When we today encounter terms such
as, “all the world” in Scripture, it
is easy to interpret that language through our contemporary experiences of the same
on the basis not only of intercontinental transportation but of satellite photography
of both of our own globe (google “Earthrise”) and across the expanse of the heavens
(google “Hubble Deep Field”). By
contrast, the relevant (therefore “real”) world of ancient peoples was far
smaller than our own, though equally difficult to cross. The question of properly interpreting the
Genesis Flood story therefore calls for our stepping into modes of perspective
and expression used in the course of daily business in biblical times. It is crucial here to remember that the manners of speaking we are here considering
are not directly related to degrees of scientific understanding. We often today speak in the same kind of terms as they. When for example Boston (packed as it is with
prestigious universities) relished in the most recent “World Series” title, not one Red Sox fan expected Parisians across
the Atlantic to care one whit about that milestone (“World,” Whose’ kidding
whom?”). John Frame (who embraces both
biblical inerrancy while happening to disagree with views I espouse here)
argues in his book, The Doctrine of the Word of God (P&R Publishing,
2010), chapter 26, that the God-breathed words of Holy Scripture consistently
employ modes of expression and common standards of imprecision that were universally used in daily speech (e.g. “How far is it from Galilee to
Jerusalem? A three day walk.”—“How far is it from here to Spokane? An hour by plane.”) as opposed to the kind
of phraseology found in academic textbook (E=mc2). In Moses’ day, images of a globe as we
understand it today would have been irrelevant to all then concerned. On the other hand, “the term, “all of humanity,” would have driven the point of that flood event all the way to
their doorstep.
It is one thing, however, to claim
that limiting the geographical extent of the flood of Noah to the parameters of
the inhabited world can be reconciled with both the text of Genesis and also the
geological evidence. Are there actual positive
indications of a more localized flood (as opposed to total global)? First of all, it is important to understand
that the text of Genesis does not say that the Ark of Noah came to rest on
Mount Ararat itself, but instead on the mountains (note the plural) of
Ararat. This would imply a much lower
elevation as opposed to the 17,000 foot elevation of the upper slopes of the
“Big One.” Furthermore, the waters that
some argue once covered the highest mountains would have had to return to
somewhere, yet there is no place for that substantial amount of water to be
hiding today. As for the text itself,
though this is an argument from silence, the amount of upheaval that would have
resulted from such an enormous volume of water as is alleged to account for the
formation of sedimentary rock found today as high as the upper slopes of Mount
Everest in the Himalayan Mountains, would wave been utterly fatal to Noah and
his family by orders of magnitude. Some
will reply that God could have made provisions for these people to survive
under such conditions. The answer to
that challenge is “Yes…but!” Because God
can do whatever He wishes, He could have kept his people through such
conditions as I just described. Had He
chosen to do so, the Flood would have been an act of providence that interwove
numerous independent miracles. However,
the challenge facing this assertion is that God’s revealed Word is utterly
silent on the kinds of conditions I just described. On the one hand it speaks of a catastrophe
of a such a magnitude as would destroy an entire race of sinful human beings,
excepting Noah and his family. But it
gives no indication of events within the time frame of a single year that would
account for the topography of our entire planet! By means of satellite images, Dr. Hugh Ross
indicates the potential location of the Flood of Noah as the Bible describes
the event. In Navigating Genesis,
p.158, (see part 2 of this series), he convincingly shows how the Ark of Noah
may well have floated beyond the sight of land in what is now called “The
Fertile crescent.” The remainder of the “earthling”
population, yet to disperse until the Tower of Babel incident (see Genesis 11),
perished in the floodwaters beneath them.
When the waters subsided, Noah and his three sons and their wives
stepped off the ark and began to repopulate a world that would continue to
resist dispersing until “the LORD confused the languages of all the earth; and
from there the LORD scattered them abroad over all the face of the earth”
(Genesis 11:9).
