(BA) Flood

...

31 July 2022 - 3 August 2022 Navigate 'up' to the English index: index-topical-hb.

The Flood story is found in Genesis 6-9, and is a composite of two similar, but not identical, flood stories found in P and J. The effect of the combination is to produce a text which is at points repetitive and difficult to follow.

Moving further back into history, the Genesis flood narrative is related to older narratives from the Ancient Near East. The parallels are striking, and the flood survivor in these stories is variously known as Ziusudra, Atrahasis, and Utnapishtim.

Within the Bible itself, the Flood narrative serves as a reversal of the creation narrative: even its use of specific terms portrays the flood as an undoing of the order set in creation.

After the rise of the Nephilim, God sees the great wickedness of mankind and decides to destroy the earth. Noah, however, is a good man, and God decides to save Noah and his family. Noah is instructed to build a giant boat in which to save his family and some of every kind of living creature: land animals and birds. The animals enter the ark, and the flood begins. Everything on earth dies. God remembers Noah, and causes the earth to gradually begin drying up. Noah sends a raven and a dove to see whether the ground is dry: the dove brings back an olive leaf, signaling the end of the flood to Noah. At God's command, Noah and the animals leave the ark. Noah builds an altar and offers burnt offerings. God promises that he will never again cause such a disaster. God blesses the surviving humans, and gives a command forbidding the eating of meat with its life-blood. God makes a covenant with Noah and promises, using a rainbow as a sign, that he will not flood the earth again. Ham sees his father's nakedness and Canaan is cursed.