ANCIENT HISTORIANS RECORD A WORLDWIDE FLOOD

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by Kenneth C. Griffith and Darrell K. White Published on September 20, 2023 Answers Research Journal 16 (2023): 475–489.

The authors survey the ancient chroniclers for durations to the Flood and to Creation. We find that the ancient chroniclers unanimously placed the Flood in the twenty-fourth century BC. Several durations to Creation also agree with Ussher’s date within ten years (The Ussher chronology is a 17th-century chronology of the history of the world by James Ussher, the Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland)

We were surprised to find how closely chroniclers from ancient nations agree with each other and the Ussher chronology. Not only are there precise durations to the Flood and Creation from several civilizations, but a considerable amount of history from the antediluvian era has been preserved, albeit now covered under layers of superstition and idolatry.

The Hindu texts preserve a great deal of chronological and historical data, which has been overlaid and interpreted through the lens of much later Gnosticism. The Hindu word buddha originally meant a sage or prophet, millennia before it came to mean a particular god (Hamilton 1820, 289).

The oldest Hindu texts describe Adam, Enoch, and Noah as buddhas, which originally meant prophets (Hamilton 1820, 114–120). However, they also refer to the first ten generations of prediluvian patriarchs as “avatars” or incarnations of God, (Hamilton 1820, 10) which we obviously reject.

The Chinese remember the first ten patriarchs as legendary emperors, and also preserve surprisingly detailed chronological details about some of them, as well as the history of Noah’s post-flood career.

Stellar Observations: Chinese and Babylonian sources seem to indicate that the earliest astronomical observations after the Flood date back to 2295 B.C. (Spineto 1845, 404). The Shû King records that Emperor Yâo ordered the construction of four observatories as the first priority after the Flood. In Griffith and White (2023), we calculated the date of Yâo’s reign as having begun in 2347 B.C. Some Chinese scholars calculate it as 2357 B.C.

Chinese: Alexander Hamilton states: “the Chinese annalists . . . place the deluge of Yau in the same year that the Hebrews place the flood of Noah, . . .” (Hamilton 1820, 345). This calculation was based on the reigns of the first three post-Flood dynasties, as opposed to astronomical calculations.

Hindu Astrological: “the year 2352 was obtained by the Hindus from a purely astronomical calculation . . . for this implies their opinion that the history of the world went back no further” (Browne 1844, 567). The Flood generally marks the beginning of known world history, as the Hindus considered the era before the Flood as the reign of the gods. Browne suggests this calculation was made in 204 B.C., which happens to be when the vernal equinox was leaving Aries. If so, this suggests the Hindus believed the vernal equinox was in the cusp of Taurus at the time of the Flood. We will repeat what we believe this calculation to have been in the astronomical section of this paper.

Diodorus states that the Egyptian priests maintained that “when mankind first appeared on the earth [after the Flood]; . . . but from the Trojan War, less than twelve hundred [years]” (Diodorus 1935, Book 1, §24.2). Since the Trojan war ended 1184/1183 B.C., less than 1,200 years yields a date below 2383 B.C. for the date of the Flood. Assuming Diodorus rounded to the nearest hundred, the Flood probably occurred between 2383 and 2333 B.C.

Eusebius cites Varro as computing that the Flood was 1,600 years before the Olympic aera, (Eusebius 2002, PrEv. 10.10) which yields 2376 B.C., plus or minus 50 years.

Censorinus dates the flood of Ogyges as less than 1,600 years before the first olympiad (Williams 1789, 250). He seems to have confused the much later flood of Ogyges with the Deluge, as several other Greek sources did with both the floods of Ogyges and Deucalion. This section is confusing; however, he gives values that sum up to between 1,400 to 1,514 years prior to the first Olympiad (Censorinus 2000, 30–31).

Bunsen quotes Censorinus as being more precise: “same year is referred to by Censorinus, about 238 A.D., who states, on the authority of Varro, ‘the most learned of the Romans,’ born 116 B.C., that the Flood took place about the year 2360” (Bunsen 2017, 11).

“This Nembrot [Nimrod], says Berosus, built Babylon 130 years after the flood” (Raleigh 1829, chapter 8). One hundred and thirty years before 2233 B.C. yields 2363 B.C. However, he may be referring to the Dispersion, in which case, 2191 + 130 yields 2321 B.C.

We find that the sources who used Berossus to determine the date of the Flood measured 1,000 years before the Fall of Troy, and then added 163 years to the date of the Flood. 1184 + 1,000 + 163 = 2347 B.C.

Nevertheless, 2363 B.C. is consistent with the testimonies of Diodorus, Varro, and Censorinus.

Polyhistor used this value also: “a kingdom at Babylon, 163 years after the flood, according to Polyhistor” (Williams 1789, 250).

Assuming that Polyhistor used 1,000 years before the Fall of Troy in 1183 B.C. as the date for the first kingdom in Babylon, then 163 years before 2184 B.C. yields 2347 B.C., matching Ussher’s date for the end of the Flood.

However, according to our triangulations from Griffith and White (2023), the first kingdom in Babylon after the Dispersion started in 2192/2191 B.C., yielding 2354 B.C. for the Flood using this 163-year duration.

756 Years after the Kali Yuga: Confucius dated the Flood as occurring in the 757th year of the Kali Yuga (Hamilton 1820, 316). This value is given as 3,267,000 ages from the Kali Yuga, which, divided by the 4,320-cipher of the Hindus and Chinese, yields 756.25 years (Hamilton 1820, 332). The Hindus calculated time before the Flood in double hours, reported as “years.” We demonstrated that the astronomical date for the Kali Yuga was 3104 B.C. in Griffith and White (2023), by counting from three different events: the Hijrah, the birth of Moses, and the Usurpation of Pradyato, all of which occurred after the Flood. Counting 756 whole years from 3104 B.C. gives 2348 B.C. for the Flood, agreeing exactly with Ussher.

The Deluge occurred in the 47th year of a Grand Cycle: “the world by the Hindus and Chinese, and the commencement of their cycles agree, each placing the deluge in the 47th year of a cycle” (Hamilton 1820, vol. 1, 332). The year 2349/8 was the forty-seventh year of the fourteenth sixty-year cycle from the start of the Grand Cycle in 3176 B.C. (Griffith and White 2023, 151.

Cush’s Reigns: 62/55/42 years: Belus, whom we believe to have been Cush, ruled Babel until 2192/2191 B.C., and is said to have reigned 62 years (Russell 1865, 379) by Scaliger and 55 years by Syncellus quoting Africanus (Clinton 1824, vol. 1, 267), all three of whom were redactors of Ctesias. We believe both values refer to events in the reign of Cush, called Belus, or Bel Marduk.

Cush could only have ruled in the city of Babel from the time it was founded in 2234/2233 B.C. until the Dispersion in 2192/2191 B.C. or 42/43 years, since, “At the end of forty two years after the building of the Tower, Ninus son of Belus took the kingship of the world” (Macalister 1941, §13).

However, the Babel project must have been the result of many years of planning and organization. This is evidenced by its founding on the conjunction of the New Moon with the Vernal Equinox in 2233 B.C. (Cullimore 1833, 167, 180). This suggests they anticipated this conjunction and deliberately waited for this date to establish the city or its temple. Therefore, it is not unreasonable to postulate that Belus/Cush began to rule in some fashion a decade or more before the city was founded.

Cullimore (1833, 165) states “The building of this tower is by profane writers uniformly ascribed to Belus.” Cush’s rule over his tribe would have started earlier when the land was divided around the time of Peleg’s birth. The two longer durations for his length of reign, which predate the founding of Babel, may be explained by two divisions of territory as reported in the Book of Jubilees (Charles 1913, Jubilees 8.8-10).

Berossus gives 34,080 days, which is 93.3 Julian years, or 94.6 years of 360 days then used by ancient Babylon, from the Flood until the first dynasty of Babylon, when by inference, Belus/Cush began to rule. 94.6 plus 62 is 156.6 years; 156 years before the Dispersion in 2192/2191 B.C. yields 2348/2347 B.C. for the Flood, and 2254/2253 B.C. for the First Territorial Division.

The Hindu records give 150 years from the Division of the Earth until the Usurpation of Pradyato (Hamilton 1820, 124). Pradyato was a Cushite who conquered the nascent Indus civilization and took over the government. This Usurpation was also given as 1,000 years after the Kali Yuga. Subtracting 756 years to the Flood from the Kali Yuga, as well as the 150 years of self-rule by the Hindus, we find that the division of the world was 94 years after the Flood began, which is 93 years after the end of the Flood. This triangulates, confirming that our interpretation of the 34,080 days is correct.

Syncellus cites Africanus in his epitome of Ctesias who gives the reign of Belus, whom we consider to have been Cush, as 55 years (Clinton 1824, 267), which by our reckoning would be from the birth of Peleg in 2247 BC (Ussher 2005, 21, §47) to the Dispersion in 2192/2191 B.C. Thus, it appears territorial division may have been a seven-year process that began in 2254 B.C. and was finalized in 2247 B.C., both confirming the Flood was in 2348/2347 B.C. Adding 101 years from the Flood to Peleg in the MT to the 55 years of Belus gives 156 years from the end of the Flood to the Dispersion, again triangulating 2348/2347 B.C. for the Flood.

Semiramis I: 312/313 years: The Annals of Clonmacnoise state that Semiramis’ rule started 313 years after the Great Flood. “Ireland long time after the flood lay waste until . . . after the flood 313 years . . . in the 1st year of the Raigne of Semiramis then monarchs of the world in Assiria” (McGeoghagan 1896, 12–13). The Irish Annals of Clonmacnoise state that Semiramis began to rule 312 years after the Flood (Percy 1823, 270).

2036/2035 BC, AP-21 Reign of Semiramis I; plus, 313 years; gives: 2349/2348 BC for the Flood

Emperor Yâo’s Reign 2347 BC: We found in a previous paper (Griffith and White 2022b, 422) that Yu of the Xia Dynasty of China began to reign in 2197 B.C. His predecessors Yâo and Shun reigned for a total of 150 years. Emperor Yâo’s reign was said to have begun when the Flood had ended.

2197 B.C., AP-4 Reign of Yu/Xia; plus, 150 years of Yâo and Shun; gives: 2347 B.C. end of Flood

GEOLOGICAL EVIDENCE FOR WORLDWIDE FLOOD

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The Bible teaches a worldwide Flood. It destroyed all people and land vertebrates off the Ark. Many creatures were buried quickly, forming fossils all around the world. But could the fossils be the result of local floods instead of a global Flood? In many cases, this is not possible because they are in rock layers covering huge areas—rocks clearly laid down catastrophically by water.

Sometimes they span whole continents and even across different continents around the world. Geologists use the term mega sequence for some of them (mega is Greek for ‘big’). If the layers are extremely wide, then whatever caused them must also have been extremely wide. Let’s see some examples from around the world.

One of the most famous natural wonders in the USA is the Grand Canyon in northern Arizona. It is 446 km (277 miles) long, over 1.6 km (1 mile) deep, and 6.4 km (4 miles) to 29 km (18 miles) wide. Standing on one rim and looking at the opposite wall, the layers of rock look like a giant stack of pancakes.

One of the easiest layers to spot is the almost-white Coconino Sandstone. From the other side, it looks thin (arrow, pictured below). But it is actually about 96 m (315 ft) thick. It is so wide that it covers 519,000 km² (200,000 square miles)—almost twice the size of Colorado! It contains 41,700 km³ (10,000 cubic miles) of sand.

Where did all this sand come from, and how did it get there? The sandstone has slanting lines, called crossbeds (‘fossil’ sand dunes). The slope is at a particular angle—the angle of a sand slope under water. The crossbeds are so large that deep flowing water, covering a vast area, must have formed them.

In my own city of Sydney, Australia there is another large formation. It is called the Hawkesbury Sandstone, or just Sydney Sandstone. The sandstone is quite hard and strong, and it was used for many of Sydney’s public buildings.

image for Building

The Sydney Sandstone is 350 km (220 miles) long, 250 km (150 miles) wide, and nearly 300 m (1,000 ft) thick in places. This also contains large crossbeds. One secular geologist said that the sandstone was deposited by huge waves of water mixed with sand. How big? 250 km (150 miles) wide—about the same as the sandstone deposit—and 20 m (66 ft) high, travelling about 100 km (60 miles) per hour. We don’t see them happening now. But the worldwide Flood of Noah’s day when God first poured out His wrath upon this earth explains them.

God tells us that in the last days before Jesus’ second coming to earth to rescue His Saints before pouring out His wrath on Earth once again, people will deny that the worldwide flood of Noah’s day that destroyed mankind (except 8 people) ever happened.

“You should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles, knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. They will say, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.” For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God, and that by means of these, the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished.” 2 Peter 3:2-6

People you need to accept God exists and you can know Him. He tells us we are without excuse. Look at the following Scripture: God tells us, we just need to look around us, take a look in any garden at the beautiful flowers.

“For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.” Romans 1:20

Also, fulfilled Bible prophecies should be enough for you to believe that all the two thousand prophecies of Jesus second coming to earth will be fulfilled as well. You need to know that these Bible prophecies tell us that we are not too far from Jesus’ second coming and the second time God pours out His wrath upon an unrepentant lawless world.

I know that Jesus returns first to take believers in Him to heaven before God pours out His wrath upon the world. I will be one of those who is saved. What about you? If you want to know how to get saved then go to either of these two websites http://www.answersingenesis.com or http://www.creation.com.

MORE EVIDENCE FOR NOAH’S FLOOD

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The notion of a ‘wet Sahara’ in the recent past is controversial among secular researchers since they struggle to adduce a mechanism to explain it. However, much evidence exists for it and has recently been bolstered through the discovery of ancient shorelines. And unlike the conditions proposed by secular researchers, the conditions produced by a post-Flood Ice Age in the biblical perspective provide mechanisms for explaining the existence of a ‘wet Sahara’.

Paleolake Chad covered an area of 340,000 km. much larger than the current Lake Chad

The Ice Age solution

The biblical rapid Ice Age model can explain the existence of the large and small lakes in the Sahara and the population of animals and people by a northward displacement of the Inter Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ). In the same way as were the lakes in the southwestern U.S., and other lakes generally around the 30th parallel of the Northern Hemisphere, the Saharan lakes were first filled during Flood runoff. Residual floodwater would have been left in enclosed basins. Evidence for this could be the marine foraminifera fossils found in the Sahara Desert. Then much more rain in the Sahara during the Ice Age would have either maintained the lakes or filled them up to overflowing, resulting in rivers and streams. Dried-up rivers and streams with amphibian fossils are found below the sand. Such a wet environment was caused by much greater evaporation from the Ice Age warm ocean and a different general circulation from that evident today. But the wet Sahara continued after the Ice Age into the mid-Holocene, likely because the ITCZ was displaced much farther north.

There was only ever one ice age, it followed the worldwide flood and lasted about 700 years.

The Ice Age lasted longer in the Southern Hemisphere (SH) than the Northern Hemisphere (NH). Glacial maximum was reached about 500 years after the Flood with deglaciation taking another 200 years, lasting a total of 700 years. However, the SH would not reach glacial maximum until perhaps 300 years later, because of the time needed for the build-up of the Antarctic Ice Sheet. The atmosphere and oceans of the two hemispheres have only a minimal exchange of water and air between them, so each generally acts independently. And because the SH has much more ocean than the NH, it would take longer for the Southern Hemisphere oceans to cool (cooling is 75% by evaporation and 25% by cool airflow off the continents).

How does this explain the green Sahara in the African Humid Period? It is known that today, the ITCZ migrates seasonally away from the winter hemisphere, within a range of about 10° latitude.8 Therefore, after the Ice Age ended in the Northern Hemisphere, the Ice Age in the Southern Hemisphere would have pushed the ITCZ even farther north than it shifts today as the seasons change. The SH Ice Age could easily push the ITCZ 600 km (375 mi) north into the Sahara Desert and cause the green Sahara to persist for centuries after the ice sheets had disappeared from northern regions.

Both creation and secular geologists agree that the earth’s deserts and semi-arid areas were once well-watered. Creation scientists largely attribute this to the warmer ocean water just after the Flood, warmed by the enormous volcanic eruptions that took place during the Flood. Warmer oceans generated huge amounts of evaporation, which caused the great ice sheets to build up rapidly over many parts of the world, leading to the Ice Age. At the same time, the extra water vapour in the atmosphere caused high rainfall at lower latitudes where it was not cold enough to form snow and ice. Thus, the post-Flood Ice Age explains why the earth’s deserts and semi-arid areas were once well-watered.

This high-rainfall condition would have lasted for several centuries until the sea had cooled off and reached equilibrium with the atmosphere, as it is today. In the runoff stage in the last part of the Flood, many lakes would have formed from the ponding of water in enclosed basins on an already waterlogged Earth. After the Flood during the Ice Age, high rainfall would have caused these lakes to grow and be sustained, along with a network of rivers and streams.

Taken from the article “Ice Age megalakes did exist in the Sahara” by Micheal Oard in the Journal of Creation/2023, volume 37, in the section Perspectives

THE TRUTH ABOUT NOAH’S FLOOD

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Genesis, chapters six through nine, describes the most devastating natural disaster in the history of the planet. This was the worldwide Flood of Noah’s day. It was a deluge sent by the Creator of the universe to purge the earth of mankind’s wickedness and violence.

This catastrophe is especially relevant to young-earth geologists. They think that this event is responsible for a significant portion of the earth’s rock layers and fossils. Understanding the Flood is the key to understanding natural history. Unfortunately, there are many misconceptions regarding the worldwide Flood of Noah’s day, among both its skeptics and young-earthers. Creationists must do their due diligence to carefully study the scriptural account of this event. It is important that we have a good understanding of what the Flood was, as this can provide us with clues as to what we might expect to see in the geologic record, and what resulted from the recovery of the earth from this event.

What WAS the Flood Anyway?

Did the Flood Really Happen?

Sadly, there are many people, including some Christians, who think the Flood was nothing more than a myth. It wasn’t always this way. Up until the mid-1800’s, it was universally understood within the Church that the Flood was a real, global, historical event.

As far as non-Christians are concerned, this disbelief in the global Flood is understandable. They interpret the rock record beneath our feet as the result of the geologic processes we see at work today operating slowly and gradually over long timescales, with the occasional major catastrophe thrown into the mix every few thousand or million years. If our geologic record formed over millions and billions of years, it could not be the result of Noah’s Flood. Many think that the Bible plagiarized the Flood narrative from older Ancient Near Eastern texts, like the Epic of Gilgamesh. It describes a similar flood narrative.

For Bible-believing Christians, the matter is more complicated. The psalmist, the apostle Peter, and even Jesus Himself refer to the Flood as a historic event. There is great controversy regarding the extent of the Flood.

What was the extent of the Flood?

While many Christians do think Noah’s Flood really happened, they do not think that it covered the whole earth. They think it was a local flood, only devastating a region within the Ancient Near East. But what can we learn about the Flood’s extent from the text?

From the Mouth of God…and an Apostle

Both the apostle Peter (2 Peter 3:3-7) and Jesus Himself draw very explicit parallels between the Flood of Noah’s day and the return of Christ to the earth. Peter’s words are especially telling: “For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God, and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished” (2 Peter 3:5-6).

Of particular emphasis here is that Peter is saying God used the same oceans He created in Genesis 1 to flood the world. The oceans were thrust from their basins and onto the land. This is clearly not describing a flood localized in the Ancient Near East. The Noahic Flood is described as the undoing of the Creation event. And since Christ’s return will have a global impact, it implies that the Flood had a global impact as well.

All Means All

The Hebrew word translated as “all” or “every” in the Flood narrative is kol. It is used 60 times in this narrative! While this word can be used in a nonliteral sense, there is no reason from the text to delimit the Flood’s extent to a certain geographical region. A straightforward reading of the text seems to indicate that this is because there was no need to specify where the Flood happened―it was a worldwide flood!

Purpose of the Flood

The Flood of Noah’s day was the response of God, grieved by the wickedness and violence of His creation. Targeted during this deluge was not mankind only, but also all air-breathing land animals and flying creatures. They too had corrupted their way upon the earth (Genesis 6:13). This only makes sense under a global Flood scenario. If the Flood were local, at least some flying birds, bats, and insects could make their escape.

Height of the Flood

The narrative describes Noah’s Flood submerging the mountains of that time underneath 15 cubits, or ~22 feet of water (Genesis 7:20). And not just mountains, but all of the mountains under heaven. Since water always attempts to find its own level, this verse does not seem to make much sense if the Flood were not global.

Mabbul

A variety of words refer to regular floods in the Bible. One of the more common words is setef (Job 38:25, Psalm 32:6, Proverbs 27:4, Daniel 9:26, Daniel 11:22), nachal (Job 28:4, Psalm 74:15, Jeremiah 47:2). In some translations, yeh-ore (Jer 46:7f, Amos 8:8, 9:5) also refers to regular flooding.

Interestingly, it is not these words that describe the Noahic deluge, but mabbul. This word is never used in Scripture except when in reference to Noah’s Flood. This seems to indicate that the catastrophe it describes is unlike regular flooding events. It was a unique, cataclysmic, one-off event. 

God’s Promises

Once the Flood ended, God made the rainbow a sign of the covenant He made with Noah, his family, and every other living thing. He promised that the waters would never again become a Mabbul to destroy all life on the land (Genesis 9:13-17). If Noah’s Flood were merely a local event, then God has broken His promise many times over. There have been legions of destructive local floods since Noah’s time. In addition, God also assured Noah that the seasons and the day/night cycle would not cease. This implies that the Flood interrupted the planet’s seasonal cycles! On the contrary, these natural cycles are what cause local floods (e.g. India experiences a seasonal monsoon).

One Really Big Boat

At more than 300 cubits long, 50 cubits wide, and 30 cubits in height, the Ark Noah built in order to survive the Flood was massive. As far as we know, the Ark was the largest boat up until the creation of the wooden vessels such as the 3rd-century Tessarakonteres and Zeng He’s treasure ships of the Ming Dynasty. Such a vessel seems more suitable for survival on the open ocean, not in the comparatively shallow waters of a local flood in the Ancient Near East.

How Long Did the Flood Last? 40 Days? 150 Days? A Year?

Genesis 7:17 states that the ‘Flood’ was upon the earth only 40 days, while Genesis 7:24 says the floodwaters prevailed for 150 days. Is this a contradiction? Not at all. The confusion stems from the mistranslation of the word mabbul as the English word ‘Flood’ in Genesis 6-9. In reality, the 40-day Mabbul is not synonymous with the Flood as a whole. Rather, it was a phase of the Flood. It was the Mabbul with which God blotted out the pre-Flood land’s inhabitants. But the floodwaters themselves remained on the earth many more months before the land was dry enough for Noah, his family, and the animals to leave the Ark. Perhaps a better English rendition of the word mabbul would be ‘cataclysm.’ In fact, its Greek equivalent, kataklysmos, specifically and only referred to the Mabbul in both the Septuagint and New Testament (Matthew 24:37-39).

For the sake of clarity, we will use Mabbul only to refer to the rising floodwaters phase, and ‘Flood’ to refer to the entire deluge, from start to finish.

Total Submersion

Once all air-breathing, land-dwelling animals and humans had perished in a watery grave, the floodwaters went from being very, very powerful (Genesis 7:18) to just powerful (Genesis 7:19). By this point even the mountains of that time were submerged beneath over 20 feet of water.

When/After the torrential rain stopped and the fountains of the great deep ceased, God caused a wind to blow over the earth. This marked the beginning of a marine regression as the waters receded. Shortly after the Ark came to rest in the still-submerged mountains of Ararat (Genesis 8:4), the water ceased becoming powerful (Genesis 7:24). Later still, Noah opened the Ark’s window and released a raven (Genesis 8:7) and then a dove (Genesis 8:8-9) to see if there was any dry land. Neither found any. 

Finally, the mountains appeared (Genesis 8:5). The Flood narrative does not tell us whether these mountains are re-emerged pre-Flood mountains or mountains newly formed during the Flood. However, Psalm 104:8 seems to indicate that mountains did form during the Flood, as did ocean basins. These allowed the floodwaters to recede from off the landmasses. Note that the mountains of Ararat is a region and is likely not referring to what we recognize today as a single mountain, Mount Ararat, in Turkey.

Even as they returned to the ocean basins, the floodwaters were anything but tranquil. Genesis 8:5 records that the floodwaters went back and forth as they receded.2 Noah released the dove once more. Upon its return, it brought back an olive leaf. It would have clipped the leaf from a newly-sprouted olive sapling that found a place to grow as the waters fell back. After Noah released the dove a final time, it did not return, implying that it had found a place to call home.

newly formed during the Flood. However, Psalm 104:8 seems to indicate that mountains did form during the Flood, as did ocean basins. These allowed the floodwaters to recede from off the landmasses. Note that the mountains of Ararat is a region and is likely not referring to what we recognize today as a single mountain, Mount Ararat, in Turkey.

Even as they returned to the ocean basins, the floodwaters were anything but tranquil. Genesis 8:5 records that the floodwaters went back and forth as they receded.2 Noah released the dove once more. Upon its return, it brought back an olive leaf. It would have clipped the leaf from a newly-sprouted olive sapling that found a place to grow as the waters fell back. After Noah released the dove a final time, it did not return, implying that it had found a place to call home.

newly formed during the Flood. However, Psalm 104:8 seems to indicate that mountains did form during the Flood, as did ocean basins. These allowed the floodwaters to recede from off the landmasses. Note that the mountains of Ararat is a region and is likely not referring to what we recognize today as a single mountain, Mount Ararat, in Turkey.

Even as they returned to the ocean basins, the floodwaters were anything but tranquil. Genesis 8:5 records that the floodwaters went back and forth as they receded.2 Noah released the dove once more. Upon its return, it brought back an olive leaf. It would have clipped the leaf from a newly-sprouted olive sapling that found a place to grow as the waters fell back. After Noah released the dove a final time, it did not return, implying that it had found a place to call home.

Drying it all up

Even after the floodwaters had receded, God did not permit Noah and the rest of his passengers to leave the vessel. Likely, this allowed time to repopulate the lowest denominators on the food chain—like microbes, plants, and possibly insects—before the hungry animals left the Ark. 

Earlier during the Flood year, prevailing torrents swept away fully-grown trees and other plants. Many of them survived, however, through their seeds, saplings, and sprigs.3 As the earth was drying, plant life would germinate and grow from these humble survivors. There is some debate among creationists as to whether insects were passengers on the Ark.4 If not, and they in fact survived off the Ark, then insect populations at the time could also have begun to refill the earth, pollinating plants and laying down a foundation for the reestablishment of the food chain.5

Three months went by between the time the land had fully reemerged and when God told Noah that they could leave the Ark.

Is there any evidence for the Flood?

Evidence from Rocks and Fossils

A worldwide Flood of biblical proportions would leave worldwide evidence behind. And this is exactly what we find! The continental surfaces of our planet are carpeted in thick packages of sand, shale, and carbonate mud layers that have been hardened into stone.6 They often cover entire regions or continents (sometimes even multiple continents!).

But it’s not just that we find fossil-studded sediment layers―these are marine layers, and the fossils within them are marine creatures, on the continents! The Greater Phyllopod Bed of western Canada,7 the Qingjiang fossil beds of China,8 Wren’s Nest in England, and the Beecher’s Trilobite Bed of the USA9 were likely the result of underwater flows picking up and carrying animals long distances—tens of kilometers in some cases—before depositing and entombing them in sediment layers. This is quite consistent with what we would expect to see if the earth was once submerged beneath the waters of a global Flood!

Evidence from Anthropology

Virtually every ancient culture around the world has a folk tradition that speaks of a ‘great flood’ sometime in their past. There are hundreds of these narratives. And while they do vary from place to place, they each contain very similar elements and characters.10,11

Many describe a favored family that survives a global flood sent to wipe out the wicked generation of that time. They often mention specific animals and people that were spared on a wooden vessel, and speak of how certain animals (usually birds) were sent to see if the floodwaters had gone down. Contrary to popular belief, these stories also occur in places where flooding does not regularly occur, if ever.12

This makes it extremely unlikely for these stories to be based on individual local flooding events. Rather, they are pulling from a universal memory of a world-destroying Flood that their distant ancestors (Noah’s family) really experienced.

Areas of Further Research

As we have seen, there is a great deal we can learn about the Flood from close study of Scripture. There is also much evidence for the Flood in the geologic record and in the collective memory of ancient cultures all over the world.

But there are unresolved questions we as young-earth creationists would like to know about the Flood. These have no bearing on the historicity of this event, but resolving them would bring clarity and help us better understand the Flood in its biblical and real-world context. It also presents a great opportunity for biblical scholars and scientists to work together and answer the toughest questions about the greatest catastrophe in our planet’s history.

When Did the Flood Occur?

The Bible does not give a specific date as to when the Flood occurred. Many young-earth creationists place it at around 350 years before Abraham’s birth at roughly 2000 BC. They obtain this estimate by adding up the ages given in the genealogies of Genesis 11. If correct, the Flood would have occurred around 2350 BC, or around 4,350 years ago.

This has produced several alleged problems. Abraham visits a well-established Egypt in his day. Egypt has written records that would suggest that it was founded around 3100 BC. This predates the most widely-accepted date of the Flood. In addition, some have questioned whether there was enough time after the Flood to form the post-Flood geologic record, and for humans to repopulate the earth and construct major cities. There are a few different ways of looking at these supposed problems.

Your Chronology is a Tad Off!

It is possible that the time it took to form the post-Flood geologic record and the archaeological record was much shorter than previously thought. 

Egyptian Chronology

Take Egyptian history as a case in point. A single ancient source did not record the chronology of this ancient civilization. Historians constructed it after the fact, and in doing so they made many assumptions (e.g. pharaohs mentioned in Egyptian manuscripts never ruled at the same time). These greatly inflate Egyptian chronology. Even secular Egyptologists know that the conventional Egyptian chronology is much too long and must be compiled. How much? We cannot yet say for sure at this time.

Mechanisms of the Flood

The “windows of heaven” is a figure of speech for the 40 days and nights of torrential rain unleashed upon the pre-Flood world. But what about the bursting forth of the ‘fountains of the great deep’? The Hebrew word translated as ‘bursting forth’ is baqa, which means to ‘cleave, break open, or through.’ It is the same word that describes the breaking open of the ground that ended Korah’s rebellion (Numbers 16:31) and the bursting of new wineskins (Job 32:19). This ‘bursting forth’ seems to be describing fissures on the deep seafloor that result in the ‘fountains.’ But our current understanding is not enough to determine whether ‘fountains’ refer to the source, catchbasin, or the water itself.

How literal is the reference to ‘fountains’ bursting forth? Early research on the Hebrew text by Hebraist Dr. Steve Boyd indicates that while the Flood account itself is a sober, historical narrative, the reference to both the ‘fountains’ and the windows of heaven may be more figurative. This would give geologists and other Flood researchers more scientific freedom they can use at their disposal to determine how these mechanisms operated during the Flood.

We also want to know how long the ‘fountains’ and ‘torrential rain’ lasted during the Flood. Genesis 7:4 specifically states that the rain would last 40 days, but it does not specifically state when the fountains of the great deep closed. Some think it could have been closer to Day 150 (Genesis 7:24-8:2), while others think they stopped at the same time the rain did.

40 Days or 150 Days?

When did the final air-breathing land animal not on the Ark breathe its last? Most young-earth paleontologists operate from the premise that this was on the Flood’s 150th day, based on Genesis 7:24. However, Dr. Steven Boyd has cited three lines of evidence suggesting that this would have occurred within the Mabbul, the first 40 days of the Flood.17

  1. Noah lived 350 years after the Mabbul, bringing his total lifespan to 950 years. This means he was still 600 years old when the Mabbul ended. If the Mabbul referred to the entire year-long Flood, Noah should have been 601 years old by its end and lived a total of 951 years.
  2. Genesis 7:12 specifically states that the Mabbul was on the earth for 40 days.
  3. The word “Mabbul” only appears in reference to the rise of floodwaters and again after the Flood. On the contrary, it is not used in association with the floodwaters after they have covered the earth, nor as they are receding.

According to Dr. Boyd, these three scriptural lines of evidence imply the following: if the Mabbul referred to in Genesis 7:23a blotted out all living beings, then because it lasted only 40 days, it blotted out all land-dwelling life that was not in the Ark during that 40-day time span. This has huge implications for how we might interpret the fossil record. More in-depth research of the biblical text is required before we can definitively say how long pre-Flood animals and humans survived during the Flood.

Conclusion

Without a sound understanding of the Flood, we cannot have a firm grasp of young-earth history. This is why it is important for Hebraists to team up with geologists so that both of them can lend their expertise to a better understanding of this worldwide, cataclysmic event.