“So
the Lord said, 'My Spirit will not ‘ידון’ mankind forever since they are
flesh.
They will remain for one hundred and twenty more years.” |
Genesis 6:3 | ||||
This statement was God's announcement of the end of His tolerance, in
view of general human corruption, preliminary to the terrible mass-destruction
of the Flood. But this sentence has been problematic in the history of
translation and exegesis. |
יָדוֹן |
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The key word whose implications affect our understanding
of what happened is the word ‘ידון’ in the above quote. It is the
Hebrew verb 'yadon' and occurs only here in all Holy Scripture. This word has three possible translations, only
two of which have usually been used.
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| 1. |
It has traditionally has been understood as derived
from the verbal root 'to judge' and so translated as "strive"
or "contend with" in Medieval Hebrew. But if this word was so derived, then it
would have been written as 'yadin',
and it is not.
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"strive" or "contend with" | |||
| Translations following this meaning: King James Version, American Standard Version, Revised Version, God's Word Version, New International Version. | |||||
| 2. |
Some translators have understood the word as related
to an Arabic cognate which would support the translation "remain
with" or "abide". This translation gives rise to ideas
which do not fit with the rest of Scripture, notably an intrinsic enmity
between God's Spirit and human nature ('flesh'), and so the word 'spirit'
is then downgraded to mean divine life-giving breath rather than the Spirit
of God. But the word for spirit here is 'ruach' not 'neshamah' (breath), so
this is unlikely, and there is also little evidence to conclude that an Arabic term can lead us into understanding a unique word in the earliest text of ancient Biblical Hebrew.
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"abide" or "remain" | |||
| Translations following this meaning: Old Greek, Douay-Rheims Bible, Contemporary English Version, English Standard Version, Jewish Publication Society Version . | |||||
3.
![]() Flood Tablet of the Gilgamesh Epic written in Akkadian. |
However, this Hebrew word 'yadon' is cognate with
an ancient Akkadian word meaning "protect" or "shield".
This relationship with the extinct Akkadian language takes us back to
the roots of the Hebrew language. The fact of yadon's sole appearance
here in all Hebrew Scripture (so we are unable to compare its use elsewhere),
and that it also happens to be in Genesis (Genesis being one of the oldest
writings in Holy Scripture), supports this Akkadian association. The word
"shield" as a translation would then radically change our
understanding of the situation which gave rise to the Great Flood.
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"shield"
or
"protect" See: E. A. Speiser, “YDWN, Gen. 6:3,” JBL 75 [1956]: 126-29. Note 5 in Net Bible. |
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Given that this third alternative is the more likely meaning of the term 'yadon', how does this affect our understanding?
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Well, the verse would then read:
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"So the Lord said, 'My Spirit will not shield mankind indefinitely since they are flesh [mortal?]. They will have one hundred and twenty more years." |
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| Shield from what? Protect from the dangerous universe we live in. | |||||
| A hostile creation? | Well, according to our Bible God said it was a creation that needed to be "subdued",
and ruled accordingly by those representing its Creator (Gen.1:28). Remember, God
also considered it wise to specially prepare a "garden", a separate
specially-planted area, for human society in its vulnerable beginning
with Adam and Eve. After the moral failure of Adam in choosing to follow
his deceived wife's example (1 Tim.2:14) the local situation became worse
for humanity with dependence on labour intensive agriculture.
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Our universe really is a dangerous place. The first
indication of this was the fact that God made this special separate place
for the first human couple; a place with boundaries and one entrance;
an entrance which, sadly, later needed to be guarded by God's guards armed
with a deterrent, "the flame of a whirling sword", to prevent
human return to the Tree of Life . |
Genesis 3:24. | ||||
But now, human society has morally degraded to the
extent of common mutation (haNephilim*, הנפלים),
which signaled the end of divine tolerance. The same Spirit of God who
had hovered over the dark water-covered planet (in Gen.1:2) in expectation
of the words of Jesus to bring order and life in the six days of Creation,
is the same Spirit of God whose withdrawal now allows total catastrophe
and destruction of all human life beyond one family.
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*The Hebrew
term 'nephilim' is of uncertain translation but the phrase "sons of God" is a Semitic idiom for angelic beings, in this context 'fallen'. |
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That the Genesis Flood is associated with a radical
change in the human environment is vividly shown in the immediate and
drastic drop in human longevity. Excluding exceptions, from the Biblical
data it is a drop from about 900 to an average of 400 years: a more than
55% reduction in average human lifetime! No matter what arguments are
raised as to whether these were normal years or not, the biblical data
teaches a radical and sudden more-than-halving of human longevity. Something
had changed with huge effects on longevity and on agricultural output
(Gen.9:3). |
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Our solar system gives a clue to past events that
may have some bearing on earth's history. Saturn has rings of matter in
permanent orbit about that planet. The composition of these rings conforms
largely to the known composition of comets that occasionally visit our
solar system. The orbital stability of the rings indicates an origin other
than the planet Saturn. There is no known mechanism for their origin other
than the loss of material from a passing comet. The significant presence
of ice in the rings and comets may be a clue to the mechanism which reversed
the act of God on Day Two of Creation: |
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"God said, 'Let there be an expanse in the
midst of the waters and let it separate water from water'.
So God made the expanse and separated the water under the expanse from the water above it. It was so. God called the expanse 'sky'. There was evening, and there was morning, a second day." |
Genesis 1:6-8. | ||||
The sudden condensation of a vast water-mass from
above our atmosphere (sky) may explain the Bible's description of the
windows of heaven opening. Not only this, but the near pass of such an
astronomical body would have caused a tidal surge in the molten interior
below our earth's crust, which being at its thinnest under our oceans
would have created a world-tide of unprecedented proportions - drowning
continents in a destructive tearing mass of water. |
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Noah's ark had no propulsion as it was not designed
to go anywhere but only to wait-out the event. On this deluge therefore
it would most likely strand where water-movement was slowest, such as
where continents meet and mountain ranges impede movement. Thus, where
Africa, Asia, and Europe come closest, in the Caucasus mountain range
on the peak Ararat the ark stranded – after 143 days adrift on a nightmare
tide. But even then another 220 days would need to pass, according to
the Biblical data, before the land was stable and dry enough for human
society to begin again.
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See: The Great Flood |
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No wonder that first family of the new beginning
needed rainbow reassurance every time it began to rain! |
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| Do mountain heights today indicate the height the surging waters covered? No, certainly not. | |||||
| The Bible says that after the Flood there was an isostatic adjustment and perhaps more: | |||||
| "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 (Hallelujah!) |
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| YES! NEVER AGAIN! | |||||
| For this reason |
the Throne of God is surrounded by a rainbow, in the Revelation given to John on Patmos in the Bible's climactic conclusion; and the four 'Living Beings' around the Throne represent in their faces the four life-forms guaranteed preservation under the covenant of Noah.
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Revelation 4; Genesis 9. |
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