RE: [asa] The Fall of man (Adamites- the local/global flood question)

We have seen tsunamis in the news over the last few years. The kind of
devastation they cause is a sudden (few hours) surge of the tide along a
coast, which wipes out towns and leaves devastation in its short-lived wake.

The Bible describes it as: "the same day were all the fountains of the great
deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. And the rain was upon
the earth forty days and forty nights." It could be that a tragic tsunami
or some other dramatic subterranean fountain broke through, but it seems
clear that the main source of long-term water and biological destruction
came from the sustained waters covering the land for months. Not something
a tsunami would substantially contribute to, IMO, except along coastlines.

Of course, the phrase "fountains of the great deep" needs to be taken in
context with the "windows of heaven". Gordon Glover's book Beyond the
Firmament didn't make the connection, but it seemed the obvious conclusion
to me that the firmament with its windows in Genesis 1-2, as part of the ANE
cosmology, needs to be carried forward into the flood story as well. If the
ancients believed that rain came through windows in a solid firmament, who
are we to tell them they should have written it differently? But we also
shouldn't be bound to 3000 year old science just to justify a shallow
reading of the text. Opening the windows of heaven just meant that the sky
let loose with a deluge. What then would the "fountains of the great deep"
have referred to in their frame of reference?

Later in the narrative, it says: "God made a wind to pass over the earth,
and the waters assuaged; The fountains also of the deep and the windows of
heaven were stopped, and the rain from heaven was restrained; And the waters
returned from off the earth continually: and after the end of the hundred
and fifty days the waters were abated."

It seems clear that the "fountains of the deep" and "the windows of heaven"
are equated here with the "rain from heaven", in that they all stopped after
40 days of continuous activity, and the water began to recede from the land.
Again, it seems more reasonable to equate this with a continuous deluge,
than a sudden tsunami. If this was in the flat floodplain of Mesopotamia,
many miles in extent, where people wouldn't have been able to travel far
enough, fast enough, to get out of the way of a regional flood, it makes
perfect sense. If God's purpose in having Noah stick around was to be a
witness to the unbelievers, rather than fleeing the scene with his family,
then a boat rather than a fast chariot seems a more reasonable means of
salvation.

To Bernie:
Have you read the recent articles by Carol and Allen Hill? They argue for
the geography of Mesopotamia (with hardly any gradient) of being able to
sustain months of drainage from a major flood. I'm not completely
comfortable with the logic, or with the idea of pushing the ark uphill even
against a very gentle gradient for months, but they do at least make a
reasonable attempt at establishing a case for it.
http://www.asa3.org/ASA/PSCF/2006/PSCF6-06Hill2.pdf
http://www.asa3.org/aSA/PSCF/2006/PSCF6-06Hill.pdf

Sincerely,
Jon Tandy

-----Original Message-----
From: asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu [mailto:asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu] On
Behalf Of John Walley
Sent: Monday, June 23, 2008 12:45 PM
To: asa@calvin.edu; Christine Smith
Subject: RE: [asa] The Fall of man (Adamites- the local/global flood
question)

>As an aside, I not long ago read of a scientist who claimed to have
>evidence of a large scale meteorite impact (in the Indian Ocean I
>believe) from the Noah's ark time frame, which he said generated
>catastrophic tsunamis all over the world...

Very interesting.. A possible and plausible "fountains of the deep"
mechanism for both the suddenness and the Northern flowing tide.

Not that it will ever prove this or settle it conclusively but it leaves the
door open that there may be some original original concordism in the flood
story which I choose to believe.
 

Thanks

John

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Received on Mon Jun 23 15:44:00 2008