Noah and the Flood · Question

What the text actually says

Text

A faithful retelling, step by step. Nothing added, nothing smoothed over.

Genesis 6:1–4
As humanity grows, beings called sons of God take human women as wives. God announces a limit of 120 years. The passage also mentions the Nephilim and famous warriors of the past, but does not explicitly say that the Nephilim are the children of these unions.
Read it in context
^6:1Now when men began to multiply on the face of the earth and daughters were born to them, ²the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful, and they took as wives whomever they chose. ³So the LORD said, “My Spirit will not contend with man forever, for he is mortal; his days shall be 120 years.” ⁴The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and afterward as well—when the sons of God had relations with the daughters of men. And they bore them children who became the mighty men of old, men of renown.
Genesis 6:5–13
God sees human evil everywhere and an earth full of violence. He regrets making humanity and decides to destroy humans and animals. Noah finds favor with God and is described as righteous and blameless in his generation.
Read it in context
^6:5Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great upon the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was altogether evil all the time. ⁶And the LORD regretted that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. ⁷So the LORD said, “I will blot out man, whom I have created, from the face of the earth—every man and beast and crawling creature and bird of the air—for I am grieved that I have made them.” ⁸Noah, however, found favor in the eyes of the LORD. ⁹This is the account of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation; Noah walked with God. ¹⁰And Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth. ¹¹Now the earth was corrupt in the sight of God, and full of violence. ¹²And God looked upon the earth and saw that it was corrupt; for all living creatures on the earth had corrupted their ways. ¹³Then God said to Noah, “The end of all living creatures has come before Me, because through them the earth is full of violence. Now behold, I will destroy both them and the earth.
Genesis 6:14–7:3
God tells Noah to build an ark of gopher wood with rooms, a side door and three decks, and to coat it inside and out with pitch. It is to be 300 cubits long, 50 wide and 30 high. Noah is to bring two of every kind of living creature. A further instruction calls for seven, or seven pairs, of every clean animal and of the birds, and a pair of each unclean animal.
Read it in context
^6:14Make for yourself an ark of gopher wood; make rooms in the ark and coat it with pitch inside and out. ¹⁵And this is how you are to build it: The ark is to be 300 cubits long, 50 cubits wide, and 30 cubits high. ¹⁶You are to make a roof for the ark, finish its walls a cubit from the top, place a door in the side of the ark, and build lower, middle, and upper decks. ¹⁷And behold, I will bring floodwaters upon the earth to destroy every creature under the heavens that has the breath of life. Everything on the earth will perish. ¹⁸But I will establish My covenant with you, and you will enter the ark—you and your sons and your wife and your sons’ wives with you. ¹⁹And you are to bring two of every living creature into the ark—male and female—to keep them alive with you. ²⁰Two of every kind of bird and animal and crawling creature will come to you to be kept alive. ²¹You are also to take for yourself every kind of food that is eaten and gather it as food for yourselves and for the animals.” ²²So Noah did everything precisely as God had commanded him. ^7:1Then the LORD said to Noah, “Go into the ark, you and all your family, because I have found you righteous in this generation. ²You are to take with you seven pairs of every kind of clean animal, a male and its mate; a pair of every kind of unclean animal, a male and its mate; ³and seven pairs of every kind of bird of the air, male and female, to preserve their offspring on the face of all the earth.
Genesis 7:11–24
The flood begins in Noah's six-hundredth year, in the second month, on day seventeen. Water bursts out from below and pours down from above. Rain falls for forty days; the waters remain high for 150 days. The story describes water covering even the high mountains and rising fifteen cubits above them. Human and animal life on dry land dies; only Noah and the others aboard the ark survive.
Read it in context
^7:11In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, on the seventeenth day of the second month, all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened. ¹²And the rain fell upon the earth for forty days and forty nights. ¹³On that very day Noah entered the ark, along with his sons Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and his wife, and the three wives of his sons— ¹⁴they and every kind of wild animal, livestock, crawling creature, bird, and winged creature. ¹⁵They came to Noah to enter the ark, two by two of every creature with the breath of life. ¹⁶And they entered, the male and female of every living thing, as God had commanded Noah. Then the LORD shut him in. ¹⁷For forty days the flood kept coming on the earth, and the waters rose and lifted the ark high above the earth. ¹⁸So the waters continued to surge and rise greatly on the earth, and the ark floated on the surface of the waters. ¹⁹Finally, the waters completely inundated the earth, so that all the high mountains under all the heavens were covered. ²⁰The waters rose and covered the mountaintops to a depth of fifteen cubits. ²¹And every living thing that moved upon the earth perished—birds, livestock, animals, every creature that swarms upon the earth, and all mankind. ²²Of all that was on dry land, everything that had the breath of life in its nostrils died. ²³And every living thing on the face of the earth was destroyed—man and livestock, crawling creatures and birds of the air; they were blotted out from the earth, and only Noah and those with him in the ark remained. ²⁴And the waters prevailed upon the earth for 150 days.

Continue the retelling (6 more paragraphs)

Genesis 8:3–12
The waters fall, and the ark comes to rest in the mountains of Ararat. Noah later releases a raven, which flies back and forth. He sends out a dove, but it finds nowhere to rest and returns. Sent out again, it brings back a freshly plucked olive leaf; on its third release, it does not return. Noah releases the dove at seven-day intervals.
Read it in context
^8:3The waters receded steadily from the earth, and after 150 days the waters had gone down. ⁴On the seventeenth day of the seventh month, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. ⁵And 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. ⁶After forty days Noah opened the window he had made in the ark ⁷and sent out a raven. It kept flying back and forth until the waters had dried up from the earth. ⁸Then Noah sent out a dove to see if the waters had receded from the surface of the ground. ⁹But the dove found no place to rest her foot, and she returned to him in the ark, because the waters were still covering the surface of all the earth. So he reached out his hand and brought her back inside the ark. ¹⁰Noah waited seven more days and again sent out the dove from the ark. ¹¹And behold, the dove returned to him in the evening with a freshly plucked olive leaf in her beak. So Noah knew that the waters had receded from the earth. ¹²And Noah waited seven more days and sent out the dove again, but this time she did not return to him.
Genesis 8:13–21
The earth is fully dry in the second month of Noah's next year, and he leaves the ark. He builds an altar and sacrifices clean animals and clean birds of each kind as burnt offerings. God smells the pleasing aroma and decides never again to curse the ground because of humanity, even as the story again describes the human heart as evil.
Read it in context
^8:13In Noah’s six hundred and first year, on the first day of the first month, the waters had dried up from the earth. So Noah removed the covering from the ark and saw that the surface of the ground was dry. ¹⁴By the twenty-seventh day of the second month, the earth was fully dry. ¹⁵Then God said to Noah, ¹⁶“Come out of the ark, you and your wife, along with your sons and their wives. ¹⁷Bring out all the living creatures that are with you—birds, livestock, and everything that crawls upon the ground—so that they can spread out over the earth and be fruitful and multiply upon it.” ¹⁸So Noah came out, along with his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives. ¹⁹Every living creature, every creeping thing, and every bird—everything that moves upon the earth—came out of the ark, kind by kind. ²⁰Then Noah built an altar to the LORD. And taking from every kind of clean animal and clean bird, he offered burnt offerings on the altar. ²¹When the LORD smelled the pleasing aroma, He said in His heart, “Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from his youth. And never again will I destroy all living creatures as I have done.
Genesis 9:1–6
God blesses Noah's family and commands them to multiply. He now gives them living creatures for food, but forbids eating flesh with its lifeblood. God demands an accounting for human bloodshed because human beings are made in his image.
Read it in context
^9:1And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. ²The fear and dread of you will fall on every living creature on the earth, every bird of the air, every creature that crawls on the ground, and all the fish of the sea. They are delivered into your hand. ³Everything that lives and moves will be food for you; just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you all things. ⁴But you must not eat meat with its lifeblood still in it. ⁵And surely I will require the life of any man or beast by whose hand your lifeblood is shed. I will demand an accounting from anyone who takes the life of his fellow man: ⁶Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man his blood will be shed; for in His own image God has made mankind.
Genesis 9:9–17
God makes a covenant with Noah, his descendants and every living creature that came out of the ark. He promises that a flood will never again destroy all flesh. The bow in the clouds is the sign that will remind him of this covenant.
Read it in context
^9:9“Behold, I now establish My covenant with you and your descendants after you, ¹⁰and with every living creature that was with you—the birds, the livestock, and every beast of the earth—every living thing that came out of the ark. ¹¹And I establish My covenant with you: Never again will all life be cut off by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.” ¹²And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant I am making between Me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: ¹³I have set My rainbow in the clouds, and it will be a sign of the covenant between Me and the earth. ¹⁴Whenever I form clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, ¹⁵I will remember My covenant between Me and you and every living creature of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. ¹⁶And whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of every kind that is on the earth.” ¹⁷So God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between Me and every creature on the earth.”
Genesis 9:20–23
Noah plants a vineyard, becomes drunk and lies uncovered in his tent. Ham, Canaan's father, sees his father's nakedness and tells his brothers. Shem and Japheth walk in backward and cover Noah.
Read it in context
^9:20Now Noah, a man of the soil, proceeded to plant a vineyard. ²¹But when he drank some of its wine, he became drunk and uncovered himself inside his tent. ²²And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father’s nakedness and told his two brothers outside. ²³Then Shem and Japheth took a garment and placed it across their shoulders, and walking backward, they covered their father’s nakedness. Their faces were turned away so that they did not see their father’s nakedness.
Genesis 9:24–27
Noah wakes and learns what his youngest son has done to him. He curses Canaan, declaring that he will be the lowest of servants to his brothers, and twice says that Canaan will serve Shem and Japheth. The curse comes from Noah, not God.
Read it in context
^9:24When Noah awoke from his drunkenness and learned what his youngest son had done to him, ²⁵he said, “Cursed be Canaan! A servant of servants shall he be to his brothers.” ²⁶He also declared: “Blessed be the LORD, the God of Shem! May Canaan be the servant of Shem. ²⁷May God expand the territory of Japheth; may he dwell in the tents of Shem, and may Canaan be his servant.”

The evidence

Evidence

Each historical claim judged on its own, never a verdict on the whole story.

Against
A recent global flood deposited the bulk of the fossil-bearing rock layers.
Hill, a Christian geologist, finds a universal flood and flood geology entirely without scientific support.
Why this verdict
What the text narrates
Confidence: high
Hill, a Christian geologist, finds a universal flood and flood geology entirely without scientific support. Montgomery reports that Buckland, after decades studying Europe's rocks, reversed his defence of a global flood in 1836; Foster reports that Sedgwick, a clergyman-geologist, publicly withdrew his flood explanation of surface gravels in 1831. Snelling argues that marine fossils high above sea level and continent-wide layers show a global flood that laid down the bulk of the fossil record in about one year. Hill's and Montgomery's accounts weigh against that model.^{5 sources}5 sources15. Hill 2002 16. Montgomery 2012 17. Foster 18. Snelling 2007 19. Snelling
Contested · Named positions only: Hill (a Christian geologist, American Scientific Affiliation) and Montgomery (geologist) against; Snelling (Answers in Genesis) for. (as of 2026-11-08)
What would change this verdict: Geological evidence for worldwide deposition of those layers within one recent year would change this assessment.
Open
A particular Mesopotamian flood deposit can be identified with Noah's flood.
Woolley identified a bank of water-laid clay about 8 feet thick at Ur with the flood of Sumerian legend behind Noah's story, but called it a local disaster that proved no single detail of the stories.
Why this verdict
What the text narrates
Confidence: high
Woolley identified a bank of water-laid clay about 8 feet thick at Ur with the flood of Sumerian legend behind Noah's story, but called it a local disaster that proved no single detail of the stories. MacDonald dates the Ur layer to about 3500 BCE and the Shuruppak stratum to about 2950–2850 BCE, cites Raikes for deposits of up to eleven feet at Ur, under ten inches at Kish and about fifteen at Shuruppak, and finds no compelling identification of any of them with the literary flood.^{20 21 22}
Contested · Woolley identified the Ur deposit with the flood of legend; MacDonald finds no compelling reason to identify the Ur, Kish or Shuruppak floods with it. (as of 2026-11-08)
What would change this verdict: Evidence securely connecting a dated deposit with the literary account would narrow the identification.
Open
Catastrophic flooding of the Black Sea supplied the historical basis of Noah's story.
Ryan and colleagues proposed that the Black Sea was catastrophically flooded in the early Holocene; Aksu and colleagues describe the link to Noah's flood as speculation within that hypothesis.
Why this verdict
What the text narrates
Confidence: medium
Ryan and colleagues proposed that the Black Sea was catastrophically flooded in the early Holocene; Aksu and colleagues describe the link to Noah's flood as speculation within that hypothesis. Aksu and Hiscott's review of the evidence from 1997 to 2021 argues instead that the Black Sea reconnected with the Mediterranean gradually, which they find incompatible with a catastrophic flood.^{23 24 25}
Contested · Ryan and colleagues (proponents of catastrophic early-Holocene flooding) and Aksu and Hiscott (critics). (as of 2026-11-08)
Supported
Genesis and older Mesopotamian flood accounts share close narrative details.
Jastrow regards the parallels as too numerous and too close to be accidental.
Why this verdict
Claims about the text
Confidence: high
Jastrow regards the parallels as too numerous and too close to be accidental. Millard, an evangelical Assyriologist, also treats the vessel, passengers, birds, grounding and sacrifice as basically shared, while stressing differences in detail and, above all, in ethical and religious concepts. The bird releases can be compared directly: a dove, swallow and raven in Gilgamesh, three sendings in Berossus and in Genesis.^{8 sources}8 sources26. Jr. 1914 27. Millard 1967 28. Millard 1967 22. MacDonald 1988 4. Jr. 1914 5. Genesis 8:7 6. Genesis 8:8–12 29. Hodges) 1876
Cross-community agreement · Named comparisons: Jastrow (1914, critical) and Millard (1967, evangelical Assyriologist) both list close shared elements; MacDonald reports no reasoned body of opinion holding the stories unrelated. (as of 2026-11-08)
Open
Genesis's flood story drew, directly or indirectly, on the Mesopotamian flood accounts.
Winitzer argues that Genesis 1–11 adapted ideas from Atrahasis; King thought it most probable, not certain, that the Hebrews knew Babylonian legends before the Exile; MacDonald describes the accepted view as a Mesopotamian origin for the archetypal account.
Why this verdict
Claims about the text
Confidence: high
Winitzer argues that Genesis 1–11 adapted ideas from Atrahasis; King thought it most probable, not certain, that the Hebrews knew Babylonian legends before the Exile; MacDonald describes the accepted view as a Mesopotamian origin for the archetypal account. Jastrow, Driver and von Rad instead derive both from an older common tradition. Dolansky finds direct use of Gilgamesh hard to establish because its motifs were widely shared, and Millard held that borrowing, even indirect, had not been shown. Answers in Genesis publishes Osanai's comparison against derivation from Gilgamesh.^{10 sources}10 sources30. Winitzer 31. King 1918 22. MacDonald 1988 26. Jr. 1914 32. King 1918 33. Millard 1967 34. Dolansky 28. Millard 1967 27. Millard 1967 35. Osanai 2005
Contested · Named positions: adaptation or contact (Winitzer; King, provisionally; MacDonald's "accepted view"), a common older tradition (Jastrow, Driver, von Rad), borrowing not shown (Millard), Genesis as the original (Answers in Genesis). (as of 2026-11-08)
Open
The flood narrative was made by combining parallel source documents.
McKenzie identifies two intertwined versions through the animal counts, the reasons for destruction and the vocabulary, and Driver held the main narrative to be P's, enlarged with a tolerably complete J. Lendering writes that the verse-by-verse division varies but that a two-source basis is "more or less agreed-upon".
Why this verdict
Claims about the text
Confidence: medium
McKenzie identifies two intertwined versions through the animal counts, the reasons for destruction and the vocabulary, and Driver held the main narrative to be P's, enlarged with a tolerably complete J. Lendering writes that the verse-by-verse division varies but that a two-source basis is "more or less agreed-upon". Alexander finds the arguments finely balanced. RashiRashiA French commentator on the Bible and Talmud (1040–1105), also named Rabbi Solomon ben Isaac, who was born and died at Troyes, according to the Jewish Encyclopedia.From: JacobsAll terms → accounts for the extra clean animals by the later sacrifices; Cassuto, as quoted by Abela, explains the alternation of divine names by their meanings and ancient literary conventions.^{7 sources}7 sources12. McKenzie 2022 36. Driver 1914 37. Lendering 13. Alexander 1998 14. Alexander 1998 38. Rashi 39. Abela 1992
Contested · Named positions: McKenzie, Driver and Lendering for two sources (Lendering's "more or less agreed-upon" is his characterisation, not a survey); Alexander finds the case finely balanced; Rashi and Cassuto explain the features otherwise. (as of 2026-11-08)
Open
The ark could survive its voyage as an ordinary wooden ship.
Moore, taking a 450-foot ark, argues that it would exceed the 329-foot Wyoming by over 100 feet and the roughly 300-foot practical limit for wooden ships he cites from the naval architect A. M. Robb.
Why this verdict
What the text narrates
Confidence: medium
Moore, taking a 450-foot ark, argues that it would exceed the 329-foot Wyoming by over 100 feet and the roughly 300-foot practical limit for wooden ships he cites from the naval architect A. M. Robb. Hong and colleagues, in a creationist journal, compared 12 assumed hull forms and tested 1/50-scale models of three, concluding that the ark could have navigated waves higher than 30 metres. Their result depends on assumed geometry, wood members and modern passenger-ship criteria, and no independent replication was identified.^{40 41 42}
Contested · Moore, in NCSE's Creation/Evolution, argues against; Hong and colleagues, in a creationist journal, argue for. No independent assessment was found. (as of 2026-11-08)
What would change this verdict: An independent structural analysis of a full-scale wooden design would settle this either way.
Open
Created-kind estimates establish how many animals the ark needed to carry.
Woodmorappe estimates no more than 16,000 animals by setting kinds at the genus level; Ark Encounter estimates 6,744 animals from 1,398 kinds, taking the kind as probably closest to the family.
Why this verdict
What the text narrates
Confidence: high
Woodmorappe estimates no more than 16,000 animals by setting kinds at the genus level; Ark Encounter estimates 6,744 animals from 1,398 kinds, taking the kind as probably closest to the family. Genesis assigns no modern rank to kind. Gishlick argues that baraminologists, who try to identify created kinds, fall back on biblical criteria when the expected breaks between groups do not appear in the data.^{5 sources}5 sources43. Woodmorappe 44. Genesis)45. this site's data 46. this site's data 47. Gishlick 2006
Contested · Woodmorappe and Ark Encounter give young-earth estimates that differ with the rank they assign to a kind; Gishlick criticises how kinds are identified. (as of 2026-11-08)
Against
The boat-shaped Durupınar formation is the ark.
Collins and Fasold identify the formation near Doğubayazıt as a natural rock structure, its supposed metal-braced walls being natural concentrations of limonite and magnetite.
Why this verdict
Claims others made
Confidence: high
Collins and Fasold identify the formation near Doğubayazıt as a natural rock structure, its supposed metal-braced walls being natural concentrations of limonite and magnetite. Chaffey of Answers in Genesis writes that Christian geologists and archaeologists who visited the site have soundly rejected it as a geologic formation. The finding concerns this formation, not every claimed discovery of ark remains.^{48 49}
Cross-community agreement · Named agreement only: Collins and Fasold's geological study and Chaffey of Answers in Genesis both reject the formation as the ark. (as of 2026-11-08)
Supported
The curse passage was used to justify black slavery.
Bosman reports that Capitein, in a 1742 Leiden dissertation defending slavery, cited Genesis 9:25 for slavery's beginning after the flood.
Why this verdict
Claims others made
Confidence: high
Bosman reports that Capitein, in a 1742 Leiden dissertation defending slavery, cited Genesis 9:25 for slavery's beginning after the flood. Biddle describes slaveholding southern Christians appealing to the curse, and Haynes, as Mitchell reports, says a racialized version had reached America by the early colonial period. In the twelfth century Ibn Ezra already reports, and rejects, the claim that Cushites are enslaved because Noah cursed Ham. Bosman, drawing on Goldenberg, describes a centuries-long reformulation that seems to result from historical forces including the Atlantic slave trade.^{7 sources}7 sources50. Bosman 2021 51. Bosman 2021 52. Biddle 53. Mitchell 2003 54. Ezra 55. Bosman 2021 56. Bosman 2021
Cross-community agreement · Sources from different communities that report the use: Biddle and Bosman (scholarship), Haynes as reported by Mitchell, the Latter-day Saint essay, and Ibn Ezra's twelfth-century report of a Cushite version. (as of 2026-11-08)
Outside what evidence can settle
The destruction was a just divine judgment.
Genesis attributes the destruction to human evil and violence, while including dry-land animals among the dead.
Why this verdict
Theological claims
Confidence: high
Genesis attributes the destruction to human evil and violence, while including dry-land animals among the dead. Sanhedrin asks how the animals sinned and answers with a parable in which they were made for humans. LutherMartin LutherA German religious reformer (1483–1546), according to the 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica. Henry Ganss’s Catholic Encyclopedia article reports that Luther translated the New Testament into German while at Wartburg.From: Lindsay; Lindsay; GanssAll terms → presents the flood as proof that God punishes the wicked.^{5 sources}5 sources57. Genesis 6:5–7 58. Genesis 6:11–13 1. Genesis 7:21–23 59. Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin 108a (William Davidson edition, Sefaria)60. Luther 1910

What people get wrong

Text

Things people commonly believe the text says, checked against it.

A common belief among believers
Myth The ark carried only two of every animal.
Actually A second instruction specifies seven, or seven pairs, of every clean animal and of the birds; clean animals later supply Noah's sacrifice.^{6 sources}6 sources61. Genesis 6:19 62. Genesis 7:2 63. Genesis 7:3 64. Genesis 8:20 44. Genesis)65. this site's data
A common belief among believers
Myth The entire flood lasted forty days.
Actually Forty days is the rain; the waters prevail for 150 days, and the dated onset and the fully dry earth are about a year apart.^{7 sources}7 sources66. Genesis 7:12 67. Genesis 7:17 68. Genesis 7:24 69. Genesis 8:3 7. Genesis 7:11 70. Genesis 8:13 71. Genesis 8:14
A common belief among believers
Myth Genesis identifies the peak now called Mount Ararat as the landing site.
Actually The text names mountains in the plural. Snelling of Answers in Genesis also reads this as a region, and argues that the peak is a volcano built after the flood; Lendering rejects identifying the landing site with the single peak now bearing the name.^{10 72 73}

Show 9 more misconceptions

A common belief among believers
Myth Woolley's excavation at Ur found the remains of Noah's flood.
Actually Woolley identified an 8-foot clay bank at Ur with the flood of Sumerian legend behind Noah's story, but called it a local disaster and said the find did not prove any single detail of the stories. MacDonald, citing Mallowan, reports no trace of it at Eridu, seven miles away, and finds no compelling identification of the Ur, Kish or Shuruppak floods with the literary flood.^{20 21 22}
A common belief among believers
Myth The seven Noahide laws are derived as a group from the covenant in Genesis 9.
Actually Rabbi Yochanan's derivation in Sanhedrin 56b reads the commandments out of God's command to Adam in Genesis 2:16-17, using Genesis 9:6 for bloodshed within that exposition. MaimonidesMaimonidesA Talmudist, philosopher and physician (1135–1204), according to the Jewish Encyclopedia. His works include a Mishnah commentary, the law code Mishneh Torah and the philosophical Guide for the Perplexed.From: Jacobs; Jacobs; JacobsAll terms → assigns six to Adam and adds the living-limb ban for Noah from Genesis 9:4; Goshen-Gottstein calls identifying the commandments with the covenant a common mistake.^{74 75 76}
A common belief among believers
Myth Genesis says there was no rainbow before the flood.
Actually Genesis makes the bow the covenant's sign; whether it existed before is a dispute among readers. Ibn Ezra rejects Saadiah Gaon's view that it already existed, while RambanNachmanidesA Spanish Talmudist, Bible commentator and physician (1194–about 1270), also called Moses ben Nahman or Ramban. The Jewish Encyclopedia calls his Pentateuch commentary his masterpiece.From: Jacobs; Jacobs; Jacobs; JacobsAll terms → and CalvinJohn CalvinA Protestant reformer (1509–1564) who settled in Geneva in 1536, with an interval away, according to the 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica. Alongside the Institutes of the Christian Religion, he wrote commentaries on Scripture.From: Alexander; Alexander; Alexander; Alexander; AlexanderAll terms → hold that an existing natural bow became the sign, and Mitchell of Answers in Genesis argues that Genesis does not require that no rainbow was seen before.^{5 sources}5 sources77. Genesis 9:12–17 78. Ezra 79. (Nachmanides)80. Calvin 1847 81. Mitchell 2010
A common belief among skeptics
Myth Christian readings all require a geologically recent flood covering the planet.
Actually Snelling of Answers in Genesis defends that view, but Reasons to Believe holds that the flood wiped out all humanity without covering the globe, possibly in the last ice age; Hill reads its universal language as covering the known world of the third millennium BC; and Maas's 1908 Catholic Encyclopedia article does not require that it covered the whole earth.^{6 sources}6 sources82. Snelling 83. Snelling 84. Believe 2026 15. Hill 2002 85. Genesis 7:19 86. Maas 1908
A common belief among skeptics
Myth The close parallels establish that Genesis copied the Gilgamesh Epic directly.
Actually Dolansky finds direct influence by Gilgamesh hard to establish because it shares its motifs with other ancient Near Eastern writings. Jastrow and von Rad derive both stories from an older common tradition, while Winitzer traces both Gilgamesh's flood story and ideas in Genesis 1–11 to Atrahasis.^{4 sources}4 sources34. Dolansky 26. Jr. 1914 33. Millard 1967 30. Winitzer
A common belief among skeptics
Myth Creationist ministries endorse the reported discoveries of the ark.
Actually Chaffey of Answers in Genesis reports that Christian geologists and archaeologists rejected the Durupınar site. Snelling reports that wood Navarra presented from Mount Ararat was found by six laboratories to be under 2,000 years old, and concluded that the team announcing an ark in 2010 had not found it, if the radiocarbon results came from its wood.^{49 72 19}
A common belief among skeptics
Myth God curses Ham and all black people in Genesis.
Actually Noah speaks the curse, and its named target is Canaan. Ibn Ezra rejects extending it to Cushites, and Biddle says the later slaveholding reading lacks support in Genesis.^{3 54 52}
A common belief among believers
Myth Racial readings of the curse began only in early modern Europe.
Actually In the twelfth century Ibn Ezra already rejects using Ham's curse to explain the enslavement of Cushites. Haynes, as Mitchell reports, finds Ham rarely racialized before the fifteenth century and says the conjunction of race and slavery cannot be precisely dated; Bosman, drawing on Goldenberg, describes a centuries-long reformulation.^{4 sources}4 sources54. Ezra 53. Mitchell 2003 55. Bosman 2021 56. Bosman 2021
A common belief among believers
Myth Genesis records Noah preaching to his neighbors before the flood.
Actually Wilson notes that the Jewish Scriptures nowhere say Noah preached. Genesis Rabbah portrays him warning his neighbors for 120 years, and 2 Peter calls him a preacher of righteousness.^{87 88 89}

Hard questions

The strongest case, the strongest responses, then a plain assessment of where the logic holds.

Does geology support a recent worldwide flood?

Hill's geological assessment and the early geologists' reversals weigh against a recent global flood; the cited sources identify no particular local flood behind the story.

See the argument

The strongest case

Carol Hill, a Christian geologist writing for the American Scientific Affiliation, finds a universal flood and flood geology entirely without scientific support. Montgomery recounts how Buckland, after decades studying Europe's rocks, reversed his earlier defence of a global flood in his 1836 Bridgewater volume, and Foster reports that Adam Sedgwick, a clergyman-geologist, publicly withdrew in 1831 his view that surface gravels were deposits of the Mosaic Flood. Snelling's model needs the bulk of the fossil record, which geologists conventionally date up to 540 million years or more, to have formed in about one year.^{11 sources}11 sources15. Hill 2002 16. Montgomery 2012 17. Foster 18. Snelling 2007 19. Snelling 82. Snelling 83. Snelling 84. Believe 2026 85. Genesis 7:19 86. Maas 1908 22. MacDonald 1988

P1. Hill judges a universal flood and flood geology scientifically without support, and Buckland and Sedgwick, early geologists who had attributed deposits to the flood, abandoned that view.^{15 16 17}No listed response challenges this premise
P2. These findings outweigh the features Snelling offers for a global flood, so no recent flood laid down the bulk of the fossil-bearing rock.

→ Conclusion. A recent worldwide flood, as Snelling's model describes it, did not happen.

Strongest responses

Protestant: evangelical challenges P2

The rocks testify to a global flood. Snelling argues that six main geologic evidences, among them marine fossils high above sea level and rapidly deposited layers spread across continents, testify to a global flood, and that God's Word plainly teaches its global extent.^{18 82 83}

Protestant: evangelical challenges the framing

Universal for humanity, not global. Reasons to Believe, an old-earth ministry, holds that the flood wiped out all humanity outside the ark without covering the globe, and suggests it could have occurred in the last ice age, roughly 50,000 to 40,000 years ago.⁸⁴

Protestant challenges the framing

The known world, not the planet. Hill, who identifies her church as Heights Cumberland Presbyterian, argues that the universal language of Genesis 6–8 was meant to cover the whole known world of the third millennium BC, not the entire planet.^{15 85}

Catholic challenges the framing

Geographical limits in an older Catholic reference work. Maas's 1908 Catholic Encyclopedia article holds that neither Scripture, nor universal church tradition, nor science makes it advisable to hold that the flood covered the whole earth, while arguing that all humans outside the ark died.⁸⁶

Plain assessment

Hill's assessment and the reversals Montgomery and Foster report for Buckland and Sedgwick weigh against a recent global flood; Snelling reads the same rocks as flood deposits within his biblical framework. Reasons to Believe, Hill and Maas read the text as not requiring that the whole planet was covered. MacDonald finds no compelling identification of any particular Mesopotamian flood deposit with the story.

What would change this assessment: Geological evidence for worldwide deposition of those layers within one recent year would change the physical assessment.

Assessment uses: A recent global flood deposited the bulk of the fossil-bearing rock layers. · A particular Mesopotamian flood deposit can be identified with Noah's flood. · Protestant: evangelical · Protestant: evangelical · Catholic · The known world, not the planet

Did the flood story come from older Mesopotamian flood accounts?

Close parallels with older Mesopotamian accounts are supported; whether Genesis drew on them, shares an older source with them, or preserves the original remains disputed among the cited writers.

See the argument

The strongest case

Mesopotamian flood stories survive in old copies: Winitzer dates Atrahasis to the Old Babylonian period, about 2000–1600 BCE, and the Sumerian flood tablet is catalogued at about 1650 BCE. They share with Genesis a warned hero, a vessel, living things brought aboard, birds sent out, a grounding on a mountain and a sacrifice whose smell the divine notice. Jastrow judged the parallels too numerous and close to be accidental, and MacDonald describes the accepted view as a Mesopotamian origin, the earliest Mesopotamian version being far older than the biblical account. Winitzer argues that Genesis 1–11 adapted ideas from Atrahasis; Dolansky notes that copies of Gilgamesh were found at Megiddo.^{22 sources}22 sources30. Winitzer 90. Millard 1967 91. Archaeology 92. Archaeology 93. Jr. 1914 94. Genesis 6:14 61. Genesis 6:19 4. Jr. 1914 10. Genesis 8:4 5. Genesis 8:7 6. Genesis 8:8–12 64. Genesis 8:20 95. Genesis 8:21 26. Jr. 1914 22. MacDonald 1988 34. Dolansky 31. King 1918 32. King 1918 33. Millard 1967 27. Millard 1967 28. Millard 1967 35. Osanai 2005

P1. Older Mesopotamian accounts share with Genesis a warned hero, a vessel, living things aboard, released birds, a grounding and a sacrifice; MacDonald describes the earliest Mesopotamian version as far older than the biblical account.^{11 sources}11 sources93. Jr. 1914 94. Genesis 6:14 61. Genesis 6:19 4. Jr. 1914 10. Genesis 8:4 5. Genesis 8:7 6. Genesis 8:8–12 64. Genesis 8:20 95. Genesis 8:21 27. Millard 1967 22. MacDonald 1988No listed response challenges this premise
P2. Shared details this close, in accounts this much older, show that Genesis drew on the Mesopotamian accounts, directly or indirectly.

→ Conclusion. The Genesis flood story is an Israelite adaptation of Mesopotamian flood tradition.

Strongest responses

Academic (critical) challenges P2

Shared motifs leave direct influence uncertain. Dolansky argues that because the Gilgamesh Epic shares motifs such as the flood with other ancient Near Eastern texts, it is difficult to state with certainty that it directly influenced the Bible's stories.³⁴

Academic (critical) challenges P2

An older common tradition. Jastrow explains the differences as those of traditions that began from a common source and then developed independently. Driver, as quoted by King, held that both are derived ultimately from the same original, and von Rad, as quoted by Millard, that neither depends directly on the other, both being independent arrangements of a still older tradition.^{26 32 33}

Academic (critical) challenges the framing

Adaptation as transformation and critique. Jastrow argued that the Hebrew account turned a nature myth into a special act of God, its ethical motive separating it completely from the Babylonian story. Winitzer suggests that Genesis's command to be fruitful and multiply likely critiques Atrahasis, where the gods are dismayed by human reproduction.^{4 sources}4 sources96. Jr. 1914 30. Winitzer 97. Genesis 1:28 98. Genesis 9:1

Protestant: evangelical challenges P2

Borrowing not shown. Millard holds that neither a yes nor a no can be absolutely discounted, but that borrowing, even indirect, had yet to be shown. He argues that both traditions describe the same flood and that, if one is to be judged prior, Genesis wins for its probability in meteorology, geophysics and timing.^{28 27 99}

Protestant: evangelical challenges the conclusion

Genesis as the original record. Answers in Genesis publishes Osanai's comparison as helpful for refuting derivation of Noah's flood from the Gilgamesh Epic. Monty White of Answers in Genesis argues that flood stories in practically all nations are distorted memories of Noah's flood, carried by Noah's descendants as they dispersed after Babel.^{35 100}

Plain assessment

Jastrow and Millard both list close shared elements, so the dispute is over the route. Winitzer argues for adaptation from Atrahasis, King thought pre-exilic Hebrew contact with Babylonian legend most probable, and MacDonald calls a Mesopotamian origin the accepted view. Jastrow, Driver and von Rad derive both accounts from an older common tradition; Dolansky finds direct use of Gilgamesh hard to establish; Millard held borrowing unshown; Answers in Genesis treats Genesis as the original.

What would change this assessment: Evidence that distinguishes Israelite use of a Mesopotamian text from a shared older tradition would narrow the relationship.

Assessment uses: flood parallel gilgamesh · flood parallel atrahasis · flood parallel ziusudra · flood parallel berossus · Other flood narratives · Genesis and older Mesopotamian flood accounts share close narrative details. · Genesis's flood story drew, directly or indirectly, on the Mesopotamian flood accounts.

Why should children and animals die for human wickedness?

The narrative gives reasons for judgment, but whether killing almost all human and dry-land animal life was just remains a theological and moral question, and no cited response addresses the children.

See the argument

The strongest case

Genesis gives human evil and violence as the reason, yet the dead include every living thing on dry land: animals and, by implication, children. Sanhedrin itself asks how the animals had sinned. Even the Gilgamesh flood story has Ea rebuke Enlil for bringing the flood without reflection, saying that the sinner and the evil-doer should bear their own sin and suggesting lions, jackals or famine instead. Clines reads that rebuke as exposing Enlil's disregard for ethical distinctions.^{7 sources}7 sources57. Genesis 6:5–7 58. Genesis 6:11–13 1. Genesis 7:21–23 101. Jr. 1914 59. Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin 108a (William Davidson edition, Sefaria)102. Rashi 60. Luther 1910

P1. The stated grounds are human evil and violence, but the narrated dead include all dry-land animals and, by implication, children outside the ark.^{57 58 1}No listed response challenges this premise
P2. A just judgment falls only on the guilty, and neither animals nor young children share the guilt of the stated evil.

→ Conclusion. The destruction, as narrated, is not a just punishment.

Strongest responses

Jewish: rabbinic challenges P2

Animals were made for humanity. Sanhedrin answers the question about the animals with Rabbi Yehoshua ben Korcha's parable of a father who dismantles his dead son's wedding canopy: the animals were made for humans.⁵⁹

Jewish: medieval commentator challenges the framing

An opportunity to repent. Rashi reads the first rain as sent gently, so that it might be a rain of blessing if the people repented, becoming a destructive flood only when they did not.¹⁰²

Protestant: Lutheran challenges the framing

Punishment of the wicked. Luther presents the flood, with the whole earth covered, as proof that God punishes the wicked.⁶⁰

Plain assessment

Genesis gives human evil and violence as grounds and includes animals and, by implication, children among the dead. Sanhedrin answers for the animals with a parable in which they were made for humans; Rashi stresses an opportunity to repent; Luther presents the flood as God's punishment of the wicked. None of the cited responses speaks directly to the deaths of children. Whether these grounds make the destruction just is a moral and theological question that evidence cannot settle.

What would change this assessment: A sourced response specifically addressing the deaths of children would add an answer to that part of the question.

Assessment uses: Gen.6.5-Gen.6.13 · Gen.7.11-Gen.7.24 · Jewish: medieval commentator · Protestant: Lutheran · The destruction was a just divine judgment. · Animals were made for humanity

Why is Canaan cursed, and does the passage justify racial slavery?

The curse is Noah's and names Canaan; Ibn Ezra, Biddle and the Latter-day Saint essay reject its later extension to justify black slavery or a curse on black skin.

See the argument

The strongest case

Ham sees his father's nakedness and tells his brothers, yet Noah condemns Ham's son Canaan to be the lowest of servants; Calvin himself asks why an innocent grandson is punished for Ham's sin. Biddle and the Reform Torah: A Women's Commentary read the curse as a later voice justifying Israel's treatment of the CanaanitesCanaaniteAn inhabitant of ancient Canaan, a territory the HarperCollins Bible Dictionary describes as including parts of present-day Israel, the occupied territories and Lebanon.From: PowellAll terms →. Later readers applied it to black slavery: Bosman reports Capitein citing Genesis 9:25 in his 1742 defence of slavery, Biddle describes slaveholding southern Christians appealing to it, and Haynes, as Mitchell reports, shows it used against Native Americans and the Civil Rights movement.^{21 sources}21 sources103. Genesis 9:20–23 3. Genesis 9:24–27 104. Calvin 1847 105. Biddle 106. Joshua 9:23 107. 1 Kings 9:20–21 108. Eskenazi 2008 50. Bosman 2021 51. Bosman 2021 52. Biddle 109. Mitchell 2003 110. Mitchell 2003 54. Ezra 111. Saints 112. Bereshit Rabbah 36:7 (Sefaria translation)113. Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin 70a (William Davidson edition, Sefaria)114. Alexander 2026 115. Alexander 2026 55. Bosman 2021 56. Bosman 2021 53. Mitchell 2003

P1. Ham sees and tells; Noah curses Canaan to the lowest servitude; later defenders of slavery, from Capitein in 1742 to southern slaveholders, appealed to the passage.^{5 sources}5 sources103. Genesis 9:20–23 3. Genesis 9:24–27 50. Bosman 2021 51. Bosman 2021 52. BiddleNo listed response challenges this premise
P2. The slaveholders' inference: the curse marks the descendants of Ham, black Africans among them, for servitude by divine will.

→ Conclusion. The passage authorizes racial slavery.

Strongest responses

Jewish: medieval commentator challenges P2

The curse's named target limits its scope. Ibn Ezra rejects the claim that Cushites are enslaved because Noah cursed Ham. He notes that the first king after the flood, Nimrod, was a Cushite, and concludes that the curse fell on the Canaanites, not on all of Ham's descendants.⁵⁴

Academic (critical) challenges P2

The racial reading lacks support in Genesis. Biddle says Genesis does not support the slaveholders' reading. He reads the curse instead as a later etiology justifying Israel's treatment of the Canaanites, placed in Noah's mouth.^{4 sources}4 sources52. Biddle 105. Biddle 106. Joshua 9:23 107. 1 Kings 9:20–21

Latter-day Saints challenges the conclusion

Curse theories about black skin disavowed. The Church's Race and the Priesthood essay notes that black servitude was sometimes viewed as a second curse placed on Canaan, and disavows past theories that black skin is a sign of divine disfavor or curse.¹¹¹

Jewish: rabbinic challenges the framing

Different explanations for Canaan's involvement. In Genesis Rabbah 36:7, Rabbi Yehuda answers that God had already blessed Noah's sons, so the curse could not fall on Ham, and Rabbi Nechemya that Canaan saw and told Ham. In Sanhedrin 70a, Rav and Shmuel disagree whether Ham castrated or sexually abused Noah; on the castration view, Noah, denied a fourth son, cursed Ham's fourth son.^{112 113}

Protestant: Reformed challenges the framing

Descendants share fault. Calvin answers his own question about the grandson's punishment: when God visits the sins of parents on the children of the ungodly, he is not angry with the innocent, because they too are found at fault.¹⁰⁴

Protestant: evangelical challenges the framing

Canaan as the guilty grandson. Alexander argues that the youngest son of Genesis 9:24 can mean a grandson and that the passage points the finger of guilt at Canaan, so that Ham may be exonerated; he leaves the nature of the abuse unresolved.^{114 115}

Plain assessment

Noah, not God, speaks the curse, and it names Canaan. Ibn Ezra in the twelfth century already rejected its use to explain Cushite slavery, Biddle finds no support in Genesis for the slaveholders' reading, and the Latter-day Saint essay disavows curse theories about black skin. Bosman, drawing on Goldenberg, describes a centuries-long reformulation into a curse explaining black slavery; Haynes, as Mitchell reports, finds Ham rarely racialized before the fifteenth century. Genesis Rabbah, Calvin and Alexander explain Canaan's punishment differently.

What would change this assessment: Evidence settling the disputed offence could change how the curse on Canaan is read; it would not by itself extend the curse to other peoples.

Assessment uses: Gen.9.20-Gen.9.23 · Gen.9.24-Gen.9.27 · Protestant: Reformed · Academic (critical) · Latter-day Saints · The curse's racial reception · The curse passage was used to justify black slavery. · Different explanations for Canaan's involvement · The curse's named target limits its scope · Canaan as the guilty grandson

Could the ark and its animals have survived by ordinary natural means?

The cited model study and kind-based counts do not establish survival by ordinary natural means; whether God preserved the ark miraculously is a theological claim that evidence cannot settle.

See the argument

The strongest case

Taking the ark as 450 feet long, Moore argues it would exceed the 329-foot six-masted Wyoming by over 100 feet and the roughly 300-foot practical limit for wooden ships that the naval architect A. M. Robb gives. He concludes that the flood and ark as creationists expound them involve so many violations of natural law that nothing can be salvaged without the direct and constant intervention of God. Capacity defences depend on what rank a created kind is, which Genesis does not specify, and Gishlick argues that attempts to identify kinds fall back on biblical criteria when the data lack the expected breaks.^{9 sources}9 sources116. Genesis 6:14–16 40. Moore 1983 41. Hong 1994 42. Hong 1994 43. Woodmorappe 44. Genesis)45. this site's data 46. this site's data 47. Gishlick 2006

P1. Genesis gives the ark as 300 by 50 by 30 cubits; Moore, taking 450 feet, puts it over 100 feet beyond the 329-foot Wyoming and Robb's roughly 300-foot practical limit for wooden ships. Genesis does not say what rank a kind is.^{4 sources}4 sources116. Genesis 6:14–16 40. Moore 1983 45. this site's data 46. this site's dataNo listed response challenges this premise
P2. A wooden vessel beyond the known practical limit, carrying the animals the kinds require, could not have survived the voyage by ordinary natural means.

→ Conclusion. The ark and its voyage could not succeed without constant divine intervention.

Strongest responses

Tradition unspecified challenges P2

Modelled seaworthiness. Hong and colleagues, writing in a creationist journal, compared 12 assumed hull forms and tested 1/50-scale models of three at the Korea Research Institute of Ships and Engineering, concluding that the ark could have navigated waves higher than 30 metres. The result depends on their assumed barge geometry, wood members and modern passenger-ship criteria.^{41 42}

Protestant: evangelical challenges P2

Fewer animals than modern species counts. Woodmorappe estimates no more than 16,000 land animals and birds by setting kinds at the genus level. Ark Encounter estimates 6,744 animals from 1,398 kinds, taking the kind as probably closest to the family level.^{43 44}

Plain assessment

Moore's structural objection rests on Robb's practical limit and the largest wooden ship he names; Hong and colleagues' contrary model result is conditional on their assumed forms and materials, and no independent replication was identified. The animal counts change with the rank assigned to a kind, genus for Woodmorappe and family for Ark Encounter, and Gishlick disputes how kinds are identified. Moore's case concerns natural means: it argues that a miracle would be needed, which does not refute defenders who accept one.

What would change this assessment: An independent full-scale structural analysis and a supported method for identifying the proposed animal kinds would address the disputed assumptions.

Assessment uses: The ark could survive its voyage as an ordinary wooden ship. · Created-kind estimates establish how many animals the ark needed to carry. · Skeptic/secular · Modelled seaworthiness · Fewer animals than modern species counts

Background

Other flood narratives Scholarship

George Smith presented the Babylonian account of the Deluge, pieced together from fragments in the British Museum's Nineveh collection, on 3 December 1872. Winitzer dates the composition and first circulation of Atrahasis to the Old Babylonian period, about 2000–1600 BCE. The Penn Museum dates its Sumerian flood tablet to about 1650 BCE. These are different kinds of dates: a proposed period of composition and a catalogue date for an object.^{5 sources}5 sources117. Smith 1876 30. Winitzer 90. Millard 1967 91. Archaeology 92. Archaeology

Pairs, extra animals and two durations Scholarship

McKenzie reads the differing animal instructions, reasons for destruction and vocabulary as signs that two accounts were intertwined; Driver took the main narrative to be the Priestly sourcePriestly sourceA reconstructed layer of the Pentateuch, also called P, especially concerned with sacrifice and purification in Hirsch and Barton’s Jewish Encyclopedia account. Steven McKenzie reports disagreement over its date, including whether it followed the Babylonian exile.From: Hirsch; McKenzie; McKenzieAll terms →'s, enlarged from J. Lendering's possible reconstruction gives the Priestly source exact chronology, 150 days and two of every animal, and the other strand forty days and seven couples of clean animals. Alexander finds the arguments for parallel documents finely balanced. Rashi explains the extra clean animals by Noah's later sacrifices.^{6 sources}6 sources12. McKenzie 2022 36. Driver 1914 37. Lendering 13. Alexander 1998 14. Alexander 1998 38. Rashi

Covenant and the Noahide commandments Tradition

A baraita in Sanhedrin lists seven commandments for Noah's descendants, and other sages there add further items. Rabbi Yochanan's derivation of them begins with God's command to Adam, citing the later bloodshed verse within that exposition. Maimonides assigns six precepts to Adam and the ban on a limb from a living animal to Noah. Goshen-Gottstein argues that these commandments should be kept distinct from the covenant with Noah.^{4 sources}4 sources118. Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin 56a (William Davidson edition, Sefaria)74. Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin 56b (William Davidson edition, Sefaria)75. Maimonides 76. Goshen-Gottstein 2023

Show 2 more background topics (The sons of God and the Watchers; The curse's racial reception)

The sons of God and the Watchers Scholarship

Doedens surveys four main readings of the sons of God: angels, mighty ones (rulers or judges), Sethites and divine beings. He suggests that beings of the heavenly realm may be the more plausible reading. In the Book of the WatchersWatchersAngels in ancient Jewish and Christian texts who descended, married human women and fathered giants. McKenna Boling says they almost certainly connect to the “sons of God” in Genesis 6.From: Genesis 6:2; Boling; BolingAll terms →, angels take human wives; Proctor and Boling describe the destructive giant offspring as helping explain the flood in that tradition. Genesis itself does not explicitly give the Nephilim's conduct as the reason.^{6 sources}6 sources119. Doedens 2013 120. 1 Enoch 6:1 121. 1 Enoch 6:2 122. Genesis 6:2 123. Proctor 124. Genesis 6:4

The curse's racial reception Scholarship

Sanhedrin and Genesis Rabbah describe Ham as darkened, and Genesis Rabbah also calls Canaan darkened in its discussion of the curse. In the twelfth century Ibn Ezra already rejects the claim that Cushites are enslaved because Noah cursed Ham. Haynes, as Mitchell reports, finds Ham rarely racialized before the fifteenth century. Bosman, drawing on Goldenberg, describes a centuries-long reformulation of the curse into one explaining black slavery; Byron calls debatable Goldenberg's conclusions that color and race did not matter.^{8 sources}8 sources125. Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin 108b (William Davidson edition, Sefaria)112. Bereshit Rabbah 36:7 (Sefaria translation)54. Ezra 53. Mitchell 2003 55. Bosman 2021 56. Bosman 2021 126. Byron 2004 127. Byron 2004

Ancient parallels

Scholarship

Texts from the ancient world that tell a related story. Some are older than the biblical text and some later; how they are related is debated.

Gilgamesh's flood account

In Jastrow's translation of tablet XI, Ea tells the man of Shuruppak to build a ship and bring in the seed of all living things. The ship grounds on Mount Nizir. Utnapishtim sends out a dove and a swallow, which return, then a raven, which does not. The gods smell his sacrifice and gather like flies. The storm ceases on the seventh day, where Genesis has forty days of rain and 150 days of prevailing waters.^{12 sources}12 sources93. Jr. 1914 94. Genesis 6:14 61. Genesis 6:19 4. Jr. 1914 10. Genesis 8:4 5. Genesis 8:7 6. Genesis 8:8–12 64. Genesis 8:20 95. Genesis 8:21 128. Jr. 1914 66. Genesis 7:12 68. Genesis 7:24

Atrahasis

In Clines's account of Atrahasis, human noise disturbs Enlil's sleep, and plague, drought and famine precede the flood; Clines reports a debate over whether that noise means revolt, and quotes Moran that the epic is not a theodicy. Finkel reads the Old Babylonian Ark Tablet (about 1900–1700 BCE) as ordering a round boat, with the animals taken two by two. Winitzer sees Genesis's command to multiply as likely a critique of Atrahasis's limits on humanity.^{10 sources}10 sources129. Clines 1972-73 30. Winitzer 130. Clines 1972-73 131. Clines 1972-73 132. Clines 1972-73 133. Society) 2014 61. Genesis 6:19 134. Genesis 6:20 97. Genesis 1:28 98. Genesis 9:1

The Sumerian flood story

Zi-ud-sura, king and gudu priest, hears at a wall that the divine assembly has decided to destroy the seed of mankind. His boat is rocked for seven days and nights, after which he sacrifices oxen and sheep. The gods grant him life like a god and settle him in Dilmun, as Gilgamesh's gods make Utnapishtim like themselves; Genesis instead records Noah's death at 950.^{5 sources}5 sources135. (ETCSL)136. (ETCSL)137. (ETCSL)138. Jr. 1914 139. Genesis 9:29

Berossus

In Berossus' account, which Jastrow dates to the reign of Antiochus Soter (281–262 BC), Xisuthrus builds a vessel five stadia long and two broad for his family, friends and every kind of animal. He sends out birds three times: they return finding no rest, then return with mud on their feet, then do not return. Part of the vessel was said to remain in the Gordyaean mountains of Armenia. JosephusJosephusA Jewish historian (37–after 100 CE), according to Steve Mason and the Jewish Encyclopedia. Mason explains that his Antiquities, completed in 93/94 CE, retells Judean history from creation to the eve of the war against Rome.From: Mason; Mason; Gottheil; Mason; MasonAll terms → cites Berossus as agreeing with Moses.^{5 sources}5 sources29. Hodges) 1876 6. Genesis 8:8–12 140. Hodges) 1876 141. Josephus 142. Josephus

Where translations differ

Text

Where the wording in different Bibles diverges, and why.

Genesis 6:6 · “Regret” nacham

The BSB renders the verb as regretted, where the KJV uses repented. The narrative describes God's regret at making humanity; whether God can regret is a theological question the text does not settle.⁵⁷

Compare the versions

BSBAnd the LORD regretted that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.

KJVAnd it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.

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Genesis 6:14–16 · “Gopher wood and the ark's opening”

Gopher occurs only here in the tagged Hebrew BibleHebrew BibleA name academics offered as a neutral alternative to “Old Testament”. Amy-Jill Levine argues the label blurs real differences between the Christian Old Testament and the Jewish Tanakh.From: LevineAll terms →, and the BSB footnote calls it an unknown tree, possibly cypress or cedar. Tsohar is also uncertain: the KJV has a window, while other renderings include roof or skylight. The BSB prints roof and offers skylight or window in its footnote.^{143 144 116}

Compare the versions

BSBMake for yourself an ark of gopher wood; make rooms in the ark and coat it with pitch inside and out. And this is how you are to build it: The ark is to be 300 cubits long, 50 cubits wide, and 30 cubits high. You are to make a roof for the ark, finish its walls a cubit from the top, place a door in the side of the ark, and build lower, middle, and upper decks.

KJV¶ Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch. And this is the fashion which thou shalt make it of: The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits. A window shalt thou make to the ark, and in a cubit shalt thou finish it above; and the door of the ark shalt thou set in the side thereof; with lower, second, and third stories shalt thou make it.

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Genesis 7:2–3 · “Seven or seven pairs”

The Hebrew repeats the word seven. The BSB renders seven pairs, the KJV by sevens, and the JPS seven and seven. The earlier instruction gives two of every kind; the later one specifies seven, or seven pairs, of every clean animal and of the birds, and a pair of every unclean animal.^{5 sources}5 sources65. this site's data 62. Genesis 7:2 145. Genesis 6:19–20 146. Genesis 7:2–3 147. Genesis 7:8–9

Compare the versions

BSBYou are to take with you seven pairs of every kind of clean animal, a male and its mate; a pair of every kind of unclean animal, a male and its mate; and seven pairs of every kind of bird of the air, male and female, to preserve their offspring on the face of all the earth.

KJVOf every clean beast thou shalt take to thee by sevens, the male and his female: and of beasts that are not clean by two, the male and his female. Of fowls also of the air by sevens, the male and the female; to keep seed alive upon the face of all the earth.

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JPSOf every clean beast thou shalt take to thee seven and seven, each with his mate; and of the beasts that are not clean two and two, each with his mate; of the fowl also of the air, seven and seven, male and female; to keep seed alive upon the face of all the earth.

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Show 4 more translation notes (“Kind”, “Ararat”, “Bow”…)

Genesis 6:20 · “Kind” min

Genesis uses min for animal kinds without specifying a modern taxonomic rank; lexica gloss it as kind or species. Woodmorappe's calculation sets kinds at the genus level, while Ark Encounter takes the kind as probably closest to the family level. Their animal totals depend on those choices.^{4 sources}4 sources45. this site's data 46. this site's data 43. Woodmorappe 44. Genesis)

Genesis 6:20

BSBTwo of every kind of bird and animal and crawling creature will come to you to be kept alive.

KJVOf fowls after their kind, and of cattle after their kind, of every creeping thing of the earth after his kind, two of every sort shall come unto thee, to keep them alive.

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Genesis 8:4 · “Ararat”

The Hebrew refers to mountains in the plural. Elsewhere in the Hebrew Bible Ararat names a land or kingdom. The HarperCollins Bible Dictionary identifies it as the region around Lake Van, in southeast Turkey extending into northwest Iran.^{6 sources}6 sources10. Genesis 8:4 148. 2 Kings 19:37 149. Isaiah 37:38 150. Jeremiah 51:27 151. this site's data 152. (ed.)

Genesis 8:4

BSBOn the seventeenth day of the seventh month, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat.

KJVAnd the ark rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, upon the mountains of Ararat.

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Genesis 9:13 · “Bow” qeshet

The word is also the ordinary Hebrew term for an archer's bow. Ramban reports an interpretation of the rainbow as a warrior's bow turned downward in a call for peace.^{153 154 79}

Genesis 9:13

BSBI have set My rainbow in the clouds, and it will be a sign of the covenant between Me and the earth.

KJVI do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth.

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Genesis 8:4 · Genesis 8:7 · “Hebrew and Greek differences”

Brenton's SeptuagintSeptuagintAn ancient Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, also including books Christians call Apocrypha or deuterocanonical books, according to Jannes Smith.From: Smith; SmithAll terms → gives day twenty-seven for both the flood's onset and the ark's resting, where the Hebrew gives day seventeen. Its raven goes out and does not return until the water dries up; the Hebrew has it going back and forth.^{155 156}

Compare the versions

Genesis 8:4

LXXENot present in this edition.

BSBOn the seventeenth day of the seventh month, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat.

Genesis 8:4

LXXENot present in this edition.

BSBOn the seventeenth day of the seventh month, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat.

Genesis 8:7

LXXEAnd he sent forth a raven; and it went forth and returned not until the water was dried from off the earth.

BSBand sent out a raven. It kept flying back and forth until the waters had dried up from the earth.

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How it has been interpreted

Tradition

How different traditions have read the story, in their own terms.

Jewish: rabbinic · Noah's righteousness and his generation

Sanhedrin attributes to Rabbi Yochanan the reading that Noah was righteous only compared with his generation, and to Reish Lakish the view that he was righteous despite it. Rabbi Yochanan also says that robbery finally sealed that generation's sentence, though the same page gives other sins as well.^{157 59}

Jewish: medieval commentator · Extra animals and the opportunity to repent

Rashi explains the extra clean animals as provision for Noah's sacrifices. He reads the first rain as sent gently, so that it might be a rain of blessing if the people repented, becoming a destructive flood when they did not.^{38 102}

Jewish: modern · Different accounts of Canaan's curse

Hirsch treats Noah's sons as founders of nations and reads his words over Canaan less as a wish than as a declaration that uncontrolled sensuality is unfit for rule or freedom, calling the verses perhaps the deepest prophecy of human history. The Reform Torah: A Women's Commentary reads the curse as discrediting Canaan, a people who challenged Israel's identity.^{158 108}

Show 15 more interpretations (Early church: Latin, Early church: Greek, Early church: Syriac…)

Early church: Latin · History and a figure of salvation

AugustineAugustineA North African theologian (354–430), born at Tagaste, who served as bishop of Hippo from 396 until his death, according to the Catholic Encyclopedia.From: Portalié; PortaliéAll terms → reads the ark as a figure of the church, saved by the wood of the cross. He rejects both a reading that leaves out figurative meaning and one that leaves out real events. He understands the sons of God as descendants of Seth who abandoned righteousness.^{159 160 161}

Early church: Greek · The flood and baptism

John of Damascus counts the flood as the first baptism, for the eradication of sin, and recalls the dove announcing its end.¹⁶²

Early church: Syriac · Bow and cross

Ephrem sets Noah's bow beside Christ's cross as two signs of deliverance, the bow staying the flood.¹⁶³

Catholic · Baptism and the nations

The Catechism sees in the ark a prefiguring of salvation by baptism and treats the covenant with Noah as God's covenant with the nations, lasting as long as the world. Maas's 1908 Catholic Encyclopedia article allows a flood that did not cover the whole earth while arguing that all humans outside the ark died.^{4 sources}4 sources164. Church 1997 165. Church 1997 166. Church 1997 86. Maas 1908

Protestant: Lutheran · The whole earth under judgment

Luther's Genesis lectures describe the whole earth covered and present the flood as proof that God punishes the wicked.⁶⁰

Protestant: Reformed · Seth's descendants and an existing rainbow

Calvin reads the sons of God as Seth's descendants marrying outside the godly line. He holds that the naturally existing rainbow became a sign of God's favor. On Canaan, he argues that the children of the ungodly who are punished for their parents' sins are themselves found at fault.^{4 sources}4 sources167. Calvin 1847 168. Calvin 1847 80. Calvin 1847 104. Calvin 1847

Protestant: Anglican · The baptism service

The 1549 Book of Common Prayer's baptism prayer recalls the eight saved in the ark and asks that the children be received into the ark of Christ's Church. It pairs the flood with the Red Sea as figures of baptism.¹⁶⁹

Protestant: evangelical · A recent global flood

Snelling of Answers in Genesis holds that Scripture plainly teaches a global flood and that the bulk of the fossil-bearing rock layers were laid down in it only thousands of years ago. Wright of Answers in Genesis dates it to 2348 BC by adding the Genesis genealogies to a creation date following Ussher.^{82 83 170}

Protestant: evangelical · Universal human destruction without global coverage

Reasons to Believe, an old-earth evangelicalEvangelicalThe National Association of Evangelicals describes evangelicals as people who take the Bible seriously and believe in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord; it derives the name from Greek euangelion, “good news” or “gospel”.From: EvangelicalsAll terms → ministry, holds that the flood wiped out all humanity outside the ark without covering the globe. It suggests the flood could have occurred in the last ice age, roughly 50,000 to 40,000 years ago.⁸⁴

Jehovah's Witnesses · A different chronology

The Watchtower dates the flood's beginning to 2370 BCE, counting back through its biblical chronology from 539 BCE.¹⁷¹

Latter-day Saints · Noah and later revelation

The Latter-day Saint Bible Dictionary teaches from latter-day revelation that Noah is also the angel Gabriel, next to Adam in authority. The Church's Race and the Priesthood essay notes that black servitude was sometimes viewed as a second curse placed on Canaan, and disavows past theories that black skin is a sign of divine disfavor or curse.^{172 111}

Islamic · A preacher and an unbelieving son

The Qur'an presents Noah as calling his people night and day. It tells of a son who trusts a mountain to save him and drowns, and of the ship coming to rest on al-Judi. Ibn KathirIbn KathirAn Arab historian and scholar who taught at Damascus (1301–1373), according to the first Encyclopaedia of Islam. He wrote a universal history and a commentary on the Qur’an.From: Islam; Islam; IslamAll terms → reports Ibn Abbas's explanation that the son, though Noah's son, was excluded from his household because he opposed him in deeds and intention.^{7 sources}7 sources173. The Qur'an, tr. Marmaduke Pickthall (1930)174. The Qur'an, tr. Marmaduke Pickthall (1930)175. The Qur'an, tr. Marmaduke Pickthall (1930)176. The Qur'an, tr. Marmaduke Pickthall (1930)177. translation)178. The Qur'an, tr. Marmaduke Pickthall (1930)179. translation)

Academic (critical) · Explaining later relations with Canaan

Biddle reads the curse as an etiology: a later voice justifying Israel's treatment of the Canaanites, placed in Noah's mouth to give it the authority of age. Kemp holds that Ham likely sexually violated Noah, reading the seeing of nakedness as a euphemism.^{4 sources}4 sources105. Biddle 106. Joshua 9:23 107. 1 Kings 9:20–21 180. Kemp

Protestant: evangelical · Canaan as the guilty grandson

Alexander argues that Ham may be exonerated: the youngest son of Genesis 9:24 can mean a grandson, and the passage points the finger of guilt at Canaan. He leaves the nature of the abuse unresolved. Genesis Rabbah had already given Canaan a part in seeing and telling.^{114 115 112}

Skeptic/secular · Natural means and miracles

Moore argues that the flood and ark as creationists expound them involve so many violations of natural law that nothing can be salvaged without the direct and constant intervention of God.⁴⁰

Where it fits

Genesis 6:11–13 — The story gives corruption and violence as the reasons for the coming destruction.⁵⁸
Genesis 7:21–23 — The destruction reaches humans and animals on dry land outside the ark.¹
Genesis 8:20–21 — God's resolve after the offering comes alongside another statement that the human heart is evil.^{181 182}

Show 3 more key verses

Genesis 9:5–6 — God calls for an accounting for bloodshed because human beings are made in his image.¹⁸³
Genesis 9:9–11 — The covenant covers the animals as well as Noah and his descendants.²
Genesis 9:24–27 — The curse comes from Noah, not God, and names Canaan rather than Ham. Verses 26 and 27 twice say that Canaan will serve Shem and Japheth.³

Where else the Bible mentions it

Text

Exodus 2:3–5 The Hebrew word used for Noah's ark appears outside the flood story only for the basket in which the infant Moses floats.
^2:3But when she could no longer hide him, she got him a papyrus basket and coated it with tar and pitch. Then she placed the child in the basket and set it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile. ⁴And his sister stood at a distance to see what would happen to him. ⁵Soon the daughter of Pharaoh went down to bathe in the Nile, and her attendants were walking along the riverbank. And when she saw the basket among the reeds, she sent her maidservant to retrieve it.
Read in context →
Wisdom of Solomon 10:4 Wisdom describes wisdom saving the flooded earth by guiding the righteous man on a piece of wood.
Not present in this edition.
Read in context →
Sirach (Ecclesiasticus) 44:17–18 Sirach calls Noah perfect and righteous, says a remnant was left through the flood, and recalls the covenants made with him.
Not present in this edition.
Read in context →

Show 5 more passages

Matthew 24:37–39 Jesus compares the coming of the Son of Man with the days of Noah, when people ate, drank and married, unaware, until the flood came.
^24:37As it was in the days of Noah, so will it be at the coming of the Son of Man. ³⁸For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark. ³⁹And they were oblivious, until the flood came and swept them all away. So will it be at the coming of the Son of Man.
Read in context →
Hebrews 11:7 Hebrews makes Noah's building of the ark, warned about things not yet seen, an example of faith.
⁷By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in godly fear built an ark to save his family. By faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.
Read in context →
1 Peter 3:20–21 The eight saved through water become a figure of the baptism that saves through Christ's resurrection.
^3:20who disobeyed long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In the ark a few people, only eight souls, were saved through water. ²¹And this water symbolizes the baptism that now saves you also—not the removal of dirt from the body, but the pledge of a clear conscience toward God—through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,
Read in context →
2 Peter 2:4–5 The passage pairs the angels who sinned with the ancient world and calls Noah a preacher of righteousness.
^2:4For if God did not spare the angels when they sinned, but cast them deep into hell, placing them in chains of darkness to be held for judgment; ⁵if He did not spare the ancient world when He brought the flood on its ungodly people, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, among the eight;
Read in context →
2 Peter 3:5–7 The earlier flood answers scoffers who say nothing has changed since creation, and precedes a warning of fire.
^3:5But they deliberately overlook the fact that long ago by God’s word the heavens existed and the earth was formed out of water and by water, ⁶through which the world of that time perished in the flood. ⁷And by that same word, the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.
Read in context →

Test your understanding

Do all the animal instructions give the same number?

The earlier instruction gives two of every kind; the later one specifies seven, or seven pairs, of every clean animal and of the birds, depending on the translation.^{5 sources}5 sources145. Genesis 6:19–20 146. Genesis 7:2–3 147. Genesis 7:8–9 65. this site's data 62. Genesis 7:2

Genesis 6:19–20 Genesis 7:2–3

What distinguishes the rain's duration from the waters' duration?

Rain falls for forty days; the waters prevail for 150 days. The dated beginning and the fully dry ground are about a year apart.^{7 sources}7 sources66. Genesis 7:12 67. Genesis 7:17 68. Genesis 7:24 69. Genesis 8:3 7. Genesis 7:11 70. Genesis 8:13 71. Genesis 8:14

Genesis 7:12 Genesis 7:24 Genesis 8:14

Whom does the covenant include?

Noah, his descendants and every living creature that came out of the ark.²

Genesis 9:9–11

Who speaks the curse, and whom does it name?

Noah speaks it, against Canaan.³

Genesis 9:24–27

The full text

Text

Genesis 6:5–9:17

^6:5Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great upon the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was altogether evil all the time. ⁶And the LORD regretted that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. ⁷So the LORD said, “I will blot out man, whom I have created, from the face of the earth—every man and beast and crawling creature and bird of the air—for I am grieved that I have made them.” ⁸Noah, however, found favor in the eyes of the LORD. ⁹This is the account of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation; Noah walked with God. ¹⁰And Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

Continue reading (75 more verses)

^6:11Now the earth was corrupt in the sight of God, and full of violence. ¹²And God looked upon the earth and saw that it was corrupt; for all living creatures on the earth had corrupted their ways. ¹³Then God said to Noah, “The end of all living creatures has come before Me, because through them the earth is full of violence. Now behold, I will destroy both them and the earth. ¹⁴Make for yourself an ark of gopher wood; make rooms in the ark and coat it with pitch inside and out. ¹⁵And this is how you are to build it: The ark is to be 300 cubits long, 50 cubits wide, and 30 cubits high. ¹⁶You are to make a roof for the ark, finish its walls a cubit from the top, place a door in the side of the ark, and build lower, middle, and upper decks. ¹⁷And behold, I will bring floodwaters upon the earth to destroy every creature under the heavens that has the breath of life. Everything on the earth will perish. ¹⁸But I will establish My covenant with you, and you will enter the ark—you and your sons and your wife and your sons’ wives with you. ¹⁹And you are to bring two of every living creature into the ark—male and female—to keep them alive with you. ²⁰Two of every kind of bird and animal and crawling creature will come to you to be kept alive. ²¹You are also to take for yourself every kind of food that is eaten and gather it as food for yourselves and for the animals.” ²²So Noah did everything precisely as God had commanded him. ^7:1Then the LORD said to Noah, “Go into the ark, you and all your family, because I have found you righteous in this generation. ²You are to take with you seven pairs of every kind of clean animal, a male and its mate; a pair of every kind of unclean animal, a male and its mate; ³and seven pairs of every kind of bird of the air, male and female, to preserve their offspring on the face of all the earth. ⁴For 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 thing I have made.” ⁵And Noah did all that the LORD had commanded him. ⁶Now Noah was 600 years old when the floodwaters came upon the earth. ⁷And Noah and his wife, with his sons and their wives, entered the ark to escape the waters of the flood. ⁸The clean and unclean animals, the birds, and everything that crawls along the ground ⁹came to Noah to enter the ark, two by two, male and female, as God had commanded Noah. ¹⁰And after seven days the floodwaters came upon the earth. ¹¹In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, on the seventeenth day of the second month, all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened. ¹²And the rain fell upon the earth for forty days and forty nights. ¹³On that very day Noah entered the ark, along with his sons Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and his wife, and the three wives of his sons— ¹⁴they and every kind of wild animal, livestock, crawling creature, bird, and winged creature. ¹⁵They came to Noah to enter the ark, two by two of every creature with the breath of life. ¹⁶And they entered, the male and female of every living thing, as God had commanded Noah. Then the LORD shut him in. ¹⁷For forty days the flood kept coming on the earth, and the waters rose and lifted the ark high above the earth. ¹⁸So the waters continued to surge and rise greatly on the earth, and the ark floated on the surface of the waters. ¹⁹Finally, the waters completely inundated the earth, so that all the high mountains under all the heavens were covered. ²⁰The waters rose and covered the mountaintops to a depth of fifteen cubits. ²¹And every living thing that moved upon the earth perished—birds, livestock, animals, every creature that swarms upon the earth, and all mankind. ²²Of all that was on dry land, everything that had the breath of life in its nostrils died. ²³And every living thing on the face of the earth was destroyed—man and livestock, crawling creatures and birds of the air; they were blotted out from the earth, and only Noah and those with him in the ark remained. ²⁴And the waters prevailed upon the earth for 150 days. ^8:1But God remembered Noah and all the animals and livestock that were with him in the ark. And God sent a wind over the earth, and the waters began to subside. ²The springs of the deep and the floodgates of the heavens were closed, and the rain from the sky was restrained. ³The waters receded steadily from the earth, and after 150 days the waters had gone down. ⁴On the seventeenth day of the seventh month, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. ⁵And 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. ⁶After forty days Noah opened the window he had made in the ark ⁷and sent out a raven. It kept flying back and forth until the waters had dried up from the earth. ⁸Then Noah sent out a dove to see if the waters had receded from the surface of the ground. ⁹But the dove found no place to rest her foot, and she returned to him in the ark, because the waters were still covering the surface of all the earth. So he reached out his hand and brought her back inside the ark. ¹⁰Noah waited seven more days and again sent out the dove from the ark. ¹¹And behold, the dove returned to him in the evening with a freshly plucked olive leaf in her beak. So Noah knew that the waters had receded from the earth. ¹²And Noah waited seven more days and sent out the dove again, but this time she did not return to him. ¹³In Noah’s six hundred and first year, on the first day of the first month, the waters had dried up from the earth. So Noah removed the covering from the ark and saw that the surface of the ground was dry. ¹⁴By the twenty-seventh day of the second month, the earth was fully dry. ¹⁵Then God said to Noah, ¹⁶“Come out of the ark, you and your wife, along with your sons and their wives. ¹⁷Bring out all the living creatures that are with you—birds, livestock, and everything that crawls upon the ground—so that they can spread out over the earth and be fruitful and multiply upon it.” ¹⁸So Noah came out, along with his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives. ¹⁹Every living creature, every creeping thing, and every bird—everything that moves upon the earth—came out of the ark, kind by kind. ²⁰Then Noah built an altar to the LORD. And taking from every kind of clean animal and clean bird, he offered burnt offerings on the altar. ²¹When the LORD smelled the pleasing aroma, He said in His heart, “Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from his youth. And never again will I destroy all living creatures as I have done. ²²As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night shall never cease.” ^9:1And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. ²The fear and dread of you will fall on every living creature on the earth, every bird of the air, every creature that crawls on the ground, and all the fish of the sea. They are delivered into your hand. ³Everything that lives and moves will be food for you; just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you all things. ⁴But you must not eat meat with its lifeblood still in it. ⁵And surely I will require the life of any man or beast by whose hand your lifeblood is shed. I will demand an accounting from anyone who takes the life of his fellow man: ⁶Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man his blood will be shed; for in His own image God has made mankind. ⁷But as for you, be fruitful and multiply; spread out across the earth and multiply upon it.” ⁸Then God said to Noah and his sons with him, ⁹“Behold, I now establish My covenant with you and your descendants after you, ¹⁰and with every living creature that was with you—the birds, the livestock, and every beast of the earth—every living thing that came out of the ark. ¹¹And I establish My covenant with you: Never again will all life be cut off by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.” ¹²And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant I am making between Me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: ¹³I have set My rainbow in the clouds, and it will be a sign of the covenant between Me and the earth. ¹⁴Whenever I form clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, ¹⁵I will remember My covenant between Me and you and every living creature of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. ¹⁶And whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of every kind that is on the earth.” ¹⁷So God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between Me and every creature on the earth.”

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Cite this page

Plain citation

Noah and the Flood. Know the Text. Question lens, version 2, revised 2026-11-08, Fact-checked. https://knowthetext.com/question/stories/flood/

Chicago-style note

Know the Text, “Noah and the Flood,” Question lens, version 2, revised 2026-11-08, Fact-checked, https://knowthetext.com/question/stories/flood/.

BibTeX

@misc{knowthetext-flood,
  author = {{Know the Text}},
  title = {Noah and the Flood},
  howpublished = {Know the Text, Question lens},
  url = {https://knowthetext.com/question/stories/flood/},
  year = {2026},
  note = {Version 2; revised 2026-11-08; Fact-checked}
}

Sources

186 sources from 144 works

1
Genesis 7:21–23↩^a ↩^b ↩^c ↩^d ↩^e
2
Genesis 9:9–11↩^a ↩^b ↩^c
3
Genesis 9:24–27↩^a ↩^b ↩^c ↩^d ↩^e ↩^f
Morris Jastrow Jr., Hebrew and Babylonian Traditions (Haskell Lectures) (1914)
- 4
  Appendix, sect. I, p. 332↩^a ↩^b ↩^c ↩^d ↩^e
- 26
  Appendix, sect. IV, p. 360↩^a ↩^b ↩^c ↩^d ↩^e
- 93
  Appendix, sect. I, p. 326 (Gilgamesh XI)↩^a ↩^b ↩^c
- 96
  Appendix, sect. IV, p. 362↩
- 101
  Appendix, sect. I, p. 333↩
- 128
  Appendix, sect. I, p. 331↩
- 138
  Appendix, sect. I, p. 334↩
5
Genesis 8:7↩^a ↩^b ↩^c ↩^d ↩^e
6
Genesis 8:8–12↩^a ↩^b ↩^c ↩^d ↩^e ↩^f
7
Genesis 7:11↩^a ↩^b ↩^c
8
Genesis 7:6↩
9
Genesis 8:13–14↩
10
Genesis 8:4↩^a ↩^b ↩^c ↩^d ↩^e ↩^f
11
Christophe Nihan, Julia Rhyder, “The Torah/The Pentateuch (Bible Odyssey, Society of Biblical Literature)” (2020), paragraph 1↩
12
Steven L. McKenzie, “What Is Source Criticism? (Bible Odyssey, Society of Biblical Literature)” (2022), paragraph 6↩^a ↩^b ↩^c
T. Desmond Alexander, Pentateuchal Criticism Today: A Guidebook for Beginners (RTSF Monographs) (1998)
- 13
  pp. 25-26↩^a ↩^b ↩^c
- 14
  p. 26↩^a ↩^b ↩^c
15
Carol A. Hill, “The Noachian Flood: Universal or Local?, Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith 54.3: 170-183” (2002), abstract↩^a ↩^b ↩^c ↩^d ↩^e
16
David R. Montgomery, “The evolution of creationism, GSA Today 22.11: 4-9” (2012), p. 5 (two-column PDF: quoted from one line)↩^a ↩^b ↩^c
17
Stephen Foster, “Adam Sedgwick (1785-1873), Geologist (The Victorian Web)”↩^a ↩^b ↩^c
18
Andrew A. Snelling, “Geologic Evidences for the Genesis Flood, Part I: An Overview (Answers in Genesis)” (2007)↩^a ↩^b ↩^c
19
Andrew A. Snelling, “Is the Wood Recently Found on Mt. Ararat from the Ark? (Answers in Genesis)”↩^a ↩^b ↩^c
C. Leonard Woolley, Ur of the Chaldees: A Record of Seven Years of Excavation (1929)
- 20
  ch. 1, p. 29↩^a ↩^b
- 21
  ch. 1, p. 31↩^a ↩^b
22
David MacDonald, “The Flood: Mesopotamian Archaeological Evidence, Creation/Evolution 8.2 (issue 23), NCSE web copy” (1988)↩^a ↩^b ↩^c ↩^d ↩^e ↩^f ↩^g
23
Petko Dimitrov, William Ryan, Robert Ballard, Harald Haarmann, Gilles Lericolais et al., “The Flood in the Black Sea: Science and Mythology (oral presentation; Archimer, Ifremer)” (2006)↩
24
Ali E. Aksu, Richard N. Hiscott et al., “Persistent Holocene outflow from the Black Sea to the eastern Mediterranean contradicts Noah's Flood Hypothesis, GSA Today 12.5: 4-10 (with the authors' erratum, GSA Today, December 2002)” (2002), abstract (two-column PDF: quoted from one line)↩
25
Ali E. Aksu and Richard N. Hiscott, “Persistent Holocene outflow from the Black Sea to the eastern Mediterranean Sea still contradicts the Noah's Flood Hypothesis: A review of 1997-2021 evidence, Earth-Science Reviews 227: 103960 (abstract, Archimer record)” (2022), abstract↩
A. R. Millard, “A New Babylonian 'Genesis' Story (Tyndale Biblical Archaeology Lecture 1966), Tyndale Bulletin 18” (1967)
- 27
  p. 17↩^a ↩^b ↩^c ↩^d ↩^e
- 28
  p. 16↩^a ↩^b ↩^c ↩^d
- 33
  p. 3 (quoting von Rad, Genesis, 1961, p. 120)↩^a ↩^b ↩^c ↩^d
- 90
  p. 13↩^a ↩^b
- 99
  p. 18↩
I. P. Cory (ed. E. Richmond Hodges), Cory's Ancient Fragments of the Phoenician, Carthaginian, Babylonian, Egyptian and Other Authors (1876)
- 29
  p. 61↩^a ↩^b
- 140
  p. 63↩
30
Abraham Winitzer, “Atrahasis (Bible Odyssey, Society of Biblical Literature)”↩^a ↩^b ↩^c ↩^d ↩^e ↩^f
Leonard W. King, Legends of Babylon and Egypt in Relation to Hebrew Tradition (Schweich Lectures 1916) (1918)
- 31
  Lecture III, p. 139↩^a ↩^b
- 32
  Lecture I, p. 2 (quoting Driver, Schweich Lectures 1908)↩^a ↩^b ↩^c
34
Shawna Dolansky, “Gilgamesh and the Bible (Bible Odyssey, Society of Biblical Literature)”↩^a ↩^b ↩^c ↩^d
35
Nozomi Osanai, “A Comparative Study of the Flood Accounts in the Gilgamesh Epic and Genesis: Introduction (Answers in Genesis)” (2005), author note↩^a ↩^b ↩^c
36
S. R. Driver, An Introduction to the Literature of the Old Testament (rev. ed.) (1914), p. 14↩^a ↩^b
37
Jona Lendering, “The Great Flood: Genesis' two sources (Livius.org)”, introduction↩^a ↩^b
38
Rashi, Rashi on Genesis 7:2, tr. M. Rosenbaum and A. M. Silbermann, Gen 7:2↩^a ↩^b ↩^c
39
Anthony Abela, quoting Umberto Cassuto, The Documentary Hypothesis (1961), p. 41, “Umberto Cassuto's The Documentary Hypothesis: Thirty Years Later (Melita Theologica 43.2)” (1992), p. 67↩
40
Robert A. Moore, “The Impossible Voyage of Noah's Ark, Creation/Evolution 4.1 (issue 11), NCSE web copy” (1983)↩^a ↩^b ↩^c ↩^d
S. W. Hong, K. J. Kang, S. S. Na, B. S. Hyun, S. Y. Hong, D. S. Gong, S. H. Suh, K. H. Lee et al., “Safety investigation of Noah's Ark in a seaway, CEN Technical Journal 8.1: 26-36 (Answers in Genesis web copy)” (1994)
- 41
  abstract↩^a ↩^b ↩^c
- 42
  (whole work)↩^a ↩^b ↩^c
43
John Woodmorappe, “How Could Noah Fit the Animals on the Ark and Care for Them? (Answers in Genesis)”↩^a ↩^b ↩^c ↩^d
44
Ark Encounter (Answers in Genesis), “How Many Animals Were on the Ark?”↩^a ↩^b ↩^c ↩^d ↩^e
45
Checked in this site's verse database: Verses in the flood narrative with min ('kind', H4327) in the tagged Hebrew Bible↩^a ↩^b ↩^c ↩^d
How this was derived
SELECT DISTINCT std_ref FROM tokens WHERE root_strong LIKE 'H4327%' AND (std_ref LIKE 'Gen.6.%' OR std_ref LIKE 'Gen.7.%') ORDER BY std_ref
46
Checked in this site's verse database: Number of verses with min ('kind', H4327) in the tagged Hebrew Bible↩^a ↩^b ↩^c ↩^d
How this was derived
SELECT COUNT(DISTINCT std_ref) FROM tokens WHERE root_strong LIKE 'H4327%'
47
Alan Gishlick, “Baraminology, Reports of the National Center for Science Education 26.4 (NCSE web version)” (2006)↩^a ↩^b
48
Lorence G. Collins and David F. Fasold, “Bogus "Noah's Ark" from Turkey Exposed as a Common Geologic Structure, Journal of Geoscience Education 44: 439-444 (author's web copy)” (1996), abstract↩
49
Tim Chaffey, “Has the Ark Been Found? (Answers in Genesis)” (2016)↩^a ↩^b
Hendrik L. Bosman, “Jacobus Capitein: Champion for Slavery and Resisting Mimic?” (2021)
- 50
  Old Testament Essays 34.2, pp. 635-636↩^a ↩^b ↩^c
- 51
  Old Testament Essays 34.2, p. 636↩^a ↩^b ↩^c
- 55
  Old Testament Essays 34.2, p. 636, quoting Goldenberg, Black and Slave, 1 and 199↩^a ↩^b ↩^c ↩^d
- 56
  Old Testament Essays 34.2, p. 636, quoting Goldenberg, Black and Slave, 199↩^a ↩^b ↩^c ↩^d
Mark E. Biddle, “The Curse of Ham (Bible Odyssey, Society of Biblical Literature)”
- 52
  paragraph 2↩^a ↩^b ↩^c ↩^d ↩^e
- 105
  paragraph 5↩^a ↩^b ↩^c
Laura L. Mitchell, “Original Sin: review of Stephen R. Haynes, Noah's Curse (Books & Culture / Christianity Today)” (2003)
- 53
  paragraph 6↩^a ↩^b ↩^c ↩^d
- 109
  paragraphs 7 and 10↩
- 110
  paragraph 10↩
54
Abraham ibn Ezra, Ibn Ezra on Genesis 9:25, tr. H. N. Strickman and A. M. Silver, Gen 9:25↩^a ↩^b ↩^c ↩^d ↩^e ↩^f
57
Genesis 6:5–7↩^a ↩^b ↩^c ↩^d
58
Genesis 6:11–13↩^a ↩^b ↩^c ↩^d ↩^e
59
Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin 108a (William Davidson edition, Sefaria), 108a↩^a ↩^b ↩^c ↩^d
60
Martin Luther, Commentary on Genesis, vol. II, Luther on Sin and the Flood, tr. J. N. Lenker (1910), on Gen 7:11-12, §54↩^a ↩^b ↩^c ↩^d
61
Genesis 6:19↩^a ↩^b ↩^c ↩^d ↩^e
62
Genesis 7:2↩^a ↩^b ↩^c
63
Genesis 7:3↩
64
Genesis 8:20↩^a ↩^b ↩^c ↩^d
65
Checked in this site's verse database: Gen 7:2 wording in BSB, KJV and JPS 1917↩^a ↩^b ↩^c
How this was derived
SELECT (SELECT instr(text, 'seven pairs') > 0 FROM verses WHERE work_id = 'bsb' AND std_ref = 'Gen.7.2') || ',' || (SELECT instr(text, 'by sevens') > 0 FROM verses WHERE work_id = 'kjv' AND std_ref = 'Gen.7.2') || ',' || (SELECT instr(text, 'seven and seven') > 0 FROM verses WHERE work_id = 'jps1917' AND std_ref = 'Gen.7.2')
66
Genesis 7:12↩^a ↩^b ↩^c
67
Genesis 7:17↩^a ↩^b
68
Genesis 7:24↩^a ↩^b ↩^c
69
Genesis 8:3↩^a ↩^b
70
Genesis 8:13↩^a ↩^b
71
Genesis 8:14↩^a ↩^b
72
Andrew A. Snelling, “Is Noah's Ark on Mount Ararat? (Answers in Genesis)”↩^a ↩^b
73
Jona Lendering, “Ağrı Dağı (the so-called Ararat) (Livius.org; created 2007, modified 2020)”↩
74
Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin 56b (William Davidson edition, Sefaria), 56b↩^a ↩^b ↩^c
75
Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, Kings and Wars, tr. Eliyahu Touger, 541↩^a ↩^b
76
Alon Goshen-Gottstein, “Genesis 9, Noah's Covenants and Jewish Theology of Religions” (2023), Studies in Christian-Jewish Relations 18.1, p. 23↩^a ↩^b
77
Genesis 9:12–17↩
78
Abraham ibn Ezra, Ibn Ezra on Genesis 9:13, tr. H. N. Strickman and A. M. Silver, Gen 9:13↩
79
Ramban (Nachmanides), Commentary on the Torah, tr. Charles B. Chavel, on Gen 9:12↩^a ↩^b
John Calvin, Commentaries on the First Book of Moses Called Genesis, vol. 1, tr. John King (1847)
- 80
  on Gen 9:13↩^a ↩^b
- 104
  on Gen 9:25↩^a ↩^b ↩^c
- 167
  on Gen 6:2, pp. 238-239↩
- 168
  on Gen 6:2, p. 238↩
81
Tommy Mitchell, “Was There No Rain Before the Flood? (Answers in Genesis, Arguments to Avoid)” (2010)↩
Andrew A. Snelling, “Was the Flood of Noah Global or Local in Extent? (Answers in Genesis)”
- 82
  conclusion↩^a ↩^b ↩^c ↩^d
- 83
  figure caption↩^a ↩^b ↩^c ↩^d
84
Reasons to Believe, “Noah's Flood (topic page)” (2026), overview↩^a ↩^b ↩^c ↩^d
85
Genesis 7:19↩^a ↩^b ↩^c
86
Anthony J. Maas, Deluge (The Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. 4) (1908), section on universality↩^a ↩^b ↩^c ↩^d
87
Mark Wilson, “Noah, the Ark, and the Flood in Early Christian Literature” (2014), Scriptura 113, p. 7↩
88
Bereshit Rabbah 30:7 (Sefaria translation), 1807↩
89
2 Peter 2:4–5↩
Penn Museum (University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology), “Flood Tablet / Deluge Tablet, CBS10673 (collections record)”
- 91
  object record↩^a ↩^b
- 92
  object record, Date Made↩^a ↩^b
94
Genesis 6:14↩^a ↩^b ↩^c
95
Genesis 8:21↩^a ↩^b ↩^c
97
Genesis 1:28↩^a ↩^b
98
Genesis 9:1↩^a ↩^b
100
Monty White, “Flood Legends (Answers in Genesis)” (2007)↩
102
Rashi, Rashi on Genesis 7:12, tr. M. Rosenbaum and A. M. Silbermann, Gen 7:12↩^a ↩^b ↩^c
103
Genesis 9:20–23↩^a ↩^b
106
Joshua 9:23↩^a ↩^b ↩^c
107
1 Kings 9:20–21↩^a ↩^b ↩^c
108
Tamara Cohn Eskenazi and Andrea L. Weiss (eds.), The Torah: A Women's Commentary (URJ Press, 2008), on Gen 9:25-27 (Sefaria excerpt) (2008), on Gen 9:25-27↩^a ↩^b
111
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, “Race and the Priesthood (Gospel Topics Essay)”, paragraph on present teaching↩^a ↩^b ↩^c
112
Bereshit Rabbah 36:7 (Sefaria translation), 2167↩^a ↩^b ↩^c ↩^d
113
Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin 70a (William Davidson edition, Sefaria), 70a↩^a ↩^b
T. Desmond Alexander, “Exonerating Ham: An Alternative Reading of Genesis 9:20-27” (2026)
- 114
  Tyndale Bulletin 77, abstract, p. 27↩^a ↩^b ↩^c
- 115
  Tyndale Bulletin 77, p. 55↩^a ↩^b ↩^c
116
Genesis 6:14–16↩^a ↩^b ↩^c
117
George Smith, The Chaldean Account of Genesis (1876), ch. 1, p. 5 (OCR reads "Bibhcal Archosology")↩
118
Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin 56a (William Davidson edition, Sefaria), 56a↩
119
J. J. T. Doedens, The Sons of God in Genesis 6:1-4 (PhD dissertation, Theological University Kampen) (2013), Summary, p. 371↩
120
1 Enoch 6:1↩
121
1 Enoch 6:2↩
122
Genesis 6:2↩
123
Travis Proctor and McKenna Boling, “The Watchers (Bible Odyssey, Society of Biblical Literature)”↩
124
Genesis 6:4↩
125
Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin 108b (William Davidson edition, Sefaria), 108b↩
Gay L. Byron, “Review of David M. Goldenberg, The Curse of Ham (Christian Century)” (2004)
- 126
  paragraphs 5-6↩
- 127
  paragraph 6↩
David J. A. Clines, “Noah's Flood I: The Theology of the Flood Narrative, Faith and Thought 100.2: 128-142” (1972-73)
- 129
  p. 130↩
- 130
  p. 130 and n. 15↩
- 131
  p. 131 (quoting Moran, Biblica 52, 1971)↩
- 132
  p. 131↩
133
Noah Wiener (Biblical Archaeology Society), “The Animals Went in Two by Two, According to Babylonian Ark Tablet” (2014)↩
134
Genesis 6:20↩
Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature (ETCSL), University of Oxford, “The Flood story: translation (ETCSL 1.7.4)”
- 135
  segment C↩
- 136
  segment D↩
- 137
  segment E↩
139
Genesis 9:29↩
141
Flavius Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews (tr. William Whiston, 1737; Project Gutenberg 2848), 1.3.6 (quoting Berossus)↩
142
Flavius Josephus, Against Apion (tr. William Whiston, 1737; Project Gutenberg 2849), 1.19↩
143
Checked in this site's verse database: Verses containing H1613 (TAHOT)↩
How this was derived
SELECT count(DISTINCT std_ref) FROM tokens WHERE corpus = 'TAHOT' AND root_strong = 'H1613'
144
Checked in this site's verse database: BSB footnote on Gen 6:14↩
How this was derived
SELECT n.body FROM verse_notes n JOIN verses v ON v.id = n.verse_id WHERE v.work_id = 'bsb' AND v.std_ref = 'Gen.6.14' AND n.kind = 'footnote'
145
Genesis 6:19–20↩^a ↩^b
146
Genesis 7:2–3↩^a ↩^b
147
Genesis 7:8–9↩^a ↩^b
148
2 Kings 19:37↩
149
Isaiah 37:38↩
150
Jeremiah 51:27↩
151
Checked in this site's verse database: Verses with Ararat (H0780) in the tagged Hebrew Bible↩
How this was derived
SELECT DISTINCT std_ref FROM tokens WHERE root_strong LIKE 'H0780%' ORDER BY std_ref
152
Mark Allan Powell (ed.), HarperCollins Bible Dictionary (abridged ed., 2009), via Bible Odyssey, “Ararat (Bible Odyssey dictionary)”↩
153
Checked in this site's verse database: Verses containing H7198 (TAHOT)↩
How this was derived
SELECT count(DISTINCT std_ref) FROM tokens WHERE corpus = 'TAHOT' AND root_strong = 'H7198'
154
Genesis 27:3↩
155
Checked in this site's verse database: Septuagint day numbers in Gen 7:11 and 8:3-4 (Brenton)↩
How this was derived
SELECT (SELECT instr(text, 'twenty-seventh day') > 0 FROM verses WHERE work_id = 'brenton' AND std_ref = 'Gen.7.11') || ',' || (SELECT instr(text, 'seventh month, on the twenty-seventh day') > 0 FROM verses WHERE work_id = 'brenton' AND std_ref = 'Gen.8.3') || ',' || (SELECT instr(text, 'seventeenth') > 0 FROM verses WHERE work_id = 'bsb' AND std_ref = 'Gen.7.11')
156
Checked in this site's verse database: Septuagint wording of Gen 8:7 (Brenton)↩
How this was derived
SELECT instr(text, 'returned not') > 0 FROM verses WHERE work_id = 'brenton' AND std_ref = 'Gen.8.7'
157
Genesis 6:8–9↩
158
Samson Raphael Hirsch, The Pentateuch, rendered into English by Isaac Levy (Judaica Press, 1989), on Gen 9:25-27↩
Augustine, The City of God (NPNF1 vol. 2, tr. Marcus Dods)
- 159
  15.26↩
- 160
  15.27↩
- 161
  15.23↩
162
John of Damascus, Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith (NPNF2 vol. 9), 4.9↩
163
Ephrem the Syrian, Nisibene Hymns (NPNF2 vol. 13), Hymn 1↩
Catholic Church, Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd ed. (1997)
- 164
  §1219↩
- 165
  §58↩
- 166
  §71↩
169
Church of England, The Book of Common Prayer (1549), Of the Ministracion of Publike Baptisme (1549), first prayer↩
170
David Wright, “Timeline for the Flood (Answers in Genesis)” (2012), conclusion↩
171
Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, “Noah's Log: Does It Have Meaning for Us? (The Watchtower)” (2003), section on the date↩
172
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, “Bible Dictionary, Noah”, Noah↩
The Qur'an, tr. Marmaduke Pickthall (1930)
- 173
  4265↩
- 174
  4285↩
- 175
  703↩
- 176
  704↩
- 178
  706↩
Ibn Kathir (abridged English translation), Tafsir Ibn Kathir (quran.com)
- 177
  on 11:44↩
- 179
  on 11:45-46↩
180
Jenna Kemp, “Noah (Bible Odyssey, Society of Biblical Literature)”, paragraph 5↩
181
Genesis 8:20–21↩
182
Genesis 6:5↩
183
Genesis 9:5–6↩^a ↩^b
184
Genesis 9:3–4↩
185
Genesis 1:29–30↩
186
Jonah 3:10↩

What the text actually says

Genesis 6:1–4

Genesis 6:5–13

Genesis 6:14–7:3

Genesis 7:11–24

Genesis 8:3–12

Genesis 8:13–21

Genesis 9:1–6

Genesis 9:9–17

Genesis 9:20–23

Genesis 9:24–27

The evidence

A recent global flood deposited the bulk of the fossil-bearing rock layers.

A particular Mesopotamian flood deposit can be identified with Noah's flood.

Catastrophic flooding of the Black Sea supplied the historical basis of Noah's story.

Genesis and older Mesopotamian flood accounts share close narrative details.

Genesis's flood story drew, directly or indirectly, on the Mesopotamian flood accounts.

The flood narrative was made by combining parallel source documents.

The ark could survive its voyage as an ordinary wooden ship.

Created-kind estimates establish how many animals the ark needed to carry.

The boat-shaped Durupınar formation is the ark.

The curse passage was used to justify black slavery.

The destruction was a just divine judgment.

What people get wrong

Hard questions

Does geology support a recent worldwide flood?

The strongest case

Strongest responses

Plain assessment

Did the flood story come from older Mesopotamian flood accounts?

The strongest case

Strongest responses

Plain assessment

Why should children and animals die for human wickedness?

The strongest case

Strongest responses

Plain assessment

Why is Canaan cursed, and does the passage justify racial slavery?

The strongest case

Strongest responses

Plain assessment

Could the ark and its animals have survived by ordinary natural means?

The strongest case

Strongest responses

Plain assessment

Background

Other flood narratives Scholarship

Pairs, extra animals and two durations Scholarship

Covenant and the Noahide commandments Tradition

The sons of God and the Watchers Scholarship

The curse's racial reception Scholarship

Ancient parallels

Gilgamesh's flood account

Atrahasis

The Sumerian flood story

Berossus

Where translations differ

Genesis 6:6 · “Regret” nacham

Genesis 6:14–16 · “Gopher wood and the ark's opening”

Genesis 7:2–3 · “Seven or seven pairs”

Genesis 6:20 · “Kind” min

Genesis 8:4 · “Ararat”

Genesis 9:13 · “Bow” qeshet

Genesis 8:4 · Genesis 8:7 · “Hebrew and Greek differences”

How it has been interpreted

Jewish: rabbinic · Noah's righteousness and his generation

Jewish: medieval commentator · Extra animals and the opportunity to repent

Jewish: modern · Different accounts of Canaan's curse

Early church: Latin · History and a figure of salvation

Early church: Greek · The flood and baptism

Early church: Syriac · Bow and cross

Catholic · Baptism and the nations

Protestant: Lutheran · The whole earth under judgment

Protestant: Reformed · Seth's descendants and an existing rainbow

Protestant: Anglican · The baptism service

Protestant: evangelical · A recent global flood

Protestant: evangelical · Universal human destruction without global coverage

Jehovah's Witnesses · A different chronology

Latter-day Saints · Noah and later revelation

Islamic · A preacher and an unbelieving son