THE GENESIS FLOOD

Introduction
The Bible mentioned a flood that covers the
whole world, even the tallest mountain of
the world and a huge boat is constructed to
transport the land animals of every species.
Like the Bible, the Quran also mentions a
similar type of story about the worldwide
flood and transportation of animals by a
huge boat. In the ancient Sumerian and
Babylonian texts, two stories are exits which
also mentioned the great flood. The first Figure 1: Noah’s ark
story is of the "Epic of Gilgamesh" it tells (Source: https://i.natgeofe.com/n/39750fb9-
about the flood on the river of the Euphrates 8ca8-4507-bb2b-58344c08b4e9/newton-
and another story is the "epic of Ataraxis" it whiston-comet-noah-flood-1.jpg)
tells about the flood on the river of Tigris.
Archaeology
Discussion Archaeology mainly analyzes the artefacts

History and archaeology are the two and by analyzing these artefacts,

different principal methods to study past archaeology helps to find many ancient

societies. To recreate the events of the civilizations and their lifestyle. It provides

past, researchers mainly combine these two information about the many ancient

different methods of archaeology and civilizations. But, after all, archaeology has

history. Both of these two different methods some drawbacks. Archaeology can provide

aim to learn about the lifestyles of the information about all periods of human

ancient peoples and to fulfil this aim they existence by the act of excavation or

applied different methods. Artefacts are dug digging the site (Nahkola, 2020). Due to

out from the ground by the archaeologist digging a site to reveal information about

and the historians do their research through ancient civilization, it fully destroys the site.

the ancient texts to know about the past. Unfortunately, archaeology means
destruction. This destruction does not mean
anything about the nature of the
archaeologists. The archaeologists dig any
site to find information about the people who
were once active in that place. During
digging any sites, the archaeologist
removes different layers of occupation and
destroy the materials on the top of those
layers of occupation. The archaeologists'
sites are unable to be reassembled once it
has been excavated, the archaeologists are
unable to repeat the process (Lightner and
Ahlquist, 2017). These are the reasons why
archaeologists excavated so carefully.
Unlike scientists, archaeologists are unable
to do their work, again and again, they
cannot repeat their experiment once after
excavating any site.
Figure 2: Babylonian map of world
(Source:
https://geekydementia.files.wordpress.com/
2014/11/2zp6u0m.jpg)
History
Both the methods of archaeology and
history are aiming to find information about
the past and the societies living in the past,
but there was a major difference between
these methods. Where archaeologists do
their research based on the physical
evidence which was used by the ancient
societies and left behind, but historians do
their research based on the ancient texts of
the ancient societies (Benthien, 2021).
Historians mainly depend on the written
documents and they use those written
documents as their main source. At the time
of finding the past, these two methods had a
great contribution to it. Where archaeology
gives the idea about the physical evidence
of the ancient humans and history gives an
idea about the intellect and mental look of
the ancient humans.
History also has some limitations like
archaeology. As archaeology can go back
to the time as much as they wanted like
archaeologists can go thousands or millions
of years back, but historians can go back in
time for a limited time period (Sheeder,
2021). Historians can only go back to the
origin of writing only. Which is nearly 5000
years.
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 response to the point where beliefs
appeared in various cultures, and the flood
was even described as a masterpiece of the
gods.

Figure 4: The epic of Atra-hasis

(Source:
Figure 3: Noah’s flood in light of http://www.mesopotamiangods.com/wp-
Mesopotamian tablets content/uploads/2014/07/7a-Utnapishtim-
(Source: Noah-Gilgamesh-a-Beast.jpg)
https://cms.evangelicalfocus.com/upload/im In western Asia, this story of the great flood
agenes/5a832ee7cbe18_EpicofGilgamesh6 is mentioned in many traditions like
30.jpg) Mesopotamia, Israelite and also mentions a
classic flood in many traditions. In

Flood narratives of western Asia Mesopotamia itself, different stories are

present about this flood. "The epic of
The great tradition of world disasters shows
Atrahasis" is from the first half of the second
that humanity constantly searches for the
millennium, from Circa 1600, a different
meaning of disasters. The cause of the
story belongs which is "The Eridu genesis".
great flood occupies a principal place in the
"The Epic of Gilgamesh" belongs to the first
written or oral form and different religions
and second millennia. "The Sumerian
tell different causes for the flood. The
Kingliest" is from the time of 2000 - 1700 BC
causes which are written by different
(Spoelstra, 2019). "The Lagash Kingliest" is
religions are such as torrential rains, glacial
from the early stage of the second
melts, the rise of the surge of the
millennium. "Berossus's Babyloniaca" is
subterranean seas, raging rivers, seismic
from the period of Hellenistic. Apart from
waves and so on (Rocha-Júnior et al.,
these stories, many poems are also present
2020). The destructive power of the flood
in Mesopotamia tradition which signify the
was so sinister that elicited a human

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same flood but through different scenarios.
Overall, the obvious similarities
differences between Mesopotamia, Israel,
and the classical Flood traditions show that
despite their differences, they share a
common tradition and serve as a model of
discourse to explore divine justice and the
perspective of human existence. A disaster
caused by rampant human violence and
inevitable death.
Figure 5: The epic of Gilgamesh
(Source:
https://wiki.harvard.edu/confluence/downloa
d/attachments/165478665/Gilgamesh.jpg?
version=1&modificationDate=14250154540
and 00&api=v2)
Conclusion
The whole discussion made here is about
the genesis flood which covered the whole
world including the top point of the highest
mountain. The same story is mentioned in
different mythological books differently and
the story of the great flood is also found in
the ancient Sumerian and Babylonian texts.
But modern science did not accept the fact
that a flood covered the whole world. Many
historians gave many theories and
hypotheses behind the reason for the great
flood like a comet crashed into the Indian
Ocean and due to which a huge Tsunami
was formed and destroyed the
Mesopotamia civilization due to the flood of
the river Tigris and Euphrates. Many people
demand that fossils of marine shells are
found on the mountain, an explanation of
this also given by the historian that
mountains rise from the ocean.
References
Journal
Benthien, G.W., 2021. Some Thoughts on
The Genesis Flood.
Lightner, J.K. and Ahlquist, J., 2017.
Founder events: foundational in rapid post-
flood diversification. Creat Res Soc
Q, 53(3), pp.217-24.
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Nahkola, A., 2020. Brian Bull and Fritz Guy. Rocha-Júnior, E.R.V., Marques, L.S.,
God, Sky, and Land: Genesis 1 as the Babinski, M., Machado, F.B., Petronilho,
Ancient Hebrews Heard It. Roseville: L.A. and Nardy, A.J.R., 2020. A telltale
Adventist Forum, 2011. 190 pp. God, Land, signature of Archean lithospheric mantle in
and the Great Flood: Hearing the Story with the Paraná continental flood basalts
21st-Century Christian Ears. Roseville: genesis. Lithos, 364, p.105519.
Adventist Forum, 2017. 211 pp. God, Sheeder, T., 2021The Genesis Flood: A
Genesis, and Good News: God, the Critique of Violence.
Misreading of Genesis, and the Surprisingly Spoelstra, J.J., 2019. The Flood as
Good News. Roseville: Adventist Forum, Sabbatical Rest: A Comparison of Genesis
2019. 201 pp. Spes Christiana, 31(2), 6–9 and Leviticus 25. Journal for
pp.213-217. Semitics, 28(1), pp.15-pages.