In Generalities, Unity
In Specifics, Diversity
Causes of the Flood
Four Recurring Ideas
How Enough Rain Fell to Cover the Earth
Forming Diamonds
And That’s Not All!
Geographical Changes Resulting From the Flood
Welcome to the Real Flood!
Welcome to Noah’s Real Worldwide Flood!
In Generalities, Unity
Nearly all of the worldwide flood stories agree on these things: the flood covered the planet to at least the tip of the highest mountain, there was an escape vehicle, and very few humans survived.
The fact that these agreements come from all times and cultures around the world establishes these as facts. No history book should ignore them.
In Specifics, Diversity
Often differing by geographical area, the legends generally become more fantastic the farther their origins are from Turkey and the near east in time and geography.
We would expect both of these effects for spoken legends. It verifies the location of the first human settlement.
Causes of the Flood of Water
Ancient Greece: The fountains of the deep opened and rain fell in torrents.
Celtic: The Giant named Earth was murdered and his blood caused the flood.
Assyria: The waters of the abyss rose up.
Chaldea: There was violent rain, and the rivers, lakes, and ocean burst forth from
beneath.
Hebrew (not Genesis): The male waters of sky met the female waters of the ground.
A hole in the sky was caused by the removal of two stars from the Pleiades.
Persia: The Angel Star (Sirius) descended three times.
Masai: There was a great long rain.
Tuvinian: The earth’s supporting frog (or turtle) moved.
Hindu: There was constant rain and ocean overflow
Lisu (China): There were torrents of rain and a huge wave.
China: A chief was defeated by a goddess. Angry that he had been defeated by a female,
the chief beat his head against the Heavenly Bamboo, knocking it down and
tearing a hole in the sky.
Victoria, Austrailia: The god Bunjul urinated into the ocean.
Lake Tyres, Austrailia: Frog swallowed all of earth’s water but Eel made him laugh and
spit it out.
Maori, New Zealand: A man worshipped as a god became angry. He stomped on the
floor of heaven, breaking it and releasing the Celestial Waters.
Innuit, Alaska: There was an unusually high tide.
Tinneh, Alaska: An unusually heavy snowfall one September melted.
Tinneh, Alaska: The Mariner rocked his canoe.
Bella Coola, Br. Columbia: The Creator stretched the rope connecting earth and sky.
The earth sank, allowing the waters to run over it.
Kato, California: The sky fell.
Cree, Canada: A monster lashed the sea with its tail.
Chippewa, Wisconsin: There was a great snowfall one September. Mouse nibbled a hole
in the leather bag containing the sun’s heat. The snow melted.
Mandan, N. Dakota: The earth is a large tortoise. A tribe digging for badgers cut a hole
in the shell. Tortoise began to sink and water rose through the knife wound.
Nahua, central Mexico: The heavens came crashing down in one day.
Jivaro, eastern Equador: A great cloud fell from heaven and turned to rain.
Canelos Quechua, Equador: The stars were crying.
Yamani, Tierra del Fuego: It snowed so much that ice covered the earth. A
rapid thaw caused the flooding.
Four Recurring Ideas
Although these explanations sound very different, there are four repeated ideas:
- Snow and ice
- Underground water thrusting upward
- Torrential rain falling downward
- Enormous wave(s)
The last idea includes The Mariner rocking his canoe and a monster thrashing its tail. Since neither of these could have been observed by anyone but Noah, we can omit the monster and Noah’s canoe as literary hyperbole.
That leaves us with this: repeated waves crashing over the land flooding it. Perhaps the waters were rising, but these waves, so striking that they have been remembered for millennia, were the first cause of flooding the land.
The Innuit report an unusually high tide. The Canelos Quechua specify that people were swept out to sea.
If we put all of this together, are the ancients talking about tidal waves?
Okay, this is more than we bargained for!
The idea of snow and ice is only reported by cultures from Alaska, Wisconsin, and Tierra del Fuego: all places that still see heavy snow. The Sek’hem of the southern tip of Argentina report ice floes seen during the flood. Remember, the Wisconsin story includes a sudden increase in heat from the sun.
I’m not sure what to make of this. There are hints of glaciers and icebergs. And what would cause the increased intensity of solar heat? Yet, it’s so precise and sounds so reasonable (except for Mouse) that it feels authentic.
I know. That’s not scientific. But sometimes a feeling or an intellectual nudge leads to a scientific discovery.
Reports of water thrusting upward from “the deep” into existing rivers, lakes, and the ocean are intriguing. Are we talking about geysers? If so, what is the sudden cause of sufficient force to result in these eruptions? Where was this water before the eruptions? In aquafers?
And what about the rain?
It is described as a deluge most frequently. Cultures also describe the rain as torrential, constant, and violent. Through various stories, the Cosmic Waters are described as dumping or gushing from heaven. Persians stated that “each rain drop was as big as a bowl.”
One gets the idea that the ancients are struggling to describe a unique event.
How Enough Rain Fell to Cover the Earth
Critics of the flood accounts ask, “How could enough rain fall to cover the mountains in the time allotted? What was the source of the rain?”
Three legends are of particular interest to me: the Jivaro description that “a great cloud fell from heaven and turned into rain.” The Nahua of Central Mexico state that “the heavens came down in one day.” The Kato report simply, “The sky fell.”
Some scientists who believe the Genesis account point to Genesis 1:6.
And God said, “Let there be an expanse between the waters
to separate water from water.” So God made expanse and
separated the water under the expanse from the water above
it. God called the expanse “sky.”
In the view of these scientists, this verse describes a layer of water above the sky which no longer exists. It came crashing down during the flood.
The legends now sound reasonable, don’t they?
Other scientists object, saying such a layer would create a greenhouse effect so intense that it would destroy life.
Meanwhile, it created the perfect worldwide climate described in Genesis. And while it may have had a negative effect (which we don’t know as fact), the canopy was only in place until the tenth human generation.
Forming Diamonds
An objection to the “short earth theory” is the formation of diamonds and other geological findings that are said to require billions of years under the pressure of the earth: today’s earth pressure is what the scientists mean.
But if the pressure is tremendously increased by the weight of a mountain-covering flood, then the equation demands an equal decrease in required time.
A mathematician calculated the time-pressure result of the biblical flood and found it to be more than sufficient to create diamonds.
And That’s Not All!
There’s more to the “flood” than rainfall and flooding. These are in the legends:
Mountains parted
Islands arose
Mountains rose
Earthquakes
It all began with a great booming above the earth and another below ground.
Storm
The day turned dark.
Violent winds
Mountains tumbled down
Hot subterranean waters gushed out
Black rain of resin (???)
Darkness ascending from earth to sky
Thunder
The sun and moon turned red, blue, and yellow
Volcanoes erupted.
(Now you understand why I insist on calling it the Great Cataclysm!)
Geographical Changes Resulting From the Flood
Three cultures (Lushai, Bunun, and Kiangan Ifugaro) state that the earth’s surface was flat before the flood. Interesting. No other culture describes the overall geography of the earth before this event, nor does Genesis.
The intense pressure from the water formed diamonds and other geographical findings.
The same disruptions by water from below, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions that altered mountains and islands easily explain the missing, inverted, and shuffled geologic layers as well as seashells atop mountains.
Welcome to the Real Flood!
Photo credit: Elen11 on Unsplash.com