The Myth of Noah's Flood   Joseph Francis Alward In this essay we present evidence that suggests that the story in Genesis about the apocalyptic flood was probably plagiarized from a mythologized Mesopotamian flood that predated the writing of Genesis by more than a thousand years. We will then look at some interesting questions concerning the account in Genesis. Many of the most incisive comments and points raised in this essay were copied from Dennis McKinsey's articles in Biblical Errancy.

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Note:  the website, ChristianAnswers.Net answers the question, "Has Noah's Ark Been Found?"

Click here to see flood water calculation.

Flood Legends

From Compton's Encyclopedia Online v2.0 © 1997 The Learning Company, Inc.

"In the traditions of most ancient civilizations there can be found a legend concerning a flood of such enormous proportions that it is believed to have covered the whole Earth. Such was the destructive force of this flood that few land animals and plants survived it. For readers in Western society the most famous version is the story of Noah and the Ark as recounted in Genesis, the first book of the Bible. Although it may be the best known, the account of Noah's adventure is neither the only nor the oldest such legend.

"Legends of a flood can be found in the folklore of such diverse places as the Middle East, India, China, Australia, southern Asia, the islands of the Pacific, Europe, and the Americas. But the best-known flood legend--that on which the story of Noah is based--had its origins among the peoples of ancient Mesopotamia in the Tigris-Euphrates river valley.

The Real Mesopotamian Flood

"The Babylonian plain is very fertile. The land was built up of mud and clay deposited by two great rivers, the Tigris and the Euphrates. These twin rivers come down from mountains in the north, cut southeastward through hilly grasslands, and finally cross the plain they created to reach the Persian Gulf. The Greeks named the land between them Mesopotamia, 'land between the rivers.' Today it is called Iraq. Tradition says the Garden of Eden was here.

"Excavations in Mesopotamia have led archaeologists and other scientists to conclude that a number of serious floods occurred there between 4000 and 2000 BC. It is possible that one of these floods was so destructive that it made a lasting impression on the population and became a subject for the ancient literature of the period.

The Flood Grows into Myth

"In its fully developed mythical form, the Mesopotamian flood appeared in the Epic of Gilgamesh, one of the first literary masterpieces, which relates the adventures of a hero-king of Sumer. The earliest versions of the epic derive from the first part of the 2nd millennium BC.

The story of the flood is told to Gilgamesh by Utnapishtim, the counterpart of Noah in the story. Advised by the god Ea that his city is to be destroyed by flood, Utnapishtim is told to build a ship for his family, servants, and animals. After a seven-day flood, the vessel comes to rest on a mountaintop. The wrath of the gods has been appeased, and Utnapishtim and his wife are granted immortality.

Hebrews Make the Flood Apocalyptic

"About two thousand years after the Mesopotamian flood which led to the writing of The Epic of Gilgamesh, the story was probably brought to Canaan, the land where the Israelites settled, from Mesopotamia by the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The tale was reshaped around the eighth or ninth century BC by Hebrew writers into a narrative about God and his purposes for mankind. In this version it is the whole Earth that is to be flooded. Only Noah, his family, and the animals he collects are to be saved. The flooding lasts 40 days, and afterward Noah's Ark settles on top of a mountain." [1]

The Genesis Flood Story Christian apologists contend that the flood described in Genesis is not a mythically-enlarged story about an actual Mesopotamian flood, but an actual event. Part of Genesis' description of that flood is given below: God Tells Noah to Gather the Animals and Their Food And of every living thing of all flesh, two of every sort shalt thou bring into the ark....and thou take unto thee of all food that is eaten, and thou shalt gather it to thee; and it shall be for food for thee, and for them. Thus did Noah; according to all that God commanded him, so did he. (Genesis 6:19-22 )

Note: These verses make it clear that Noah and his family are to collect the animals and the food; nowhere does it say that God will do the gathering for Noah.

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.....Of clean beasts, and of beast that are not clean, and fowls of every thing that creepeth upon the earth, There went in two and two unto Noah into the ark, the male and female, as God had commanded Noah. (Genesis 7:1-9 )

As we have noted, it was Noah's responsibility to arrange for the animals to appear at the Ark, since Moses said that "God had commanded Noah" to do this thing. Thus, it was Noah's responsibility to build the Ark, store food on board, get the animals to the Ark, and keep them safe and fed during the journey. Now, several questions arise:

Getting to the Ark in Seven Days

God gave Noah seven days to collect all of the animals and get them onto the ark. How did Noah cause the animals to come to the Ark? How did they know where it was, and when they had to be there? How did the great white bears and penguins of the polar regions, the kangeroos of the southern hemisphere, and the snakes and gorillas of the tropical rain forests cross the vast oceans and land masses to the Mideast? Once the whales, porpoises, and dolphins got to the Ark, how did they travel up the gangplank? Did the slow-moving snails and turtles from other continents head for the Ark at the same time as the other animals? Did weather conditions permit travel in all cases? Surviving in the Ark How did the polar bears and penguins survive the heat of the Mideast? How were the lions prevented from eating the lambs? The vegetation which many animals eat grows only in their natural habitat; did they bring it with them, and how was it kept fresh for 150 days? How did just eight people manage to feed millions of species?

How did Noah and his small family keep track of the special diet of each of the millions of species of animals, and remember which had already been fed, and when? Assuming only two million species of animals, each person on board the Ark would have had to supervise the care and feeding of 250,000 different species each day, some of which would have required three or more feedings per day.

Note: in order to avoid the apparent impossibility of storing so many different kinds of animals on the Ark, some apologists assert that God intended for Noah to bring, for example, one pair of birds, one pair of dogs, et cetera, not a pair parakeets, a pair of eagles, a pair of chihuahuas, and a pair of great danes. That lack of discrimination would reduce the burden on Noah, of course, but it wouldn't explain how the great dane and the chihuahua each could have evolved out of a common ancestor in just a few thousand years; such speedy evolution is in direct contradiction to the beliefs of inerrantists. If an eagle could evolve from a parakeet in just two thousand years, why couldn't man have evolved from lower animals in many billions of years?

I believe that one could work out a reasonable date for the Flood by using Biblical chronology. 1 Kings 6:1 states that the Exodus from Egypt occurred 480 years before the fourth year of Solomon's reign over Israel. Exodus 12:40 says that the children of Israel dwelt in Egypt for 430 years. At the time they entered Egypt, Jacob was 130 years old (Genesis 47:9). Isaac was 60 years old when Jacob was born (Genesis 25:26). Abram/Abraham was 100 years old when Isaac was born (Genesis 21:5). Genesis 11:10-26 gives us the genealogy of Abram back to Noah's son Shem who is said to have begat Arphaxad 2 years after the Flood. The remaining ancestors of Abram and the ages when they begat their sons are all provided for us. From Shem to Abram, the total adds up to be 292 years. So, the computation of the date of the Flood would start in the fourth year of Solomon's reign (967 BCE). Add up the years in the unbroken chain of events back to Shem's begatting of Arphaxad (and adding two more to get us back to the end of the Flood) and we get 1494 years. This would compute the year of the Flood to be 2461 BCE. Now, the obvious problem inherent in that date is that the Egyptians, Chinese and others had flourishing civilizations at the time which seem not to have noticed a world-covering Flood that "destroyed all life".

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The following is an un-edited submission from a reader.  I've not had time yet to throughly review it.
August 4, 2000:  from G.E. Graven

SALT, PRESSURE & PLANTS

It is assumed by most that plants and seeds (during Noah’s “Great Flood”) simply ‘got wet’ and dried out, leaving them to continue with existence. This could be further from the truth. Salinity and water pressure are deadly  to plant life. Had the flood covered the earth, the oceans would have  spilled over, bathing every plant with hostile saltwater.

Since plants and seeds contain freshwater within their cells, their submersion in saltwater creates an osmotic effect that draws water out of  cells, thereby killing the organism. Nearly all seeds, even the hardest  nuts, soaked in saltwater for forty days (and nights) would fail to  germinate. If one takes into account that, had the floodwaters covered  mountain crests, then one must also understand the water pressure associated with it. For leaves, stems, and roots subjected to such pressures, only  seconds of exposure would cause irreparable cellular damage. Equally, the  pressure would drive the salt (from the ocean water) into the plant at a rate almost equaled to injection. For those would use the notion that freshwater was added to the oceans, thereby reducing its saline concentration, even 75% reduction in salinity (enough rainfall to fill the oceans three times over) still kills plants bathed in it for only a few hours. [Note: Salt is a curing agent].

The bottom line here is that, for over ninety-five percent of all plant life on earth, salt exposure kills and pressure exposure kills. Now, since we can assume that all the plants would die in a “Great Flood” (salt and pressure),  the next question might be; Did Noah’s animals eat all the seeds of the Plant Kingdom before getting on board? If they did, then it might explain how the Plant Kingdom rebounded from what would certainly constitute “A Global Extinction Event Of All Plant Life”. Perhaps it is as simple as seeds, floods, and feces. Who knows but the wisest and the most foolish of us?

G.E. Graven 8/4/2000 (Gehenna777@aol.com) (No copyrights)