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Noah's Flood was Probably Local, according to the Bible itself

Excerpt from The Smith&Smith Scripture Commentaries, available without any cost, for download, at... http://sites.google.com/site/freecommentary Authors' note: After discovering this for ourselves, then after several years of letting this proposal sink in we personally have not looked back, but simply accept that a local Flood as the correct Biblical scenario. The scientific credibility of the Bible and questions over creationism and the Flood have been major and needless stumbling blocks for seekers of the truth -so it is a breath of fresh air to point out clearly where the Bible has been misconstrued as a global treatise. The Bible has always been a Middle-Eastern book, but the English translators have always been outsiders, hoping to include 'all the other nations', in what never mentioned them directly. The Flood was not necessarily global ~ Take this translation: Gen 7:19 And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth; and all the high mountains that were under the whole heaven were covered. The phrase, 'under the whole heaven', is used as dogmatic proof by Creation Scientists that the flood was a worldwide event. It is one of only two phrases regarded as good evidence by those who support the global flood theory. This phrase 'under the whole heaven' is used elsewhere to refer to a local event, so it is insufficient 'proof' for this belief. E.g: 'Under the whole heaven' is used to refer to the people in the land of Canaan and to the people east of the Jordan only. The following Deuteronomy passage -about the invasion of Canaan -- should be read in conjunction with Joshua: Deu 2:25 This day will I begin to put the dread of thee and the fear of thee upon the peoples that are under the whole heaven, who shall hear the report of thee, and shall tremble, and be in anguish because of thee. 26 And I sent messengers out of the wilderness of Kedemoth unto Sihon king of Heshbon with words of peace, saying,... 34 And we took all his cities at that time, and utterly destroyed every inhabited city, with the women and the little ones; we left none remaining: Jos 2:9 and she said unto the men, I know that Jehovah hath given you the land, and that the fear of you is fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of

the land melt away before you. ..It is quite unrealistic to imagine that the natives in Papua New Guinea for instance, were in dread of the Israelites going into the land of Canaan. E.g. 'every nation under heaven'... ..refers to 'from Media to Rome': Act 2:5-11 Now there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, from every nation under heaven. 6 And when this sound was heard, the multitude came together, and were confounded, because that every man heard them speaking in his own language. 7 And they were all amazed and marvelled, saying, Behold, are not all these that speak Galilaeans? 8 And how hear we, every man in our own language wherein we were born? 9 Parthians and Medes and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, in Judaea and Cappadocia, in Pontus and Asia, 10 in Phrygia and Pamphylia, in Egypt and the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and sojourners from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, 11 Cretans and Arabians, we hear them speaking in our tongues the mighty works of God. E.g. all creation under heaven... Paul uses this phrase to refer to the Roman empire where he spread the gospel: Col 1:23 if so be that ye continue in the faith, grounded and stedfast, and not moved away from the hope of the gospel which ye heard, which was preached in all creation under heaven; whereof I Paul was made a minister. ~ from the face of the ground... The other phrase indicating a world-wide Flood occurs in: Gen_6:7 ..And Jehovah said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the ground; 'The face of the ground' can carry the meaning of 'alive' 'in the land of the living'. I.e. 'I will destroy the life I created.' But note that the Hebrew 'erets' (=land, often of Israel) can actually mean 'ground', so the meaning may be 'I will destroy those living in the Israel area from being living beings'. Though some may argue that the words of Gen 6:7 can only be speaking of a world-wide event, we find the wording 'The face of the ground' in the prophets Ezekiel and Zephaniah referring to Israel only, talking of the destruction of Israel alone: Eze 38:18 And it shall come to pass in that day, when Gog shall come against the land of Israel, saith the Lord Jehovah, that my wrath shall come up into my nostrils. 19 For in my jealousy and in the fire of my wrath have I spoken, Surely in that day there shall be a great shaking in the land of Israel; 20 so that the fishes of the sea, and the birds of the heavens, and the beasts of the field, and all creeping things that creep upon the earth, and all the men that are upon the face of the earth, shall shake at my presence, and the

mountains shall be thrown down, and the steep places shall fall, and every wall shall fall to the ground. Zep 1:2-4 I will utterly consume all things from off the face of the ground, saith Jehovah. 3 I will consume man and beast; I will consume the birds of the heavens, and the fishes of the sea, and the stumblingblocks with the wicked; and I will cut off man from off the face of the ground, saith Jehovah. 4 And I will stretch out my hand upon Judah, and upon all the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and I will cut off the remnant of Baal from this place, and the name of the Chemarim with the priests; ..and in Hosea: Hos 4:1 Hear the word of Jehovah, ye children of Israel; for Jehovah hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, because there is no truth, nor goodness, nor knowledge of God in the land... 3 Therefore shall the land mourn, and every one that dwelleth therein shall languish, with the beasts of the field and the birds of the heavens; yea, the fishes of the sea also shall be taken away. You can see, from the way the Bible itself uses the words, that the apparently global terminology is not sufficient evidence for a world-wide Flood. ~ A local flood, destroying all men in the Middle-East-only, solves the biogeographical problem of animals becoming specific to distinct places on the earth, only 4,500 years ago, after the Flood. If the Flood were in the Middle Eastern area only, all the animals throughout the globe could have stayed in their places during the Flood (except for the animals in the Middle East, which were taken on to the ark). This allows for the uniqueness of a species to a particular locality to continue undisturbed. The unlikely scenarios of kangaroos hopping over to Noah before the Flood to get on the ark, and of them later establishing themselves in Australia only only after the Flood, are avoided. ~ The Flood could possibly have been caused by a geologic crustal depression occurring. The Dead Sea, which is still lower than sea level, is a possible location, and it is part of a major and unstable rift valley. The narrow Straits of Gibraltar may have been closed, so that the Flood might have occurred in the Mediterranean basin only. ~ We are not told that the descendants of Noah moved out of the Middle East till the Tower of Babel dispersal, well after the Flood. Then we are told specifically about the scattering of the nations: Gen 11:9 Therefore was the name of it called Babel; because Jehovah did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did Jehovah

scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth [i.e. actually the Middle East, as described in chapter 10]. ~ The Bible throughout talks of Middle Eastern countries specifically. No place is specifically named beyond Spain (west), India (east), Ethiopia (south) and countries such as Meshech, and Gomer around Armenia (north). I can find no place where 'earth' refers definitively to the whole globe, but many many places where it is definitively referring either to Israel or to a country or region in the Middle East. The list of verses in evidence for this is many times longer than this article! and I refer you to the separate topic in the Smith&Smith Bible Commentary. ~ Finally let's not forget that the ark grounded itself in the Middle East -- on Mount Ararat (in Turkey): Gen 8:4 And the ark rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, upon the mountains of Ararat. ~ In addition, beyond the Bible, we must consider the influence of the Book of Enoch. It majored on Noah's Flood, yet presents a quite different version of the whole Flood story. The Book's wording is also global rather than local, throughout, in describing the end of the world. Such an approach is necessarily anti-Semitic, anti-Bible, depriving Zion of its central place in all prophecy, and history. Anti-prophecy at Israel's expense, is an influence running very deep in this issue. The sort of people who are dogmatic about how pre-history must have been, are also likely to be anti-Semitic, and to accept the ideas of the Book of Enoch about that period (Nephilim; giants; fallen angels). It is therefore necessary to note that 1Enoch 13 mentions Lebanon, Hermon and Dan as intact before the Flood. This derails the argument of massive geological upheaval for anyone who trusts 1Enoch. Excerpt from The Smith&Smith Scripture Commentaries, available without any cost, for download, at... http://sites.google.com/site/freecommentary

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