Difference between revisions of "Deluge"

<p> <strong> DELUGE </strong> </p> <p> 1. The Biblical story , [[Genesis]] 6:5 to Genesis 9:17 [ Genesis 6:1-4 is probably a separate tradition, unconnected with the [[Deluge]] (see Driver, <em> Genesis </em> , p. 82)]. The two narratives of J [Note: Jahwist.] and P [Note: Priestly Narrative.] have been combined; the verses are assigned by Driver as follows: J [Note: Jahwist.] Genesis 6:5-8 , Genesis 7:1-5; Genesis 7:7-10; Genesis 7:12; Genesis 7:16 b, Genesis 7:17 b, Genesis 7:22-23 , Genesis 8:2-3 a, Genesis 8:6-13 b, Genesis 8:20-22; P [Note: Priestly Narrative.] Genesis 6:9-22 , Genesis 7:6; Genesis 7:11; Genesis 7:13-16 a, Genesis 7:17 a, Genesis 7:18-21; Genesis 7:24 , Genesis 8:1-2 a, Genesis 8:3-5 , Genesis 8:13 a, Genesis 8:14-19 , Genesis 9:1-17 . J [Note: Jahwist.] alone relates the sending out of the birds, and the sacrifice with which J″ [Note: Jahweh.] is so pleased that He determines never again to curse the ground. P [Note: Priestly Narrative.] alone gives the directions with regard to the size and construction of the ark, the blessing of Noah, the commands against murder and the eating of blood, and the covenant with the sign of the rainbow. In the portions in which the two narratives overlap, they are at variance in the following points. ( <em> a </em> ) In P [Note: Priestly Narrative.] one pair of every kind of animal ( Genesis 6:18-20 ) in J [Note: Jahwist.] one pair of the unclean and seven of the clean ( Genesis 7:2-3 ), are to be taken into the ark. (In Genesis 7:9 a redactor has added the words ‘two and two’ to make J [Note: Jahwist.] ’s representation conform to that of P [Note: Priestly Narrative.] .) The reason for the difference is that, according to P [Note: Priestly Narrative.] , animals were not eaten at all till after the Deluge ( Genesis 9:3 ), so that there was no distinction required between clean and unclean. ( <em> b </em> ) In P [Note: Priestly Narrative.] the cause of the Deluge is not only rain, but also the bursting forth of the subterranean abyss ( Genesis 6:11 ); J [Note: Jahwist.] mentions rain only ( Genesis 6:12 ). ( <em> c </em> ) In P [Note: Priestly Narrative.] the water begins to abate after 150 days ( Genesis 8:3 ), the mountain tops are visible after 8 months and 13 days ( Genesis 7:11 , Genesis 8:5 ), and the earth is dry after a year and 10 days ( Genesis 8:14 ); in J [Note: Jahwist.] the [[Flood]] lasts only 40 days ( Genesis 7:12 , Genesis 8:6 ), and the water had begun to abate before that. </p> <p> <strong> 2. The Historicity of the story. </strong> The modern study of geology and comparative mythology has made it impossible to see in the story of the Deluge the literal record of an historical event. (The fact that marine fossils are found on the tops of hills cannot be used as an argument, for (i.) the same argument could be used and is actually used by native tribes to prove other flood-stories in various parts of the globe; and (ii.) though it proves that some spots which are now at the tops of hills were at one time submerged, that is not equivalent to asserting that a flood ever occurred which covered the whole planet apart from the extreme improbability that the submergence of mountains was within the period of man’s existence.) The difficulties in the story as it stands are immense. ( <em> a </em> ) All the water in the world, together with all the vapour if reduced to water, would not cover the whole earth to the height of Mt. Ararat. And if it had, it is impossible to imagine how it could have dried up in a year and 10 days (not to speak of 40 days), or whither it could have flowed away. ( <em> b </em> ) If only a single family survived, it is impossible to account for the wide variety of races and languages. ( <em> c </em> ) The means of safety is not a ship, but simply a huge chest, which would instantly capsize in a storm. It is popularly assumed that it had a hull, shaped like that of a ship; but of this nothing is said in the Heb. narrative. ( <em> d </em> ) The collection by Noah of a pair of every kind of animal, bird, and creeping thing, which would include species peculiar to different countries from the arctic regions to the tropics, is inconceivable. And no less so the housing of them all in a single chest, the feeding and care of them by eight persons, the arrangements to prevent their devouring one another, and the provision of the widely diverse conditions of life necessary for creatures from different countries and climates. From every point of view it is clear that the story is legendary, and similar in character to the legends which are found in the folk-lore of all peoples. </p> <p> <strong> 3. The Cause of the Deluge </strong> . This is stated to be rain ( Genesis 7:11 b, Genesis 7:12 ), and the bursting forth of the subterranean abyss. It must be studied in connexion with other flood-stories. Such stories are found principally in America, but also in India, Cashmir, Tibet, China, Kamschatka, Australia, some of the Polynesian Islands, Lithuania, and Greece. In the great majority of cases the flood is caused by some startling natural phenomenon, which often has a special connexion with the locality to which it belongs; <em> e.g. </em> the melting of the ice or snow, in the extreme N. of America; earthquakes, on the American coastlands where they frequently occur; the submergence or emergence of islands, in districts liable to volcanic eruptions; among inland peoples the cause is frequently the bursting of the banks of rivers which have been swollen by rains. Sometimes the stories have grown up to account for various facts of observation; <em> e.g. </em> the dispersion of peoples, and differences of language; the red colour, or the pale colour, of certain tribes; the discovery of marine fossils inland, and so on. In some cases these stories have been coloured by the [[Bible]] story, owing to the teaching of Christian missionaries in modern times, and often mixed up with other Bible stories, and reproduced with grotesque details by local adaptation. But there are very many which are quite unconnected with the story of Noah. (For a much fuller discussion of the various flood-stories see the valuable art. ‘Flood’ in Hastings’ <em> DB </em> <em> [Note: Dictionary of the Bible.] </em> ii.) It is reasonable, therefore, to treat the Hebrew story as one of these old-world legends, and to look for the cause of it in the natural features of the land which gave it birth. And we are fortunate in the possession of an earlier form of the legend, which belongs to Babylonia, and makes it probable that its origin is to be ascribed to the inundation of the large [[Babylonian]] plain by the bursting forth of one of the rivers by which it is intersected, and perhaps also, as some think, to the incursion of a tidal wave due to an earthquake somewhere in the South. This, among a people whose world was bounded by very narrow limits, would easily be magnified in oral tradition into a universal Deluge. </p> <p> <strong> 4. The Babylonian story </strong> . ( <em> a </em> ) One form of the story has long been known from the fragments of Berosus, an Egyptian priest of the 3rd cent. b.c. It differs in certain details from the other form known to us; <em> e.g. </em> when the birds return the second time, clay is seen to be attaching to their legs (a point which finds parallels in some N. American flood-legends); and not only the hero of the story, Xisuthros, and his wife, but also his daughter and the pilot of the ship are carried away by the gods. </p> <p> ( <em> b </em> ) The other and more important form is contained in [[Akkadian]] cuneiform tablets m the British Museum, first deciphered in 1872. It is part of an epic in 12 parts, each connected with a sign of the Zodiac; the Flood story is the 11th, and is connected with Aquarius, the ‘water-bearer.’ Gilgamesh of Uruk (Erech, Genesis 10:10 ), the hero of the epic, contrived to visit his ancestor Ut-napishtim, who had received the gift of immortality. The latter is in one passage called Adra-hasis, which being inverted as Hasis-adra appears in Greek as Xisuthros. He relates to Gilgamesh how, for his piety, he had been preserved from a great flood. When [[Bel]] and three other gods determined to destroy Shurippak, a city ‘lying on the Euphrates,’ Ea warned him to build a ship. He built it 120 cubits in height and breadth, with six decks, divided into 7 storeys, each with 9 compartments; it had a mast, and was smeared with bitumen. He took on board all his possessions, ‘the seed of life of every kind that I possessed,’ cattle and beasts of the field, his family, servants, and craftsmen. He entered the ship and shut the door. Then Ramman the storm-god thundered, and the spirits of heaven brought lightnings; the gods were terrified; they fled to heaven, and cowered in a heap like a dog in his kennel. On the 7th day the rain ceased, and all mankind were turned to clay. The ship grounded on Mt. Nisir, E. of the Tigris, where it remained 6 days. Then Ut-napishtim sent forth a dove, a swallow, and a raven, and the last did not return. He then sent the animals to the four winds, and offered sacrifice on an altar at the top of the mountain. The gods smelled the savour and gathered like flies. The great goddess [[Ishtar]] lighted up the rainbow. She reproached Bel for destroying all mankind instead of one city only. Bel, on the other hand, was angry at the escape of Ut-napishtim, and refused to come to the sacrifice. But he was pacified by Ea, and at length entered the ship, and made a covenant with Ut-napishtim, and translated him and his wife to ‘the mouth of the rivers,’ and made them immortal. </p> <p> The similarities to the Heb. story, and the differences from it, are alike obvious. It dates from at least b.c. 3000, and it would pass through a long course of oral repetition before it reached the Hebrew form. And herein is seen the religious value of the latter. The genius of the Hebrew race under [[Divine]] inspiration gradually stripped it of all its crude polytheism, and made it the vehicle of spiritual truth. It teaches the unity and omnipotence of J″ [Note: Jahweh.]; His hatred of sin and His punishment of sinners; but at the same time His merciful kindness to them that obey Him, which is shown in rescuing them from destruction, and in entering into a covenant with them. </p> <p> <strong> 5. </strong> It is strange that, apart from Genesis 9:28; Genesis 10:1; Genesis 10:32; Genesis 11:10 , there are only two allusions in the OT to the Flood, Isaiah 54:9 and Psalms 29:10 (the latter uncertain; see commentaries). In the Apocr. [Note: Apocrypha, Apocryphal.] : Esther 3:9 Esther 3:9 f., Wis 10:4 , Sir 44:17 f. ( Sir 40:10 in LXX [Note: Septuagint.] , but not in Heb.). In the NT: Matthew 24:38 f., Luke 17:27 , Hebrews 11:7 , 1Pe 3:20 , 2 Peter 2:5 . </p> <p> A. H. M‘Neile. </p>

<p> The flood which overflowed and destroyed the earth. This flood makes one of the most considerable epochas in chronology. Its history is given by Moses, Genesis 6:7 : Its time is fixed by the best chronologers to the year from the creation 1656, answering to the year before Christ 2293. From this flood, the state of the world is divided into diluvian and ante-diluvian. Men who have not paid that regard to sacred history as it deserves, have cavilled at the account given of an universal deluge. Their objections principally turn upon three points: </p> <p> 1. The want of any direct history of that event by the profane writers of antiquity. </p> <p> 2. The apparent impossibility of accounting for the quantity of water necessary to overflow the whole earth to such a depth as it is said to have been. </p> <p> And, </p> <p> 3. There appearing no necessity for an universal deluge, as the same end might have been accomplished by a partial one. To the above arguments we oppose the plain declarations of Scripture. God declared to Noah that he was resolved to destroy every thing that had breath under heaven, or had life on the earth, by a flood of waters; such was the threatening, such was the execution. the waters, [[Moses]] assures us, covered the whole earth, buried all the mountains; every thing perished therein that had life, excepting Noah and those with him in the ark. Can an universal deluge be more clearly expressed? If the deluge had only been partial, there had been no necessity to spend an hundred years in the building of an ark, and shutting up all sorts of animals therein, in order to re-stock the world: they had been easily and readily brought from those parts of the world not overflowed into those that were; at least, all the birds never would have been destroyed, as Moses says they were, so long as they had wings to bear them to those parts where the flood did not reach. </p> <p> If the waters had only overflowed the neighbourhood of the [[Euphrates]] and the Tigris, they could not be fifteen cubits above the highest mountains; there was no rising that height but they must spread themselves, by the laws of gravity, over the rest of the earth; unless perhaps they had been retained there by a miracle; in that case, Moses, no doubt, would have related the miracle, as he did that of the waters of the Red Sea, &c. It may also be observed, that in regions far remote from the Euphrates and Tigris, viz. Italy, France, Switzerland, Germany, England, &c. there are frequently found in places many scores of leagues from the sea, and even in the tops of high mountains, whole trees sunk deep under ground, as also teeth and bones of animals, fishes entire, sea-shells, ears of corn, &c. petrified; which the best naturalists are agreed could never have come there but by the deluge. That the [[Greeks]] and western nations had some knowledge of the flood, has never been denied; and the Mussulmen, Chinese, and Americans, have traditions of the deluge. </p> <p> The ingenious Mr. Bryant, in his Mythology, has pretty clearly proved that the deluge, so far from being unknown to the heathen world at large, is in reality conspicuous throughout every one of their acts of religious worship. In India, also, Sir William Jones has discovered, that in the oldest mythological books of that country, there is such an account of the deluge, as corresponds sufficiently with that of Moses. Various have been the conjectures of learned men as to the natural causes of the deluge. Some have supposed that a quantity of water was created on purpose, and at a proper time annihilated by Divine power. Dr. Burnet supposes the primitive earth to have been no more than a crust investing the water contained in the ocean; and in the central abyss which he and others suppose to exist in the bowels of the earth at the time of the flood, this outward crust broke in a thousand pieces, and sunk down among the water, which thus spouted up in vast cataracts, and overflowed the whole surface. </p> <p> Others, supposing a sufficient fund of water in the sea or abyss, think that the shifting of the earth's centre of gravity drew after it the water out of the channel, and overwhelmed the several parts of the earth successively. Others ascribe it to the shock of a comet, and Mr. King supposes it to arise from subterraneous fires bursting forth with great violence under the sea. But are not most, if not all these hypotheses quite arbitrary, and without foundation from the words of Moses? It is, perhaps, in vain to attempt accounting for this event by natural causes, it being altogether miraculous and supernatural, as a punishment to men for the corruption then in the world. Let us be satisfied with the sources which Moses gives us, namely, the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the waters rushed out from the hidden abyss of the bowels of the earth, and the clouds poured down their rain incessantly. Let it suffice us to know, that all the elements are under God's power; that he can do with them as he pleases, and frequently in ways we are ignorant of, in order to accomplish his own purposes. The principal writers on this subject have been Woodyard, Cockburn, Bryant, Burnett, Whiston, Stillingfleet, King, Calcott and Tytler. </p>

Genesis 7,8 <p> It began in the year 2516 B.C., and continued twelve lunar months and ten days, or exactly one solar year. </p> <p> The cause of this judgment was the corruption and violence that filled the earth in the ninth generation from Adam. God in righteous indignation determined to purge the earth of the ungodly race. Amid a world of crime and guilt there was one household that continued faithful and true to God, the household of Noah. "Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations." </p> <p> At the command of God, Noah made an ark 300 cubits long, 50 broad, and 30 high. He slowly proceeded with this work during a period of one hundred and twenty years (Genesis 6:3 ). At length the purpose of God began to be carried into effect. The following table exhibits the order of events as they occurred: </p> <p> In the six hundredth year of his life Noah is commanded by God to enter the ark, taking with him his wife, and his three sons with their wives (Genesis 7:1-10 ). </p> <p> The rain begins on the seventeenth day of the second month (Genesis 7:11-17 ). </p> <p> The rain ceases, the waters prevail, fifteen cubits upward (Genesis 7:18-24 ). </p> <p> The ark grounds on one of the mountains of [[Ararat]] on the seventeenth day of the seventh month, or one hundred and fifty days after the Deluge began (Genesis 8:1-4 ). </p> <p> Tops of the mountains visible on the first day of the tenth month (Genesis 8:5 ). </p> <p> [[Raven]] and dove sent out forty days after this (Genesis 8:6-9 ). </p> <p> [[Dove]] again sent out seven days afterwards; and in the evening she returns with an olive leaf in her mouth (Genesis 8:10,11 ). </p> <p> Dove sent out the third time after an interval of other seven days, and returns no more (Genesis 8:12 ). </p> <p> The ground becomes dry on the first day of the first month of the new year (Genesis 8:13 ). </p> <p> Noah leaves the ark on the twenty-seventh day of the second month (Genesis 8:14-19 ). </p> <p> The historical truth of the narrative of the Flood is established by the references made to it by our Lord (Matthew 24:37; Compare Luke 17:26 ). Peter speaks of it also (1 Peter 3:20; 2 Peter 2:5 ). In Isaiah 54:9 the Flood is referred to as "the waters of Noah." The Biblical narrative clearly shows that so far as the human race was concerned the Deluge was universal; that it swept away all men living except Noah and his family, who were preserved in the ark; and that the present human race is descended from those who were thus preserved. </p> <p> Traditions of the Deluge are found among all the great divisions of the human family; and these traditions, taken as a whole, wonderfully agree with the Biblical narrative, and agree with it in such a way as to lead to the conclusion that the Biblical is the authentic narrative, of which all these traditions are more or less corrupted versions. The most remarkable of these traditions is that recorded on tablets prepared by order of Assur-bani-pal, the king of Assyria. These were, however, copies of older records which belonged to somewhere about B.C. 2000, and which formed part of the priestly library at [[Erech]] (q.v.), "the ineradicable remembrance of a real and terrible event." (See NOAH; CHALDEA .) </p>

<p> That universal flood which was sent upon the earth in the time of Noah, and from which there were but eight persons saved. Moses' account of this event is recorded in Genesis 6:1-8:22 . See [[Ark Of Noah]] . The sins of mankind were the cause of the deluge; and most commentators agree to place it B. C. 2348. After the door of the ark had been closed upon those that were to be saved, the deluge commenced: it rained forty days; "the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened." All men and creatures living on the land perished, except Noah and those with him. For five months the waters continued to rise, and reached fifteen cubits above the highest summits to which any could fly for refuge; "a shoreless ocean tumble round the world." At length the waters began to abate; the highest land appeared, and the ark touched ground upon Mount Ararat. In three months more the hills began to appear. Forty days after, Noah tested the state of the earth's surface by sending out a raven; and then thrice, at intervals of a week, a dove. At length he removed the covering of the ark, and found the flood had disappeared; he came forth from the ark, reared an altar, and offered sacrifices to God, who appointed the rainbow as a pledge that he would no more destroy mankind with a fool. </p> <p> Since all nations have descended from the family then preserved in the ark, it is natural that the memory of such an event should be perpetuated in various national traditions. Such is indeed the fact. These traditions have been found among the Egyptians, Chaldeans, Phoenicians, Greeks, Hindoos, Chinese, Japanese, Scythians, and Celts, and in the western hemisphere among the Mexicans, Peruvians, and South sea islanders. Much labor has been expanded in searching for natural causes adequate to the production of a deluge; but we should beware of endeavoring to account on natural principles for that which the Bible represents as miraculous. </p> <p> In the New Testament, the deluge is spoken of as a stupendous exhibition of divine power, like the creation and the final burning of the world. It is applied to illustrate the long suffering of God, and assure us of his judgment on sin, 2 Peter 3:5-7 , and of the second coming of Christ, Matthew 24:38 . </p>

<p> (1): (n.) Fig.: [[Anything]] which overwhelms, or causes great destruction. </p> <p> (2): (n.) A washing away; an overflowing of the land by water; an inundation; a flood; specifically, The Deluge, the great flood in the days of Noah (Gen. vii.). </p> <p> (3): (v. t.) To overwhelm, as with a deluge; to cover; to overspread; to overpower; to submerge; to destroy; as, the northern nations deluged the [[Roman]] empire with their armies; the land is deluged with woe. </p> <p> (4): (v. t.) To overflow with water; to inundate; to overwhelm. </p>

<p> Deluge. See [[Noah]]. </p>

<p> See NOAH. </p>

<p> Bibliography InformationMcClintock, John. Strong, James. Entry for 'Deluge'. Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and [[Ecclesiastical]] Literature. https://www.studylight.org/encyclopedias/eng/tce/d/deluge.html. [[Harper]] & Brothers. New York. 1870. </p>