Quotes & Sayings


We, and creation itself, actualize the possibilities of the God who sustains the world, towards becoming in the world in a fuller, more deeper way. - R.E. Slater

There is urgency in coming to see the world as a web of interrelated processes of which we are integral parts, so that all of our choices and actions have [consequential effects upon] the world around us. - Process Metaphysician Alfred North Whitehead

Kurt Gödel's Incompleteness Theorem says (i) all closed systems are unprovable within themselves and, that (ii) all open systems are rightly understood as incomplete. - R.E. Slater

The most true thing about you is what God has said to you in Christ, "You are My Beloved." - Tripp Fuller

The God among us is the God who refuses to be God without us, so great is God's Love. - Tripp Fuller

According to some Christian outlooks we were made for another world. Perhaps, rather, we were made for this world to recreate, reclaim, redeem, and renew unto God's future aspiration by the power of His Spirit. - R.E. Slater

Our eschatological ethos is to love. To stand with those who are oppressed. To stand against those who are oppressing. It is that simple. Love is our only calling and Christian Hope. - R.E. Slater

Secularization theory has been massively falsified. We don't live in an age of secularity. We live in an age of explosive, pervasive religiosity... an age of religious pluralism. - Peter L. Berger

Exploring the edge of life and faith in a post-everything world. - Todd Littleton

I don't need another reason to believe, your love is all around for me to see. – Anon

Thou art our need; and in giving us more of thyself thou givest us all. - Khalil Gibran, Prayer XXIII

Be careful what you pretend to be. You become what you pretend to be. - Kurt Vonnegut

Religious beliefs, far from being primary, are often shaped and adjusted by our social goals. - Jim Forest

We become who we are by what we believe and can justify. - R.E. Slater

People, even more than things, need to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed, and redeemed; never throw out anyone. – Anon

Certainly, God's love has made fools of us all. - R.E. Slater

An apocalyptic Christian faith doesn't wait for Jesus to come, but for Jesus to become in our midst. - R.E. Slater

Christian belief in God begins with the cross and resurrection of Jesus, not with rational apologetics. - Eberhard Jüngel, Jürgen Moltmann

Our knowledge of God is through the 'I-Thou' encounter, not in finding God at the end of a syllogism or argument. There is a grave danger in any Christian treatment of God as an object. The God of Jesus Christ and Scripture is irreducibly subject and never made as an object, a force, a power, or a principle that can be manipulated. - Emil Brunner

“Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh” means "I will be that who I have yet to become." - God (Ex 3.14) or, conversely, “I AM who I AM Becoming.”

Our job is to love others without stopping to inquire whether or not they are worthy. - Thomas Merton

The church is God's world-changing social experiment of bringing unlikes and differents to the Eucharist/Communion table to share life with one another as a new kind of family. When this happens, we show to the world what love, justice, peace, reconciliation, and life together is designed by God to be. The church is God's show-and-tell for the world to see how God wants us to live as a blended, global, polypluralistic family united with one will, by one Lord, and baptized by one Spirit. – Anon

The cross that is planted at the heart of the history of the world cannot be uprooted. - Jacques Ellul

The Unity in whose loving presence the universe unfolds is inside each person as a call to welcome the stranger, protect animals and the earth, respect the dignity of each person, think new thoughts, and help bring about ecological civilizations. - John Cobb & Farhan A. Shah

If you board the wrong train it is of no use running along the corridors of the train in the other direction. - Dietrich Bonhoeffer

God's justice is restorative rather than punitive; His discipline is merciful rather than punishing; His power is made perfect in weakness; and His grace is sufficient for all. – Anon

Our little [biblical] systems have their day; they have their day and cease to be. They are but broken lights of Thee, and Thou, O God art more than they. - Alfred Lord Tennyson

We can’t control God; God is uncontrollable. God can’t control us; God’s love is uncontrolling! - Thomas Jay Oord

Life in perspective but always in process... as we are relational beings in process to one another, so life events are in process in relation to each event... as God is to Self, is to world, is to us... like Father, like sons and daughters, like events... life in process yet always in perspective. - R.E. Slater

To promote societal transition to sustainable ways of living and a global society founded on a shared ethical framework which includes respect and care for the community of life, ecological integrity, universal human rights, respect for diversity, economic justice, democracy, and a culture of peace. - The Earth Charter Mission Statement

Christian humanism is the belief that human freedom, individual conscience, and unencumbered rational inquiry are compatible with the practice of Christianity or even intrinsic in its doctrine. It represents a philosophical union of Christian faith and classical humanist principles. - Scott Postma

It is never wise to have a self-appointed religious institution determine a nation's moral code. The opportunities for moral compromise and failure are high; the moral codes and creeds assuredly racist, discriminatory, or subjectively and religiously defined; and the pronouncement of inhumanitarian political objectives quite predictable. - R.E. Slater

God's love must both center and define the Christian faith and all religious or human faiths seeking human and ecological balance in worlds of subtraction, harm, tragedy, and evil. - R.E. Slater

In Whitehead’s process ontology, we can think of the experiential ground of reality as an eternal pulse whereby what is objectively public in one moment becomes subjectively prehended in the next, and whereby the subject that emerges from its feelings then perishes into public expression as an object (or “superject”) aiming for novelty. There is a rhythm of Being between object and subject, not an ontological division. This rhythm powers the creative growth of the universe from one occasion of experience to the next. This is the Whiteheadian mantra: “The many become one and are increased by one.” - Matthew Segall

Without Love there is no Truth. And True Truth is always Loving. There is no dichotomy between these terms but only seamless integration. This is the premier centering focus of a Processual Theology of Love. - R.E. Slater

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Note: Generally I do not respond to commentary. I may read the comments but wish to reserve my time to write (or write from the comments I read). Instead, I'd like to see our community help one another and in the helping encourage and exhort each of us towards Christian love in Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior. - re slater

Tuesday, October 24, 2023

Noah's Ark in Sumerian, Akkadian, Assyrian & Babylonian Lore, Part 3 - Ziusudra & Gilgamesh



Noah's Ark in Sumerian, Akkadian,
Assyrian & Babylonian Lore

Part 3 - Ziusudra & Gilgamesh

by R.E. Slater


NASB Bible Verses - Genesis 5:32 to 10:1
ESV Bible Verses - Genesis 5:32 to 10:1
RSV Bible Verses - Genesis 5:32 to 10:1

Wikipedia - Noah's Ark




Sumer was one of the three original civilizations, along with the Indus Valley Civilization and Egypt.

The religion of Sumer was first adopted by Akkad, which caused it to spread to Assyria, Ugarit and from there to Canaan.

After that, it was adopted by the Babylonians, and the Assyrians again inherited it from Babylon. It seems the Hittites also took parts of it to Anatolia, and it spread as far as Greece.

- Quora / Steve Page

Question

What are the main differences between Sumerian, Babylonian, and Assyrian mythology, if any?

ChatGPT

Sumerian, Babylonian, and Assyrian mythologies are all closely related, as they were developed in the same region over a long period of time. However, there are some differences between them.

Sumerian mythology is the oldest of the three and dates back to around 4000 BCE. The Sumerians believed in a pantheon of gods and goddesses who controlled various aspects of life, such as agriculture, fertility, and the weather. They also had a complex underworld and believed in the existence of spirits and demons.

Babylonian mythology developed later, around 1800 BCE, and was heavily influenced by Sumerian mythology. The Babylonians had a similar pantheon of gods and goddesses, but they also placed a greater emphasis on astrology and divination. They also believed in a great flood that destroyed the world, which is similar to the story of Noah's Ark in the Bible.

Assyrian mythology, which developed around 1300 BCE, was also influenced by Sumerian and Babylonian mythology. The Assyrians believed in a similar pantheon of gods and goddesses, but they also placed a greater emphasis on military might and conquest. They believed that their gods were responsible for their military successes and failures.

Overall, while there are some differences between the mythologies of these three ancient civilizations, they are all closely related and share many common themes and motifs.

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Ziusudra and the flood  |  5:59
Ziusudra and the Flood in Sumerian and Babylonian Mythology
(Utnapishtim, Atrahasis, Gilgamesh)
by Random Scripture and Religion Videos  |  Dec 15, 2020

This video features a brief talk on Ziusudra or Utnapishtim and the Flood in Sumerian and Babylonian mythology. The Mesopotamian story bears many similarities to Noah and the Ark in the Bible, in the Book of Genesis.

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amazon link

Blurb
The ancient civilization of Mesopotamia thrived between the rivers Tigris and Euphrates over 4,000 years ago. The myths collected here, originally written in cuneiform on clay tablets, include parallels with the biblical stories of the Creation and the Flood, and the famous Epic of Gilgamesh, the tale of a man of great strength, whose heroic quest for immortality is dashed through one moment of weakness.

Recent developments in Akkadian grammar and lexicography mean that this new translation--complete with notes, a glossary of deities, place-names, and key terms, and illustrations of the mythical monsters featured in the text--will replace all other versions.

About the Series: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the broadest spectrum of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, voluminous notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.


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Sumerian Mythology - Enki and the Making of Man
Mythology  |  4:08



Sumeria's Pantheon of gods


Basic Plot - The gods became weary of working and asked their
boss god, Ekri = Ea, to remove their toil and place it upon man.



Anunnaki - Wikipedia: The Anunnaki are a group of deities of the ancient Sumerians, Akkadians, Assyrians and Babylonians. In the earliest Sumerian writings about them, which come from the Post-Akkadian period, the Anunnaki ...


Atrahasis - The Babylonian Myth
of the Creation of Man & The Flood
Video based on Myths from Mesopotamia by Stephanie Dailey



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Ziusudra (Sumerian: 𒍣𒌓𒋤𒁺) was a figure that appeared in a Sumerian king list as well as the flood myth known as the the "Epic of Ziusudra."

Ziusudra - Mesopotamian mythology

Written and fact-checked by: The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Last Updated: November 7, 2019


Ziusudra, in Mesopotamian Religion, rough counterpart to the biblical Noah as survivor of a god-sent flood. When the gods had decided to destroy humanity with a flood, the god Enki (Akkadian Ea), who did not agree with the decree, revealed it to Ziusudra, a man well known for his humility and obedience. Ziusudra did as Enki commanded him and built a huge boat, in which he successfully rode out the flood. Afterward, he prostrated himself before the gods An (Anu) and Enlil (Bel), and, as a reward for living a godly life, Ziusudra was given immortality. See Utnapishtim.


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Noah's ark, 12th-century fresco in the nave of the church at Saint-Savin-sur-Gartempe, Fr.


Noah, a biblical figure, also known as: Noe

Written and fact-checked by: The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Last Updated: Sep 21, 2023

Noah, also spelled Noe, the hero of the biblical Flood story in the Old Testament book of Genesis, the originator of vineyard cultivation, and, as the father of Shem, Ham, and Japheth, the representative head of a Semitic genealogical line. A synthesis of at least three biblical source traditions, Noah is the image of the righteous man made party to a covenant with Yahweh, the God of Israel, in which nature’s future protection against catastrophe is assured.

Noah appears in Genesis 5:29 as the son of Lamech and ninth in descent from Adam. In the story of the Deluge (Genesis 6:11–9:19), he is represented as the patriarch who, because of his blameless piety, was chosen by God to perpetuate the human race after his wicked contemporaries had perished in the Flood. A righteous man, Noah “found favour in the eyes of the Lord” (Genesis 6:8). Thus, when God beheld the corruption of the earth and determined to destroy it, he gave Noah divine warning of the impending disaster and made a covenant with him, promising to save him and his family. Noah was instructed to build an ark, and in accordance with God’s instructions he took into the ark male and female specimens of all the world’s species of animals, from which the stocks might be replenished. Consequently, according to this narrative, the entire surviving human race descended from Noah’s three sons. Such a genealogy sets a universal frame within which the subsequent role of Abraham, as the father of Israel’s faith, could assume its proper dimensions.

The story of the Flood has close affinities with Babylonian traditions of apocalyptic floods in which Utnapishtim plays the part corresponding to that of Noah. These mythologies are the source of such features of the biblical Flood story as the building and provisioning of the ark, its flotation, and the subsidence of the waters, as well as the part played by the human protagonist. Tablet XI of the Gilgamesh epic introduces Utnapishtim, who, like Noah, survived cosmic destruction by heeding divine instruction to build an ark.

The religious meaning of the Flood is conveyed after Noah’s heroic survival. He then built an altar on which he offered burnt sacrifices to God, who then bound himself to a pact never again to curse the earth on man’s account. God then set a rainbow in the sky as a visible guarantee of his promise in this covenant. God also renewed his commands given at creation but with two changes: man could now kill animals and eat meat, and the murder of a man would be punished by men.

Despite the tangible similarities of the Mesopotamian and biblical myths of the flood, the biblical story has a unique Hebraic perspective. In the Babylonian story the destruction of the flood was the result of a disagreement among the gods; in Genesis it resulted from the moral corruption of human history. The primitive polytheism of the Mesopotamian versions is transformed in the biblical story into an affirmation of the omnipotence and benevolence of the one righteous God. Again, following their survival, Utnapishtim and his wife are admitted to the circle of the immortal gods; but Noah and his family are commanded to undertake the renewal of history.

The narrative concerning Noah in Genesis 9:20–27 belongs to a different cycle, which seems to be unrelated to the Flood story. In the latter, Noah’s sons are married and their wives accompany them in the ark; but in this narrative they would seem to be unmarried, nor does the shameless drunkenness of Noah accord well with the character of the pious hero of the Flood story. Three different themes may be traced in Genesis 9:20–27: first, the passage attributes the beginnings of agriculture, and in particular the cultivation of the vine, to Noah; second, it attempts to provide, in the persons of Noah’s three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, ancestors for three of the races of mankind and to account in some degree for their historic relations; and third, by its censure of Canaan, it offers a veiled justification for the later Israelite conquest and subjugation of the Canaanites. Noah’s drunkenness and the disrespect it provokes in his son Ham result in Noah’s laying of a curse on Ham’s son Canaan. This incident may symbolize the ethnic and social division of Palestine: the Israelites (from the line of Shem) will separate from the pre-Israelite population of Canaan (which is depicted as licentious), who will live in subjection to the Hebrews.

The symbolic figure of Noah was known in ancient Israel, before the compilation of the Pentateuch. Ezekiel (14:14, 20) speaks of him as a prototype of the righteous man who, alone among the Israelites, would be spared God’s vengeance. In the New Testament, Noah is mentioned in the genealogy of the Gospel According to Luke (3:36) that delineates Jesus’ descent from Adam. Jesus also uses the story of the Flood that came on a worldly generation of men “in the days of Noah” as an example of Baptism, and Noah is depicted as a preacher of repentance to the men of his time, itself a predominant theme in Jewish apocryphal and rabbinical writings.


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Gilgamesh and the Flood
The Histocrat  |  Dec 1, 2021


In today's video, we examine the genesis and development of one of the world's oldest mythological figures, the legendary King of Uruk, Gilgamesh, and the Epic that bears his name. Along the way we'll explore over 2000 years of history, culminating in an examination of the origins of the Mesopotamian flood myth, which continues to echo in modern religions to this day.

This video owes a special thanks to archaeologist Dr Geoff Emberling, who kindly allowed me to use a number of his photos of Iraq. You can find more information on his research activities in the links below:





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Epic of Gilgamesh


The Epic of Gilgamesh (/ˈɡɪlɡəmɛʃ/)[2] is an epic poem from ancient Mesopotamia. The literary history of Gilgamesh begins with five Sumerian poems about Bilgamesh (Sumerian for "Gilgamesh"), king of Uruk, dating from the Third Dynasty of Ur (c. 2100 BC).[1] These independent stories were later used as source material for a combined epic in Akkadian. The first surviving version of this combined epic, known as the "Old Babylonian" version, dates back to the 18th century BC and is titled after its incipit, Shūtur eli sharrī ("Surpassing All Other Kings"). Only a few tablets of it have survived. The later Standard Babylonian version compiled by Sîn-lēqi-unninni dates from the 13th to the 10th centuries BC and bears the incipit Sha naqba īmuru[note 1] ("He who Saw the Abyss", lit. '"He who Sees the Unknown"'). Approximately two-thirds of this longer, twelve-tablet version have been recovered. Some of the best copies were discovered in the library ruins of the 7th-century BC Assyrian king Ashurbanipal.

The first half of the story discusses Gilgamesh (who was king of Uruk) and Enkidu, a wild man created by the gods to stop Gilgamesh from oppressing the people of Uruk. After Enkidu becomes civilized through sexual initiation with Shamhat, he travels to Uruk, where he challenges Gilgamesh to a test of strength. Gilgamesh wins the contest; nonetheless, the two become friends. Together, they make a six-day journey to the legendary Cedar Forest, where they plan to slay the Guardian, Humbaba the Terrible, and cut down the sacred Cedar.[4] The goddess Ishtar sends the Bull of Heaven to punish Gilgamesh for spurning her advances. Gilgamesh and Enkidu kill the Bull of Heaven after which the gods decide to sentence Enkidu to death and kill him.

In the second half of the epic, distress over Enkidu's death causes Gilgamesh to undertake a long and perilous journey to discover the secret of eternal life. He eventually learns that "Life, which you look for, you will never find. For when the gods created man, they let death be his share, and life withheld in their own hands".[5][6] Nevertheless, because of his great building projects, his account of Siduri's advice, and what the immortal man Utnapishtim told him about the Great Flood, Gilgamesh's fame survived well after his death, with expanding interest in his story. It has been translated into many languages and is featured in several works of popular fiction.

The epic is regarded as a foundational work in religion and the tradition of heroic sagas, with Gilgamesh forming the prototype for later heroes like Heracles (Hercules), and the epic itself serving as an influence for Homeric epics.[7]
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Later influence

Relationship to the Bible

Various themes, plot elements, and characters in the Hebrew Bible correlate with the Epic of Gilgamesh – notably, the accounts of the Garden of Eden, the advice from Ecclesiastes, and the Genesis flood narrative.

Garden of Eden

The parallels between the stories of Enkidu/Shamhat and Adam/Eve have been long recognized by scholars.[65][66] In both, a man is created from the soil by a god, and lives in a natural setting amongst the animals. He is introduced to a woman who tempts him. In both stories the man accepts food from the woman, covers his nakedness, and must leave his former realm, unable to return. The presence of a snake that steals a plant of immortality from the hero later in the epic is another point of similarity. However, a major difference between the two stories is that while Enkidu experiences regret regarding his seduction away from nature, this is only temporary: After being confronted by the god Shamash for being ungrateful, Enkidu recants and decides to give the woman who seduced him his final blessing before he dies. This is in contrast to Adam, whose fall from grace is largely portrayed as a punishment for disobeying God and the inevitable consequence of the loss of innocence regarding good and evil.

Advice from Ecclesiastes

Several scholars suggest direct borrowing of Siduri's advice by the author of Ecclesiastes.[67]

A rare proverb about the strength of a triple-stranded rope, "a triple-stranded rope is not easily broken", is common to both books.[citation needed]

Noah's flood

Andrew George submits that the Genesis flood narrative matches that in Gilgamesh so closely that "few doubt" that it derives from a Mesopotamian account.[68] What is particularly noticeable is the way the Genesis flood story follows the Gilgamesh flood tale "point by point and in the same order", even when the story permits other alternatives.[69] In a 2001 Torah commentary released on behalf of the Conservative Movement of Judaism, rabbinic scholar Robert Wexler stated: "The most likely assumption we can make is that both Genesis and Gilgamesh drew their material from a common tradition about the flood that existed in Mesopotamia. These stories then diverged in the retelling."[70] Ziusudra, Utnapishtim and Noah are the respective heroes of the Sumerian, Akkadian and biblical flood legends of the ancient Near East.

Additional biblical parallels

Matthias Henze suggests that Nebuchadnezzar's madness in the biblical Book of Daniel draws on the Epic of Gilgamesh. He claims that the author uses elements from the description of Enkidu to paint a sarcastic and mocking portrait of the king of Babylon.[71]

Many characters in the Epic have mythical biblical parallels, most notably Ninti, the Sumerian goddess of life, was created from Enki's rib to heal him after he had eaten forbidden flowers. It is suggested that this story served as the basis for the story of Eve created from Adam's rib in the Book of Genesis.[72] Esther J. Hamori, in Echoes of Gilgamesh in the Jacob Story, also claims that the myth of Jacob and Esau is paralleled with the wrestling match between Gilgamesh and Enkidu.[73]

Book of Giants

Gilgamesh is mentioned in one version of The Book of Giants which is related to the Book of Enoch. The Book of Giants version found at Qumran mentions the Sumerian hero Gilgamesh and the monster Humbaba with the Watchers and giants.[74]

Influence on Homer

Numerous scholars have drawn attention to various themes, episodes, and verses, indicating that the Epic of Gilgamesh had a substantial influence on both of the epic poems ascribed to Homer. These influences are detailed by Martin Litchfield West in The East Face of Helicon: West Asiatic Elements in Greek Poetry and Myth.[75] According to Tzvi Abusch of Brandeis University, the poem "combines the power and tragedy of the Iliad with the wanderings and marvels of the Odyssey. It is a work of adventure, but is no less a meditation on some fundamental issues of human existence."[76] Martin West, in "The East face of Helicon", speculates that the memory of Gilgamesh would have reached the Greeks through a lost poem about Heracles.[37]

In popular culture
Main article: Gilgamesh in popular culture

The Epic of Gilgamesh has inspired many works of literature, art, and music.[77][78] It was only after World War I that the Gilgamesh epic reached a modern audience, and only after World War II that it was featured in a variety of genres.[78]


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GENESIS FLOOD NARRATIVE


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

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 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 geologyarcheologypaleontology, 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
6:5–8Introduction: humanity's wickedness, God regrets creating, announces decision to destroy; Noah's righteousness.
6:9–22Introduction: 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.
7:1–57 pairs of clean animals, 1 pair unclean; 7 days to gather animals; Noah does as God commands.
7:6Noah's age: 600 years
7:7–10Noah enters Ark with animals after 7 days
7:11Year 600, month 2, day 17: firmament breaks, waters fall from above and rise from below.
7:12Rains 40 days and 40 nights.
7:13–16aNoah and family and animals enter Ark on same day as flood begins.
7:16b–17aFlood lasts 40 days and nights.
7:18–21Waters rise, all creatures destroyed.
7:22–23All creatures destroyed.
7:24–8:5Flood lasts 150 days; God remembers Noah, fountains and floodgates closed, waters recede;
Month 7 day 17, Ark grounds on mountains of Ararat.
8:6–12After 7 days Noah opens window, sends out raven, dove, dove, 7 days between flights
8:13–19Year 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
8:20–22Noah builds altar, sacrifices clean animals, God smells sweet aroma, promises not to destroy again.
9:1–17Noah and family told to multiply, given animals to eat; Covenant established, rainbow as sign, God promises not to flood again.

Comparative mythology

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]

The period while the ark is afloat, i.e. the period during which the Earth is entirely covered by water, represents a gap in time, as is confirmed by the strange details of the ages of Noah and Shem.[24] Noah is 600 years old when the flood comes (Genesis 7:6); it ends in his 601st year (Genesis 8:13), and he then lives another 350 years before dying in his 950th year (Genesis 9:28–29); the year taken up by the flood is not counted.[24] Similarly his son Shem is 100 years old on entering the ark (Genesis 7:6) and still 100 years old on fathering Arpachshad two years after the flood (Genesis 11:10).[24]

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

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 24:37–39Luke 17:26–271 Peter 3:202 Peter 2:52 Peter 3:6Hebrews 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

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. Jump up to:a b Oliver 2017, p. 12.
  4. Jump up to:a b Gmirkin 2006, p. 3.
  5. Jump up to:a b Worthington 2019, p. 147.
  6. Jump up to:a b Cline 2007, p. 20.
  7. Jump up to:a b Arnold 2009, p. 97.
  8. Jump up to:a b c Montgomery 2012.
  9. Jump up to:a b c Cohn 1999.
  10. ^
  11. Jump up to: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. RendsburgThe 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. Jump up to:a b c d 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 Society136 (3): 507–514. doi:10.7817/jameroriesoci.136.3.0507ISSN 0003-0279JSTOR 10.7817/jameroriesoci.136.3.0507.
  31. ^ Schule 2017, p. 2.
  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. Jump up to: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. Jump up to:a b c d "Flood, the – Baker's Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology Online"Bible Study Tools. Retrieved 18 July 2018.
  41. ^ "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.
  42. Jump up to:a b Wiersbe, Warren (1993). Wiersbe's expository outlines on the Old Testament. Wheaton, Illinois: Victor Books. ISBN 978-0896938472OCLC 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 978-0785245292OCLC 947797222.
  44. ^ "The Typological Interpretation of the Old Testament, by G.R. Schmeling"www.bible-researcher.com. Retrieved 18 July 2018.
  45. ^ Marvin MeyerWillis Barnstone (2009). "The Reality of the Rulers (The Hypostasis of the Archons) and The Secret Book of John". The Gnostic BibleShambhalaISBN 9781590306314. Retrieved 7 February 2022.
  46. ^ "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.
  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.]
  48. ^ Weber, Christopher Gregory (1980). "The Fatal Flaws of Flood Geology"Creation Evolution Journal1 (1): 24–37.
  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. Jump up to: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. ^ "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.
  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. ^ "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.
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  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
  63. ^ 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.
  64. ^ "Age of the Earth". U.S. Geological Survey. 1997. Archived from the original on 23 December 2005. Retrieved 10 January 2006.
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  68. ^ 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.
  69. Jump up to:a b Young 1995, p. 79.
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  71. ^ Morton 2001, p. unpaginated.
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  73. ^ Stewart 2010, p. 123.
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  75. ^ Livingstone, David; Hart, Darryl G.; Noll, Mark A. (1999). Evangelicals and Science in Historical PerspectiveOxford University PressISBN 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.
  78. ^ Wood, Paul (2004). Science and Dissent in England, 1688–1945. Aldershot: Ashgate. ISBN 978-0-7546-3718-9.
  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. 72ISBN 978-0-520-08393-6.
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  84. ^ Numbers, Ronald L. (2006). The creationists : from scientific creationism to intelligent design (Expanded, First Harvard University Press paperback ed.). Cambridge, Massachusetts. ISBN 0-674-02339-0OCLC 69734583.
  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

Further reading





Noah's Ark in Sumerian, Akkadian, Assyrian & Babylonian Lore, Part 2 - Interpretation & Shape



Noah's Ark in Sumerian, Akkadian,
Assyrian & Babylonian Lore

Part 2 - Interpretaion & Shape

by R.E. Slater


NASB Bible Verses - Genesis 5:32 to 10:1
ESV Bible Verses - Genesis 5:32 to 10:1
RSV Bible Verses - Genesis 5:32 to 10:1

Wikipedia - Noah's Ark




Abridged Genesis Script

Note: Chabad uses G-d for "God"

The Wickedness of the People

Methusealah’s wisdom and knowledge were inherited by his grandson Noah, the son of Lemech. Noah was a righteous and pious man.

When Noah was five hundred years old, he had three sons—Shem, Ham, and Japheth. They too were good and pious men, fearing and loving G‑d, and unlike all the other inhabitants of the earth, who had gradually become more and more depraved. Yet neither Noah nor Methuselah could change the evil ways of the people around them, in spite of the many warnings G‑d sent through them to their fellow-men. Everyone thought only of his own welfare and recognized only the laws that were in his own favor. Mutual respect and cooperation had given way to violence and sin.

Finally G‑d gave them a last chance. He ordered Noah to build an ark slowly, and to complete it in one hundred and twenty years. This was to be the last period of grace within which the people could change their evil ways. Time passed and yet the people had not repented. So fearful was the prevailing corruption that G‑d determined to destroy all life by a universal Deluge; not only the men but the beasts also were to perish, so that no trace might remain of that wicked age.

Only Noah found grace in the eyes of G‑d, and he was to be spared the fate of all the other living things, because he was the only pious person who had tried to arouse the conscience of the people and warn them of the punishment to come.

The Ark

G‑d told Noah to build his ark in public and to tell everyone its purpose: that it would save him from the coming Flood. The Ark was to be three hundred cubits in length, fifty in width, and thirty in height, and was to consist of three stories, divided into small rooms to hold people, animals, and food. Noah and his wife, their three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and their wives were to live in it. Some animals of every kind in the world were to live in the Ark too. Noah’s family and the animals were to live in the Ark until the Flood ended. Noah did as G‑d commanded. His neighbors made fun of him for his faith, and they paid no attention to his warnings of the Flood that was to come.

The Flood

Noah was six hundred year old when G‑d told him to go into the Ark with his whole family, and to admit the animals which G‑d had selected.

The Flood commenced on the seventeenth day of the second month. The gates of heaven broke loose, and the depths of the earth opened to send forth streams of raging, boiling water, swallowing everything in its path. Rain fell for forty days and forty nights and the water which covered the earth rose higher and higher. It covered the peaks of the highest mountains. Every living thing died, and all growing things were destroyed. Amid this terrible scene of ruins and devastation the Ark, guided by G‑d, floated securely. But the ship was fiercely tossed about and shaken at the heights of the stormy flood, so that it seemed to Noah that it was about to break apart.

The Flood Recedes

Noah and his children prayed constantly, and at last the flood quieted down. A wind blew over the earth and the Ark came to rest upon the mountains of Ararat, after it had been afloat for seven months.

The Raven and the Dove

Gradually the water subsided; and on the first day of the tenth month the peaks of the mountains could be seen again. Noah, still imprisoned in the Ark, looked forth upon the wide spreading though decreasing waters; and after waiting forty days longer, he sent forth a raven from the Ark. This bird, glad to regain and to enjoy its liberty, returned to the Ark only to be fed, flying to and fro, until the waters had quite abated. Yet, Noah, anxiously hoping that the floods were disappearing from the land, sent out another bird, and this time a dove. But the dove, more delicate than the raven, found no resting place, and returned to the Ark. After seven days it was again sent forth, and now it returned at evening-time with a fresh olive leaf in its mouth. Then Noah knew that the earth was almost free from the flood, although still unfit for habitation.

After another seven days, the winged messenger was sent out again and returned no more. A feeling of gladness must in truth have filled Noah’s heart, for in the beginning of the first month, the surf ace of the earth was cleared from the waters, and three hundred and sixty-five days after the beginning of the Flood, the ground was perfectly dry.

The Flood had passed, but it had changed the appearance of the earth and of the entire universe. Everything, even the light of the sun, had lost some of its original strength and power, and the earth was barren and unyielding.

Noah Offering

Noah and his family spent a whole year in the Ark. Then G‑d ordered them to leave the Ark. Noah built an altar and brought an offering which G‑d accepted graciously. And G‑d promised that He would never again curse the earth because of man. Seasons, heat and cold, day and night, and all the other laws of nature would never again fail altogether, as they had done in the time of the Flood.

The Seven Laws

G‑d blessed Noah and his sons with the same blessing He had given Adam and Eve, giving them power over all living creatures. Before, they had been allowed to eat only herbs and plants. Now they were allowed to use meat for food, but only after the animal had been killed. To eat flesh torn from a living animal was forbidden. And stern was His decree against the shedder of human blood. Murder was to be punished by death; for could a greater crime be conceived than that of destroying a being created by G‑d in His own image? Other commandments were, the establishment of Courts of justice, the prohibition of blasphemy, indecency, idolatry, and stealing.
Covenant with Noah

These rules G‑d included in a treaty with Noah and Noah’s sons.

As a sign of the Covenant G‑d showed them a rainbow, up in the clouds, as a permanent record for all times to come.


* * * * * *


The Ark Encounter by Ken Hamm near Cincinnati, Ohio

A popular view of Noah's Ark



Wikipedia - Noah's Ark





30 cubits / 51 ft. deep x 50 cubits / 85 ft across x 300 cubits / 450-510 ft in length: “This is how you are to build it: The ark is to be three hundred cubits long, fifty cubits wide and thirty cubits high.”  Genesis 6:15




If one takes the popular view of Noah's Art with a fore-and-aft uprisen keels and circumscribes the craft from its lengthened form to a circular form then from a distance it would look like a normally long boat but up close one could tell that it was rounded. - re slater



Question

From the images above what might you guess is:

1 - The Christian view of Noah's Ark?

2 - The biblical view of the Ark?

3 - And the ancient view of an Ark?


Visit the Ark Encounter



Irving Finkel | The Ark Before Noah: A Great Adventure
The Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures

















Noah's Ark in Sumerian, Akkadian, Assyrian & Babylonian Lore, Part 1 - Setting



Noah's Ark in Sumerian, Akkadian,
Assyrian & Babylonian Lore

Part 1 - Setting

by R.E. Slater


NASB Bible Verses - Genesis 5:32 to 10:1
ESV Bible Verses - Genesis 5:32 to 10:1
RSV Bible Verses - Genesis 5:32 to 10:1

Wikipedia - Noah's Ark


Sumerians, Akkadians, Assyrians and then Babylonian.

The Sumerians were called the «Black people». They probably split from the earlier civilisation of Aratta in the Armenian Highlands/Ukraine.

There was a huge flood which caused mass destruction of the contemporary civilisations when the Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea connected, some time from 4000–5000 BC.

It may be that this flooding caused the myth of the biblical flood milleniums later.

- Quora: Shivan Perumaal

Mesopotamian timelines, references and maps...




[Global] Cradle(s) of Civilizations

History of the Middle East

World History Encyclopedia - Ancient Mesopotamia

History of Mesopotamia

Ancient Mediterranean + Europe



Sumerians were neither Indo-European nor Semitic people, but everyone else on this list was largely Semitic - as in, they spoke Semitic languages (Babylonians and Assyrians spoke Akkadian, Assyrians today speak various Aramaic dialects and Akkadians spoke Akkadian themselves).


Akkadians were a Semitic-speaking people who ruled over Mesopotamia when they conquered Sumer and eventually established an empire - Akkadian Empire, which reached its peak during the rule of Sargon of Akkad.

Akkadian Empire

Assyrians ruled Northern Mesopotamia, while Chaldeans ruled in the south, in an empire called Babylon or Babylonia. Consequently, the Assyrians are the Assyrians, while the Chaldeans are/were the Babylonians.
Assyrians formed a military dynasty while Babylonians became merchants and agriculturalists.
Assyrians worship animism or animistic beliefs, while Babylonians are polytheistic. They worship several gods and thousands of minor gods.
- Quora: Alice Giam


Assyrian Empire

On the map are two major cities, Asshur the center of Assyria, and Babylon. Each was an empire at different times.

However, Babylon was the center of an empire for only two relatively brief periods. For much of the time, it was subject to Assyria.

The Assyrians lived in that area from at least 2600 BCE. Apparently, they were influenced by Akkad and spoke Akkadian

Babylon, however, was founded by Amorites who had moved into Mesopotamia around 2000 from northern Canaan. In 1792, Hammurabi established a kingdom and built the city of Babylon up from a town. His empire rapidly declined after his death in 1750.

Sometime after that, the Assyrians gained control over Babylon, although Babylon remained an important religious center.

In 625, as the Assyrian Empire finally began to fail, Babylon joined the Medes and others in rebelling against Assyria, which was wiped out by 609. The Babylonians had a second empire until 539 when the Medes and Persians conquered Babylon. Babylon remained an important city for a long time after that.

Bottom line, Babylon gets a lot of credit for what Sumer and Akkad accomplished, but it wasn’t a great power for any length of time. Instead, it was an important trading and religious center.

The Babylonians’ big significance was taking the Jews into exile from 605–586, when they destroyed Jerusalem. The Medes and Persians returned the Jews and other exiled nations in 539. 
- Quora: Steve Page

Babylonian Empire + Wikipedia

Assyrian vs Babylonian
The two neighboring sister-states of ancient Mesopotamia competed for dominance and as such grew widely different in character.
History
Assyria took its name from the town of Ashur, which was the main town but it may also apply to the wide empire that was captured and ruled by the Assyrians. Assyria had better climate than Babylonia owing to the fact that it was located in a highland region north of Babylonia. Assyrians were not entirely Semitic and their true origin is not really known. Their culture, however, was largely indebted to the Babylonians, the Hurrians and the Hittites. Their religion was an adoption from the Babylonians except that the presiding god of the city of Ashur became Assyria’s chief deity. Their nature of worship was animistic.
Babylonia was located at the eastern end of the fertile crescent of west Asia with its capitol as Babylon. At times it was referred to as the land of the Chaldeans. There were originally two political divisions namely Sumer and Akkad. Both the Assyrians and Babylonians made use of the Cuneiform script and all people including royalty, priests, merchants and teachers relied on writing. Nebuchadnezzar ruled Babylon for many years, his reign eventually becoming one of the longest and most accomplished in human history. Some historical moments during his reign include twice capturing. Jerusalem and destroying it and the buildings and walls he built in the city, which were admired by Greek historians.
Organization
While merchants and agriculturalists sprung up in Babylonia, Assyrians became more militaristic, forming an organized military camp ruled over by an autocratic king as the supreme ruler. Successful generals then founded Assyrian dynasties and the king was the autocratic general of an army, who was in the early days surrounded by feudal nobility. These nobles were aided, from the reign of Tiglath-Pileser onwards, by an elaborate bureaucracy. The king’s palace was more sumptuous than the worship houses (temples) of the gods from which it was separate. All people were soldiers or little else to the extent that even the sailor belonged to the state. This resulted to the sudden collapse of the Assyrian during the age of Ashurbanipal when it was drained of its warrior population. In the neighboring Babylonia, the priesthood was the highest authority with priests having been raised to the throne by the revolution. Under the control of a powerful hierarchy, the Babylonian king remained a priest to the end.
Summary
1. Assyria was located north of Babylonia, its highland location giving it better climate than Babylonia.
2. Assyrians formed a military dynasty whereas Babylonians became merchants and agriculturalists.
3. The supreme ruler in Assyria was an autocratic king while in Babylonia, priesthood was the highest authority.
4. Assyrians’ nature of worship was animistic and that of idolatry while for Babylonians it was in a Supreme God.
- Source: Wikipaedia / Quora: Mary Bennett