The Bible Book of Genesis – Geology, Archaeology, and Theology – Part 9

Genesis 7 & 8: The Cataclysmic Deluge Account – a Worldwide Catastrophe or Local Flood? – Part 1

Parallels and Contrasts between the Creation Account and the Cataclysmic Deluge Account

All chapter and verse notation in the following table refers to the account in Genesis, e.g., 1:28 = Genesis 1:28.

	Creation Account	Flood Account
1.	1:2 – “Now the earth proved to be formless and waste and there was darkness upon the surface of [the] watery deep”	7:19 “And the waters overwhelmed the earth so greatly that all the tall mountains that were under the whole heavens came to be covered. 20 Up to fifteen cubits the waters overwhelmed them and the mountains became covered.”   7:24 “And the waters continued overwhelming the earth a hundred and fifty days.”
2.	3:17-19 “And to Adam he said: “Because you listened to your wife’s voice and took to eating from the tree concerning which I gave you this command, ‘You must not eat from it,’ cursed is the ground on your account. In pain you will eat its produce all the days of your life. 18 And thorns and thistles it will grow for you, and you must eat the vegetation of the field. 19 In the sweat of your face you will eat bread until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken. For dust you are and to dust you will return.”	8:21 “And Jehovah began to smell a restful odor, and so Jehovah said in his heart: “Never again shall I call down evil upon the ground on man’s account, because the inclination of the heart of man is bad from his youth up; and never again shall I deal every living thing a blow just as I have done.””
3.	1:28a – “God said to them: “Be fruitful and become many and fill the earth …””	9:1,7 – “And God went on to bless Noah and his sons and to say to them: “Be fruitful and become many and fill the earth. …””
4.	1:28b – “… and have in subjection the fish of the sea and the flying creatures of the heavens and every living creature that is moving upon the earth.”	9:2 – “And a fear of YOU and a terror of YOU will continue upon every living creature of the earth …”
5.	1:29 – “… “Here I have given to YOU all vegetation bearing seed which is on the surface of the whole earth and every tree on which there is the fruit of a tree bearing seed. To YOU let it serve as food.””	9:3 – “Every moving animal that is alive may serve as food for YOU. As in the case of green vegetation, I do give it all to YOU.”
6.	1:27 – “… “Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness, …””	9:6 – “… for in God’s image he made man.”
7.	4:25 – “And Adam proceeded to have intercourse again with his wife and so she gave birth to a son and called his name Seth, because, as she said: “God has appointed another seed in place of Abel, because Cain killed him.””	5:32 – “After that Noah became father to Shem, Ham and Jaʹpheth.”

1. Parallel: At the beginning shortly after the creation of the earth, it was formless and waste, covered in water. In the Flood by the end of 40 days and 40 nights, the earth had returned almost to the very same state. It was covered in water with no form and no living creatures or plants on the earth or in the sky.
2. Contrast indicating change: After Adam and Eve’s sin, the ground was cursed. After the flood, God made a promise not to curse the ground again because of man’s actions.
3. Parallel: Both Adam and Eve, and Noah and his sons were told to “Be fruitful and become many and fill the earth”.
4. Contrast indicating change: Adam and his descendants were to exercise dominion, or rule over the living creatures. By contrast, after the Cataclysmic Deluge, Noah was told that the living creatures would be in fear of man.
5. Contrast indicating change: Adam and his offspring were given permission to eat any vegetation or fruit. By contrast, Noah was given permission to eat any moving animal, as an addition to all the green vegetation.
6. Parallel: Just as the creation account tells us that man was made in God’s image, so does the account of the Cataclysmic Deluge.
7. Parallel: While the total number of sons is not quantified for either Noah or Adam, (although it appears Noah only had three) three sons are named for both. For Adam, there is Cain, Abel, and Seth, while Noah has Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

Parallels between the Cataclysmic Deluge Account, Creation and Day of Judgment – 2 Peter 3:1-7

In 2 Peter 3, the Apostle Peter opens the discussion with his desire to arouse the clear-thinking faculties of his audience by way of a reminder. He wanted them to remember the sayings previously spoken by Moses, the Prophets, Jesus Christ, and the Apostles.

1. Firstly, the apostle Peter reminds us of the Creation of the heavens and earth by God. 2 Peter 3:5 reads, “For, according to their wish, this fact escapes their notice, that there were heavens from of old and an earth standing compactly out of water and in the midst of water by the word of God;”.

This creation affected the whole earth and led to the creation of mankind. The Apostle Peter also emphasizes that the events that occurred were because of the “word of God” which resulted in bringing about the result.

1. Then in 2 Peter 3:7 the apostle states that “But by the same word [the word of God] the heavens and the earth that are now are stored up for fire and are being reserved to the day of judgment and of destruction of the ungodly men.” The day of judgment [by Christ] is described as affecting the whole earth and all mankind. Once again, the Apostle Peter emphasizes that it is God’s word that will ensure that the day of judgment will occur.
2. Therefore, when in between these two statements, the apostle discusses the Cataclysmic Deluge, saying “and by those [means] [the word of God] the world of that time suffered destruction when it was deluged with water.”, it stands to reason that the Cataclysmic Deluge of Noah’s day was also an event affecting the whole earth and all mankind. It also confirms that the Cataclysmic Deluge was not a natural event but an event caused by the word of God, God’s command.

Conclusion: The Apostle Peter viewed the Creation, the Cataclysmic Deluge of Noah’s Day, and Judgment Day as events that affected or will affect the whole earth and the existence of all mankind. Additionally, all these events occurred or will occur by God’s word, not by natural events, but by a supernatural event.

Our View of the World and the Cataclysmic Deluge

Our view of the Cataclysmic Deluge of Noah’s Day and whether it was global or not affects us in more ways than just our view of Judgment day. It has serious, far-reaching consequences.

Human Bio-Geography and the Cataclysmic Deluge

According to paleoanthropologists, in contradiction to the Bible account, according to the Recent African Origin Model hypothesis,^[1] humans first arose in Central / East Africa. They then spread to the Nile Delta and the Middle East. Thence to Asia. Then from the Middle East to Europe and from Asia to N.E. Russia and Australasia, then from N.E. Russia to North America and onward to South America.

Recent African Origin Model hypothesis diagram

Diagram Credited to NordNordWest – Spreading homo sapiens by Urutseg which is based on Spreading homo sapiens.jpg by Altaileopard, Public Domain ^[2].

As you can see from this diagram these movements had allegedly taken place long before the time period, we can calculate from the Bible that the Cataclysmic Deluge occurred, which is around 2,300-2,400 years before Christ i.e. about 4,300-4,400 years ago. This worldview would therefore require the Biblical Flood to be a local flood as according to this hypothesis via radioactive dating human occupation has allegedly been in the majority of the world for at least 10,000 years. It also renders the dispersion after the confusion of languages at Babel recorded in Genesis 11 as meaningless. This scenario would also not allow the Cataclysmic Deluge to be God’s judgment on mankind as it could only have affected a small area in the Middle East if the human occupation is really as old as claimed in this hypothesis. This means that if we do not accept the Cataclysmic Deluge as a global event, then logically neither can we accept the Biblical account of Creation, as this account places the Garden of Eden somewhere in the area of the confluence of Eastern Turkey, Southern Armenia, and Northern Iraq, not in East Africa.

What is also very interesting about this diagram of population migrations is that if the movement from Africa to the Middle East is reversed the diagram would then be in total agreement with the account in Genesis of population movements after the Cataclysmic Deluge. Furthermore, according to a major 2017 DNA Study of an examination of 100 Egyptian mummies dated between 1400 BCE to 400 BCE gives evidence of genetic migration that matches the Bible account of Genesis 11 rather than the Out of Africa model. Regarding this study, Nature Communications stated “Egypt, located on the isthmus of Africa, is an ideal region to study historical population dynamics due to its geographic location and documented interactions with ancient civilizations in Africa, Asia and Europe. Particularly, in the first millennium BCE Egypt endured foreign domination leading to growing numbers of foreigners living within its borders possibly contributing genetically to the local population. Here we present 90 mitochondrial genomes as well as genome-wide data sets from three individuals obtained from Egyptian mummies. The samples recovered from Middle Egypt span around 1,300 years of ancient Egyptian history from the New Kingdom to the Roman Period. Our analyses reveal that ancient Egyptians shared more ancestry with Near Easterners than present-day Egyptians, who received additional sub-Saharan admixture in more recent times. This analysis establishes ancient Egyptian mummies as a genetic source to study ancient human history and offers the perspective of deciphering Egypt’s past at a genome-wide level.”^[3] (This will be discussed in more depth under the Tower of Babel and the Table of Nations).

Mars and the WorldWide Cataclysmic Deluge of Noah’s Day

The great majority of scholars, historians, and geologists will claim that the Flood was either not a worldwide event or never happened. Many Christians of all denominations have also been persuaded by their arguments. Now you might be thinking, what does Mars have to do with the Cataclysmic Deluge of Noah’s day?

More than you might think!

Note this excerpt from an article published on nature.com. It was entitled “New Martian valley network volume estimate consistent with ancient ocean and warm and wet climate”. ^[4]

It went on to state the following (bold ours)“Fluvial landforms such as valley networks (VNs), outflow channels and delta deposits found on Mars offer the best evidence for its past water activities1^,2^,3. The inventory of water on Mars has been estimated based on a number of different sources, including volatiles from volcanic activities4, geomorphologic traces left by past water activities (from paleolakes and deltas 5^,6, outflow channels 7^,8 and VNs 9), the hypothesized northern ocean10 and, more recently, the observed deuterium/hydrogen (D/H) enrichment 11. VNs on Mars are river-valley-like features that distribute predominantly on the ancient cratered southern highlands and have been long recognized as the best evidence for past water activities 7. In the scenario of a warm and wet early Mars climate, the water running through the VNs would eventually flow towards and collect at the topographically low northern plains, forming an ocean covering nearly 1/3 of the surface12^,13.”

“Rosenberg and Head 24 recently estimated the cumulative volume of water needed to carve the late Noachian VNs based on a fluid/sediment flux ratio function derived from terrestrial empirical data. Their estimate of the most probable cumulative water volume was 3–100 m global equivalent layer (GEL) and concluded that the Late Noachian Martian climate may have been less wet than previously thought 24.”

Did you notice how these scientists term this period in the history of the planet Mars? They call this watery period “the Late Noachian Martian Climate”. They are therefore happy to use the term “Noachian” in relation to a presumed wet period and water-created features on Mars. By contrast, when scientists try to describe what caused the formation of often thousands of feet of sedimentary rock which cover virtually all the land surfaces of our earth, [sedimentary rock is the result of the deposition of water-borne deposits], they refuse to accept what the Bible record describes as a Noachian worldwide deluge here on earth! Instead, they claim the layers of rock were formed over hundreds of millions of years.

This evidence will be examined in depth under “Geological Evidence for a World-Wide Cataclysmic Deluge”.

Theological Implications

There are many and varied theological implications in viewing the Cataclysmic Deluge as a local rather than a Worldwide Cataclysmic Deluge. Some were discussed in part 1 of this series. These included:

• Jesus’ use of the attitudes of the pre-Flood world being similar to the conditions at the time of his return.
• The Apostle Peter’s use of the Flood when comparing with the Creation and the day of Christ’s return.
• God’s reference to the Cataclysmic Deluge, reiterating it would not occur again.

Perhaps the most important implication not yet examined is:

Did God Lie?

• Hebrews 6:18 talks about “things in which it is impossible for God to lie, …”, while Numbers 23:19 states “God is not a man that he should tell lies, neither a son of mankind that he should feel regret.”.
• In Genesis 9:11-17, God stated the following: “And God went on to say to Noah and to his sons with him: ⁹ “And as for me, here I am establishing my covenant with YOU men and with YOUR offspring after YOU, ¹⁰ and with every living soul that is with YOU, among fowls, among beasts and among all living creatures of the earth with YOU, from all those going out of the ark to every living creature of the earth. ¹¹ Yes, I do establish my covenant with YOU: No more will all flesh be cut off by waters of a deluge, and no more will there occur a deluge to bring the earth to ruin.” ¹² And God added: “This is the sign of the covenant that I am giving between me and YOU and every living soul that is with YOU, for the generations to time indefinite. ¹³ My rainbow I do give in the cloud, and it must serve as a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. ¹⁴ And it shall occur that when I bring a cloud over the earth, then the rainbow will certainly appear in the cloud. ¹⁵ And I shall certainly remember my covenant which is between me and YOU and every living soul among all flesh; and no more will the waters become a deluge to bring all flesh to ruin. ¹⁶ And the rainbow must occur in the cloud, and I shall certainly see it to remember the covenant to time indefinite between God and every living soul among all flesh that is upon the earth.”
• God deemed it so important a promise that he repeated it in Genesis 9:17 saying “¹⁷ And God repeated to Noah: “This is the sign of the covenant that I do establish between me and all flesh that is upon the earth”.
• If the Cataclysmic Deluge was merely a local flood, then God lied, as probably all readers have experienced or know of destructive and sometimes loss of life, major flooding events, and therefore he has broken his promise.
• However, if the flood was indeed a global deluge as the Genesis account tells us, then God is not a liar, he is truthful as he claims, and that covenant still stands.
• Incidentally, the rainbow covenant would also suggest a change in the earth’s atmosphere, for the account states that the rainbow was a new sign, which had not occurred before, i.e., before the Flood. As today we know the mechanics behind the appearance of a rainbow, this would confirm that the atmospheric conditions must have been different, as it is highly unlikely God changed the laws of physics so that the light could be split into different wavelengths to provide the rainbow.

Jesus and the Deluge

Jesus used Noah and the Cataclysmic Deluge as a template when he discussed the presence of the son of man (himself). The passages of Matthew 24:36-44 and Luke 17:26-30 contain the following parallels:

1. Normal life was continuing until the date Noah entered in to the Ark, the same would be true when the Son of Man was to be revealed. (Luke 17:26-27,30)
2. According to Matthew 24:39, the pre-flood world knew nothing until the flood came and swept them all away. Likewise, Jesus warned that even he did not know the day when he would be revealed, only the Father knew that. (Sadly this has not stopped many religious groups down the centuries from attempting to pinpoint the year, even the month of Armageddon and the revealing of the Son of Man).

Chronologies

If we reject the account of the Cataclysmic Deluge in Genesis, then it calls into question the genealogies given in Genesis and repeated in part in 1 Chronicles 1:1-4. More importantly, it calls into question the genealogy of Jesus himself as recorded in Luke 3:36. It is therefore not possible to call oneself a Christian if we reject the foundation of the genealogy of Jesus Christ.

Other Issues

Ezekiel 14:14 talking about the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians referred to Noah. It records God as saying that “‘And had these three men proved to be in the midst of it, Noah, Daniel and Job, they themselves because of their righteousness would deliver their soul,’ is the utterance of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah.”

1 Peter 3:19-20 tells that the resurrected Jesus “went his way and preached to the spirits in prison, who had once been disobedient when the patience of God was waiting in Noah’s days, while the ark was being constructed, in which a few people, that is, eight souls, were carried safely through the water.” How could Jesus preach to imprisoned spirits if these spirits never came to earth before a worldwide flood occurred? Further, if there was no worldwide flood they would not have left Earth and gone back to the spirit realm and been imprisoned.

Hebrews 11:7 reminds us that “By faith Noah, after being given divine warning of things not yet beheld, showed godly fear and constructed an ark for the saving of his household; and through this [faith] he condemned the world, and he became an heir of the righteousness that is according to faith.”. The Apostle Paul clearly believed that Noah’s Flood was worldwide, otherwise, Noah’s faith could not have condemned the world.

If we diminish the events of Noah’s time into a local flood or an event that did not occur, then we also invalidate God’s word in Ezekiel 14 about Noah’s righteousness, while Peter’s words in 1 Peter 3 becomes meaningless, as does the Apostle Paul’s word in Hebrews 11. This highlights the importance of the accounts in Genesis of the Creation and the Flood of Noah’s day.

Learning from the Language used in the Cataclysmic Deluge Account.

Cataclysmic Deluge, Flood – “mabbul”

The Hebrew word used in the Genesis account for “flood or deluge” is “mabbul” ^[5] , possibly related to “yabal” a deluge.

• “mabbul” is only ever used to describe the Flood of Noah’s day. It is never used for any other flood.
• “mabbul” is always found with the definitive article “ha” giving “ha mabbul”, “the Flood”, drawing attention to its uniqueness. “The flood”, not “a flood”
• “mabbul” is translated in the Greek Septuagint (LXX) version and other Greek translations as “kataklysmos”, which is cataclysm in English and means more than some local flood.
• “mabbul” is found a total of 19 times in the following verses: Genesis 6:17, Genesis 7:6,7,10,17; Genesis 9:11a,11b,15,28; Genesis 10:1,32; Genesis 11:10; and Psalm 29:10 and in every case, it is referring to the Flood of Noah’s day.
• Other words are used for river floods, etc. for example, torrents, overflow. such as “sheteph”^[6] and “zerem”^[7] (See Daniel 9:26 “sheteph”)

Conclusion: The word “mabbul” used in the Hebrew text is unique to the Cataclysmic Deluge account of Genesis. The indication is that this was a unique event in earth’s history. This is backed up by the use of the word “kataklysmos” i.e., “cataclysm” in the Greek Septuagint translation (LXX). In this series of articles, the Flood of Noah’s day will be referred to as the Cataclysmic Deluge of Noah’s Day.

Cataclysmic Deluge – “kataklysmos”

The cataclysmic deluge of Noah’s day is referred to in Matthew 24:38-39 and Luke 17:27 by Jesus. In all three verses, the word translated as “flood” is “kataklysmos”^[8]. However, by contrast, when Jesus gave the parable about building your house upon the rock mass in Luke 6:46-49, the Greek word translated “a flood” is “plemmyres”.^[9] The fact that the same word “kataklysmos” is used here as in the Genesis account in the Greek Septuagint, as opposed to the “plemmyres”, flood, indicates that the Cataclysmic Deluge of Noah’s day was no normal flood.

All – “kol“ ^[10]

The use of the word “all” (“kol”) occurs some 30 times in the Hebrew text in the Flood account contained in Genesis 6-9. Here are some examples:

• Genesis 6 – 7 times
  • “6 Consequently Jehovah saw that the badness of man was abundant in the earth and every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only bad all the time.”
  • “12 So God saw the earth and, look! it was ruined, because all flesh had ruined its way on the earth.”
  • “13 The end of all flesh has come before me ..”
  • “17 And as for me, here I am bringing the deluge of waters upon the earth to bring to ruin all flesh in which the force of life is active from under the heavens.”
  • “22 And Noah proceeded to do according to all that God had commanded him. He did just so.”
• Genesis 7 – 8 times
  • “1 … said to Noah: “Go, you and all your household into the ark, …”
  • “5 And Noah proceeded to do according to all that Jehovah had commanded him.”
  • “11 … on this day all the springs of the vast watery deep were broken open …”
  • “19 And the waters overwhelmed the earth so greatly that all the tall mountains that were under the whole heavens came to be covered.”
  • “21 So all flesh that was moving upon the earth expired, … and all mankind”
• Genesis 8 – 4 times
  • “9 … because the waters were yet upon the surface of the whole earth.”
  • “20 … of all the clean beasts and of all the clean flying creatures …”
• Genesis 9 – 11 times
  • “11 … No more will all flesh be cut off by waters of a deluge, …”
  • “15 … no more will the waters become a deluge to bring all flesh to ruin.”
  • “17 … and all flesh that is upon the earth.”
  • “19 … from these was all the earth’s population spread abroad.”

Every, Everything – “kol“ ^[11]

Additionally, the words “every” and “everything” appear some 40 times and is the same Hebrew word “kol” used for “all”. Here are some examples:

• Genesis 6 – 4 times + 1 time
  • “17 Everything that is in the earth will expire.”
  • “19 And of every living creature of every sort of flesh, two of each …”
• Genesis 7 – 14 times + 2 times
  • “4 … I will wipe every existing thing that I have made off the surface of the ground.”
• Genesis 8 – 8 times + 1 time
  • “21 … never again shall I deal every living thing a blow just as I have done.”
• Genesis 9 – 9 times + 1 time
  • “15 And I shall certainly remember my covenant which is between me and YOU and every living soul among all flesh;”

It is impossible to argue that this account is hyperbole (exaggerated to make a point) when it is clearly emphasis to the point of being emphatic that these events occurred. Repeatedly the account tells us that all flesh, every living creature including all mankind (but Noah and his family) was wiped out.

Conclusion: The account of the Flood cannot be intended to be hyperbole. The repetition of certain phrases and the many, many uses of “all, every, everything” emphasizes the certainty of the events recorded there. Hyperbole would not be so specific and detailed.

The Bible Book of Genesis – Geology, Archaeology, and Theology – Part 8

The Bible Book of Genesis – Geology, Archaeology, and Theology – Part 10

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References:

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recent_African_origin_of_modern_humans ↑
2. https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=34697001 ↑
3. https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms15694 Abstract ↑
4. https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms15766 published 5 June 2017 ↑
5. https://biblehub.com/hebrew/3999.htm ↑
6. https://biblehub.com/hebrew/7858.htm ↑
7. https://biblehub.com/hebrew/2230.htm ↑
8. https://biblehub.com/greek/2627.htm ↑
9. https://biblehub.com/greek/4132.htm ↑
10. https://biblehub.com/hebrew/3605.htm ↑
11. https://biblehub.com/hebrew/3605.htm ↑

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