Summary of passages: Genesis 6:7-7:24: God said He will wipe mankind and everything He has created from the face of the earth for He is grieved He made them. Except for Noah and his family. He tells Noah He is going to destroy the world and he needs to build an ark. God enters a covenant with Noah. He tells Noah he will need to bring in two of all living creatures, male and female, to keep them alive and every kind of food for him and for the animals.
Noah did everything God commanded.
Genesis 7: God tells Noah to enter the ark with the animals for in seven days He will send rain for 40 days and nights. Noah obeys. Noah was 600 years old when the flood happened. All the animals came to him. Then the Lord shut them in and the waters came. Everything perished. After the rain stopped, the earth remained flooded for 150 days.
Hebrews 11:7: By faith Noah obeyed God and built the ark, becoming heir of the righteous.
Questions:
6a) Noah was righteous, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God.
b) Personal Question. My answer: Personally, I’ve never found this very hard. I don’t really care what others think of me and I do my own thing. I don’t keep up with the Jones’ (nor do I read about them). Don’t be of this world but of God’s world. Put God as your center and He will do the rest.
7) God told Noah he was going to end all people and destroy the world. He told Noah to make an ark to exact specifications. He told Noah how He was going to destroy the world (through a flood). But He promised to establish His covenant with him and He will save him and his family along with two of every living creature. He instructed Noah to bring along food for both him and the animals.
8a) The Bible says all the high mountains under the entire heavens were covered (7:19). Every living thing on the earth perished, which would have to be a worldwide flood. An ark would be unnecessary if Noah could have merely traveled to a different location.
b) If you read ancient myths from every culture, almost every culture has a flood myth (from the Ancient Egyptians to the Babylonians to the Native Americans). Before writing, myths were passed on by word of mouth from generation to generation so somewhere this flood happened.
Since the beginning of written records there have been writings by the ancients of an ark (or an ancient ship) found. Various people have claimed to have found and/or seen the ark on the mount of Ararat and elsewhere.
Many people believe fossils are a result of the flood. Did you know there is actually a branch of geology called flood geology? These people write books and spend their time researching and searching the earth for evidence of a massive flood. Fascinating. There is definitely evidence in the fossil record of a flood.
c) I don’t see any phrases that support upheavals of the earth’s crust or tsunamis (notice the word probably in the question). All I see is the rain and how for 40 days it kept coming down and the mountains were covered. In my mind, that’s all that happened. Water covered everything. The ark floated. I see no mention of earthquakes which cause tsunamis anywhere.
Conclusions: Baffled by the last question, its significance, and what it has to do with the flood. God created the land as He wanted it. I see no reason He would change its landscape. He just wanted to rid the world of the inhabitants.
Not sure why Hebrews was stuck in here either. The questions did not refer to it (except maybe how Noah was faithful in building the ark) but Genesis tells us that. If you obey God, you have faith.
I have to admit I have read most of these ancient flood myths to my kids when we study these cultures and they are all strikingly similar to the account of the flood in Genesis. In my mind, that’s the strongest evidence of all since these stories are the heart of how ancient people preserved their history and explained the world around them.
God told norah to put two of all flesh on the ark….that tells me other mankind was on the arkthat why i am heari think norah and his family was chosen because they had not inter marrage with the fallen angles
Comment on question 8c regarding huge upheavals of the earth’s crust: To me it seems like the source of the flood came from a huge upheaval of the earth’s crust as noted on 7:10-11. The breaking up of the water springs in the deep earth (v.11) could represent cataclysmic buildup and surge of intense pressure thru-out the underground system of water springs. This acute rise in pressure and heat from the center of the earth would cause the earth to crack open releasing all the water under the earth — possibly even like a tsunami. There was also a pouring down of torrential flood rains from the water canopy in the atmospheric heaven as “the floodgates of the heavens were opened.” Gen 7:11. To me the Bible is describing catastrophic events with great torrential quantities of water from above and below the earth’s surface to completely cover all the high mountains (7:19-20). I have read some articles from the Institute of Creation Research(ICR) detailing how an acute catastrophic flood could lead to the flood geology and fossil model that AtoZ mentioned in question 8b. I certainly can’t be dogmatic, but I feel that Gen 7:11 could be interpreted as phrases involving upheavals of the earth’s crust. The waters that had been held back suddenly “burst forth” thru large fissures in the ground or in the sea floor with catastrophic results.
Thank you for your response! I think AtoZ overlooked the part about the springs of the great deep burst forth.
Question 8c look at verse 7:11 that where I think they got that question
In the NIV verse 11 reads, “…all the springs of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened.”
It depends on how you interpret “great deep.” This could be geysers for example where water in the earth’s crust is super-heated from the mantle below and burst forth regularly. Scientists know there are vents at the bottom of the ocean that release steam from the heat of the mantle.
We know earthquakes cause tsunamis so if the earth’s crust is part of the great deep then yes you could say tsunamis were caused when these springs burst forth.
There is too much speculation as to what these springs are and what the “great deep” is and where it is at.
We simply don’t know.
So I answered the question with the simplest interpretation: that springs appeared. Period. No accompanying earthquakes or tsunamis.
In my mind, God flooded the earth and He didn’t need to cause major upheavals that changed the earth’s landscape. Like I said, His end goal was to rid the planet of humanity. He had created the earth perfectly in Genesis 1. Why would He mess with its form?
He could have used upheavals. But He didn’t need to. So I always take it at face value.
God is God. He can do whatever He wants. The rest is speculation.
I agree about #8 and speculation. I took a lot of archaeology, anthropology, and geology courses in college. I’m just not willing to go there. Some people obviously are enjoying these speculative questions but I’m not one of them. I still love BSF and I appreciate your blog.