For those who are unfamiliar with the flood, it is a story told in the Book of Genesis, the first book of the Bible. It tells the story of the god's decision to return the universe to its pre-creation state of watery havoc and remake it with Noah and his ark.
God saw that his creation was corrupt and full of violence ten generations after he created the world, so he decided to destroy it. Among all of this, he discovered one righteous man, Noah.
The god later revealed his intentions to Noah and instructed him to build an ark to save him, his family, and all the animals. Noah and his family committed their lives to constructing the ark.
When Noah was six hundred years old, "the fountains of the Great Deep burst apart and the floodgates of heaven broke open," and rain fell for forty days and forty nights straight, covering the highest mountains on the planet. Until all living things perished except Noah and those on the ark. After 150 days, the waters receded and the ark touched down on Ararat, a mountain in present-day Turkey's extreme east.
We can dismiss the flood as being entirely accurate because it cannot rain for forty days and nights and cover the world's highest mountains. Nor can we even hope for a massive ship buried several layers beneath the Earth.
What's more fascinating is that flood stories exist in almost every culture in the world. However, these are believed to be small local disasters rather than worldwide catastrophe.
These floods must have kept happening and survivors would have passed on their experiences which with time became a legend.
Comments