What does the Bible say about
the Flood?By
Jack
Kettler
As in previous studies, we will
look
at definitions, scriptures, lexical, and
commentary evidence for the purpose to
glorify God in how we live.When looking at
the text of Scripture in Genesis, we see
that the flood was a worldwide event.
Our Lord Jesus Christ himself referred to
the flood, which came and destroyed
the world of Noah’s day. The writer of
Hebrews calls Noah one of the examples
of faith. The apostle Peter mentions Noah
and the flood. The flood was a real
event in human history. At the end of this
study, there is a link to Answer in
Genesis for more research.
The Flood: God’s judgment on
humankind for its moral depravity and
sinfulness by means of an historical
flood which wiped out the entire population
of the world except for Noah and
his family, as recorded in chapters 6-8 of
Genesis; also called the Great
Flood, the Great Deluge, or the biblical
flood. *
The Scriptures:
“And the Lord said unto
Noah, Come thou
and all thy house into the ark; for thee
have I seen righteous before me in
this generation. Of every clean beast, thou
shalt take to thee by sevens, the
male and his female: and of beasts that are
not clean by two, the male and his
female. Of fowls also of the air by sevens,
the male and the female, to keep
seed alive upon the face of all the earth.
For yet seven days, and I will cause
it to rain upon the earth forty days and
forty nights; and every living
substance that I have made will I destroy
from off the face of the earth. And
Noah did according unto all that the Lord
commanded him. And Noah was six
hundred years old when the flood of waters
was upon the earth. And Noah went
in, and his sons, and his wife, and his
sons' wives with him, into the ark,
because of the waters of the flood.”
(Genesis 7:1-7)
“And the
flood was forty days upon the earth; and the
waters increased, and bare up the ark, and
it was lift up above the earth. And
the waters prevailed, and were increased
greatly upon the earth; and the ark
went upon the face of the waters. And the
waters prevailed exceedingly upon the
earth; and all the high hills, that were
under the whole heaven, were covered.
Fifteen
cubits upward did the waters prevail; and
the mountains were covered. And all
flesh died that moved upon the earth, both
of fowl, and of cattle, and of
beast, and of every creeping thing that
creepeth upon the earth, and every man:
All in whose nostrils was the breath of
life, of all that was in the dry land,
died. And every living substance was
destroyed which was upon the face of the
ground, both man, and cattle, and the
creeping things, and the fowl of the
heaven; and they were destroyed from the
earth: and Noah only remained alive,
and they that were with him in the ark. And
the waters prevailed upon the earth an
hundred and fifty days.” (Genesis 7:17-24)
“This is
like the days of Noah to me: as I swore that
the waters of Noah should no more go over
the earth, so I have sworn that I
will not be angry with you, and will not
rebuke you.” (Isaiah 54:9 ESV)
“For as
in the days that were before the flood they
were eating and drinking, marrying and
giving in marriage, until the day that
Noe entered into the ark.” (Matthew 24:38)
“Just as
it was in the days of Noah, so will it be in
the days of the Son of Man. They were eating
and drinking and marrying and
being given in marriage, until the day when
Noah entered the ark, and the flood
came and destroyed them all.” (Luke 17:26-27
ESV)
From
Gill's
Exposition of the Entire Bible
on Luke 17:27:
“They did
eat, they drank,.... That is, the
inhabitants of the old world ate and drank,
not merely in a common way, with
moderation, and for the support and comfort
of life, which is not blameworthy,
nor inconsistent with religious exercises;
but they lived in an extravagant and
luxurious manner; they indulged their
sensual appetites, and put away the evil
day far from them, that Noah told them of:
they
married wives, they were given in marriage;
not
as should have been done by professors of
religion among themselves; but the
sons of God, or professors of the true
religion, the posterity of Seth took
them wives of the daughters of men, of the
wicked, of the seed of Cain; and
very likely gave their daughters in marriage
to the sons of men; see Genesis
6:2 and so they went on in a secure manner,
notwithstanding all the
remonstrances, warnings, and threatenings of
God, by his servant:
until the
day that Noe entered into the ark; which he
had built by divine direction, for the
saving of himself and family, and the
creatures that were with him, from the
waters of the flood; and this was in the
six hundredth year of his life, in the
second month, the month of October, and
in the seventeenth day of that month;
Genesis 7:11
and the
flood came and destroyed them all; all the
inhabitants of the earth, every living
substance, men, cattle, creeping things,
and fowls of the heaven; all but Noah, and
his wife, and his three sons, and
their wives, and the creatures that were
with him in the ark: the flood came
not of itself, or by chance, or through the
influence, or by the concurrence of
second causes merely; though these were
used, ordered, and directed by the
first cause of all things; but it came by
the power of God, according to his
will; he brought it on the world of the
ungodly; see 2 Peter 2:5 The mode of
expression is Jewish; it is said of Cain,
who is supposed by the Jews to have
lived till the flood, “the flood came”, and
washed him away.” (1)
“By faith
Noah, being warned of God of things not seen
as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to
the saving of his house; by which
he condemned the world, and became heir of
the righteousness which is by faith.”
(Hebrews 11:7)
From
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown
Bible Commentary
on Hebrews 11:7:
7. warned
of God—the same Greek, Heb. 8:5, “admonished
of God.”
Moved
with fear—not mere slavish fear, but as in
Heb.
5:7; see on [2585] Heb. 5:7; Greek,
“reverential fear”: opposed to the world's
sneering disbelief of the revelation, and
self-deceiving security. Join “by
faith” with "prepared an ark" (1Pe 3:20).
By the
which—faith.
Condemned
the world—for since he believed and was
saved, so might they have believed and been
saved, so that their condemnation
by God is by his case shown to be just.
Righteousness,
which is by faith—Greek, “according to
faith.” A Pauline thought. Noah is first
called “righteous” in Ge 6:9. Christ
calls Abel so, Mt 23:35. Compare as to
Noah's righteousness, Ezekiel 14:14, 20;
2Pe 2:5, “a preacher of righteousness.” Paul
here makes faith the principle and
ground of his righteousness.
Heir—the
consequence of sonship which flows from
faith.” (2)
“And
spared not the old world, but saved Noah the
eighth person, a preacher of righteousness,
bringing in the flood upon the
world of the ungodly.” (2Peter 2:5)
From
the Pulpit
Commentary on 2Peter 2:5:
“Verse 5.
- And spared not the old world, but saved
Noah the eighth person; rather, as in the
Revised Version, the ancient world,
but preserved Noah with seven others. “The
eighth” is a common classical idiom
(generally with the pronoun αὐτός)
for with seven others. Mark the close
parallelism with 1Peter 3:20, where, as
here, the apostle impresses upon his readers
the fewness of the saved. A
preacher of righteousness. The Old Testament
narrative does not directly assert
this; but “a just man and perfect,” who
“walked with God” (Genesis 6:9), must
have been a preacher (literally, “herald”)
of righteousness to the ungodly
among whom he lived. Josephus, in a
well-known passage ('Ant.,' 1:03, 1), says
that Noah tried to persuade his neighbours
to change their mind and their
actions for the better. Bringing in the
Flood upon the world of the ungodly.
The Revised Version renders, when he brought
a Flood upon the world. In the Greek,
there is no article throughout this verse.
In verse 1 the ungodly are
represented as bringing upon themselves
swift destruction; here God brings the
punishment upon them. The same Greek verb is
used in both places. In one place
St. Peter gives the human, in the other the
Divine, aspect of the same events
(comp. Clement I, 7 and 9).” (3)
“Whereby
the world that then was, being overflowed
with water, perished.” (2Peter 3:6)
From
Matthew
Poole's Commentary on 2Peter
3:6:
“Whereby,
by which heavens and water, mentioned in the
former verse, the fountains of the great
deep being broken up, and the windows
of heaven opened, Genesis 7:11. Or, by the
word of God, as the principal cause,
and the water as the instrumental, which, at
his command, was poured out upon the
earth both from above and below.
The
world; the earth, with all the inhabitants
of it,
eight persons excepted. This the apostle
allegeth against the forementioned
scoffers, who said that all things continued
as they were, when yet the flood
had made so great a change in the face of
the lower creation.” (4)
From
Baker's
Evangelical Dictionary of
Biblical Theology on the Flood:
Terminology.
The Genesis flood is denoted in the Old
Testament by the technical Hebrew term mabbul
[2Peter 3:6).
Extra
biblical Parallels. Ancient flood stories
are
almost universal (up to 230 different
stories are known). Floods are by far the
most frequently given cause for past world
calamities in the folk literature of
antiquity. The stories nearest to the area
of the dispersion at Babel are the
closest in detail to the biblical account.
Four main
flood stories are found in Mesopotamian
sources: the Sumerian Eridu Genesis (ca.
1600 b.c.), the Old Babylonian
Atrahasis Epic (ca. 1600 b.c.), the
Gilgamesh Epic (Neo-Assyrian version, ca.
eighth to the seventh centuries b.c.), and
Berossus' account (Babylon, third
century b.c.).
The Unity
of the Genesis Flood Account. The detailed
chiastic literary structure of Genesis 6-9
argues for the unity of the flood
narrative instead of small textual units (J
and P) as suggested by the
Documentary Hypothesis. A close reading of
the flood narrative as a coherent
literary whole, with particular attention to
the chiastic structure, resolves
apparent discrepancies in the Genesis
account.
Theology
of the Flood. Theology as History: The
Historical Nature of the Flood. In the
literary structure of the flood
narrative the genealogical frame or envelope
construction (Genesis 5:32, 9:28-29)
plus the secondary genealogies (Genesis
6:9-10, 9:18-19) are indicators that
the account is intended to be factual
history. The use of the genealogical term
toledot
[6:9) as throughout Genesis
(13 times, structuring the whole book),
indicates that the author intended this
narrative to be as historically veracious as
the rest of Genesis. A number of
references in the Book of Job may allude to
the then-relatively-recent flood
(9:5-8; 12:14-15; 14:11-12; 22:15-17;
26:10-14; 27:20-22; 28:9; 38:8-11). The
occurrence of the flood is an integral part
of the saving/judging Acts of God
in redemptive history, and its historicity
is assumed and essential to the
theological arguments of later biblical
writers employing flood typology.
The
Motive or Theological Cause of the Flood .
In
contrast with the ancient Near Eastern flood
stories, in which no cause of the
flood is given (Gilgamesh Epic) or in which
the gods decide to wipe out their
human slaves because they are making too
much noise (Atrahasis Epic and Eridu
Genesis), the biblical account provides a
profound theological motivation for
the flood: humankind's moral depravity and
sinfulness, the all-pervading
corruption and violence of all living beings
(“all flesh”) on earth (Genesis
6:1-8,11-12 ), which demands divine
punishment.
The God
of the Flood (Theodicy). The theological
motivation provides a divine justification
(theodicy) for the flood. In
contrast to the other ancient Near Eastern
stories, in which the gods are
arbitrary, acting out of unreasoning anger,
selfishness, and caprice, seeking
to deceive the people and not inform them of
the impending flood, the biblical
picture of the God of the flood is far
different. God extends a probationary
period during which his Spirit is striving
with humanity to repent (Genesis
6:3). God warned the antediluvian world
through Noah, the “preacher of
righteousness” (2Peter 2:5; cf. 1 Peter
3:19-20).
God
himself makes provision for the saving of
humankind (Genesis 6:14-16). He “repents”—he
is sorry, moved to pity, having
compassion, suffering grief (Genesis 6:6).
God takes up humanity's pain and
anguish (Genesis 6:6; 3:16-17). The divine
act of destruction is not arbitrary.
God "destroys" what humanity had already
ruined or corrupted; he
mercifully brings to completion the ruin
already wrought by humankind.
The God
of the biblical flood is not only just and
merciful; he is also free to act according
to his divine will, and he possesses
sovereign power and full control over the
forces of nature (in contrast to the
weakness and fright of the gods during the
flood, according to ancient Near
Eastern stories). Yahweh's omnipotent
sovereignty seems to be the theological
thrust of Psalm 29:10, the only biblical
reference outside Genesis employing
the term mabbul
[מַבוּלּ]: “Yahweh sat enthroned
at the flood.”
The
choice of divine names throughout the flood
narrative, instead of indicating separate
sources, seems to highlight different
aspects of God's character: the generic
Elohim when his universal, transcendent
sovereignty or judicial authority is
emphasized; and the covenant name Yahweh
when
his personal, ethical dealings with Noah and
humankind are in view.
Human
Moral Responsibility. The portrayal of
humanity's moral depravity as the cause of
the flood highlights human
responsibility for sin. Noah's response of
faith/faithfulness (Hebrews 11:7 )
underscores that accountability to God is
not only corporate but individual:
Noah found “favor” in God's sight, he was
“righteous,” “blameless,” and “walked
together” in personal relationship with God
(Genesis 6:8-9 ); he responded in
implicit obedience to God's commands
(Genesis 6:22; 7:5,9; cf. Ezekiel
14:14,20).
Eschatological
Judgment. When God announced the coming
of the flood to Noah he said, “I have
determined to make an end of all flesh”
(Genesis 6:13). The “eschatological” term qes
(end) later became a technical term for the
eschaton.
The divine judgment involved a period of
probation (Genesis 6:3), followed by a
judicial investigation (“The Lord saw”
Genesis 6:5; “I have determined,”
Genesis 6:13; RSV), the sentence (Genesis
6:7), and its execution (the bringing
of the flood, Genesis 7:11-24). The New
Testament recognizes the divine
judgment of the Genesis flood as a
typological foreshadowing of the final
eschatological judgment.
The
Noahic Covenant. The word berit [Genesis 6:18; 9:8-17),
and the covenant motif is an integral
part of the flood narrative. The Noahic
covenant comes at God's initiative, and
demonstrates his concern, faithfulness, and
dependability. He covenants never
again to send a flood to destroy the earth.
This covenant promise flows from
the propitiatory animal sacrifice offered by
Noah (Genesis 8:20-22).
Unlike
the other biblical covenants, the Noahic
covenant is made not only with humankind but
with the whole earth (Genesis
9:13) including every living creature
(Genesis 9:10, 12, 15, 16), and is thus
completely unilateral and unconditional upon
the response of the earth and its
inhabitants. The sign of this everlasting
covenant is the rainbow, which is not
primarily for humankind, but for God to see
and "remember" the covenant
he has made with the earth (Genesis 9:16).
The Flood
Remnant. The flood narrative contains the
first mention in the biblical canon of the
motif and terminology of remnant: “Only
Noah and those who were with him in the ark
remained [saar]” (Genesis 7:23). The
remnant who survived the cosmic
catastrophe of the flood were constituted
thus because of their right
relationship of faith and obedience to God,
not because of caprice or the
favoritism of the gods, as in the extra
biblical ancient Near Eastern flood
stories.
Salvific
Grace. God's grace is revealed already
before
the flood in his directions for the building
of the ark to save those faithful
to him (Genesis 6:14-21 ); and again after
the flood in his covenant/promise
never again to destroy the earth with a
flood, even though human nature
remained evil (Genesis 8:20-22; 9:8-17).
But the
theological (and literary, chiastic) heart
of
the flood account is found in the phrase
“God remembered Noah” (Genesis 8:1).
The memory theology of Scripture does not
imply that God has literally
forgotten; for God to “remember” is to act
in deliverance (see Exodus 6:5). The
structural positioning of God's
“remembering” at the center of the narrative
indicates that the apex of flood theology is
not punitive judgment but divine
salvific grace.
Numerous
thematic and verbal parallels between the
accounts of Noah's salvation and Israel's
exodus deliverance reveal the
author's intent to emphasize their
similarity. Various references in the psalms
to God's gracious deliverance of the
righteous from the “great waters” of
tribulation, may contain allusions to the
Genesis flood (Psalm 18:16; 32:6;
65:5-8; 69:2; 89:9; 93:3; 124:4).
Flood
Typology. The typological nature of the
flood
account is already implicit in Genesis.
Isaiah provides an explicit verbal
indicator that the flood is a type of
covenantal eschatology (54:9), along with
several possible allusions to the flood in
his descriptions of the
eschatological salvation of Israel (24:18;
28:2; 43:2; 54:8). The prophets Nahum
(Nahum 1:8) and Daniel (9:26) depict the
eschatological judgment in language
probably alluding to the Genesis flood.
The New
Testament writers recognize the typological
connection between flood and eschatology.
The salvation of Noah and his family
in the ark through the waters of the flood
finds its antitypical counterpart in
New Testament eschatological salvation
connected with water baptism (1 Peter
3:18-22 ). The flood is also a type of the
final eschatological judgment at the
end of the world, and the conditions of
pre-flood morality provide signs of the
end times (Matthew 24:37-39; Luke 17:26-27;
2Peter 2:5, 9; 3:5-7).
Universality
of the Flood. One of the most
controversial aspects of flood theology
concerns the extent of the flood. Three
major positions are taken: (1) the
traditional, which asserts the universal,
worldwide, nature of the deluge; (2) limited
flood theories, which narrow the
scope of the flood story to a particular
geographical location in Mesopotamia;
and (3) nonliteral (symbolic)
interpretation, which suggests that the
flood
story is a nonhistorical account written to
teach theological truth. Against
the third interpretation, we have already
discussed the historical nature of
the flood. Of the two first positions, the
limited flood theories rest
primarily on scientific arguments that set
forth seemingly difficult physical
problems for a universal flood. These
problems are not insurmountable given the
supernatural nature of the flood; numerous
recent scientific studies also
provide a growing body of evidence for
diluvial catastrophism instead of
uniformitarianism. Only the traditional
universalist understanding does full
justice to all the biblical data, and this
interpretation is crucial for flood
theology in Genesis and for the theological
implications drawn by later
biblical writers.
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 (Genesis
4:17-26; 5:1-31) and Noah (Genesis 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 (Genesis 1:28; 9:1); (4)
the covenant (Genesis 9:9-10) and its
rainbow sign (Genesis 9:12-17) are
clearly linked with the extent of the flood
(Genesis 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 (Genesis 9:15;
cf. Isaiah 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 (Genesis 6:14-15)
and the stated necessity for saving all the
species of animals and plants in
the ark (Genesis 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 (Genesis 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,
Genesis 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” [ Matthew 24:39]; “destroyed
them all” [Luke 17:27]; Noah “condemned the
world” [Hebrews 11:7]); and (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
(2Peter 3:6-7).
The
theology of the flood is the pivot of a
connected
but multifaceted universal theme running
through Genesis 1-11 and the whole
rest of Scripture: creation, and the
character of the Creator, in his original
purpose for creation; uncreation, in
humankind's turning from the Creator, the
universal spread of sin, ending in universal
eschatological judgment; and
re-creation, in the eschatological salvation
of the faithful remnant and the
universal renewal of the earth. Richard M.
Davidson (5)
In
closing:
“The LORD
sitteth upon the flood; yea, the LORD
sitteth King forever.” (Psalm
29:10)
From
Gill's
Exposition of the Entire Bible
on Psalm 29:10:
“The Lord
sitteth upon the flood,.... Noah's flood;
which is always designed by the word here
used, the Lord sat and judged the old
world for its wickedness, and brought a
flood upon them, and destroyed them;
and then he abated it, sent a wind to
assuage the waters, stopped up the
windows of heaven, and the fountains of the
great deep, and restrained rain
from heaven; and he now sits upon the
confidence of waters in the heavens, at
the time of a thunder storm, which threatens
with an overflowing flood; and he
remembers his covenant, and restrains them
from destroying the earth any more:
and he sits upon the floods of ungodly men,
and stops their rage and fury, and
suffers them not to proceed to overwhelm his
people and interest; and so the
floods of afflictions of every kind, and the
floods of Satan's temptations, and
of errors and heresies, are at his control,
and he permits them to go so far,
and no farther;
yea, the
Lord sitteth King for ever: he is King of
the
whole world, over angels and men, and even
the kings of the earth; and he is
also King of saints, in whose hearts he
reigns by his Spirit and grace; and the
Gospel dispensation is more eminently his
kingdom, in which his spiritual
government is most visible; and this will
more appear in the latter day glory,
when the Lord shall be King over all the
earth; and after which the Lord Christ
will reign with his saints here a thousand
years, and then with them to all
eternity, and of his kingdom there shall be
no end.” (6)
Strong's
Hebrew 3999: 1) flood, deluge. 1a) Noah's
flood that submerged the entire planet earth
under water for about a year. Some
think Noah's flood was only local. However,
the description of it found in Gen.
6 through 8 makes this patently absurd. If
it was local, Noah had 120 years to
migrate out of the area to safe ground! Why
waste all that effort building a
ship? He only had to move less than 1500
feet a day to reach the farthest point
on the globe! With the possible exception of
Ps 29:10, this word always refers
to Noah's flood. The real reason for
insisting on a local flood is the
acceptance of evolution with its long
geological ages. Most holding that view
are not willing to allow a global worldwide
flood to have happened less than
5000 years ago. To admit such eliminates the
need for the geological ages for
most of the geological column would have
been rapidly laid down by Noah's
flood.” (7)
God’s
covenant with Noah:
“And I
will establish my covenant with you; neither
shall all flesh be cut off any more by the
waters of a flood; neither shall
there anymore be a flood to destroy the
earth.” (Genesis 9:11)
“To God,
only wise, be glory through Jesus Christ
forever. Amen.” (Romans 16:27) and “heirs
according to the promise.” (Galatians
3:28, 29)
Notes:
1.John
Gill, Exposition
of the Old and New
Testaments, Luke, 9 Volumes, (Grace
Works, Multi-Media Labs), 2011, p. 486.
2.Jamieson,
Fausset and Brown, Commentary
on the
Whole Bible, (Grand Rapids, Michigan,
Zondervan, 1977) p. 1433.
3.H.
D. M. Spence and Joseph S. Exell, The
Pulpit Commentary, 2Peter, Vol.22.,
(Grand Rapids, Michigan, Eerdmans
Publishing Company reprint 1978), p. 44.
4.Matthew
Poole's Commentary
on the Holy Bible,
(Peabody, Massachusetts, Hendrickson
Publishers, 1985) p. 926.
5.Walter
A. Elwell, Editor, Baker’s
Evangelical
Dictionary of Biblical Theology,
(Grand Rapids, Michigan, Baker Book
House), p. 261-263.
6.John
Gill, Exposition
of the Old and New
Testaments, Psalms, 9 Volumes, (Grace
Works, Multi-Media Labs), 2011, p. 327-328.
7.KJV
Bible with Comprehensive Strong’s Dictionary
(3 in 1): [Illustrated]: KJV Bible
with Strong’s markup, Strong’s dictionary
with Lexicon definitions, Bible word
index [Kindle Edition] 152552-152559.
Mr.
Kettler has previously published articles in
the
Chalcedon Report and Contra Mundum. He and
his wife Marea attend the Westminster,
CO, RPCNA Church. Mr. Kettler is the author
of the book defending the Reformed
Faith against attacks, titled: The Religion
That Started in a Hat. Available
at: http://www.TheReligionThatStartedInAHat.com