On Fri, 13 Oct 95 17:29:21 EDT you wrote:
JR>I have several responses in the discussion of the pre-and post-
>flood world, and the preservation of technology and standard of
>living through the flood.
JR>First of all, how do the 8 survivors eat until they grow new
>crops? Their grain supply could have been packed on the ark in
>"pitched" containers, to seal out moisture so it wouldn't mold. I
>believe they carried enough to last them at least through the
>first post-flood growing season.
Agree. In Gn 6:21 God says to Noah "You are to take every kind of
food that is to be eaten and store it away as food for you and for
them."
JR>Using dates/ages literally in
>the OT (give or take 5 or 10 years, Stephen) the Flood occured in
>about 2400 BC, so this is not inconsistent with the evidence you
>cited regarding agriculture. (I know it is inconsistent with what
>you believe that the geological evidence is telling you, Glenn,
>but I'll touch on that later)
Even Whitcomb and Morris don't believe the Flood ocurred in 2400 BC:
"If the strict-chronology interpretation of Genesis 11 is correct, all
the postdiluvian patriarchs, including Noah, would still have been
living when Abram was fifty years old; three of those who were born
before the earth was divided (Shem, Shelah, and Eber) would have
actually outlived Abram; and Eber, the father of Peleg, not only would
have outlived Abram, but would have lived for two years after Jacob
arrived in Mesopotamia to work for Laban! On the face of it, such a
situation would seem astonishing, if not almost incredible. And the
case is further strengthened by the clear and twice-repeated statement
of Joshua that Abram's "fathers," including Terah, were idolaters when
they dwelt "of old time beyond the River" (Joshua 24:2, 14, 15). If
all the postdiluvian patriarchs including Noah and Shem, were still
living in Abram's day, this statement implies that they had all fallen
into idolatry by then. This conclusion is surely wrong, and therefore
the premise on which it is based must be wrong. Consequently, it
seems that the strict- chronology view must be set aside in order to
allow for the death of these patriarchs long before the time of
Abram."
and
"If we accept 2167 B.C. as the year of Abram's birth, the Flood must
have occurred in the year 2459 B.C. and the judgment of the Tower of
Babel between 2358 and 2119 B.C. (the lifetime of Peleg) according to
the strict-chronology interpretation. When we turn to the Genesis
account of Abram's journeys, however, we discover the international
scene to have been quite different from that suggested by the
above-mentioned dates for the Flood and the judgment of BabeI. Abram
is certainly not depicted as one of the early pioneers from the land
of Shinar who migrated to western territories that were only beginning
to be settled 200 years after the judgment of Babel. Quite to the
contrary, the Bible implies that the world of Abram's day, with its
civilizations and cities, was ancient already; and we are left with
the unmistakable impression that its peoples had long since been
divided "after their families, after their tongues, in their lands, in
their nations" (Gen. 10:5, 20, 31).
(Whitcomb J.C., & Morris H.M., "The Genesis Flood", Baker: Grand
Rapids MI, 1961, p477-478)
[...]
JR>All I know for sure is that time will prove the
>scriptures right; it always has and always will; we just don't
>agree on what is to be taken literally and what can be taken
>allegorically or otherwise.
Agreed! But the real point is that nowhere does the Bible tell us
the age of the Earth or when the Flood ocurred. It would have been
the simplest thing for Moses to have totalled up all the genealogies
and given us an inspired figure. But he didn't, so it is reasonable to
concludethat either: a) Moses regarded it as unimportant, or b) He
thought it was impossible on the fragmentary information he had.
God bless.
Stephen
-----------------------------------------------------------------
| Stephen Jones | ,--_|\ | sjones@iinet.net.au |
| 3 Hawker Ave | / Oz \ | sjones@odyssey.apana.org.au |
| Warwick 6024 |->*_,--\_/ | http://www.iinet.net.au/~sjones/ |
| Perth, Australia | v | phone +61 9 448 7439 |
----------------------------------------------------------------