How Things Work: A Brief History of Reality
BOOK II: The Power of Three (Science & Religion) – Consideration #81. "Noah & The Great Flood"
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Tuesday May 2, 2023
“Any flood would feel like the end of the world if your neighbors drowned and your community washed away… Archaeologists say an ancient Sumerian city called Shurrupak (Iraq's Tell Fara) was laid waste by flood nearly 5,000 years ago. A Babylonian version of GILGAMESH mentions Shurrupak by name. It describes a deluge that wipes out mankind, and a pious king called Ziusudra who overhears from a sympathetic god that the great flood is on its way. Ziusudra builds a huge boat and survives.”
― Cynthia Barnett (Rain: A Natural and Cultural History)
PREFACE
Welcome Everybody!
The story of Noah and the Great Flood is more than simply an ancient myth about a major world-wide catastrophe, although it is one of many ancient “flood” stories. However, it functions, from a Biblical perspective, as the “next step” in fixing the “Garden of Eden” problem in the narrative. The separation of the human “mind” into a duality expressed through “good” and “evil” begins a de-evolution of God’s original intention for human beings resulting in a state of violence and depravity so horrendous that He regrets creating them.
“The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled.”
– Genesis 6: 5-6
It is here we come to realize just how far the human race had fallen from God’s original intention. “Mankind” in the physical reality of earth, was directly connected to “all life” on earth. There is a clear indication that “all life” on earth must now be eliminated, not just human beings. The entire “physical reality” of “life” had been contaminated with the duality of “Mankind.” It also indicates that given the choice, human beings “always” chose evil. Humanity had declined to a point where God decides to “wipe them out” and start completely over, with a new plan.
So the Lord said, “I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created—and with them the animals, the birds and the creatures that move along the ground—for I regret that I have made them.”
– Genesis 6: 7-8
God finds only one “righteous” human being called Noah, who was the great grandson of Enoch. Enoch had previously found favor with God; being the only name in the extended list of the descendants of Adam who has no reported death, having been “taken” by God and never seen again. According to the Bible: “[Enoch] walked faithfully with God; then he was no more, because God took him away.” (Genesis 5:24)
This idea of “walking faithfully with God,” as a manifestation of “righteousness,” is re-established as a “divine” quality that God respects, or “finds favor with,” and is the quality that saves Noah, and, therefore, all of “mankind”:
“But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.
Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God.”
– Genesis 6: 8-9
God explains the situation to Noah, and makes a new “covenant,” or “deal” with him. Noah, will essentially, become the “new” Adam and re-populate the earth with “righteous” human beings, more in line with God’s original intention for “Mankind.” God tells Noah that the human race has corrupted the world with wickedness and violence:
So God said to Noah, “I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth… (Genesis 6:13)
But I will establish my covenant with you, and you will enter the ark…” (Genesis 6:18)
Then, God explains to Noah how to build an ark.
CONSIDERATION #81 – Noah & The Great Flood
Like much of the Old Testament, the story of Noah is meticulous in its detail and description related to the ark, the flood, and the place where the story occurred. God starts with a detailed description of the ark and how it should be built:
“So make yourself an ark of cypress wood; make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out. This is how you are to build it: The ark is to be three hundred cubits long, fifty cubits wide and thirty cubits high. Make a roof for it, leaving below the roof an opening one cubit high all around. Put a door in the side of the ark and make lower, middle and upper decks.”
– Genesis 6:14-17
The style and language used in this description is not symbolic or metaphoric; it is empirical. They are directions, or instructions, to be followed. It has more the sense of an “historical record,” as opposed to a “metaphorical analogy.” Much like the long lists of genealogy complete with names, places, and longevity throughout the story.
“It is not surprising that they recorded their history and spiritual tradition as a natural union of their ‘total’ reality.”
We think of the academic, or empirical world of history, and the rational, or spiritual world of religion, as two unique and distinctly separate realities. However, this was not the case during Biblical times. It is not surprising that they recorded their history and spiritual tradition as a natural union of their “total” reality. We consider this more in Book III.
Noah, his wife, their three sons, and the son’s wives, all enter the ark, along with seven pairs of most animals, after a specific warning from God that the rain would begin in seven days and last for forty days and forty nights.
The Lord then said to Noah, “Go into the ark, you and your whole family, because I have found you righteous in this generation. Take with you seven pairs of every kind of clean animal, a male and its mate, and one pair of every kind of unclean animal, a male and its mate, and also seven pairs of every kind of bird, male and female, to keep their various kinds alive throughout the earth. Seven days from now I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and I will wipe from the face of the earth every living creature I have made.”
– Genesis 7:1-4
Once again, we get a very detailed record of Noah’s exact age at the time of the flood:
“In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, on the seventeenth day of the second month—on that day all the springs of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened.”
– Genesis 7:11
The Biblical account of the flood records the actual height at which the floodwaters peek, exactly how long the waters of the flood covered the earth, when dry land first appears, and how long until the ark comes to rest and where it comes to rest, as well as when the land finally becomes dry again:
“The waters rose and covered the mountains to a depth of more than fifteen cubits. Every living thing that moved on land perished—birds, livestock, wild animals, all the creatures that swarm over the earth, and all mankind.”
– Genesis 7:20-21
“The waters flooded the earth for a hundred and fifty days.”
– Genesis 7:24
“The water receded steadily from the earth. At the end of the hundred and fifty days the water had gone down, and on the seventeenth day of the seventh month the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. The waters continued to recede until the tenth month, and on the first day of the tenth month the tops of the mountains became visible.”
– Genesis 8:3-5
“By the first day of the first month of Noah’s six hundred and first year, the water had dried up from the earth. Noah then removed the covering from the ark and saw that the surface of the ground was dry. By the twenty-seventh day of the second month the earth was completely dry.”
– Genesis 8:13-14
Noah offers a sacrifice to God, and God makes a promise to Noah never to destroy “mankind” again. Which is a good thing, because as the story continues God finds Himself extremely frustrated with His creation, and often on the verge of “wiping them out” several times.
Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and, taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it… “Never again will I curse the ground because of humans, even though every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done.”
“As long as the earth endures,
seedtime and harvest,
cold and heat,
summer and winter,
day and night
will never cease.”– Genesis 8:20-22
It is at this point in the story when God finally accepts duality as part of His creation. He in essence, now guarantees it as a “natural” part of physical reality, by promising never to destroy it again. Here, the “physical world,” as described “by God,” is clearly a world of duality – seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, day and night, and as a consequence of this new physical duality, life and death.
“In the Biblical narrative, the relationship between God and human beings is a difficult one; for both.”
Noah is not Adam. Noah was born into this reality already with a divided mind. All human beings, even “righteous” human beings, would now be susceptible to the influence of a duality that made complete union with God almost impossible. In the Biblical narrative, the relationship between God and human beings is a difficult one; for both. However, the “righteousness” of Noah saves “mankind” for now, moving the story, and the plan for redemption, forward.
According to the Biblical record, Noah lived for 350 years after the flood, dying at the ripe old age of 950 years. At which point we follow another meticulous genealogy leading to the Patriarch of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, Abraham.
POSTSCRIPT
The story of “Noah and the ark,” presents many empirical and theological challenges. Three of the most common questions related to it are: “Is it possible that people really lived that long, and why did lifespans “suddenly” drop so sharply?” “Why is God portrayed as directly interacting with human beings?” and most importantly, “Did the flood really happen?” Let’s briefly consider each.
“…all of this longevity is reported to have occurred prior to the Great Flood.”
The Bible is not the only ancient tradition that records extremely long lifespans as part of its past history. Although virtually all of this longevity is reported to have occurred prior to the Great Flood. Ancient texts with references to these long lifespans include the Bible, the Sumerian List of Ancient Kings, and the Eight Immortals of Taoist mythology.
The Great Flood marks a drastic change in the world essentially erasing all history prior to the Bible. There is currently no direct empirical evidence of such long lifespans. However, we really don’t know what “empirically” happened this far back in pre-recorded history. However, the Bible, like other ancient texts, may give us a clue.
“These ‘hybrid’ beings were the result of interbreeding between ‘angels’ and human women.”
According to the Bible, some very strange things occurred before the flood. Not only did human beings live for hundreds of years, but there were other “beings” that shared the earth with them, giants called the Nephilim. These “hybrid” beings were the result of interbreeding between “angels” and human women.
In Genesis, we are told that the “Nephilim” were the heroes of old mythic tales. Many theologians consider these Nephilim to be one of the reasons for God wiping out the earth. These unintended manifestations of sin, created from a duality of the sacred and the secular, were never a part of God’s plan. It is at this time, just prior to the flood, that God, out of frustration, shortens the human lifespan to 120 years.
When human beings began to increase in number on the earth and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of humans were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose. Then the Lord said, “My Spirit will not contend with humans forever, for they are mortal; their days will be a hundred and twenty years.”
The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God went to the daughters of humans and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown.
– Genesis 6:1-4
This story has a sense of ancient Greek mythology; particularly the reference to the “heroes of old.” Later in this narrative, the future king of Israel, David, kills a “giant” named Goliath with a slingshot; Goliath was believed to have been a direct descendent of these Nephilim.
There is no objective empirical evidence of God, much less evidence for God “physically” communicating with human beings. However, the reason God interacts directly with human beings in the Bible is because in the Biblical narrative God originally intends to live with human beings in His new physical Creation.
“Unlike virtually all other gods, in all other religions at the time, the ‘God of Israel’ was a ‘living’ God…”
The idea of God being “in heaven” and us being “on earth,” with no connection, is not the God of the Old Testament. Unlike virtually all other gods, in all other religions at the time, the “God of Israel” was a “living” God; one of the things that made Judaism so unique. They do not worship “statues,” or “images” of gods; they worship the “One” and only “living God.” This is the essence of monotheism.
As the story continues, God becomes so frustrated with human beings that He “separates” Himself from their physical presence; fearing He may lose His temper and destroy them in anger. To help guide the people in His absence He gives them “The Law” and “The Prophets.” In the Judeo-Christian tradition, the God of the Old Testament is an “empirical” God who directly interacts with the physical world; a living Being.
In regard to the validity of the Great Flood it is becoming increasingly accepted that some kind of flood, or catastrophic event, did actually take place in the distant pre-recorded past. Consider the following PBS article entitled, A Flood of Myths and Stories, by Lennlee Keep:
“While not all flood stories are the same, the description of the destruction of the world by water is a common theme in many religions and cultures. Most flood stories include an angry God or deity, and a catastrophic water event that destroys the world but is only survived by a chosen few…
These flood stories also seem to have significant roots in science. Geomythology is the study of how these stories and geology could intersect. Flood stories may explain geological phenomena such as volcanoes, earthquakes, floods, fossils, and other natural features of the landscape.”
– Lennlee Keep (A Flood of Myths and Stories)
Traditions, outside of the Judeo-Christian tradition, that have recorded the event commonly known as the Great Flood include: Ancient Mesopotamia (Gilgamesh), Aztec (Titlacauan), Greek (Zeus and Prometheus), Hindu (Vishnu), Buddhist ( Samudda-vāṇija Jātaka), Chinese (multiple stories), Norse (Odin), Aborigines (Tiddalik), Native American (Waynaboozhoo), Zoroastrian (Ahura Mazda), and others.
“Flood stories pervade hundreds of cultures and there are striking similarities to many of the accounts. It seems that at least some of these stories could be based upon actual events. Geologists have proposed the possibility of a great flood in the Middle East at the end of the last Ice Age, which was about 7,000 years ago.”
– Lennlee Keep (A Flood of Myths and Stories)
Whether tradition, history, mythology, theology, or a combination of all four, the story of a Great Flood has had a major impact on virtually all cultures of the world. In the Judeo-Christian tradition of the West, it is recorded in the Bible as the story of “Noah and the ark.”
Next week we begin a four-part Special Edition Newsletter considering the film “Network & the Powers that Be,” focusing on the concept of “Biblical Prophets & Biblical Prophecy” in the context of our “modern reality…”
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