The Flood of Noah

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– subject to continuing refinement –

"So

the LORD said,

'I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens,
for I am sorry that I have made them.'

But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD."

Genesis 6:7-8 ESV.

The Creator's motivation for the Great Flood is given in Genesis Six as human mutation, from the mating of angels (fallen) with human females. This causes God to set a time limit on corrupt human society of 120 years. Bachelor Noah has this time to prepare for the Flood survival – by marriage, family, and the construction of his great three-story landlocked barge (the ark).

Attempts to avoid this understanding
do violence to the proper meaning
of the Hebrew text.

[For honest exegesis, the Hebrew term translated sons of God must be understood in its Hebrew context. This can only mean supernatural (i.e. unborn) beings and not 'believers' as some expositors have tried to impose on the text to avoid awkward questions of how this could happen].

Noah

is the transition from the destroyed world to a new beginning, symbolized forever after by the dove. The following graph illustrates the radical change to human life conditions (a longevity drop of 55% at the Flood, primarily a physical change) and, subsequently again, consequent on the city and tower of Babel division of humanity (primarily a psychological change).

At no time is human longevity ever decreed by God. It is always a product of human lifestyle and environment.

See:
Common 'Christian' Fallacies.

The above graph shows the trend-line changes (A-B and B-C) which occurred at the Genesis Flood (A10), and at the Babel Division of the human race (B5).

"In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day
[1] all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and [2] the windows of the heavens were opened."

Genesis 7:11.

It has been popular to try and explain the Flood as a local catastrophe with a global effect. This does not fit the facts.

There are three flood-factors in the Bible's description which point to a unique global flood – namely: the cause, the birds, the special after effects –

1.	The two sources – great rain, and "all the fountains of the great deep burst forth" (תהום רבה) describes nothing less than a tidal surge involving all oceans, an event which implies a major tectonic disturbance;
2.	The preservation of birds on the Ark also points to a global event, for otherwise birds would simply have flown to higher areas;
3.	The significant permanent consequence of significant sharp reduction in human longevity also oints to a major environmental change.

According to the Bible's Genesis record, the changes in average human longevity are directly associated with –

1.	(A 10)	Flood	– from about 900 down to 400-years-old (probably from physical changes), a 55% drop;
2.	(B 5)	Babel	– from about 400 down to 200-years-old (probably from psycho-social changes).

Subsequent to the psycho-social effect of Babel, human longevity now gradually drops from about 200 years to an average between 80 to 70 years of age depending on various factors. (See Dr Cuozzo below*).

The main unconformities occur in the Abrahamic Ancestry graph are longevity (yellow at A7 – Enoch) and in marriage-age (blue at A10 – Noah, Enoch's great grandson).

It is worthy of note that these two age anomalies are the same two persons who alone are described in Scripture as having "walked with God" (Genesis 5:22; 6:9) and therefore should be regarded as special cases.

Enoch the Prophet

The longest lived pre-Flood patriarch in the genealogy of Abraham is Methuselah (A8 above) – a phenomenal 969 years. If one adds the years from the birth of Methuselah to the Flood, it is also 969 years. This is not coincidence! These figure is composed as follows (age at the birth of each patriarch's son, plus Noah's age at the Flood):

Methuselah	187
Lamech	182
Noah	600
Total	969

What this means is that, although the text does not say it explicitly, the year that Enoch's first-born son died – is the year in which the Flood came.

This reminds one of God's attitude to king Solomon – protected for the sake of his father, David (1 Kings 11:12). For the sake of faithful Enoch, the judgment of God (which was a central theme of his prophesying, Jude 14-15), was delayed until after the death of his son and heir – Methuselah. Does this not express the gracious faithfulness of the Most High!

Noah the Hope

The Genesis details of Noah indicate that he was unmarried at the time of God's revelation to him of the coming Flood (120-year notice period, Gen.6:3) and of the role of human mutation in its cause (6:2,4). His single status at his age is most unusual at this time. This unique man has further detail associated with him in Genesis, directly and indirectly.

According to Josephus (revised) and the Septuagint Genesis translation (confirmed by the New Testament, Lk.3:36) based on an earlier Hebrew text than our present Hebrew copies, the Genesis data gives the following milestones in Noah's life:

Noah's Flood warning from God	Age	480	years
His delayed marriage		500
His second son's birth	(Shem)	502
His father's death	(Lamech)	595
His grandfather's death and the Flood	(Methuselah)	600		The Great Flood

His grandson's birth	(Arphaxad)	602
His great grandson's birth	(Cainan)	737
His great great grandson's birth	(Shelah)	867
Noah dies		950

wonder the ancient Sumerian tradition called this patriarch: Ziusudra; meaning – 'life of long days'.

According to this data then, patriarch Noah dies 311 years before his many descendants break up into groups at Babel (around the time of Peleg's birth) and scatter across the earth. The long term effects of radical climatic change and continuing conflict further affect overall longevity. Nevertheless, the great Noah lived to see his fifth generation (in Hebrew counting), even outdoing his tested and blesséd descendant Job (Job 42:16).

Remember: the Ark of Noah was not a boat/ship. It was simply a floating container, built on land according to dimensions given to him by God. It had no propulsion, so it had no prow, and was very different from many of the fanciful drawings used to illustrate the event.
The Ark's dimensions:

L.300 x W.50 x H.30 cubits
On a 'cubit' of 18 inches*
that would be in feet 450 x 75 and 45 in height.

*This is uncertain for the cubit was the length from the elbow to the tip of the middle finger of a man and we do not know the stature of Noah.

The

event that marks the greatest change in human length of life in human history is –

See: 'Probable Cause'

370 370 370 … THE CRISIS YEAR … 370 370 370

The Great Flood as reported in detail in Genesis 6-8, and constitutes the worst natural disaster in human history (note: 'probable cause');
the only event to need God's promise, with rainbow reassurance, that it would never be allowed to ever happen again.

See: 'Probable Cause'

An analysis of the data indicates:
The Great Flood

"For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the Spirit, in which He went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, because they formerly did not obey, when God's patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water."
1 Pet.3:18-20.

Hebrew mabbul meanimg 'deluge' – Akkadian abÜbum meaning 'devastating storm-surge'

Flood drainage takes 330 days before humans and animals can safely leave the Ark.

The hero of the Great Flood in different traditions

Hebrew	Noah	'relief / comfort'	Sumerian	Ubar-Tutu	'friend of God'
Sumerian	Ziusudra	'life of long days'	Akkadian	Utnapishtim	'he has found life'
Late Babylonian	Xisouthros	"	Old Babylonian	Atrahasïs	'exceedingly wise'

Noah's Diary of Special Events

Note: Two mechanisms are at work!

Year I

Month 2

Day 10

Embarkation – "birds and all that move along the ground"

Gen. 7:4-10.

Year I

Month 2

Day 17

1.	"all the springs of the great deep* burst forth,* and
2.	the floodgates of the heavens* were opened*"

Gen. 7:11

Atmospheric & Oceanic
waters engulf
all continents

40-day period of downpour and surging tide

Year I

Month 3

Day 27

Both the surging waters and incessant rain stop

Gen. 7:24

110-day period of drifting on the currents

"Fossil remains of clams (found in the closed position, indicating they were buried alive) have been found atop Mt. Everest. Sedimentary layers and fossil remains seem to be a testimony to a past marine cataclysm."
(Source: Geoparks, UNESCO, 2007)
Bearing in mind of course that, as the Bible says (see below), the mountains were not always at there present height.

Year I

Month 7

Day 17

After drifting for 150 days the Ark strands,

Gen. 8:4

74-day period stranded out of sight of land

Year I

Month 10

Day 1

Mountain tops become visible

Gen. 8:5

Year I

Month 11

Day 11 or 12

Raven is released and does not return

Gen. 8:7

Year I

Month 11

Day 18 or 19

Dove is released and returns

Gen. 8:8

Year I

Month 11

Day 25 or 26

Dove is released and returns with a fresh olive leaf

Gen. 8:10

Year I

Month 12

Day 2 or 3

Dove is released and does not return

Gen. 8:12

Year II

Month 1

Day 1

Noah removes shutters and sees the ground is drying

Gen. 8:13

Year II

Month 2

Day 27

God's command to leave the Ark

Gen. 8:14-15

"You covered it [the land] with the deep as with a garment; the waters stood above the mountains.
At Your rebuke they fled; at the sound of Your thunder they took to flight.
The mountains rose, the valleys sank down to the place that You appointed for them.
You set a boundary that they may not pass, so that they might not again cover the earth."

Psalm 104:6-9
tectonic plate changes

Noah's Diary of the Flood indicates an old Earth Year of 360 days

The rate of rotation of our earth (the length of a day, and therefore the number of days per year) is affected by change in the distance of our moon's orbit. Observed changes in our moon's present orbit indicate differences in past days-per-year. In confirmation, Middle Devonian corals indicate an earth year then of about 400 days (less than 22 hours a day), requiring a much closer moon-orbit than at present.

Earliest recorded calendars reflect a 360-day-year cycle. These may be simply lunar based with continuing adjustment for the agricultural cycles or they may indicate the much earlier experience reflected in Noah's Diary.
These are –

Ancient Sumerian –	360 day year, plus a month on occasion as each city state chose.
Ancient Egyptian –	360 day year, plus 5 extra days to adjust to the solar year.
Ancient Hindu –	360 day year, adding a month every 60 months to adjust to the solar year.
Ancient Mayan –	360 day year (tun), plus 5 unlucky days to adjust to the solar year.

The ancient Mayan calendar was composed as follows:
kin = one day; uinal = 20 days; tun = 360 days (18 uinal); katun = 7,200 days (20 tun); baktun = 144,000 days (20 katun).
Their calendar shows the number of days elapsed since their beginning date: August 11, 3114 B.C. (some scholars think the date is August 13, 3114 B.C.)

Our earth-day has been lengthening by an average of about 30 seconds a century as our moon's average distance from the earth slowly increases. Recently changes to this trend have occurred.

See: 'World Weather'

Concerning

the possibility that the Flood was local – for those who accept the biblical data, two points need to be remembered:

1.	All birds are included among the fauna to be preserved.
2.	It took 330 days for the for the water to drain and the earth to dry sufficiently to disembark.

This makes a local flood impossible. So, one must either accept a world flood or simply reject the biblical data. There really is no middle ground on this issue.

Diet change!

Note the distinction in God's command about the animals. Noah is to take on board seven of every kind of clean animal (fit for food and therefore acceptable as a sacrifice to God), and simply a breeding pair of each unclean animal (unfit to eat). This distinction is given greater detail later in Israel's Mosaic code. (Lev.11).

This

change of diet to now eating animals is the reason why God now also places the fear of humans on all animals.

For those who condemn the eating of animal products as un-Edenic and therefore contrary to God's design – it should be remembered that the earth has been cursed by God (Gen.3:17), and therefore it is no longer capable of supplying human needs through plant products only, hence the God-given preflood distinction among animals above. This productivity decline is now exacerbated as a consequence of the Flood, therefore God announces –

"Everything that lives and moves will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything."

Genesis 9:3

Some have nevertheless regarded this divine command as nothing but a concession to fallen man because of his evil nature. This idea is not true for two reasons –

•	it completely ignores the context, the after-effect of the Flood (the earth's changed productivity), illustrated by the rainbow which had never been seen before; and,
•	it is contrary to the character of God, particularly as demonstrated by Jesus, that the principle is always human benefit and not God's compromise (e.g. Christ's Sabbath observance).

Permitted Human Diet
1.	Eden: – seed-bearing plants only;
2.	Post-Eden: – including 'clean' animals;
3.	Post-Flood – including everything that moves.

interesting note on the web site of the Global Network of Geoparks (assisted by UNESCO) reads:

"Dinosaur fossils were once thought to be millions of years old. This age was based upon the geologic column. The geologic column dates fossils by the rocks in which they are found, and dates rocks by the fossils they contain. Critics insist this is circular reasoning. "The intelligent layman has long suspected circular reasoning in the use of rocks to date fossils and fossils to date rocks" (J.E. O'Rourke, "American Journal of Science," 1976, 276:51). Furthermore, the geologic column assumes uniformity, which has come to be disproved by such geologic features as poly-strata fossils, misplaced fossils, missing layers, and misplaced layers (such as layers in reverse order, or "ancient" layers found several layers above "modern" layers). Most recently, advocates of an "Old Earth" turn to Radiometric Dating to prove dinosaurs to be ancient. Though they cannot date the dinosaur remains themselves, they can date rocks buried near the dinosaur remains. This is not accepted by many authorities as valid, as Radiometric Dating is based upon controversial assumptions held to be erroneous by many scholars, as indicated by empirical research. Dinosaurs are assumed to be millions of years old. Many now propose they died off in recent times and are responsible for the myriad of dragon myths. This has come to be a popular theory with such discoveries as the Ice Stones, the Glenn Rose tracks, etc. In addition, human remains have been found buried with dinosaur remains on more than one occasion. It may be that man hunted dinosaurs to extinction." (emphasis mine).

According

to the Bible, the curse on the productivity of the soil will only be lifted at the return of the Lord Jesus Christ, and not before (Romans 8:19-22). It is therefore a misleading deception to teach that vegetarianism is God's way for a healthy lifestyle today.

(See White's Doctrinal Distinctives)

In contrast to the average preflood longevity,
an analysis of the aging process today indicates rapid and varying declines in different body functions with time.

The age related decline in female fertility is particularly noteworthy.

'Deluge Tablet' of Gilgamesh Epic in the British Museum

Deluge tablet of the Gilgamesh Epic

The mountains on which the Noah's huge barge stranded are described in Genesis as belonging to the 'Ararat' region in Genesis 8:4. 'Ararat' is the Hebrew equivalent of the Assyro-Babylonian 'Urartu'. This is a region between the Upper Tigris and Aras rivers of northern Iraq and eastern Turkey, which includes the massive volcanic peaks of the present day mountain called Ararat.
So, in the mountainous region of eastern Anatolia human civilization began again after the Flood, and spread southward until they tried to consolidate their unity in a city (Babel) in southern Mesopotamia.

God's break-up of their attempt to consolidate their unity is explained for us in Acts 17:26-27 —

"He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth,
having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God,
in the hope that they might feel their way toward Him and find Him. Yet He is actually not far from each one of us."

Designed vulnerability for pre-planned dependence so as to come to know Him!

*Interestingly, physical confirmation of great longevity in human prehistory appears in Neanderthal fossils, according to Dr Jack Cuozzo of Montclair, New Jersey. Dr Cuozzo's X-ray investigations (orthodontic cephalometric radiographs) of Neanderthal fossils in European museums indicated a life span in South Western France, for example, of between 250 and 300 years. (See: Cuozzo 1998, 'Buried Alive'. Green Forest, AR, USA: Master Books, Inc.).

Two

Cautionary Notes:

"I wish radiocarbon was not so messy, either in its statistical uncertainty, or in the intricacies of calibration... More and more we have dendro (tree-ring) dates, with the excitement of precision to nearly a single calendar year..."

– Christopher Chippindale, editorial, Antiquity (June 1993).

"Chronology is a dangerous subject for study, because it can become an obsession, then a disease. One must learn to distance oneself from emotional self-identification with any given datings, whatever they might be."

– Prof. Kenneth A. Kitchen, Times Literary Supplement (21 June 1991).

Radiocarbon dating is a very useful tool. Its reliability assumes, however, that its formation (in the upper atmosphere from the impact of solar wind) is more or less constant in history. Radiocarbon dating prior to about 3000 BC is generally contradicted by other dating methods and should therefore be viewed with caution.

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