In the Old Testament, the book of Genesis, chapter 6-9 tells the story of Noah's ark and the great flood. The flood is described as a deliberate act by God because he wanted to destroy all life as "the earth was corrupted before God, and was filled with iniquity."
The only exceptions to God's destruction were Noah and his family, and two of each type of living creatures - one male and one female. They survived because God had told Noah to build a huge boat in preparation for the flood. The great flood lasted for forty days and forty nights, and Noah and his passengers survived in safety.
The Bible tells us "all the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the flood gates of heaven were open." These are the two main sources of the floodwater - water from the sky and from the ground.
There are countless flood stories within many other culture's mythologies, suggesting that a great flood did occur at some point in our world's history. Many people believe that the flood was an act of God, but the flood may simply have been due to a change in the earth's climate during a period of warming. An example of an almost identical story can be found in the Roman author Ovid's Metamorphoses. This book contained a lot of stories taken from early Greek myth and Roman folklore (much of Roman myth was taken from the stories of the Greeks).
The Metamorphoses tells the story of the Roman sky god, Jove, destroying mankind and replacing them with "a new stock of men". Jove explains that: "you would think men had sworn an allegiance to crime! They shall all be punished, forthwith, as they deserve." The only people to survive this dreadful fate were Deucalion and his wife Pyrrha, as Jove "knew that they were both guiltless, both true worshippers of god."
As in Genesis, the floodwaters both came from the sky and the ground - Jove, as sky god, used his powers to create tremendous rainfall and his brother Neptune, the sea god, assisted by raising all the water from rivers, lakes and the sea. The fact that there are flood stories in other culture's mythology supports the theory that there probably was an actual flood of this scale in the planet's history. The myth of the flood seeks to explain the fall of man, and the fact that it seeks to explain something, suggests that the event probably did actually happen.
A great flood was definitely retained in people's memories and the story passed down through the generations. With the introduction of the religion, people probably assumed that this natural disaster had a higher significance - therefore, an act of god. A flood of this scale was obviously not a regular occurrence, which has led people to seek an answer for its happening.
The main conclusion that has been drawn is that it was the result of a major change in the climate - a period of global warming. Researchers have produced a theory that the earth before the flood seemed to have possessed a climate, which may not have seen any major seasonal changes. The theory goes on to suggests that the earth's atmosphere was different from our present day model and that there was too much water in the atmosphere, which would have created a lot of condensation and an increase in heat.
The high levels of condensation would have produced the great rainfall of which the Bible tells - "the flood gates of heaven were open." The other source of water from "the fountains of the great deep" may have been a reference to the large reservoirs of water that lay between the mantle and the earth's crust, which would be under great pressure. This together with the increasing levels of heat as a result the atmosphere may have triggered these great underground reservoirs to burst up through the earth's crust causing severe flooding.
It is usual within mythology and religious writings that great meteorological events were seen as a sign from God. Whether the great flood from the story of Noah was due to climate change or whether it was God's ultimate destruction is still open to debate.
Related Links:
- Drought and Famine
- Jonah
- Noah
