Mike wrote,
<< >This conclusion agrees with the statement
>at Gen. 7:11
>that the waters of the Flood had two sources: (1) "the fountains
>of the great
>deep were broken up, and (2) the windows of heaven were opened."
>The "great
>deep" (Hebr. 'ˆÑˆ¥tehom rabba'ˆÑˆ¥) is used in the Bible especially
of the sea
>(e.g., Isa. 51:10; 63:3; Jonah 2:4).
Glenn responded,
<< Given that the conclusion is wrong so who cares if it agrees or not
with Genesis? >>
Just for the record, the theory does not agree with Genesis.
Tehom in Gen 7:11 does not refer to the sea in the sense of the Mediterranean
Sea, Persian Gulf, etc. As most commentators note, the verse is an implicit
reference back to Gen 1:6-9, where the waters of the Tehom covering the earth
in Gen 1:2 were divided into two bodies of water, two seas. One of them was
above the sky, the other was around the earth, as a circling ocean off of
which the seas like the Med and Persian Gulf were extensions. What is not
mentioned explicitly in Gen but is implicit in the earth appearing out of the
waters in 1:9 is that the one sea that surrounded the earth was also beneath
the earth as a foundation (Psa 24:2; 136:6). It is this lower sea, which was
understood to be the source of water for the fountains that were used for
irrigation and in Gen 7:11 it is paired implicitly with the upper sea, which
was understood to be the source of water for rain. (The rabbis understood the
tehom above the sky to supply water to the clouds, which then carried it to
various places and dumped it).
Below are the primary evangelical OT biblical scholars' relevant comments:
Gordon Wenham, commenting on Gen 7:11, says, "All the springs’Ķsuggesting
water gushing forth uncontrollably from wells and springs which draw from a
great subterranean ocean ("the great deep")." [Gordon Wenham, Genesis 1-15
(Waco, TX: Word Books, 1987) 181.] Bruce Waltke says, "The earth is being
returned to its precreation chaos by the release of the previously bounded
waters above and by the upsurge of the subterranean waters (See 1:2, 6-9,
8:2)." [Bruce K. Watke, Genesis ((Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2001) 139] Kenneth
Mathews writes, "Subterranean waters 'burst forth.'" [Kenneth Mathews,
Genesis 1-11:26 (Nashville: Broadman & Holman, 1996) 376. Victor Hamilton did
not comment on the "fountains of the Deep," but did say that the flood waters
"returned to their original position, either above or below the earth." [The
Book of Genesis Chapters 1-17 (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1990) 300].
Most tellingly, even the Seventh Day Adventist OT scholar Gerhard Hasel, who
believed in a global flood in the modern sense, made a thorough study of the
phrase "fountains of the deep" and concluded,
"In Genesis 7:11 the meaning of "burst forth" refers to a breaking open of
the crust of the earth to let subterranean waters pour out in unusual
quantity. Accordingly "all the fountains of the great deep burst forth" may
be taken to refer to the fountains, which in normal times furnished
sufficient water for the needs of men and animals and the irrigation of the
fields." [Gerhard F. Hasel, "The Fountains of the Great Deep," Origins 1(2)
(1974) 67-72.]
The everyday seas like the Med are, after the creation, regularly referred to
with the word yam. Tehom is thereafter used for the sea under the earth which
was indeed connected to the regular seas but still thought of as separate,
particularly as a source of fresh water for agriculture, which the regular
seas were not. Since the Tehom is below the earth, it is sometimes used to
simply mean "lower parts, or depths" especially in the plural. And the plural
is also used to refer to fountains which come up from the Tehom beneath the
earth.
In Isa 51:10 the sea which was parted by God at the Exodus so that the
Israelites could cross it is called the "great tehom." It was called the
"great tehom" because, at the Exodus as at creation God showed his
sovereignty and power over the waters and because both at creation and at the
crossing of the Sea of Reeds, the sea was divided by God. It is not a
metaphorical, not a literal use of the term.
In Isa 63:13 (not 3) one sees the same thing with the dividing of the waters
explicitly mentioned in the previous verse; but here the plural is used and
should probably be translated "depths"
In Jonah 2:5, Jonah says he is compassed about by the waters even to his
_soul_. This is paralleled in Psa 69:1, "Save me, O God; For the waters are
come in unto my soul." The thrust is figurative (Cf. v. 2 where he prays "out
of the belly of Sheol"). He then speaks of sinking into the realm of the
Tehom beneath the earth, as the next verse indicates where he goes down to
the roots of the mountains (beneath the earth, not in the Med. Sea) and the
bars of the earth or Sheol closed on him (beneath the earth, not in the Med.
Sea).
You can see in Hasel's paper most of the reasons why OT scholars identify the
"fountains of the great Deep" with fresh-water springs. You can read the
paper at http://www.grisda.org/origins/01067.htm.
Paul
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