Re: Noah's flood -- worldwide?
David Campbell (bivalve@mailserv0.isis.unc.edu)
Thu, 16 Dec 1999 13:26:28 -0500
> If eretz can be rendered "land" or country" in referring to the extent
>of the flood (& it certainly has that limited meaning in some contexts) then
>it can also have that limited meaning in speaking of the wickedness &c of the
>eretz in 6:5-11. Then the whole account could be read as one of God's
>judgment on a particularly wicked region, like that of Sodom & Gomorrah.
Shalom,
George
Such arguments go back at least to the mid-1800's, before the acceptance of
Darwin's ideas. Sidney (1866) cites Peter's phrase "upon the world of the
ungodly" (II Pet. 2:5b) as limiting the Flood to the region inhabited by
the ungodly rather than the whole earth.
David C.