Genesis 7

The Flood (cont’d), 1-24

7:1 The LORD said to Noah, “Come into the ark, you and all your household, for I consider you godly among this generation. 7:2 You must take with you seven of every kind of clean animal, the male and its mate, two of every kind of unclean animal, the male and its mate, 7:3 and also seven of every kind of bird in the sky, male and female, to preserve their offspring on the face of the earth. 7:4 For in seven days I will cause it to rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and I will wipe from the face of the ground every living thing that I have made.”
7:5 And Noah did all that the LORD commanded him.

“Clean … unclean” – Scripture does not indicate how this distinction arose, but the Mosaic law would reinforce and clarify it.

There is widely supposed to be a contradiction between Gen 6:19-20, in which the animals were to enter the ark in twos, and the present passage, where the clean animals were to be taken in sevens. The discrepancy is due, it is said, to the use of two different sources (Gen 6:19-20 from a priestly source around 450 B.C. and Gen 7:2-3 came from an earlier Yahwistic source around 850 B.C.). Later editors must then had allowed the contradiction to stand. There is no contradiction, however, and no need to postulate separate sources, if we simply suppose that Gen 6:19-20 gives the basic instruction (two of each kind) and 7:2f) adds further detail (two of each kind and 7 of all clean animals). Gen 7:8,9 does not speak of the numbers of animals going in, but the manner. Seven of each clean animal (three pairs, with another animal to be used for sacrifice) marched into the ark by twos, and the other animals also went in by pairs.

7:6 Noah was 600 years old when the floodwaters engulfed the earth. 7:7 Noah entered the ark along with his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives because of the floodwaters. 7:8 Pairs of clean animals, of unclean animals, of birds, and of everything that creeps along the ground, 7:9 male and female, came into the ark to Noah, just as God had commanded him. 7:10 And after seven days the floodwaters engulfed the earth.
7:11 In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month—on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst open and the floodgates of the heavens were opened. 7:12 And the rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights.

In the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month – This could be taken either with the length of Noah’s life (up to that point), or as indicating the time of year that the flood began.  If the latter, then this would be the middle of March, which for millenia has been the rainiest period of the year in the Mesopotamian area.  Extreme flooding still occurs in the region from time to time.  These are referred to by meteologists and hydrologists as the ‘Noah effect’.  One such even occurred in early 1969, when heavy rain and snow fell over the Jordan basin for nearly two months.   The flood of Noah’s day may have been significantly worsened by meltwater from heavy snow in the surrounding moutains.  See Carol Hill, A Worldview Approach to Science and Scripture.

All the fountains of the great deep burst open – Possibly referring to the gushing of water from springs, of which there are many in the area.

7:13 On that very day Noah entered the ark, accompanied by his sons Shem, Ham, and Japheth, along with his wife and his sons’ three wives. 7:14 They entered, along with every living creature after its kind, every animal after its kind, every creeping thing that creeps on the earth after its kind, and every bird after its kind, everything with wings. 7:15 Pairs of all creatures that have the breath of life came into the ark to Noah. 7:16 Those that entered were male and female, just as God commanded him. Then the LORD shut him in.
7:17 The flood engulfed the earth for forty days. As the waters increased, they lifted the ark and raised it above the earth. 7:18 The waters completely overwhelmed the earth, and the ark floated on the surface of the waters. 7:19 The waters completely inundated the earth so that even all the high mountains under the entire sky were covered.

The flood engulfed the earth for forty days – Cf. v24 – ‘The waters prevailed over the earth for 150 days.’  Scholars who embrace the documentary hypothesis put this apparent inconsistency down to the combination of two different sources, with ‘J’ responsible for the former, and ‘P’ for the latter statement.

But it is quite possible to reconcile the two figures.  Wenham comments:

‘Chronologically the 150 days must cover the five months from the coming of the flood (7:11) to the grounding of the ark (8:4). Evidently the first forty days of heavy rain (7:12) were followed by 110 days of the waters’ triumph. 8:4 makes plain that at least toward the end of the five months, the waters had begun to fall.’

Carol Hill agrees that the two figures (forty days and forty nights, and 150 days) indicate the duration of continuous rainfall and the overall period of flooding, respectively.

All the high mountains…were covered – This does not necessarily mean that the water reached to their tops.  John Walton explains: ‘This verb is used for a wide variety of ‘covering’ possibilities. A people or weeds can be so vast that it covers the land (Num. 22:11; Prov. 24:31); a blanket or clothing covers someone (Ex 28:42; 1 Kings 1:1). Something can be covered in the sense of being overshadowed (cherubim wings covering the ark, 2 Chron 5:8; clouds covering the sky, Ps 147:8)… Even today when someone walks in from a downpour we might say, ‘You’re covered with water!’ If Genesis 7:19 is taken the same way, it suggests that the mountains were drenched with water or coursing with flash floods, but it does not demand that they were totally submerged under water.’

More ambitiously, David Rohl has argued that ‘all the high mountains’ uses the word ‘har’, which can refer to ‘hill’ and ‘city mound’ as well as to a mountain.

7:20 The waters rose more than twenty feet above the mountains. 7:21 And all living things that moved on the earth died, including the birds, domestic animals, wild animals, all the creatures that swarm over the earth, and all humankind. 7:22 Everything on dry land that had the breath of life in its nostrils died. 7:23 So the LORD destroyed every living thing that was on the surface of the ground, including people, animals, creatures that creep along the ground, and birds of the sky. They were wiped off the earth. Only Noah and those who were with him in the ark survived. 7:24 The waters prevailed over the earth for 150 days.

The waters rose more than twenty feet above the mountains – or, ‘high hills’, or even ‘mounds’.  Many ziggurat temples were constructed on such mounds: thus, people who ran to their temples to escape the flood would have been doomed.

If the water level was more than twenty feet above the peaks of the highest mountains, one of many questions would be: How did they know?  People would have used rods or poles to measure water depth.  How could this have been possible on top of a mountain such as Ararat (17,000 ft. high)?

The earth – Referred to 42 times in Gen 6-8.  Of course, the ancients had no concept of the planet Earth.  The term is equivalent to ‘dry land’ (v22; cf. Gen 1:10; 41:56), and would have been understood as the area of land within view of the horizon, or perhaps the entire alluvial plain.

Similarly, with expressions such as ‘all’, ‘every’ and ‘under heaven’.  These are frequently used in the Bible to indicate less-than-global extent, Dan 6:25; Acts 2:9-11.  Indeed, it is only within the last 500 years that ‘the earth’ has been understood as ‘planet Earth’.

Hill quotes Leonard Woolley:

.It was not a universal deluge; it was a vast flood in the valley of the Tigris and the Euphrates which drowned the whole of the habitable land …; for the people who lived there that was all the world.’

Only Noah and those who were with him in the ark survived – ‘Very likely some of them, when the rains descended and the floods came, as they were sinking in the waters, could say, “I helped to caulk her and to tar her. I helped, when the beats were coming in, to take fodder into the ark, and now I am lost myself.” You subscribed to the building of a house of prayer and never pray. You help to support the ministry, yet have no share in the good truth.’ (The Best of Spurgeon, 228)

Carol Hill argues for a historical flood:

‘These verses collectively show that the Genesis account of when the rains began (March–April); duration of the rain (forty days and forty nights); length of flooding (150 days); flow duration (5 months) of springs (fountains of the deep); and the time (365 days) and mechanism (prevalent wind patterns) for the flood to completely dry (Table 5-1), are not unreasonable considering the meteorological and hydrological conditions known to have existed in Mesopotamia for millennia. This accordance supports a historically based flood, rather than a mythological (non-historical) flood, and is remarkable considering that the Noah story had to have been passed down orally for hundreds of years before it could have been written down as a narrative text around 2500 B.C.’

A worldwide flood?

This description of a worldwide flood, in which the highest of mountains was submerged and which led to the deaths of all living creatures except Noah, his immediate family, and the animals taken into the ark, seems to stretch credulity well beyond its breaking point.  The water would have been more than five miles above normal sea level: where did all that water come from, and where, when the flood subsided, did it go to?

Comparative Ancient Near East Literature

Noah’s flood has many parallels in the literature of the ANE.  The Epic of Gilgamesh from Mesopotamia, the Babylonian story of Atrahasis, and Sumerian text known as the Eridu Genesis have a number of similarities with the Genesis account.  Each of these records a flood sent by the gods to destroy the world, except for a Noah-like figure and his family, who survived in an ark.

These multiple accounts suggest a single catastrophe that was independently remembered in different cultures.

1. A global flood?

Richard Davidson (EDBT) writes,

‘Many lines of biblical evidence converge in affirming the universal extent of the flood and also reveal the theological significance of this conclusion:

1. the trajectory of major themes in Genesis 1-11-creation, fall, plan of redemption, spread of sin-is universal in scope and calls for a matching universal judgment;

2. the genealogical lines from both Adam (Gen 4:17-26; 5:1-31 ) and Noah (Gen 10:1-32 11:1-9 ) are exclusive in nature, indicating that as Adam was father of all preflood humanity, so Noah was father of all postflood humanity;

3. the same inclusive divine blessing to be fruitful and multiply is given to both Adam and Noah; (Gen 1:28; 9:1 )

4. the covenant (Gen 9:9-10 ) and its rainbow sign (Gen 9:12-17 ) are clearly linked with the extent of the flood; (Gen 9:16,18 ) if there was only a local flood, then the covenant would be only a limited covenant;

5. the viability of God’s promise (Gen 9:15; cf. Isa 54:9) is wrapped up in the universality of the flood; if only a local flood occurred, then God has broken his promise every time another local flood has happened;

6. the universality of the flood is underscored by the enormous size of the ark (Gen 6:14-15 ) and the stated necessity for saving all the species of animals and plants in the ark; (Gen 6:16-21; 7:2-3 ) a massive ark filled with representatives of all nonaquatic animal/plant species would be unnecessary if this were only a local flood;

7. the covering of “all the high mountains” by at least twenty feet of water (Gen 7:19-20 ) could not involve simply a local flood, since water seeks its own level across the surface of the globe;

8. the duration of the flood (Noah in the ark over a year, Gen 7:11-8:14) makes sense only with a universal flood;

9. the New Testament passages concerning the flood all employ universal language (“took them all away”; (Mt 24:39 ) “destroyed them all”; (Lk 17:27 ) Noah “condemned the world”; (Heb 11:7 ).

10. the New Testament flood typology assumes and depends upon the universality of the flood to theologically argue for an imminent worldwide judgment by fire.’ (2 Pet 3:6-7 )

2. A local flood?

Instone-Brewer (Science and the Bible, ch. 11) argues for a local flood.

The word for ‘earth’ (the narrative doesn’t use the word for ‘world’ at all) can mean simply ‘land’ or ‘country’.  So, by itself, it does not imply a worldwide flood.  The ‘global’ language of Gen 41:57, for example, is clearly not to be taken literally.  (See also Col 1:23).

According to Gen 7:20, the flood waters rose to over 20 feet above the highest har.  This word can mean anything from a mountain (Ex 19:18) to a hill (1 Kings 16:24) or even to a hillock (1 Sam 26:13).

We do not know how widely the human race had spread across the globe by the time of the Flood.  It is possible, then, that even a fairly localised flood could have wiped out the entire human population of the world apart from those saved on the ark.

When Gen 7:19 says that the flood covered everything ‘under the entire heavens’, this could mean everywhere (Deut 4:19) or everywhere between the two horizons (Job 37:3).  It is used in Deut 2:25 to refer to the lands borderng Palestine.

We can conclude from these first three points that, from the linguistic point of view, the flood could be considered as covering every mountain on earth, or covering all the hills as far as the eye can see.

In the 1930s, archaeological evidence was found of one or more floods, dating back to before 3,000 BC, that covered a large area of the Mesopotamian plain (140,000 square miles).  The area is mainly flat, with just a few small hills.  The deposited silt was up to six feet deep.  It must have had a devastating effect on the entire population.

According to Gen 8:1, a strong wind blew the ark towards the mountains of Ararat.  Although v4 can be understood as meaning either that the ark came to rest ‘on the mountains’, or ‘among, or near, the mountains’

On the assumption of a world-wide flood, the dove could not have found a fresh olive leaf (all the trees having been submerged for at least seven months (note too that olive trees do not grow much above 1,000 metres).

The local flood hypotheses allows for the ark to have been populated with a limited number of pairs of animals and birds – especially those which had been domesticated.

Instone-Brewer concludes:

‘The details about Noah in the Bible text are therefore compatible with the interpretation that this flood covered all the hills in the land that Noah and his civilization lived in, leaving his family as the only survivors, floating in a boat on water that stretched as far as the eye could see.’

However, 2 Pet 3:3-7 draws a clear parallel between the Genesis Flood and the fiery final judgment.  If the latter is to be worldwide, as it certainly will be, it might be argued that the former must have been worldwide also, or else the parallel would break down.

According to the relevant entry in Hard Sayings of the Bible, the jury is still out on the question of whether the Flood was a local or a worldwide phenomenon.  Either way, it was a terrible judgment of God on human wickedness.

3. Hyperbolic account?

Enns and Byas (Genesis For Normal People) notes that there are a number of other accounts – from ancient Sumeria, Assyria and Babylon – of a catastrophic flood affecting the ancient Near East.  These pre-date the biblical account.  Archaeologists suppose that such a flood occurred around 2900 BC.

This Biologos article argues for an interpretation that takes the characteristics of ancient literature and cosmology seriously:

‘The scientific and historical evidence is now clear: there has never been a global flood that covered the entire earth, nor do all modern animals and humans descend from the passengers of a single vessel.’

So,

It is necessary to ask what a biblical narrative would have meant to its original readers, and also to re-visit our own interpretation in the light of scientific knowledge.

Many ancient texts (including the Gilgamesh Epic) have a story about a catastrophic flood.  The account given in Genesis 6-9 may well draw on a common cultural memory of such an event.

The point of the biblical story is not to give precise facts about what happened, but rather to use the story to convey a message about God and humankind.

The story itself contains many clues that indicate that it is not meant to be understood literally.  The descriptions of the extent and duration of the flood, the size of the ark, and the number of animals carried in it all suggest that the literary device of hyperbole is being used.  Moreover, the instruction to treat ‘clean’ and ‘unclean’ animals differently is anachronistic, since such a distinction was not made until the time of Moses.

We should also consider the general nature of the first eleven chapters of Genesis: these cover a huge swathe of history and serve as ‘a grand and poetic “introduction” to the story of God’s people’ which begins with the call of Abraham in Genesis 12.

The Flood story not only draws on ancient styles of literature but also on ancient ideas about cosmology:

‘Ancient Near Eastern people thought that rain comes from an ocean above the sky (which explains why the sky is blue), and that this ocean wraps all the way around the earth (which explains why deep wells always hit water). They also thought of the “whole Earth” as simply the edges of their current maps, which mostly consisted of today’s Middle East.’

The Flood narrative relies on the same assumptions: as the ‘firmament’ above the earth collapses and the ‘fountains of the deep’ explode, the earth returns cataclysmically to the chaos of Gen 1:2, and a new start must be made.  And all of this is due to the chaos of sin.

It follows that notions about a ‘global’ flood are beyond the point (the ancients did not know that the earth was a ‘globe’), as are speculations about water sources, ark buoyancy, geological effects, post-Flood animal migrations, and so on.

The view just outlined should not be taken as undermining the biblical doctrine of inspiration:

‘God chose to communicate his message through ordinary people, accommodating himself to their limited knowledge in order to draw themselves to him.’

In conclusion:

‘The story of Noah, the Ark, and Flood speaks an inspired and powerful message about judgment and grace, that has instructed God’s people throughout the ages about God’s hatred of sin and his love for his creation. Most importantly, we see God’s promise never to destroy the Earth again fully realized in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, where God takes the judgment for sin upon himself rather than humanity. Thus, through the lens of Christ, the biblical Flood story proclaims the marvelous news of God’s grace and love for his people.’