survive. There are a few possible answers to this question, but the most plausible seems to be simply that at the time the oceans were actually primarily freshwater that then over time changed in what it is today. Now, this claim may sound preposterous, but can we really be certain? A report from the National Ocean Service states, "In the beginning, the primeval seas were probably only slightly salty. But over time, as rain fell to the Earth and ran over the land, breaking up rocks and transporting their minerals to the ocean, the ocean has become saltier..." (LeBoeuf, N., 2021. Why is the ocean salty, but rivers flowing into it are not?. [online] Oceanservice.noaa.gov. Available at <https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/riversnotsalty.html> [Accessed 3 October 2021}. At the very least, the possibility shouldn't be pushed away when the evidence points towards this plausibility. Since we know that fish once swam in fresh, or at the very least close to freshwater, it doesn't sound as insane.
So, how did the ocean become as it is today? Well, there are a few ways. "As rainwater passes through soil and percolates through rocks, it dissolves some of the minerals, a process called weathering... Eventually, this water with its small load of dissolved minerals or salts reaches a stream and flows into lakes and the ocean..." (Personal.utdallas.edu. 2021. Why is the sea salty?. [online] Available at: <https://personal.utdallas.edu/~pujana/oceans/why.html> [Accessed 5 October 2021].
One theory of how the ocean may have gotten salty is that when the Earth only had one continent. For those who aren't aware, many geologists believe the continents were once all together, but after time the continents were separated due to the movement of tectonic plates. For example, Hawaii(not to infer that Hawaii is a continent, this is just a perfect example) is actually moving towards Japan due to plate tectonics! Oxford University reports that "Hawaii is moving towards Japan at the speed of 10cm a year. This is because they are on different tectonic plates" (Oxfordsparks.ox.ac.uk. 2017. Fact of the Day - Hawaii. [online] Available at: <https://www.oxfordsparks.ox.ac.uk/content/fact-day-hawaii> [Accessed 5 October 2021].
Slowly, over time, fish were separated and had to adapt to their environment. As the fish who lived in the sea were introduced to more and more salt, they had to evolve to survive. Those who failed, they died and would act as food for those who thrived.
How Did Noah and His Family Breathe(Genesis 7:20)?
In the Bible, we learn, "...the waters prevail; and the mountains were covered" (Genesis 7:20). So, how did Noah and his family survive? As we all know, the farther one goes up, the less oxygen available there is to breathe. So, how did this occur?
The Literal Interpretation:
Well, as said in the verse, the sea had risen over the mountains as spoken in the verse. So, how would they breathe in this scenario? Well, what if the mountains weren't as high as they are now? This answer perhaps seems false, but the evidence does hold up.
Strangely enough, several mountains, including Mt. Everest(the tallest mountain on Earth), the Alps, etc. are all rising! UCSB Science line claims, "however mountains can change size. Mountains form through a process called orogeny, or the building of continental mountains by squeezing, crumpling, and folding Earth's crust...Mountains are changing sizes all over Earth's surface. Both mountain ranges and the peaks in them are increasing in height and volume at different rates. Some mountains are rising really quickly, like the Himalayas (7 mm per year), though the Mount Everest peak in the Himalayas is only growing about 4 mm per year" (Ackley, C., Alessio, P. and Xu, C., 2020. UCSB Science Line. [online] Scienceline.ucsb.edu. Available at: <http://scienceline.ucsb.edu/getkey.php> [Accessed 3 October 2021].
Well, what about the lack of plants? Believe it or not, but the extinction of the land plants wouldn't affect Noah and his family in the slightest! How is this possible? Well, "Scientists estimate that 50-80% of the oxygen production on Earth comes from the ocean," (Oceanservice.noaa.gov. 2021. How much oxygen comes from the ocean?. [online] Available at: <https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/ocean-oxygen.html> [Accessed 7 October 2021]. Keep in mind during the flood, there would be even more water, so this percent likely would be on the higher side.
The Metaphorical Interpretation:
The second interpretation is that well, it was simply metaphorical, an exaggeration. If so, there would be nothing further to explain.