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Genesis flood narrative

November 17, 2023

"The Deluge" redirects here. For other uses, see Deluge (disambiguation).

The Genesis flood narrative (chapters 6–9 of the Book of Genesis) is a Hebrew flood myth.[1] It tells of God's decision to return the universe to its pre-creation state of watery chaos and remake it through the microcosm of Noah's ark.[2]

The Flood of Noah and Companions (c. 1911) by Léon Comerre. Musée d'Arts de Nantes

The Book of Genesis was probably composed around the 5th century BCE,[3] although some scholars believe that Primeval history (chapters 1–11), including the flood narrative, may have been composed and added as late as the 3rd century BCE.[4] It draws on two sources, called the Priestly source and the non-Priestly or Yahwist,[5] and although many of its details are contradictory,[6] the story forms a unified whole.[7]

A global flood as described in this myth is inconsistent with the physical findings of geology, archeology, paleontology, and the global distribution of species.[8][9][10] A branch of creationism known as flood geology is a pseudoscientific attempt to argue that such a global flood actually occurred.[11] Some Christians have preferred to interpret the narrative as describing a local flood, instead of a global event.[12]

Summary

 
The Deluge by Gustave Doré (1865)

The story of the flood occurs in chapters 6–9 of the Book of Genesis, the first book of the Bible. Ten generations after the creation of Adam, God saw that the earth was corrupt and filled with violence, and he decided to destroy what he had created. But God found one righteous man, Noah, and to him he confided his intention: "I am about to bring on the Flood ... to eliminate everywhere all flesh in which there is the breath of life ... ." So God instructed him to build an ark (in Hebrew, a chest or box), and Noah entered the Ark in his six hundredth year [of life], and on the 17th day of the second month of that year "the fountains of the Great Deep burst apart and the floodgates of heaven broke open" and rain fell for forty days and forty nights until the highest mountains were covered to a depth of 15 cubits, and all life perished except Noah and those with him in the Ark. After 150 days, "God remembered Noah ... and the waters subsided" until the Ark rested on the mountains of Ararat, and on the 27th day of the second month of Noah's six hundred and first year the earth was dry. Then Noah built an altar and made a sacrifice, and God made a covenant with Noah that man would be allowed to eat every living thing but not its blood, and that God would never again destroy all life by a flood.[13]

Composition

 
Building the Ark (watercolor c. 1896–1902 by James Tissot)

The consensus of modern scholars is that Genesis was composed around the 5th century BCE,[3] but as the first eleven chapters show little relationship to the rest of the book, some scholars believe that this section (the so-called Primeval History) may have been composed as late as the 3rd century BCE.[4]

It is generally agreed that the history draws on two sources, one called the Priestly source, the other non-Priestly or Yahwist,[5] and their interweaving is evidenced in the doublets (i.e., repetitions) contained within the final story.[14] Many of these are contradictory, such as how long the flood lasted (40 days according to Genesis 7:17, 150 according to 7:24), how many animals were to be taken aboard the ark (one pair of each in 6:19, one pair of the unclean animals and seven pairs of the clean in 7:2), and whether Noah released a raven which "went to and fro until the waters were dried up" or a dove which on the third occasion "did not return to him again," or possibly both.[6] But despite this disagreement on details the story forms a unified whole (some scholars see in it a "chiasm", a literary structure in which the first item matches the last, the second the second-last, and so on),[a] and many efforts have been made to explain this unity, including attempts to identify which of the two sources was earlier and therefore influenced the other.[7] Some scholars have even questioned whether the story is actually based on two different sources, noting that some of the doublets (such as the dove and raven) are not actually contradictory and in fact appear as linked motifs in other biblical and non-biblical sources, that the method of doublets is inconsistently applied in that the alleged sources themselves contain doublets, and that the theory assumes a redactor who combined the sources inconsistently (in some cases extensively editing together the text and in some cases faithfully preserving contradictory versions) for unclear reasons.[15] Similarly, the complete Genesis flood story matches the parallel Gilgamesh flood story in a way which neither of the proposed biblical sources does.[16]

Sources

The following table compares the proposed Yahwist and Priestly sources.[17] Each provides a complete story-line, with introductions and conclusions, reasons for the flood, and theologies.[18]

Verses
 Yahwist (or non-Priestly)
 Priestly
6:5–8 Introduction: humanity's wickedness, God regrets creating, announces decision to destroy; Noah's righteousness.
6:9–22 Introduction: Noah's righteousness, humanity's wickedness, God's decision to destroy; Ark described, Covenant described, 1 pair of all animals, Noah does as God commands.
7:1–5 7 pairs of clean animals, 1 pair unclean; 7 days to gather animals; Noah does as God commands.
7:6 Noah's age: 600 years
7:7–10 Noah enters Ark with animals after 7 days
7:11 Year 600, month 2, day 17: firmament breaks, waters fall from above and rise from below.
7:12 Rains 40 days and 40 nights.
7:13–16a Noah and family and animals enter Ark on same day as flood begins.
7:16b–17a Flood lasts 40 days and nights.
7:18–21 Waters rise, all creatures destroyed.
7:22–23 All creatures destroyed.
7:24–8:5 Flood lasts 150 days; God remembers Noah, fountains and floodgates closed, waters recede;
Month 7 day 17, Ark grounds on mountains of Ararat.
8:6–12 After 7 days Noah opens window, sends out raven, dove, dove, 7 days between flights
8:13–19 Year 601, month 1, day 1: Noah opens cover; ground begins to dry;
Month 2, day 27, dry land appears, Noah and family and animals exit, animals begin to multiply
8:20–22 Noah builds altar, sacrifices clean animals, God smells sweet aroma, promises not to destroy again.
9:1–17 Noah and family told to multiply, given animals to eat; Covenant established, rainbow as sign, God promises not to flood again.

Comparative mythology

Main article: Flood myth

Scholars believe that the flood myth originated in Mesopotamia during the Old Babylonian Period (c. 1880–1595 BCE) and reached Syro-Palestine in the latter half of the 2nd millennium BCE.[19] Extant texts show three distinct versions, the Sumerian Epic of Ziusudra, (the oldest, found in very fragmentary form on a single tablet dating from about 1600 BCE, although the story itself is older), and as episodes in two Akkadian language epics, the Atrahasis and the Epic of Gilgamesh.[20] The name of the hero, according to the version concerned, was Ziusudra, Atrahasis, or Utnapishtim, all of which are variations of each other, and it is just possible that an abbreviation of Utnapishtim/Utna'ishtim as "na'ish" was pronounced "Noah" in Palestine.[21]

Numerous and often detailed parallels make clear that the Genesis flood narrative is dependent on the Mesopotamian epics, and particularly on Gilgamesh, which is thought to date from c.1300–1000 BCE.[22]

Flood chronology

 
1896 illustration of the symbol of the rainbow, which God created as a sign of the covenant

Numbers in the Bible often have symbolic or idiomatic meaning, and the 40 days and nights for which rain fell on the Earth indicates a complete cycle.[23]

The flood begins on the 17th day of the second month when "the springs of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened", and after 40 days the ark floats (Genesis 7:11–12). The waters rise and then recede, and on the 17th day of the seventh month (or the 27th day in the Greek version) the ark rests on the mountains (Genesis 8:4). The waters continue to fall, the ark is uncovered on the 1st day of the 1st month of Noah's 601st year, and is opened on the 27th day of his 601st year (Genesis 8:13–14).[24]

The period from the beginning of the flood to the landing on the mountain is five months (the second month to the seventh, Genesis 7:11 and 8:4) and 150 days (8:3), making an impossible five months of 30 days each; the number is schematic, and is based on the Babylonian astronomical calendar of 360 days (12 months of 30 days each).[25] This means that the flood lasts 36 weeks according to the flood calendar, in which an extra day is added to every third month.[26] The number of weeks is symbolically significant, representing the biblical cypher for destruction (the number 6, expressed as 6x6=36), while the number 7 (the number of days in a week) represents the persistence of creation during this time of destruction.[27]

Scholars have long puzzled over the significance of the flood lasting one year and eleven days (day 17 of year 600 to day 27 of year 601); one solution is that the basic calendar is a lunar one of 354 days, to which eleven days have been added to match a solar year of 365 days.[28]

The "original", Jahwist narrative of the Great Deluge was modest; a week of ostensibly non-celestial rain is followed by a forty-day flood which takes a mere week to recede in order to provide Noah his stage for God's covenant. It is the Priestly source which adds more fantastic figures of a 150-day flood, which emerged by divine hand from the heavens and earth and took ten months to finally stop. That the Jahwist source's capricious and somewhat simplistic depiction of Yahweh is clearly distinguished from the Priestly source's characteristically majestic, transcendental, and austere virtuous Yahweh.[29]

The Priestly flood narrative is the only Priestly text that covers dates with much detail before the Exodus narrative. This is perhaps due to a version of the flood myth that was available at the time. There is a text discovered from Ugarit known as RS 94.2953, consisting of fourteen lines telling a first-person account of how Ea appeared to the story's protagonist and commanded him to use tools to make a window (aptu) at the top of the construction he was building, and how he implemented this directive and released a bird. Antoine Cavigneaux's translation of this text made him propose that this fragment belongs to a Mesopotamian flood myth, perhaps Atrahasis or Tablet IX of Gilgamesh, which has a version found in Ugarit (RS 22.421) that contains a first person account of the flood. If this suggestion is correct, then RS 94.2953 represents a unique version of the Mesopotamian flood story. Line 1 of the text says "At the start of the time of the disappearance of the moon, at the beginning of the month". This reference to the lunar date giving the specific date the protagonist released the bird is significant as it is the only variant of the flood story giving a specific date and the rest do not attribute specific dates or calendrical details to the various stages of the flood. Both RS 94.2953 and Genesis 8 are about the flood protagonist releasing a bird on a specific calendrical date in order to find land in the midst of the flood.[30]

Theology: the flood and the creation narrative

The primeval history is first and foremost about the world God made, its origins, inhabitants, purposes, challenges, and failures.[31] It asks why the world which God has made is so imperfect and of the meaning of human violence and evil, and its solutions involve the notions of covenant, law, and forgiveness.[32] The Genesis creation narrative (Genesis 1–2) deals with God's creation and God's repentance is the rationale behind the flood narrative, and in the Priestly source (which runs through all of Genesis and into the other four books of the Torah) these two verbs, "create" and "forgive", are reserved exclusively for divine actions.[33]

Intertextuality is the way biblical stories refer to and reflect one another. Such echoes are seldom coincidental—for instance, the word used for ark is the same used for the basket in which Moses is saved, implying a symmetry between the stories of two divinely chosen saviours in a world threatened by water and chaos.[34] The most significant such echo is a reversal of the Genesis creation narrative; the division between the "waters above" and the "waters below" the earth is removed, the dry land is flooded, most life is destroyed, and only Noah and those with him survive to obey God's command to "be fruitful and multiply."[35]

The flood is a reversal and renewal of God's creation of the world.[36] In Genesis 1 God separates the "waters above the earth" from those below so that dry land can appear as a home for living things, but in the flood story the "windows of heaven" and "fountains of the deep" are opened so that the world is returned to the watery chaos of the time before creation.[37] Even the sequence of flood events mimics that of creation, the flood first covering the earth to the highest mountains, then destroying, in order, birds, cattle, beasts, "swarming creatures", and finally mankind.[37] (This parallels the Babylonian flood story in the Epic of Gilgamesh, where at the end of rain "all of mankind had returned to clay," the substance of which they had been made.)[38] The Ark itself is likewise a microcosm of Solomon's Temple.

Later traditions

Jewish

In Jewish folklore, the kind of water that was pouring to the earth for forty days is not common rainfall; rather, God bade each drop pass through Gehenna before it fell to earth, which 'hot rain' scalded the skin of the sinners. The punishment that overtook them was befitting their crime. As their sensual desires had made them hot, and inflamed them to immoral excesses, so they were chastised by means of heated water.[39]

Christianity

See also: Biblical literalism, Biblical inerrancy, and Biblical infallibility

The Genesis flood narrative is included in the Old Testament of the Christian Bible (see Books of the Bible). Jesus and the apostles additionally taught on the Genesis flood narrative in New Testament writing (Matthew 24:37–39, Luke 17:26–27, 1 Peter 3:20, 2 Peter 2:5, 2 Peter 3:6, Hebrews 11:7).[40][41] Some Christian biblical scholars suggest that the flood is a picture of salvation in Christ—the Ark was planned by God and there is only one way of salvation through the door of the Ark, akin to one way of salvation through Christ.[42][40] Additionally, some scholars commenting on the teaching of the apostle Peter (1 Peter 3:18–22), connect the Ark with the resurrection of Christ; the waters burying the old world but raising Noah to a new life.[42][40] Christian scholars also highlight that 1 Peter 3:18–22 demonstrates the Genesis flood as a type to Christian baptism.[43][44][40]

Gnosticism

In the 3rd century Gnostic codex now referred to as the Hypostasis of the Archons, it is the corrupt rulers (Archons) who decide to flood the world in order to dispose of most of mankind. However, Noah is spared and told to build an ark. But when his wife Norea wants to board the ark, Noah attempts to not let her, thus she uses her divine power to blow on the ark, causing it to be consumed by fire. Noah later builds the ark a second time. When the Archons try to seize Norea, she calls out to God for help, then the angel Eleleth appears and scares away the Archons, revealing to Norea that she is a divine child of the great spirit. A different view is found in the Secret Book of John; instead of an ark, Noah hides in a bright cloud.[45]

Mandaeism

Mandaeism teaches that the flood of Noah was the last of three events where the world's population was reduced to a single family. Thirty generations after Adam, most of the population was killed by pestilence and war, leaving only Ram and his wife Rud. Twenty-five generations later, most of the population was killed by fire, leaving only Shurbai and his wife Shurhabil. Fifteen generations later, most of the population was killed by flood, leaving only Noah and Shem,[46] in addition to the latter's wife Nuraitha.[47]

Islam

The story of Noah and the Great Flood is related in the Qur'an in the surah Nūḥ.

Historicity

Academic scholars and researchers consider the story in its present form to be exaggerated and/or implausible.[8][48] However, it is notable that the story of the Deluge describes either a severe genetic bottleneck event or the origins of a founder effect among the descendants of the survivors, in that the survivors are related. As yet, there is no evidence of such a severe genetic bottleneck at that period of time (~7000 years before the present day) either among humans or other animal species;[49] however, if the flood narrative is derived from a more localized event and describes a founder effect among one population of humans, certain explanations such as the events described by the Black Sea deluge hypothesis may elaborate on the historicity of the flood narrative.

Evidence does exist for localized catastrophic flooding in the geological record: the Channeled Scablands in the southeastern areas of the state of Washington have been demonstrated to have been formed by a series of catastrophic floods[50][51] originating from the collapse of glacial dams of glacial lakes in the region, the last of which has been estimated to have occurred between 18,200 and 14,000 years ago.[52]

Another geologic feature believed to have been formed by massive catastrophic flooding is the Tsangpo Gorge in Tibet.[53][54] As with the Channeled Scablands of the state of Washington, breakthroughs of glacial ice dams are believed to have unleashed massive and sudden torrents of water to form the gorge some time between 600 and 900 AD.[54]

The current understanding of the prehistoric cataclysmic flooding from the Altai Mountains is that several glacial lake outburst floods from the Altai Mountains caused massive flooding along the Katun River (in the present-day Altai Republic) some time between 12000 BC and 9000 BC,[55][56][57][58] as demonstrated by the fact that much of the gravel deposited along the Katun valley lacks a stratigraphic structure, instead showing characteristics of a deposition directly after suspension in a turbulent flow.[59]

Flood geology

Main articles: Flood geology, Scriptural geologist, and Antediluvian

The development of scientific geology had a profound impact on attitudes towards the biblical flood narrative by undermining the biblical chronology, which placed the Creation and the flood no more than a few thousand years back in history. In 1823 the English theologian and natural scientist William Buckland interpreted geological phenomena as Reliquiæ Diluvianæ (relics of the flood) "Attesting the Action of an Universal Deluge". His views were supported by others at the time, including the influential geologist Adam Sedgwick, but by 1830 Sedgwick considered that the evidence suggested only local floods. Louis Agassiz subsequently explained such deposits as the results of glaciation.[60][61]

In 1862, William Thomson (later to become Lord Kelvin) calculated the age of the Earth at between 24 million and 400 million years, and for the remainder of the 19th century, discussion focused not on the viability of this theory of deep time, but on the derivation of a more precise figure for the age of the Earth.[62] Lux Mundi, an 1889 volume of theological essays which marks a stage in the acceptance of a more critical approach to scripture, took the stance that readers should rely on the gospels as completely historical, but should not take the earlier chapters of Genesis literally.[63] By a variety of independent means, scientists have determined that the Earth is approximately 4.54 billion years old.[64][65][66][67]

Flood geology (a pseudoscience which contradicts a number of principles and discoveries of fact in the fields of geology, stratigraphy, geophysics, physics, paleontology, biology, anthropology, and archaeology in an attempt to interpret and reconcile geological features on Earth in accordance with a literal understanding of the Genesis flood narrative)[11][68][8][69][70][71][72][73] can be traced to "Scriptural geologists," a heterogeneous group of writers from the early 19th century, most of whom lacked any background in geology and also lacked influence even in religious circles.[74][75] The geologic views of these writers were ignored by the scientific community of their time.[76][77][78]

Flood geology was largely ignored in the 19th century, but was revived in the 20th century by the Seventh-day Adventist George McCready Price,[79] who was inspired by the visions of Ellen G. White. As Price's career progressed, he gained attention outside of Seventh-day Adventist groups, and by 1929 he was a popular scientific author among Christian fundamentalists, though those who were not Seventh-day Adventists rejected his young Earth theories.[80] Through the middle of the 20th century, despite debates between Protestant Christian scientists,[81][82][83] Flood geology maintained traction amongst evangelical Christian circles. Historian Ronald Numbers argues that an ideological connection by evangelical Christians wanting to challenge aspects of the scientific consensus that they believe contradict their interpretation of religious texts was first established by the publication of the 1961 book, The Genesis Flood.[84]

Most scientific fields, particularly those contradicted by flood geology, rely on Charles Lyell's established principle of uniformitarianism, which for much of their history was seen to contrast with the catastrophism inherent in flood geology. However, with the discovery of evidence for some catastrophic events, events similar to those on which the flood narrative may be based are accepted as possible within an overall uniformitarian framework.[85][86] In relation to geological forces, uniformitarianism explains the formation of the Earth's features by means of mostly slow-acting forces seen in operation today.

Species distribution

By the 17th century, believers in the Genesis account faced the issue of reconciling the exploration of the New World and increased awareness of the global distribution of species with the older scenario whereby all life had sprung from a single point of origin on the slopes of Mount Ararat. The obvious answer involved mankind spreading over the continents following the destruction of the Tower of Babel and taking animals along, yet some of the results seemed peculiar. In 1646 Sir Thomas Browne wondered why the natives of North America had taken rattlesnakes with them, but not horses: "How America abounded with Beasts of prey and noxious Animals, yet contained not in that necessary Creature, a Horse, is very strange".[9]

Browne, among the first to question the notion of spontaneous generation, was a medical doctor and amateur scientist making this observation in passing. However, biblical scholars of the time, such as Justus Lipsius (1547–1606) and Athanasius Kircher (c. 1601–1680), had also begun to subject the Ark story to rigorous scrutiny as they attempted to harmonize the biblical account with the growing body of natural historical knowledge. The resulting hypotheses provided an important impetus to the study of the geographical distribution of plants and animals, and indirectly spurred the emergence of biogeography in the 18th century. Natural historians began to draw connections between climates and the animals and plants adapted to them. One influential theory held that the biblical Ararat was striped with varying climatic zones, and as climate changed, the associated animals moved as well, eventually spreading to repopulate the globe.[9]

There was also the problem of an ever-expanding number of known species: for Kircher and earlier natural historians, there was little problem finding room for all known animal species in the Ark. Less than a century later, discoveries of new species made it increasingly difficult to justify a literal interpretation for the Ark story.[87] By the middle of the 18th century only a few natural historians accepted a literal interpretation of the narrative.[69]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ The controversial existence of a chiasm is not an argument against the construction of the story from two sources. See the overview in Friedman (1996), p. 91

References

Citations

  1. ^ Leeming 2010, p. 469.
  2. ^ Bandstra 2008, p. 61.
  3. ^ a b Oliver 2017, p. 12.
  4. ^ a b Gmirkin 2006, p. 3.
  5. ^ a b Worthington 2019, p. 147.
  6. ^ a b Cline 2007, p. 20.
  7. ^ a b Arnold 2009, p. 97.
  8. ^ a b c Montgomery 2012.
  9. ^ a b c Cohn 1999.
  10. ^
    • Kuchment, Anna (August 2012). "The Rocks Don't Lie: A Geologist Investigates Noah's Flood". Scientific American. Retrieved 31 December 2018.
    • Raff, Rudolf A. (20 January 2013). "Genesis meets geology. A review of the rocks don't lie; a geologist investigates Noah's flood, by David R. Montgomery". Evolution & Development. 15 (1): 83–84. doi:10.1111/ede.12017.
    • "The Rocks Don't Lie: A Geologist Investigates Noah's Flood". Publishers Weekly. 28 May 2012. Retrieved 31 December 2018.
    • Bork, Kennard B. (December 2013). "David R. Montgomery. The Rocks Don't Lie: A Geologist Investigates Noah's Flood". Isis. 104 (4): 828–829. doi:10.1086/676345.
    • McConnachie, James (31 August 2013). "The Rocks Don't Lie, by David R. Montgomery - review". The Spectator. Retrieved 31 December 2018.
    • Prothero, Donald R. (2 January 2013). "A Gentle Journey Through the Truth in Rocks". Skeptic. Retrieved 2 January 2019.
  11. ^ a b Isaak 2007, pp. 237–238.
  12. ^ Walton & Longman III 2018, pp. 145–146.
  13. ^ Cohn 1999, p. 11–12.
  14. ^ Kaltner & McKenzie 2014, p. 74.
  15. ^ Berman 2017, pp. 236–268.
  16. ^ Gary A. Rendsburg, The biblical flood story in the light of the Gilgameš flood account, p.116
  17. ^ Bridge 2009, p. 41.
  18. ^ Habel 1988, p. 23.
  19. ^ Chen 2013, p. 1,11.
  20. ^ Finkel 2014, p. 88.
  21. ^ Dalley 2008, p. 2.
  22. ^ Collins 2017, p. 10–11.
  23. ^ Burton 2019, p. 1978-79.
  24. ^ Guillaume 2010, p. 74.
  25. ^ Miano 2010, p. 26.
  26. ^ Guillaume 2010, p. 73-74.
  27. ^ Guillaume 2010, p. 73–74.
  28. ^ VanderKam 2002, p. 3.
  29. ^ Gilbert, Christopher (2009). A Complete Introduction to the Bible. Paulist Press. ISBN 9780809145522.
  30. ^ Darshan, Guy (2016). "The Calendrical Framework of the Priestly Flood Story in Light of a New Akkadian Text from Ugarit (RS 94.2953)". Journal of the American Oriental Society. 136 (3): 507–514. doi:10.7817/jameroriesoci.136.3.0507. ISSN 0003-0279. JSTOR 10.7817/jameroriesoci.136.3.0507.
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  32. ^ Schule 2017, p. 3.
  33. ^ Schule 2017, p. 3-4.
  34. ^ Bodner 2016, pp. 95–96: "There is increasing recognition that the pentateuchal narrative is seldom careless or arbitrary," write John Bergsma and Scott Hahn, "and intertextual echoes are seldom coincidental."17
  35. ^ Levenson 1988, p. 10–11.
  36. ^ Baden 2012, p. 184.
  37. ^ a b Keiser 2013, p. 133.
  38. ^ Keiser 2013, p. 133 fn.29.
  39. ^ Ginzberg, Louis (1909). The Legends of the Jews Vol I : The Inmates of the Ark (Translated by Henrietta Szold) Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society.
  40. ^ a b c d "Flood, the – Baker's Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology Online". Bible Study Tools. Retrieved 18 July 2018.
  41. ^ . www.creationworldview.org. Archived from the original on 20 July 2007. Retrieved 18 July 2018.
  42. ^ a b Wiersbe, Warren (1993). Wiersbe's expository outlines on the Old Testament. Wheaton, Illinois: Victor Books. ISBN 978-0896938472. OCLC 27034975.
  43. ^ Matthew, Henry (2000). Matthew henry's concise commentary on the whole bible. Nelson's concise series. [Place of publication not identified]: Nelson Reference & Electronic. ISBN 978-0785245292. OCLC 947797222.
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  45. ^ Marvin Meyer; Willis Barnstone (2009). "The Reality of the Rulers (The Hypostasis of the Archons) and The Secret Book of John". The Gnostic Bible. Shambhala. ISBN 9781590306314. Retrieved 7 February 2022.
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  47. ^ "Book Nineteen: The Deluge". Ginza Rabba. Vol. Right Volume. Translated by Al-Saadi, Qais; Al-Saadi, Hamed (2nd ed.). Germany: Drabsha. 2019. pp. 203–204. [Note: this book, or a larger text containing it, is numbered book 18 in some other editions.]
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  49. ^ Naturalis Historia blog. "The Great Genetic Bottleneck that Contradicts Ken Ham’s Radical Accelerated Diversification (Post-Flood Hyper-Evolution)." https://thenaturalhistorian.com/2016/03/30/the-great-genetic-bottleneck-that-contradicts-ken-hams-radical-accelerated-diversification-ie-post-flood-hyper-evolution/
  50. ^ Bjornstad, B.; Kiver, E. (2012). On the Trail of the Ice Age Floods: The Northern Reaches: A geological field guide to northern Idaho and the Channeled Scabland. Sandpoint, Idaho: Keokee Books. ISBN 978-1879628397.
  51. ^ Neuendorf, K.K.E., J.P. Mehl, Jr., and J.A. Jackson, eds. (2005) Glossary of Geology (5th ed.). Alexandria, Virginia, American Geological Institute. 779 pp. ISBN 0-922152-76-4
  52. ^ Balbas, A.M., Barth, A.M., Clark, P.U., Clark, J., Caffee, M., O'Connor, J., Baker, V.R., Konrad, K. and Bjornstad, B., 2017. 10Be dating of late Pleistocene megafloods and Cordilleran Ice Sheet retreat in the northwestern United States. Geology, 45(7), pp. 583-586.
  53. ^ Montgomery DR."Biblical-Type Floods Are Real, and They're Absolutely Enormous." Discover Magazine, 2012 August 29. https://www.discovermagazine.com/planet-earth/biblical-type-floods-are-real-and-theyre-absolutely-enormous
  54. ^ a b University of Washington. "Historic Himalayan Ice Dams Created Huge Lakes, Mammoth Floods." Science News, 2004 December 27. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2004/12/041220010147.htm
  55. ^ . Archived from the original on 15 September 2011. Retrieved 14 October 2011.
  56. ^ Baker, V. R., G. Benito, A. N. Rudoy, Paleohydrology of late Pleistocene Superflooding, Altay Mountains, Siberia, Science, 1993, Vol. 259, pp. 348-352
  57. ^ Rudoy A.N. Mountain Ice-Dammed Lakes of Southern Siberia and their Influence on the Development and Regime of the Runoff Systems of North Asia in the Late Pleistocene. Chapter 16. (P. 215—234.) — Palaeohydrology and Environmental Change / Eds: G. Benito, V.R. Baker, K.J. Gregory. — Chichester: John Wiley & Sons Ltd, 1998. 353 p.
  58. ^ Grosswald, M.G., 1998, New approach to the ice age paleohydrology of northern Eurasia. Chapter 15. (P. 199-214)— Palaeohydrology and Environmental Change / Eds: G. Benito, V.R. Baker, K.J. Gregory. — Chichester: John Wiley & Sons Ltd, 1998. 353 p.
  59. ^ . Archived from the original on 15 September 2011. Retrieved 14 October 2011.
  60. ^ Herbert, Sandra (1991). "Charles Darwin as a prospective geological author". British Journal for the History of Science. No. 24. pp. 171–174. Retrieved 24 July 2009.
  61. ^ Buckland, W. (1823). Reliquiæ Diluvianæ: Or Observations on the Organic Remains Contained in Caves, Fissures, and Diluvial Gravel, and on Other Geological Phenomena, Attesting the Action of an Universal Deluge. J. Murray. Retrieved 3 January 2022.
  62. ^ Dalrymple 1991, pp. 14–17
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  67. ^ Braterman, Paul S. (2013). "How Science Figured Out the Age of Earth". Scientific American. from the original on 12 April 2016.
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  69. ^ a b Young 1995, p. 79.
  70. ^ Isaak 2006, p. unpaginated.
  71. ^ Morton 2001, p. unpaginated.
  72. ^ Isaak 2007, p. 173.
  73. ^ Stewart 2010, p. 123.
  74. ^ Piccardi, L.; Masse, W. Bruce (2007). Myth and Geology. London: Geological Society. p. 46. ISBN 978-1-86239-216-8.
  75. ^ Livingstone, David; Hart, Darryl G.; Noll, Mark A. (1999). Evangelicals and Science in Historical Perspective. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-511557-4.
  76. ^ Rudwick, Martin J. S. (1988). The Great Devonian Controversy. Springer. pp. 42–44. ISBN 978-0-226-73102-5.
  77. ^ Rudwick, Martin J. S. (2008). Worlds before Adam. University of Chicago Press. p. 84. ISBN 978-0-226-73128-5.
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  79. ^ Young, Davis A.; Stearley, Ralph F. (2008). The Bible, rocks, and time : geological evidence for the age of the earth. Downers Grove, Ill.: IVP Academic. ISBN 978-0-8308-2876-0.
  80. ^ Numbers, Ronald L. (1993). The Creationists. University of California Press. p. 72. ISBN 978-0-520-08393-6.
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  82. ^ Yang, Seung-Hun (1993). "Radiocarbon Dating and American Evangelical Christians". Retrieved 12 January 2009.
  83. ^ Numbers, Ronald L. (1993). The Creationists. University of California Press. p. 72. ISBN 978-0-520-08393-6.
  84. ^ Numbers, Ronald L. (2006). The creationists : from scientific creationism to intelligent design (Expanded, First Harvard University Press paperback ed.). Cambridge, Massachusetts. ISBN 0-674-02339-0. OCLC 69734583.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  85. ^ Allen, E. A., et al., 1986, Cataclysms on the Columbia, Timber Press, Portland, OR.ISBN 978-0-88192-067-3
    • "Bretz knew that the very idea of catastrophic flooding would threaten and anger the geological community. And here's why: among geologists in the 1920s, catastrophic explanations for geological events (other than volcanos or earthquakes) were considered wrong-minded to the point of heresy." p. 42.
    • "Consider, then, what Bretz was up against. The very word 'Catastrophism' was heinous in the ears of geologists. ... It was a step backward, a betrayal of all that geological science had fought to gain. It was a heresy of the worst order." p. 44
    • "It was inevitable that sooner or later the geological community would rise up and attempt to defeat Bretz's 'outrageous hypothesis.'" p 49
    • "Nearly 50 years had passed since Bretz first proposed the idea of catastrophic flooding, and now in 1971 his arguments had become a standard of geological thinking." p. 71
  86. ^ Ager, Derek V. (1993). The Nature of the Stratigraphical Record (3rd ed.). Chichester, New York, Brisbane, Toronto, Singapore: John Wiley & Sons. pp. 83–84. ISBN 0-471-93808-4.
    • "geologists do not deny uniformitarianism in its true sense, that is to say, of interpreting the past by means of the processes that are seen going on at the present day, so long as we remember that the periodic catastrophe is one of those processes. Those periodic catastrophes make more showing in the stratigraphical record than we have hitherto assumed."
  87. ^ Browne 1983, p. 276.

Bibliography

  • Alter, Robert (2008). The Five Books of Moses. W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 9780393070248.
  • Arnold, Bill T. (2009). Genesis. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521000673.
  • Baden, Joel S. (2012). The Composition of the Pentateuch. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0300152647.
  • Bandstra, Barry L. (2008). Reading the Old Testament : an introduction to the Hebrew Bible. Wadsworth/ Cengage Learning. ISBN 978-0495391050.
  • Barr, James (28 March 2013). Bible and Interpretation: The Collected Essays of James Barr. Volume II: Biblical Studies. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 380. ISBN 978-0-19-969289-7.
  • Berman, Joshua A. (2017). Inconsistency in the Torah: Ancient Literary Convention and the Limits of Source Criticism. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-065882-3.
  • Blenkinsopp, Joseph (2011). Creation, Un-creation, Re-creation: A discursive commentary on Genesis 1-11. Bloomsbury T&T Clark. ISBN 9780567372871.
  • Bridge, Steven L. (2009). Getting the Old Testament. Baker. ISBN 9781441232779.
  • Burton, Keith A. (2019). Symbolic numbers. Eerdmans. ISBN 9781467460460.
  • Carr, David M. (2021). Genesis 1-11. Kohlhammer Verlag. ISBN 978-0-567-13439-4.
  • Bodner, Keith (2016). An Ark on the Nile: The Beginning of the Book of Exodus. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-878407-4.
  • Browne, Janet (1983), The Secular Ark: Studies in the History of Biogeography, New Haven & London: Yale University Press, p. 276, ISBN 0-300-02460-6
  • Chen, Y. S. (2013). The Primeval Flood Catastrophe: Origins and Early Development in Mesopotamian Traditions. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199676200.
  • Cline, Eric H. (2007). From Eden to Exile. National Geographic. ISBN 9781426212246.
  • Cohn, Norman (1999). Noah's Flood: The Genesis Story in Western Thought. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0300076486.
  • Guillaume, Philippe (2010). Land and Calendar. Bloomsbury. ISBN 9780567401205.
  • Collins, Matthew A. (2017). "An Ongoing Tradition". In Burnette-Bletsch, Rhonda; Morgan, Jon (eds.). Noah as Antihero. Routledge. ISBN 9781351720700.
  • Dalley, Stephanie (2008). Myths from Mesopotamia. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-102721-5.
  • Dalrymple, G. Brent (1991), The Age of the Earth, Stanford University Press, ISBN 0-8047-2331-1
  • Finkel, Irving (2014). The Ark Before Noah. Hachette UK. ISBN 9781444757071.
  • Friedman, Richard E. (1996). "Non-Arguments Concerning the Documentary Hypothesis". In Fox, Michael V.; Hurowitz, V. A. (eds.). Texts, Temples and Traditions. Eisenbrauns. ISBN 9781575060033.
  • Gmirkin, Russell E. (2006). Berossus and Genesis, Manetho and Exodus. Bloomsbury. ISBN 978-0-567-13439-4.
  • Isaak, M (1998). "Problems with a Global Flood". TalkOrigins Archive. Retrieved 29 March 2007.
  • Isaak, Mark (5 November 2006). "Index to Creationist Claims, Geology". TalkOrigins Archive. Retrieved 2 November 2010.
  • Isaak, Mark (2007). The Counter-Creationism Handbook. University of California Press.
  • Kaltner, John; McKenzie, Steven (2014). The Old Testament: Its Background, Growth, and Content. Wipf and Stock. ISBN 978-0-567-13439-4.
  • Keiser, Thomas A. (2013). Genesis 1-11: Its Literary Coherence and Theological Message. Wipf and Stock Publishers. ISBN 9781625640925.
  • Leeming, David A. (2010). Creation Myths of the World: An Encyclopedia. Vol. 1. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 9781598841749.
  • Levenson, Jon Douglas (1988). Creation and the persistence of evil : the Jewish drama of divine omnipotence. Harper & Row. ISBN 9780062548450. OCLC 568745811.
  • Montgomery, David R. (2012). The Rocks Don't Lie: A Geologist Investigates Noah's Flood. Norton. ISBN 9780393082395.
  • Miano, David (2010). Shadow on the Steps. Society for Biblical Literature. ISBN 9781589834781.
  • Morton, Glenn (17 February 2001). "The Geologic Column and its Implications for the Flood". TalkOrigins Archive. Retrieved 2 November 2010.
  • Oliver, Simon (2017). Creation. Bloomsbury. ISBN 9780567656117.
  • Sailhamer, John H. (2010). The Meaning of the Pentateuch: Revelation, Composition and Interpretation. InterVarsity Press. ISBN 9780830878888.
  • Schule, Andreas (2017). Theology from the Beginning. Mohr Siebeck. ISBN 9783161539978.
  • Stewart, Melville Y. (2010). Science and religion in dialogue. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell. p. 123. ISBN 978-1-4051-8921-7.
  • Young, Davis A. (1995). . The Biblical Flood: A Case Study of the Church's Response to Extrabiblical Evidence. Eerdmans. p. 79. ISBN 978-0-8028-0719-9. Archived from the original on 31 March 2007.
  • Young, Davis A.; Stearley, Ralph F. (18 August 2008). The Bible, Rocks and Time: Geological Evidence for the Age of the Earth. InterVarsity Press. p. 45. ISBN 978-0-8308-2876-0.
  • VanderKam, James C. (2002). Calendars in the Dead Sea Scrolls. Routledge. ISBN 9781134709632.
  • Walton, John H.; Longman III, Tremper (2018). The Lost World of the Flood: Mythology, Theology, and the Deluge Debate. InterVarsity Press. ISBN 978-0-8308-8782-8.
  • Worthington, Martin (2019). Ea's Duplicity in the Gilgamesh Flood Story. Routledge. ISBN 9780830878888.

Further reading

  • Cotter, David W. (2003). Genesis. Liturgical Press. ISBN 978-0814650400.
  • Habel, Norman C. (1988). "Two Flood Myths". In Dundes, Alan (ed.). The Flood Myth. University of California Press. ISBN 9780520063532.
  • Hamilton, Victor P (1990). The book of Genesis: chapters 1–17. Eerdmans. ISBN 9780802825216.
  • Kessler, Martin; Deurloo, Karel Adriaan (2004). A commentary on Genesis: the book of beginnings. Paulist Press. ISBN 9780809142057.
  • Knecht, Friedrich Justus (1910). "Chapter VI. The Deluge" . A Practical Commentary on Holy Scripture. B. Herder.
  • Levenson, Jon D. (2004). "Genesis: introduction and annotations". In Berlin, Adele; Brettler, Marc Zvi (eds.). The Jewish Study Bible. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780195297515.
  • McKeown, James (2008). Genesis. Eerdmans. ISBN 9780802827050.
  • Middleton, J. Richard (2005). The Liberating Image: The Imago Dei in Genesis 1. Brazos Press. ISBN 9781441242785.
  • Rogerson, John William (1991). Genesis 1–11. T&T Clark. ISBN 9780567083388.
  • Sacks, Robert D (1990). A Commentary on the Book of Genesis. Edwin Mellen.
  • Towner, Wayne Sibley (2001). Genesis. Westminster John Knox Press. ISBN 9780664252564.
  • Wenham, Gordon (2003). "Genesis". In James D. G. Dunn, John William Rogerson (ed.). Eerdmans Bible Commentary. Eerdmans. ISBN 9780802837110.
  • Whybray, R.N (2001). "Genesis". In John Barton (ed.). Oxford Bible Commentary. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780198755005.

November 17, 2023
genesis, flood, narrative, deluge, redirects, here, other, uses, deluge, disambiguation, chapters, book, genesis, hebrew, flood, myth, tells, decision, return, universe, creation, state, watery, chaos, remake, through, microcosm, noah, flood, noah, companions,. The Deluge redirects here For other uses see Deluge disambiguation The Genesis flood narrative chapters 6 9 of the Book of Genesis is a Hebrew flood myth 1 It tells of God s decision to return the universe to its pre creation state of watery chaos and remake it through the microcosm of Noah s ark 2 The Flood of Noah and Companions c 1911 by Leon Comerre Musee d Arts de NantesThe Book of Genesis was probably composed around the 5th century BCE 3 although some scholars believe that Primeval history chapters 1 11 including the flood narrative may have been composed and added as late as the 3rd century BCE 4 It draws on two sources called the Priestly source and the non Priestly or Yahwist 5 and although many of its details are contradictory 6 the story forms a unified whole 7 A global flood as described in this myth is inconsistent with the physical findings of geology archeology paleontology and the global distribution of species 8 9 10 A branch of creationism known as flood geology is a pseudoscientific attempt to argue that such a global flood actually occurred 11 Some Christians have preferred to interpret the narrative as describing a local flood instead of a global event 12 Contents 1 Summary 2 Composition 2 1 Sources 3 Comparative mythology 4 Flood chronology 5 Theology the flood and the creation narrative 6 Later traditions 6 1 Jewish 6 2 Christianity 6 3 Gnosticism 6 4 Mandaeism 6 5 Islam 7 Historicity 7 1 Flood geology 7 2 Species distribution 8 See also 9 Notes 10 References 10 1 Citations 10 2 Bibliography 11 Further readingSummary nbsp The Deluge by Gustave Dore 1865 The story of the flood occurs in chapters 6 9 of the Book of Genesis the first book of the Bible Ten generations after the creation of Adam God saw that the earth was corrupt and filled with violence and he decided to destroy what he had created But God found one righteous man Noah and to him he confided his intention I am about to bring on the Flood to eliminate everywhere all flesh in which there is the breath of life So God instructed him to build an ark in Hebrew a chest or box and Noah entered the Ark in his six hundredth year of life and on the 17th day of the second month of that year the fountains of the Great Deep burst apart and the floodgates of heaven broke open and rain fell for forty days and forty nights until the highest mountains were covered to a depth of 15 cubits and all life perished except Noah and those with him in the Ark After 150 days God remembered Noah and the waters subsided until the Ark rested on the mountains of Ararat and on the 27th day of the second month of Noah s six hundred and first year the earth was dry Then Noah built an altar and made a sacrifice and God made a covenant with Noah that man would be allowed to eat every living thing but not its blood and that God would never again destroy all life by a flood 13 Composition nbsp Building the Ark watercolor c 1896 1902 by James Tissot The consensus of modern scholars is that Genesis was composed around the 5th century BCE 3 but as the first eleven chapters show little relationship to the rest of the book some scholars believe that this section the so called Primeval History may have been composed as late as the 3rd century BCE 4 It is generally agreed that the history draws on two sources one called the Priestly source the other non Priestly or Yahwist 5 and their interweaving is evidenced in the doublets i e repetitions contained within the final story 14 Many of these are contradictory such as how long the flood lasted 40 days according to Genesis 7 17 150 according to 7 24 how many animals were to be taken aboard the ark one pair of each in 6 19 one pair of the unclean animals and seven pairs of the clean in 7 2 and whether Noah released a raven which went to and fro until the waters were dried up or a dove which on the third occasion did not return to him again or possibly both 6 But despite this disagreement on details the story forms a unified whole some scholars see in it a chiasm a literary structure in which the first item matches the last the second the second last and so on a and many efforts have been made to explain this unity including attempts to identify which of the two sources was earlier and therefore influenced the other 7 Some scholars have even questioned whether the story is actually based on two different sources noting that some of the doublets such as the dove and raven are not actually contradictory and in fact appear as linked motifs in other biblical and non biblical sources that the method of doublets is inconsistently applied in that the alleged sources themselves contain doublets and that the theory assumes a redactor who combined the sources inconsistently in some cases extensively editing together the text and in some cases faithfully preserving contradictory versions for unclear reasons 15 Similarly the complete Genesis flood story matches the parallel Gilgamesh flood story in a way which neither of the proposed biblical sources does 16 Sources The following table compares the proposed Yahwist and Priestly sources 17 Each provides a complete story line with introductions and conclusions reasons for the flood and theologies 18 Verses Yahwist or non Priestly Priestly6 5 8 Introduction humanity s wickedness God regrets creating announces decision to destroy Noah s righteousness 6 9 22 Introduction Noah s righteousness humanity s wickedness God s decision to destroy Ark described Covenant described 1 pair of all animals Noah does as God commands 7 1 5 7 pairs of clean animals 1 pair unclean 7 days to gather animals Noah does as God commands 7 6 Noah s age 600 years7 7 10 Noah enters Ark with animals after 7 days7 11 Year 600 month 2 day 17 firmament breaks waters fall from above and rise from below 7 12 Rains 40 days and 40 nights 7 13 16a Noah and family and animals enter Ark on same day as flood begins 7 16b 17a Flood lasts 40 days and nights 7 18 21 Waters rise all creatures destroyed 7 22 23 All creatures destroyed 7 24 8 5 Flood lasts 150 days God remembers Noah fountains and floodgates closed waters recede Month 7 day 17 Ark grounds on mountains of Ararat 8 6 12 After 7 days Noah opens window sends out raven dove dove 7 days between flights8 13 19 Year 601 month 1 day 1 Noah opens cover ground begins to dry Month 2 day 27 dry land appears Noah and family and animals exit animals begin to multiply8 20 22 Noah builds altar sacrifices clean animals God smells sweet aroma promises not to destroy again 9 1 17 Noah and family told to multiply given animals to eat Covenant established rainbow as sign God promises not to flood again Comparative mythologyMain article Flood myth Scholars believe that the flood myth originated in Mesopotamia during the Old Babylonian Period c 1880 1595 BCE and reached Syro Palestine in the latter half of the 2nd millennium BCE 19 Extant texts show three distinct versions the Sumerian Epic of Ziusudra the oldest found in very fragmentary form on a single tablet dating from about 1600 BCE although the story itself is older and as episodes in two Akkadian language epics the Atrahasis and the Epic of Gilgamesh 20 The name of the hero according to the version concerned was Ziusudra Atrahasis or Utnapishtim all of which are variations of each other and it is just possible that an abbreviation of Utnapishtim Utna ishtim as na ish was pronounced Noah in Palestine 21 Numerous and often detailed parallels make clear that the Genesis flood narrative is dependent on the Mesopotamian epics and particularly on Gilgamesh which is thought to date from c 1300 1000 BCE 22 Flood chronology nbsp 1896 illustration of the symbol of the rainbow which God created as a sign of the covenantNumbers in the Bible often have symbolic or idiomatic meaning and the 40 days and nights for which rain fell on the Earth indicates a complete cycle 23 The flood begins on the 17th day of the second month when the springs of the great deep burst forth and the floodgates of the heavens were opened and after 40 days the ark floats Genesis 7 11 12 The waters rise and then recede and on the 17th day of the seventh month or the 27th day in the Greek version the ark rests on the mountains Genesis 8 4 The waters continue to fall the ark is uncovered on the 1st day of the 1st month of Noah s 601st year and is opened on the 27th day of his 601st year Genesis 8 13 14 24 The period from the beginning of the flood to the landing on the mountain is five months the second month to the seventh Genesis 7 11 and 8 4 and 150 days 8 3 making an impossible five months of 30 days each the number is schematic and is based on the Babylonian astronomical calendar of 360 days 12 months of 30 days each 25 This means that the flood lasts 36 weeks according to the flood calendar in which an extra day is added to every third month 26 The number of weeks is symbolically significant representing the biblical cypher for destruction the number 6 expressed as 6x6 36 while the number 7 the number of days in a week represents the persistence of creation during this time of destruction 27 Scholars have long puzzled over the significance of the flood lasting one year and eleven days day 17 of year 600 to day 27 of year 601 one solution is that the basic calendar is a lunar one of 354 days to which eleven days have been added to match a solar year of 365 days 28 The original Jahwist narrative of the Great Deluge was modest a week of ostensibly non celestial rain is followed by a forty day flood which takes a mere week to recede in order to provide Noah his stage for God s covenant It is the Priestly source which adds more fantastic figures of a 150 day flood which emerged by divine hand from the heavens and earth and took ten months to finally stop That the Jahwist source s capricious and somewhat simplistic depiction of Yahweh is clearly distinguished from the Priestly source s characteristically majestic transcendental and austere virtuous Yahweh 29 The Priestly flood narrative is the only Priestly text that covers dates with much detail before the Exodus narrative This is perhaps due to a version of the flood myth that was available at the time There is a text discovered from Ugarit known as RS 94 2953 consisting of fourteen lines telling a first person account of how Ea appeared to the story s protagonist and commanded him to use tools to make a window aptu at the top of the construction he was building and how he implemented this directive and released a bird Antoine Cavigneaux s translation of this text made him propose that this fragment belongs to a Mesopotamian flood myth perhaps Atrahasis or Tablet IX of Gilgamesh which has a version found in Ugarit RS 22 421 that contains a first person account of the flood If this suggestion is correct then RS 94 2953 represents a unique version of the Mesopotamian flood story Line 1 of the text says At the start of the time of the disappearance of the moon at the beginning of the month This reference to the lunar date giving the specific date the protagonist released the bird is significant as it is the only variant of the flood story giving a specific date and the rest do not attribute specific dates or calendrical details to the various stages of the flood Both RS 94 2953 and Genesis 8 are about the flood protagonist releasing a bird on a specific calendrical date in order to find land in the midst of the flood 30 Theology the flood and the creation narrativeThe primeval history is first and foremost about the world God made its origins inhabitants purposes challenges and failures 31 It asks why the world which God has made is so imperfect and of the meaning of human violence and evil and its solutions involve the notions of covenant law and forgiveness 32 The Genesis creation narrative Genesis 1 2 deals with God s creation and God s repentance is the rationale behind the flood narrative and in the Priestly source which runs through all of Genesis and into the other four books of the Torah these two verbs create and forgive are reserved exclusively for divine actions 33 Intertextuality is the way biblical stories refer to and reflect one another Such echoes are seldom coincidental for instance the word used for ark is the same used for the basket in which Moses is saved implying a symmetry between the stories of two divinely chosen saviours in a world threatened by water and chaos 34 The most significant such echo is a reversal of the Genesis creation narrative the division between the waters above and the waters below the earth is removed the dry land is flooded most life is destroyed and only Noah and those with him survive to obey God s command to be fruitful and multiply 35 The flood is a reversal and renewal of God s creation of the world 36 In Genesis 1 God separates the waters above the earth from those below so that dry land can appear as a home for living things but in the flood story the windows of heaven and fountains of the deep are opened so that the world is returned to the watery chaos of the time before creation 37 Even the sequence of flood events mimics that of creation the flood first covering the earth to the highest mountains then destroying in order birds cattle beasts swarming creatures and finally mankind 37 This parallels the Babylonian flood story in the Epic of Gilgamesh where at the end of rain all of mankind had returned to clay the substance of which they had been made 38 The Ark itself is likewise a microcosm of Solomon s Temple Later traditionsJewish In Jewish folklore the kind of water that was pouring to the earth for forty days is not common rainfall rather God bade each drop pass through Gehenna before it fell to earth which hot rain scalded the skin of the sinners The punishment that overtook them was befitting their crime As their sensual desires had made them hot and inflamed them to immoral excesses so they were chastised by means of heated water 39 Christianity See also Biblical literalism Biblical inerrancy and Biblical infallibility The Genesis flood narrative is included in the Old Testament of the Christian Bible see Books of the Bible Jesus and the apostles additionally taught on the Genesis flood narrative in New Testament writing Matthew 24 37 39 Luke 17 26 27 1 Peter 3 20 2 Peter 2 5 2 Peter 3 6 Hebrews 11 7 40 41 Some Christian biblical scholars suggest that the flood is a picture of salvation in Christ the Ark was planned by God and there is only one way of salvation through the door of the Ark akin to one way of salvation through Christ 42 40 Additionally some scholars commenting on the teaching of the apostle Peter 1 Peter 3 18 22 connect the Ark with the resurrection of Christ the waters burying the old world but raising Noah to a new life 42 40 Christian scholars also highlight that 1 Peter 3 18 22 demonstrates the Genesis flood as a type to Christian baptism 43 44 40 Gnosticism In the 3rd century Gnostic codex now referred to as the Hypostasis of the Archons it is the corrupt rulers Archons who decide to flood the world in order to dispose of most of mankind However Noah is spared and told to build an ark But when his wife Norea wants to board the ark Noah attempts to not let her thus she uses her divine power to blow on the ark causing it to be consumed by fire Noah later builds the ark a second time When the Archons try to seize Norea she calls out to God for help then the angel Eleleth appears and scares away the Archons revealing to Norea that she is a divine child of the great spirit A different view is found in the Secret Book of John instead of an ark Noah hides in a bright cloud 45 Mandaeism Mandaeism teaches that the flood of Noah was the last of three events where the world s population was reduced to a single family Thirty generations after Adam most of the population was killed by pestilence and war leaving only Ram and his wife Rud Twenty five generations later most of the population was killed by fire leaving only Shurbai and his wife Shurhabil Fifteen generations later most of the population was killed by flood leaving only Noah and Shem 46 in addition to the latter s wife Nuraitha 47 Islam The story of Noah and the Great Flood is related in the Qur an in the surah Nuḥ HistoricityAcademic scholars and researchers consider the story in its present form to be exaggerated and or implausible 8 48 However it is notable that the story of the Deluge describes either a severe genetic bottleneck event or the origins of a founder effect among the descendants of the survivors in that the survivors are related As yet there is no evidence of such a severe genetic bottleneck at that period of time 7000 years before the present day either among humans or other animal species 49 however if the flood narrative is derived from a more localized event and describes a founder effect among one population of humans certain explanations such as the events described by the Black Sea deluge hypothesis may elaborate on the historicity of the flood narrative Evidence does exist for localized catastrophic flooding in the geological record the Channeled Scablands in the southeastern areas of the state of Washington have been demonstrated to have been formed by a series of catastrophic floods 50 51 originating from the collapse of glacial dams of glacial lakes in the region the last of which has been estimated to have occurred between 18 200 and 14 000 years ago 52 Another geologic feature believed to have been formed by massive catastrophic flooding is the Tsangpo Gorge in Tibet 53 54 As with the Channeled Scablands of the state of Washington breakthroughs of glacial ice dams are believed to have unleashed massive and sudden torrents of water to form the gorge some time between 600 and 900 AD 54 The current understanding of the prehistoric cataclysmic flooding from the Altai Mountains is that several glacial lake outburst floods from the Altai Mountains caused massive flooding along the Katun River in the present day Altai Republic some time between 12000 BC and 9000 BC 55 56 57 58 as demonstrated by the fact that much of the gravel deposited along the Katun valley lacks a stratigraphic structure instead showing characteristics of a deposition directly after suspension in a turbulent flow 59 Flood geology Main articles Flood geology Scriptural geologist and Antediluvian The development of scientific geology had a profound impact on attitudes towards the biblical flood narrative by undermining the biblical chronology which placed the Creation and the flood no more than a few thousand years back in history In 1823 the English theologian and natural scientist William Buckland interpreted geological phenomena as Reliquiae Diluvianae relics of the flood Attesting the Action of an Universal Deluge His views were supported by others at the time including the influential geologist Adam Sedgwick but by 1830 Sedgwick considered that the evidence suggested only local floods Louis Agassiz subsequently explained such deposits as the results of glaciation 60 61 In 1862 William Thomson later to become Lord Kelvin calculated the age of the Earth at between 24 million and 400 million years and for the remainder of the 19th century discussion focused not on the viability of this theory of deep time but on the derivation of a more precise figure for the age of the Earth 62 Lux Mundi an 1889 volume of theological essays which marks a stage in the acceptance of a more critical approach to scripture took the stance that readers should rely on the gospels as completely historical but should not take the earlier chapters of Genesis literally 63 By a variety of independent means scientists have determined that the Earth is approximately 4 54 billion years old 64 65 66 67 Flood geology a pseudoscience which contradicts a number of principles and discoveries of fact in the fields of geology stratigraphy geophysics physics paleontology biology anthropology and archaeology in an attempt to interpret and reconcile geological features on Earth in accordance with a literal understanding of the Genesis flood narrative 11 68 8 69 70 71 72 73 can be traced to Scriptural geologists a heterogeneous group of writers from the early 19th century most of whom lacked any background in geology and also lacked influence even in religious circles 74 75 The geologic views of these writers were ignored by the scientific community of their time 76 77 78 Flood geology was largely ignored in the 19th century but was revived in the 20th century by the Seventh day Adventist George McCready Price 79 who was inspired by the visions of Ellen G White As Price s career progressed he gained attention outside of Seventh day Adventist groups and by 1929 he was a popular scientific author among Christian fundamentalists though those who were not Seventh day Adventists rejected his young Earth theories 80 Through the middle of the 20th century despite debates between Protestant Christian scientists 81 82 83 Flood geology maintained traction amongst evangelical Christian circles Historian Ronald Numbers argues that an ideological connection by evangelical Christians wanting to challenge aspects of the scientific consensus that they believe contradict their interpretation of religious texts was first established by the publication of the 1961 book The Genesis Flood 84 Most scientific fields particularly those contradicted by flood geology rely on Charles Lyell s established principle of uniformitarianism which for much of their history was seen to contrast with the catastrophism inherent in flood geology However with the discovery of evidence for some catastrophic events events similar to those on which the flood narrative may be based are accepted as possible within an overall uniformitarian framework 85 86 In relation to geological forces uniformitarianism explains the formation of the Earth s features by means of mostly slow acting forces seen in operation today Species distribution By the 17th century believers in the Genesis account faced the issue of reconciling the exploration of the New World and increased awareness of the global distribution of species with the older scenario whereby all life had sprung from a single point of origin on the slopes of Mount Ararat The obvious answer involved mankind spreading over the continents following the destruction of the Tower of Babel and taking animals along yet some of the results seemed peculiar In 1646 Sir Thomas Browne wondered why the natives of North America had taken rattlesnakes with them but not horses How America abounded with Beasts of prey and noxious Animals yet contained not in that necessary Creature a Horse is very strange 9 Browne among the first to question the notion of spontaneous generation was a medical doctor and amateur scientist making this observation in passing However biblical scholars of the time such as Justus Lipsius 1547 1606 and Athanasius Kircher c 1601 1680 had also begun to subject the Ark story to rigorous scrutiny as they attempted to harmonize the biblical account with the growing body of natural historical knowledge The resulting hypotheses provided an important impetus to the study of the geographical distribution of plants and animals and indirectly spurred the emergence of biogeography in the 18th century Natural historians began to draw connections between climates and the animals and plants adapted to them One influential theory held that the biblical Ararat was striped with varying climatic zones and as climate changed the associated animals moved as well eventually spreading to repopulate the globe 9 There was also the problem of an ever expanding number of known species for Kircher and earlier natural historians there was little problem finding room for all known animal species in the Ark Less than a century later discoveries of new species made it increasingly difficult to justify a literal interpretation for the Ark story 87 By the middle of the 18th century only a few natural historians accepted a literal interpretation of the narrative 69 See also nbsp Bible portal nbsp Judaism portal nbsp Christianity portal nbsp Islam portalBiblical cosmology Chronology of the Bible Documentary hypothesis Mosaic authorship Noach parsha PanbabylonismNotes The controversial existence of a chiasm is not an argument against the construction of the story from two sources See the overview in Friedman 1996 p 91ReferencesCitations Leeming 2010 p 469 Bandstra 2008 p 61 a b Oliver 2017 p 12 a b Gmirkin 2006 p 3 a b Worthington 2019 p 147 a b Cline 2007 p 20 a b Arnold 2009 p 97 a b c Montgomery 2012 a b c Cohn 1999 Kuchment Anna August 2012 The Rocks Don t Lie A Geologist Investigates Noah s Flood Scientific American Retrieved 31 December 2018 Raff Rudolf A 20 January 2013 Genesis meets geology A review of the rocks don t lie a geologist investigates Noah s flood by David R Montgomery Evolution amp Development 15 1 83 84 doi 10 1111 ede 12017 The Rocks Don t Lie A Geologist Investigates Noah s Flood Publishers Weekly 28 May 2012 Retrieved 31 December 2018 Bork Kennard B December 2013 David R Montgomery The Rocks Don t Lie A Geologist Investigates Noah s Flood Isis 104 4 828 829 doi 10 1086 676345 McConnachie James 31 August 2013 The Rocks Don t Lie by David R Montgomery review The Spectator Retrieved 31 December 2018 Prothero Donald R 2 January 2013 A Gentle Journey Through the Truth in Rocks Skeptic Retrieved 2 January 2019 a b Isaak 2007 pp 237 238 Walton amp Longman III 2018 pp 145 146 Cohn 1999 p 11 12 Kaltner amp McKenzie 2014 p 74 Berman 2017 pp 236 268 Gary A Rendsburg The biblical flood story in the light of the Gilgames flood account p 116 Bridge 2009 p 41 Habel 1988 p 23 Chen 2013 p 1 11 Finkel 2014 p 88 Dalley 2008 p 2 Collins 2017 p 10 11 Burton 2019 p 1978 79 Guillaume 2010 p 74 Miano 2010 p 26 Guillaume 2010 p 73 74 Guillaume 2010 p 73 74 VanderKam 2002 p 3 Gilbert Christopher 2009 A Complete Introduction to the Bible Paulist Press ISBN 9780809145522 Darshan Guy 2016 The Calendrical Framework of the Priestly Flood Story in Light of a New Akkadian Text from Ugarit RS 94 2953 Journal of the American Oriental Society 136 3 507 514 doi 10 7817 jameroriesoci 136 3 0507 ISSN 0003 0279 JSTOR 10 7817 jameroriesoci 136 3 0507 Schule 2017 p 2 Schule 2017 p 3 Schule 2017 p 3 4 Bodner 2016 pp 95 96 There is increasing recognition that the pentateuchal narrative is seldom careless or arbitrary write John Bergsma and Scott Hahn and intertextual echoes are seldom coincidental 17 Levenson 1988 p 10 11 Baden 2012 p 184 a b Keiser 2013 p 133 Keiser 2013 p 133 fn 29 Ginzberg Louis 1909 The Legends of the Jews Vol I The Inmates of the Ark Translated by Henrietta Szold Philadelphia Jewish Publication Society a b c d Flood the Baker s Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology Online Bible Study Tools Retrieved 18 July 2018 Creation Worldview Ministries The New Testament and the Genesis Flood A Hermeneutical Investigation of the Historicity Scope and Theological Purpose of the Noahic Deluge www creationworldview org Archived from the original on 20 July 2007 Retrieved 18 July 2018 a b Wiersbe Warren 1993 Wiersbe s expository outlines on the Old Testament Wheaton Illinois Victor Books ISBN 978 0896938472 OCLC 27034975 Matthew Henry 2000 Matthew henry s concise commentary on the whole bible Nelson s concise series Place of publication not identified Nelson Reference amp Electronic ISBN 978 0785245292 OCLC 947797222 The Typological Interpretation of the Old Testament by G R Schmeling www bible researcher com Retrieved 18 July 2018 Marvin Meyer Willis Barnstone 2009 The Reality of the Rulers The Hypostasis of the Archons and The Secret Book of John The Gnostic Bible Shambhala ISBN 9781590306314 Retrieved 7 February 2022 Book Two 1st Glorification Upon Each Faithful Mandaean I Will Place My Right Hand Ginza Rabba Vol Right Volume Translated by Al Saadi Qais Al Saadi Hamed 2nd ed Germany Drabsha 2019 pp 18 19 Book Nineteen The Deluge Ginza Rabba Vol Right Volume Translated by Al Saadi Qais Al Saadi Hamed 2nd ed Germany Drabsha 2019 pp 203 204 Note this book or a larger text containing it is numbered book 18 in some other editions Weber Christopher Gregory 1980 The Fatal Flaws of Flood Geology Creation Evolution Journal 1 1 24 37 Naturalis Historia blog The Great Genetic Bottleneck that Contradicts Ken Ham s Radical Accelerated Diversification Post Flood Hyper Evolution https thenaturalhistorian com 2016 03 30 the great genetic bottleneck that contradicts ken hams radical accelerated diversification ie post flood hyper evolution Bjornstad B Kiver E 2012 On the Trail of the Ice Age Floods The Northern Reaches A geological field guide to northern Idaho and the Channeled Scabland Sandpoint Idaho Keokee Books ISBN 978 1879628397 Neuendorf K K E J P Mehl Jr and J A Jackson eds 2005 Glossary of Geology 5th ed Alexandria Virginia American Geological Institute 779 pp ISBN 0 922152 76 4 Balbas A M Barth A M Clark P U Clark J Caffee M O Connor J Baker V R Konrad K and Bjornstad B 2017 10Be dating of late Pleistocene megafloods and Cordilleran Ice Sheet retreat in the northwestern United States Geology 45 7 pp 583 586 Montgomery DR Biblical Type Floods Are Real and They re Absolutely Enormous Discover Magazine 2012 August 29 https www discovermagazine com planet earth biblical type floods are real and theyre absolutely enormous a b University of Washington Historic Himalayan Ice Dams Created Huge Lakes Mammoth Floods Science News 2004 December 27 https www sciencedaily com releases 2004 12 041220010147 htm Rudoy A N Baker V R Sedimentary effects of cataclysmic late Pleistocene glacial outburst flooding Altay Mountains Siberia Sedimentary Geology 85 1993 53 62 Archived from the original on 15 September 2011 Retrieved 14 October 2011 Baker V R G Benito A N Rudoy Paleohydrology of late Pleistocene Superflooding Altay Mountains Siberia Science 1993 Vol 259 pp 348 352 Rudoy A N Mountain Ice Dammed Lakes of Southern Siberia and their Influence on the Development and Regime of the Runoff Systems of North Asia in the Late Pleistocene Chapter 16 P 215 234 Palaeohydrology and Environmental Change Eds G Benito V R Baker K J Gregory Chichester John Wiley amp Sons Ltd 1998 353 p Grosswald M G 1998 New approach to the ice age paleohydrology of northern Eurasia Chapter 15 P 199 214 Palaeohydrology and Environmental Change Eds G Benito V R Baker K J Gregory Chichester John Wiley amp Sons Ltd 1998 353 p Rudoy A N Baker V R Sedimentary effects of cataclysmic late Pleistocene glacial outburst flooding Altay Mountains Siberia Sedimentary Geology 85 1993 53 62 Archived from the original on 15 September 2011 Retrieved 14 October 2011 Herbert Sandra 1991 Charles Darwin as a prospective geological author British Journal for the History of Science No 24 pp 171 174 Retrieved 24 July 2009 Buckland W 1823 Reliquiae Diluvianae Or Observations on the Organic Remains Contained in Caves Fissures and Diluvial Gravel and on Other Geological Phenomena Attesting the Action of an Universal Deluge J Murray Retrieved 3 January 2022 Dalrymple 1991 pp 14 17 Barr James 4 March 1987 Biblical Chronology Fact or Fiction PDF University of London p 17 ISBN 978 0718708641 Archived from the original PDF on 28 June 2010 Retrieved 8 August 2010 Age of the Earth U S Geological Survey 1997 Archived from the original on 23 December 2005 Retrieved 10 January 2006 Dalrymple G Brent 2001 The age of the Earth in the twentieth century a problem mostly solved Special Publications Geological Society of London 190 1 205 221 Bibcode 2001GSLSP 190 205D doi 10 1144 GSL SP 2001 190 01 14 S2CID 130092094 Manhesa Gerard Allegre Claude J Duprea Bernard amp Hamelin Bruno 1980 Lead isotope study of basic ultrabasic layered complexes Speculations about the age of the earth and primitive mantle characteristics Earth and Planetary Science Letters 47 3 370 382 Bibcode 1980E amp PSL 47 370M doi 10 1016 0012 821X 80 90024 2 Braterman Paul S 2013 How Science Figured Out the Age of Earth Scientific American Archived from the original on 12 April 2016 Senter Phil The Defeat of Flood Geology by Flood Geology Reports of the National Center for Science Education 31 3 May June 2011 Printed electronically by California State University Northridge Retrieved 7 June 2014 a b Young 1995 p 79 Isaak 2006 p unpaginated Morton 2001 p unpaginated Isaak 2007 p 173 Stewart 2010 p 123 Piccardi L Masse W Bruce 2007 Myth and Geology London Geological Society p 46 ISBN 978 1 86239 216 8 Livingstone David Hart Darryl G Noll Mark A 1999 Evangelicals and Science in Historical Perspective Oxford University Press ISBN 978 0 19 511557 4 Rudwick Martin J S 1988 The Great Devonian Controversy Springer pp 42 44 ISBN 978 0 226 73102 5 Rudwick Martin J S 2008 Worlds before Adam University of Chicago Press p 84 ISBN 978 0 226 73128 5 Wood Paul 2004 Science and Dissent in England 1688 1945 Aldershot Ashgate ISBN 978 0 7546 3718 9 Young Davis A Stearley Ralph F 2008 The Bible rocks and time geological evidence for the age of the earth Downers Grove Ill IVP Academic ISBN 978 0 8308 2876 0 Numbers Ronald L 1993 The Creationists University of California Press p 72 ISBN 978 0 520 08393 6 Kulp J Laurence 1950 Deluge Geology Journal of the American Scientific Affiliation 2 1 1 15 Archived from the original on 7 June 2011 Retrieved 23 November 2007 Yang Seung Hun 1993 Radiocarbon Dating and American Evangelical Christians Retrieved 12 January 2009 Numbers Ronald L 1993 The Creationists University of California Press p 72 ISBN 978 0 520 08393 6 Numbers Ronald L 2006 The creationists from scientific creationism to intelligent design Expanded First Harvard University Press paperback ed Cambridge Massachusetts ISBN 0 674 02339 0 OCLC 69734583 a href Template Cite book html title Template Cite book cite book a CS1 maint location missing publisher link Allen E A et al 1986 Cataclysms on the Columbia Timber Press Portland OR ISBN 978 0 88192 067 3 Bretz knew that the very idea of catastrophic flooding would threaten and anger the geological community And here s why among geologists in the 1920s catastrophic explanations for geological events other than volcanos or earthquakes were considered wrong minded to the point of heresy p 42 Consider then what Bretz was up against The very word Catastrophism was heinous in the ears of geologists It was a step backward a betrayal of all that geological science had fought to gain It was a heresy of the worst order p 44 It was inevitable that sooner or later the geological community would rise up and attempt to defeat Bretz s outrageous hypothesis p 49 Nearly 50 years had passed since Bretz first proposed the idea of catastrophic flooding and now in 1971 his arguments had become a standard of geological thinking p 71 Ager Derek V 1993 The Nature of the Stratigraphical Record 3rd ed Chichester New York Brisbane Toronto Singapore John Wiley amp Sons pp 83 84 ISBN 0 471 93808 4 geologists do not deny uniformitarianism in its true sense that is to say of interpreting the past by means of the processes that are seen going on at the present day so long as we remember that the periodic catastrophe is one of those processes Those periodic catastrophes make more showing in the stratigraphical record than we have hitherto assumed Browne 1983 p 276 Bibliography Alter Robert 2008 The Five Books of Moses W W Norton amp Company ISBN 9780393070248 Arnold Bill T 2009 Genesis Cambridge University Press ISBN 9780521000673 Baden Joel S 2012 The Composition of the Pentateuch Yale University Press ISBN 978 0300152647 Bandstra Barry L 2008 Reading the Old Testament an introduction to the Hebrew Bible Wadsworth Cengage Learning ISBN 978 0495391050 Barr James 28 March 2013 Bible and Interpretation The Collected Essays of James Barr Volume II Biblical Studies Oxford Oxford University Press p 380 ISBN 978 0 19 969289 7 Berman Joshua A 2017 Inconsistency in the Torah Ancient Literary Convention and the Limits of Source Criticism Oxford University Press ISBN 978 0 19 065882 3 Blenkinsopp Joseph 2011 Creation Un creation Re creation A discursive commentary on Genesis 1 11 Bloomsbury T amp T Clark ISBN 9780567372871 Bridge Steven L 2009 Getting the Old Testament Baker ISBN 9781441232779 Burton Keith A 2019 Symbolic numbers Eerdmans ISBN 9781467460460 Carr David M 2021 Genesis 1 11 Kohlhammer Verlag ISBN 978 0 567 13439 4 Bodner Keith 2016 An Ark on the Nile The Beginning of the Book of Exodus Oxford University Press ISBN 978 0 19 878407 4 Browne Janet 1983 The Secular Ark Studies in the History of Biogeography New Haven amp London Yale University Press p 276 ISBN 0 300 02460 6 Chen Y S 2013 The Primeval Flood Catastrophe Origins and Early Development in Mesopotamian Traditions Oxford Oxford University Press ISBN 9780199676200 Cline Eric H 2007 From Eden to Exile National Geographic ISBN 9781426212246 Cohn Norman 1999 Noah s Flood The Genesis Story in Western Thought Yale University Press ISBN 978 0300076486 Guillaume Philippe 2010 Land and Calendar Bloomsbury ISBN 9780567401205 Collins Matthew A 2017 An Ongoing Tradition In Burnette Bletsch Rhonda Morgan Jon eds Noah as Antihero Routledge ISBN 9781351720700 Dalley Stephanie 2008 Myths from Mesopotamia Oxford University Press ISBN 978 0 19 102721 5 Dalrymple G Brent 1991 The Age of the Earth Stanford University Press ISBN 0 8047 2331 1 Finkel Irving 2014 The Ark Before Noah Hachette UK ISBN 9781444757071 Friedman Richard E 1996 Non Arguments Concerning the Documentary Hypothesis In Fox Michael V Hurowitz V A eds Texts Temples and Traditions Eisenbrauns ISBN 9781575060033 Gmirkin Russell E 2006 Berossus and Genesis Manetho and Exodus Bloomsbury ISBN 978 0 567 13439 4 Isaak M 1998 Problems with a Global Flood TalkOrigins Archive Retrieved 29 March 2007 Isaak Mark 5 November 2006 Index to Creationist Claims Geology TalkOrigins Archive Retrieved 2 November 2010 Isaak Mark 2007 The Counter Creationism Handbook University of California Press Kaltner John McKenzie Steven 2014 The Old Testament Its Background Growth and Content Wipf and Stock ISBN 978 0 567 13439 4 Keiser Thomas A 2013 Genesis 1 11 Its Literary Coherence and Theological Message Wipf and Stock Publishers ISBN 9781625640925 Leeming David A 2010 Creation Myths of the World An Encyclopedia Vol 1 ABC CLIO ISBN 9781598841749 Levenson Jon Douglas 1988 Creation and the persistence of evil the Jewish drama of divine omnipotence Harper amp Row ISBN 9780062548450 OCLC 568745811 Montgomery David R 2012 The Rocks Don t Lie A Geologist Investigates Noah s Flood Norton ISBN 9780393082395 Miano David 2010 Shadow on the Steps Society for Biblical Literature ISBN 9781589834781 Morton Glenn 17 February 2001 The Geologic Column and its Implications for the Flood TalkOrigins Archive Retrieved 2 November 2010 Oliver Simon 2017 Creation Bloomsbury ISBN 9780567656117 Sailhamer John H 2010 The Meaning of the Pentateuch Revelation Composition and Interpretation InterVarsity Press ISBN 9780830878888 Schule Andreas 2017 Theology from the Beginning Mohr Siebeck ISBN 9783161539978 Stewart Melville Y 2010 Science and religion in dialogue Malden MA Wiley Blackwell p 123 ISBN 978 1 4051 8921 7 Young Davis A 1995 Diluvial Cosmogonies and the Beginnings of Geology The Biblical Flood A Case Study of the Church s Response to Extrabiblical Evidence Eerdmans p 79 ISBN 978 0 8028 0719 9 Archived from the original on 31 March 2007 Young Davis A Stearley Ralph F 18 August 2008 The Bible Rocks and Time Geological Evidence for the Age of the Earth InterVarsity Press p 45 ISBN 978 0 8308 2876 0 VanderKam James C 2002 Calendars in the Dead Sea Scrolls Routledge ISBN 9781134709632 Walton John H Longman III Tremper 2018 The Lost World of the Flood Mythology Theology and the Deluge Debate InterVarsity Press ISBN 978 0 8308 8782 8 Worthington Martin 2019 Ea s Duplicity in the Gilgamesh Flood Story Routledge ISBN 9780830878888 Further readingCotter David W 2003 Genesis Liturgical Press ISBN 978 0814650400 Habel Norman C 1988 Two Flood Myths In Dundes Alan ed The Flood Myth University of California Press ISBN 9780520063532 Hamilton Victor P 1990 The book of Genesis chapters 1 17 Eerdmans ISBN 9780802825216 Kessler Martin Deurloo Karel Adriaan 2004 A commentary on Genesis the book of beginnings Paulist Press ISBN 9780809142057 Knecht Friedrich Justus 1910 Chapter VI The Deluge A Practical Commentary on Holy Scripture B Herder Levenson Jon D 2004 Genesis introduction and annotations In Berlin Adele Brettler Marc Zvi eds The Jewish Study Bible Oxford University Press ISBN 9780195297515 McKeown James 2008 Genesis Eerdmans ISBN 9780802827050 Middleton J Richard 2005 The Liberating Image The Imago Dei in Genesis 1 Brazos Press ISBN 9781441242785 Rogerson John William 1991 Genesis 1 11 T amp T Clark ISBN 9780567083388 Sacks Robert D 1990 A Commentary on the Book of Genesis Edwin Mellen Towner Wayne Sibley 2001 Genesis Westminster John Knox Press ISBN 9780664252564 Wenham Gordon 2003 Genesis In James D G Dunn John William Rogerson ed Eerdmans Bible Commentary Eerdmans ISBN 9780802837110 Whybray R N 2001 Genesis In John Barton ed Oxford Bible Commentary Oxford University Press ISBN 9780198755005 Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Genesis flood narrative amp oldid 1182171456, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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