Gordon,
In response to my suggestion "... would you not agree that much of the
world would have been settled by the time the Flood came?", you wrote
> This is highly speculative. The Bible doesn't tell us, but Gen. 6:1
> would be consistent with man not having spread too far. In spite of
> what could have been done, isn't it true that Iceland, New Zealand,
> and Hawaii were settled only relatively recently?
By man, perhaps, but what of birds and animals?
> You seem to rely on English translations to deduce that the Flood had
> to be geographically global. The relevant question is what the Hebrew
> says. The Hebrew uses the same word ('erets) for land and earth. This
> forces the translator to make a choice and use a word more specific
> than is in the original. I once used Strong's Concordance to calculate
> that in the King James Version 'erets is translated as land 62% of the
> time and as earth only 29% of the time. Furthermore, in many instances
> where it is translated as earth, it obviously doesn't mean the entire
> planet. For example, in Gen. 8:9, which is part of the Flood
> narrative, we are told that the water was on the surface of all the
> earth, but this couldn't mean the whole planet since four verses
> earlier in 8:5 we are told that the mountain tops had become visible
> If it doesn't mean the entire planet here, why should it be obvious
> that the same expression means something different elsewhere in the
> Flood account?
I'm sure we can agree that it was God's intention to 'clear the decks'
of defiled humanity, beast and bird, and begin again. And we can also
agree, no doubt, that if the evolutionary scenario is correct, the
entire globe would be teeming with life by the time the biblical
judgment was effected. But since it is chiefly to mollify the
evolutionist that a local flood is being demanded, it is clear that
God's true intent must, necessarily, be watered down (no pun intended).
The resort of taking refuge behind the many-faceted Hebrew word 'eretz'
is, in my view, disingenuous.
Interestingly, the concept of a 'New Beginning' is reinforced by the
numerical value of Gen.8:14 (logically, the end of the
Antediluvian/Diluvian episodes and prelude to the current era) which is
the large triangular number 2701, and thus identical to that of Gen.1:1.
For a detailed account of these historical 'bookends' see
http://homepage.virgin.net/vernon.jenkins/NewForOld.htm
Sincerely,
Vernon
>
> Gordon Brown
> Department of Mathematics
> University of Colorado
> Boulder, CO 80309-0395
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