Sunday Sermons
The Genesis Flood
The Genesis Flood
The Ark
Genesis 6:14 States that the ark was made of “gopher wood”: Some suggest this means cypress, a wood resistant to decay and used extensively for shipbuilding, but this is only speculation. “Rooms”: Provided a division of spaces for the animals and also helped brace and strengthen the ark. “Pitch”: Rendered it watertight, and was a flexible covering. The dimensions were as follows: “The length of the ark three hundred cubits, its breadth fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits” (Genesis 6:15). The length of the cubit in Noah's day is uncertain since there were long and short cubits, royal cubits, Egyptian cubits and Talmudic cubits with length's ranging from 18 to 25 inches. If the cubit being used was 17.5 inches, then the size would have been 437.5 feet long, 72.92 feet wide, and 43.75 feet tall. Since it had three decks (6:16), it had a total deck area of approx. 95,700 feet (equivalent to slightly more than the area of 20 standard college basketball courts.) The gross tonnage would have been 13,960 tons, which would place it well within the category of large metal ocean-going vessels today. Regardless of the length of a cubit, the ark was built with dimensions perfect for floating, the approx. ratios which have been copied by modern ships. Remember, the ark was built to carry cargo, not for speed. Most consider the ark to have been boxy or angular, and neither streamlined nor curved. With this shape it increased its carrying capacity by one third. A vessel with these dimensions (ratios) proves to be very seaworthy and almost impossible to capsize. The stability of such a barge is great and stability increases as it sinks deeper into the water. The ark had a carrying capacity at least equal to that of 522 standard railroad stock cars. The dimensions given for the ark in the Bible stand as a proof of inspiration and inerrancy. The dimensions have not been exaggerated. There are other Flood Accounts which list dimensions for the ark as: “Six stories high, with the length, width and depth each being 242 feet and having a mast on top, with a pilot to guide it” (Cuneiform Tablets). Berosus, the Greek historian represents it to have been 3000 ft. long and 1200ft. wide. Noah and his sons could have hired laborers to help construct this vessel. In addition, ancient man was very capable of building things on a large scale. “Many other structures from Iran to Ireland (not forgetting Easter Island) prove that Early Man was an astonishingly capable geometrician and engineer” (Watson p. 84). The size of the ark is simply one more factor that rules out a local flood.
Enough Room For All The Animals?
An argument raised to support a local flood or to ridicule the Biblical account of a worldwide flood is that the ark could not have carried all the animals. Yet such an argument overlooks the fact that of the bigger species, smaller and younger animals could be taken. There was no need to take any marine life (7:21-23). Not every variety in a kind had to be taken. For example over 200 distinct varieties of dogs, as different from each other as the dachshund and the collie, have developed from very few wild dogs. The vast majority of all animals are smaller than sheep. The ark could have carried 125,280 sheep size animals, and allowing for the additional clean animals, Morris estimates that there were around 75,000 animals on the ark. Concerning the question, “How could Noah have taken care of all those animals”? Many of the animals could have gone into a state of hibernation, in addition Morris notes: “Once we grant God’s power in bringing the animals to the ark, we have no right to deny His power over the animals while they were in the ark” (p. 76). Note, God did not have any problem with there being enough food in the ark (6:21), and neither did Noah (6:22).
Local or Universal Flood?
The requirement for Noah to build a gigantic barge to "keep seed alive upon the face of all the earth" (Genesis 7:3) was unnecessary, to say the least, if it was only to be a local flood. Its size was absurdly out of proportion for mere regional wildlife. All that went into the ark, it's construction, out-fitting, and stocking would be a waste of time, materials, and energy if the flood were only a local event. Migration would have been a far better and easier solution to the problem, for both Noah and the animals. Added to this, Noah was commanded to take birds in the ark (Genesis 6:20; 7:21). Birds can escape a local flood, in fact, some birds can migrate for thousands of miles, but none of the birds outside the ark were able to escape this flood.
Where did all the water go?
The idea of a universal flood is ridiculed because it is argued that the present atmosphere contains only enough water to flood the entire earth to a level of about
less than two inches. Consider the following observations: Where did all the water go at the time of Creation? (Genesis 1:2,9) "Whatever the source of the Deluge rain, the mass of waters which descended to the earth could hardly have been elevated back into the heavens, because it is not there now. This can only mean that much of the waters of our present oceans entered the oceans at the time of the Flood. This in turn implies that the proportion of land area to water area was much larger before the flood. Much of the present sea-bottom was once dry land. Very likely, in order to accommodate the great mass of waters and permit the land to appear again, great tectonic movements and isostatic adjustments would have to take place, forming the deep ocean basins and troughs and elevating the continents" (The Genesis Flood p. 121-122). The authors then offer two proofs: Seamounts, which are nothing more than drowned islands out in the middle of the ocean, and are now in many cases 1000 fathoms (6000 ft.) below the surface, yet they show abundant evidence of having once been above the surface. Submarine canyons: These are great canyons, similar in every respect to the great river canyons of the land surface but extending under the ocean far out on the continental shelves. Usually they project seaward from a river valley on the land. One of the best known is the one that extends out some 300 miles from the mouth of the Hudson River, which reaches a depth of 15,000 feet. Their striking similarity to canyons on land certainly would seem to favor the view that they were formed above the ocean. Years back there was an article in the Oregonian revealing that the earth’s interior may contain three to five oceans of water locked within billions of crystals. Genesis 7:11 does mention “fountains of the great deep”. Some see here underground reservoirs and intense volcanic activity.
The Flood
There were 40 days and nights of torrential rain (Genesis 7:11-12). This flood moved a loaded ark (7:17). At this point the flood is 20 feet high, since the ark was at least 44 feet high and heavily loaded. “And the mountains were covered” (7:20). The mountains upon which the Ark finally rested were the mountains of Ararat; the highest peak reaches 17,000 feet. At this point a local or regional flood looks ridiculous. This would be an egg-shaped flood reaching 3 miles high. A flood reaching this point in elevation would cover the entire surface of the planet, except for the highest peaks of the Andes, and Himalayas, plus a few in North America and Africa. "It would not have been possible for water to cover even one high mountain in the Near East without inundating Australia and America too! It is manifest that a flood which would submerge Egypt as well as Babylonia must have risen to at least 2000 feet (the height of the elevated country between them)" (The Genesis Flood p. 60). “And the waters prevailed upon the earth a hundred and fifty days” (7:24). That is, the water continued to rise or at least not go down. No local flood “prevails” for five months (8:3). This flood took considerable time to recede (8:4,14). Noah and his family left the Ark one year, 10 days after the flood started (Compare 6:11 with 8:13-14). Do local floods keep one off the land for an entire year? Would it take 7 months to run aground if this had been a local flood? (Compare 8:4 with 6:11) The wording of the entire record (Genesis chapters 6-9) could not be improved upon, if the intention of the writer was to describe a universal flood.
Mount Ararat
“The ark rested upon the mountains of Ararat” (Genesis 8:4). Note who reckoned time as we reckon it. Compare with 7:11: 5 months of 30 days each equals 150 days. The Ararat mountain range is located where the frontiers of Turkey, Russia, and Iran converge. Note the Bible is a book of real history as well as real geography. The Ararat range rises from a fertile plain 3000 ft. high, where the ground would dry quickly, ideal for Noah’s family to make a new start in farming. Obviously, the account of the flood is not a Jewish folktale, because as far as we know neither Moses nor any other Jew had ever seen the mountains of Ararat, which are located almost 1000 miles north of Palestine. If this was a mythical tale of Jewish folklore, then the ark should have ended up on Mount Hermon or Sinai. “The tops of the mountains became visible” (8:5). 74 days later the tops of the surrounding peaks were seen. Someone has estimated that the water may have been receding 100 feet per day. Notice God has the ark grounded high, so that the ark is not sucked into some massive whirlpool. The raven is a scavenger bird (Genesis 8:7), which could feed on the carrion floating after the flood. The olive leaf (Genesis 8:11), side ref. “a fresh olive leaf”, is significant because it is well known that this is one of the hardiest of all plants and would be one of the first to sprout again. At this point in the discussion someone usually raises the question, “If the flood was universal, then how did certain marsupials end up only in Australia and the Western Hemisphere?” What people need to understand is that Evolutionists are faced with the same question. "Both the evolutionist and the universal Flood advocate claim that inter-continental land bridges have aided animals in their migratory movements across the face of the earth” (The Genesis Flood p. 80). A modern example of animal migration, even of large mammals is the island of Krakatoa. The island itself was almost destroyed by a volcano in 1883. For 25 years practically nothing lived in the remnant of that volcanic island. Then a few mammals began to arrive in 1908. Professor Paul A. Moody of the University of Vermont tells how large land animals have been able to cross oceans on natural rafts and 'floating islands'” (The Genesis Flood pp. 84-85). The presence of tapirs today only in South America and the Malayan islands, on opposite sides of the earth, is indicative of the fact that animals migrated in more than one direction. “And I will never again destroy every living thing, as I have done” (Genesis 8:21); “Neither shall there again be a flood to destroy the earth” (Genesis 9:11). God's promise never to send such a flood of this magnitude again has been broken repeatedly if the flood of Noah had been merely a regional or local flood.
Other Flood Accounts
Since the entire human race is descended from the three sons of Noah and their wives, it is only logical that every culture has a flood story. From Europe to the South Seas, and from the Americas to the Far East. The Hawaiians report a flood from which only “Nu-u” and his family were saved. In the Greek account Deucalion’s vessel, like Noah’s, was a chest. The Babylonian flood accounts agree with the Bible in the following aspects: The flood was divinely sent. The hero in the account is divinely warned. The hero was divinely directed to build a huge boat to preserve life. Birds are sent out. The hero worships after his deliverance. The native historian of the Aztecs says that the first world lasted 1716 years before it was destroyed by a flood (by the way, the face value of Genesis 5 is 1656 years between Creation and the flood). The Chinese written language of Kanji(which is also popular in Japan) was developed around the time of Abraham. There are a few kanji symbols, which suggest that the inventors of this language were familiar with the biblical account of creation and the flood. For example, the character for the word “ship” is made up of three characters for “boat”, “eight”, and “mouth”. What big boat do you know of that had eight mouths in it? (See: “The Discovery of Genesis” by C.H. Kang and Ethel R. Nelson). Even the Indians of the Pacific Northwest had flood stories. There is a flood story concerning Mount Jefferson, the second highest peak in Oregon, the Indians build a large canoe out of the biggest cedar tree they can find. The bravest and finest of their young men and fairest of their maidens were placed in this canoe. For many days and nights rain fell, and the canoe floated over the water. The canoe finally settled on Mount Jefferson, the couple left the canoe and made their new home at the foot of the mountain. All the Indians are their grandchildren and their grandchildren’s children (Indian Legends of the Pacific Northwest, Ella E. Clark pp. 14-15).
Mark Dunagan/Beaverton Church of Christ/503-644-9017
www.beavertonchurchofchrist.net/mdunagan@easystreet.com
