Noah’s Flood – a Timeline (7)

The following is continuation of the Flood narrative based on the research I have been doing for the Torah I am writing. If you have ever wanted to know more than was available with a simple reading of the Scripture, this will help.

• Genesis 6 – The Purpose of the Flood
• Genesis 7 – The Deluge
• Genesis 8 – The Flood abates

Genesis 7 is lacking in details, so Biblically endorsed – extra biblical sources are needed. These include, but are not limited to, the Book of Jasher (“written in the book of Jasher” – 2Samuel 1:18 and Joshua 10:13); The First book of Enoch (referred to as 1Enoch); and the Book of Jubilees.

Though they are not considered canon, they contain details and stories that the Hebrews would have known and understood, much like early American folklore. Those that know the story of John Henry do not believe a lone man dug a tunnel through a mountain, faster than a machine invented for that purpose, only to die as he finished. They do understood and are disquieted by the idea of man being replaced by a machine.

Dennis Prager has a good commentary (Rational Bible: Genesis), but he doesn’t dig deep into the Flood story. His analysis is more notable in other areas of the Word.

I also borrowed (down-right stole, baby!) material from Jon McPherson’s commentary on Genesis located at his website, Berean Breadcrumbs. I marked where Jon made me dig deeper because his analysis using the shortcut, [BBC].

And Yahweh said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark; for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation.

Genesis 7:1

“Righteous” – tsaddiyq / tsad-deek’ [H6662]  just:–just, lawful, righteous (man). see H6663 – tsadaq / tsaw-dak’ [H6663]  a primitive root; to be (causatively, make) right (in a moral or forensic sense):–cleanse, clear self, (be, do) just(-ice, -ify, -ify self), (be turn to) righteous(-ness).

   Yahweh reminds us, again, that Noah was righteous . . . he did not make himself righteous.

² Of every clean beast thou shalt take to thee by sevens, the male and his female: and of beasts that are not clean by two, the male and his female. ³ Of fowls also of the air by sevens, the male and the female; to keep seed alive upon the face of all the earth.

Genesis 7:2-3

7:2 Clean and unclean animals were already understood to be a thing before they were annotated in the Law by Moses.

   Many are amazed to find out that Noah was commanded to take more than two of certain animals unto the ark.  He needed more than two of the clean beasts, because he made a sacrifice to Yahweh when they all disembarked after the Flood (verse 8:20-21).  This would have led to the extinction of most of  the clean animals if he had only taken two.

7:3  One might surmise that any multitude of birds would have found their way onto the ark once the waters buried their roosting places, but the ark had only one window and it stayed closed the first forty days during the worst of the storms.  The birds could have landed on the ark, but they would have been unable to get to the food stored inside.

For yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights; and every living substance that I have made will I destroy from off the face of the earth.

Genesis 7:4

This reads that ‘the destruction begins in seven days’ and corresponds with verse 10.  Speculation is that Methuselah died and Noah’s family mourned for seven days.  Another supposition is that Noah’s sons married their wives immediately before the flood and the seven days were necessary for the couples to “fulfill the [wedding] week”.

   “forty days and forty nights” – like the expression, “the evening and the morning” speak to a specific number of day – in this case, forty (see the note at verse 7:17-18).

And Noah did according unto all that Yahweh commanded him.

Genesis 7:5

One of the reasons Noah was called righteous.

⁶ And Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters was upon the earth. ⁷ And Noah went in, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons’ wives with him, into the ark, because of the waters of the flood. ⁸ Of clean beasts, and of beasts that are not clean, and of fowls, and of every thing that creepeth upon the earth, ⁹ There went in two and two unto Noah into the ark, the male and the female, as Elohim had commanded Noah. ¹⁰ And it came to pass after seven days, that the waters of the flood were upon the earth.

Genesis 7:6-10

7:6-10  repeat of some of the earlier information.

7:9  This is not a contradiction of verse 2.  It is not saying ‘only’ two of every animal, but rather that each animal had a mate.  This also reiterates Yahweh preference for monogamy.  Polygamy is never banned, but it is never seen as an ideal relationship in all the references to it in the Word.

7:10  Water is a cleansing agent.  Moses is told that when the people become unclean, or impure, that washing themselves with water was part of the ritual for restoring the person back to an unpolluted state.

In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.

Genesis 7:11

Water beneath the crust of the Earth (Psalms 33:7; 136:6) is under intense pressure.  The results are seen in numerous springs that spew forth worldwide.  The further underground that the pockets of water reside, the greater the pressure because of the weight of the ground above it.

    A large meteor collision in Greenland, like the one in Chicxulub, Mexico (could they have been two chunks of the same meteor?) could have broken up the ice layer around the Earth as well as split the crust of the Earth to such a degree that the water underneath would have burst free from their deep basins.  This combination of the fountains of the great deep and the sub-zero ice could be responsible for the flood and the ice-age (Walter Brown, Fountains of the Great Deep – Hydroplate Theory).

   And on that day, the Lord caused the whole earth to shake, and the sun darkened, and the foundations of the world raged, and the whole earth was moved violently, and the lightning flashed, and the thunder roared, and all the fountains in the earth were broken up, such as was not known to the inhabitants before; and God did this mighty act, in order to terrify the sons of men, that there might be no more evil upon earth.

Jasher 6:11

    Yahweh rained down judgment on man, at His choosing, in several recorded incidents: Sodom and Gomorrah – Genesis 19:15-25; grievous fire and hail – Exodus 9:22-25; Elijah and the contest with the prophets of Ba’al – Exodus 18:30-39.

   Something sudden and catastrophic would have been required to produce flash-frozen Mammoths that were both still standing and that had food in their mouths (Did the Frozen Mammoths Die in the Flood or in the Ice Age?), and animals fossilized at the moment of giving birth (Stunning Fossils: Mother Giving Birth). These types of phenomenon (along with many others)the ones mentioned in the introduction of the Torah I am writing) could not happen naturally and are lasting evidence of the great Flood (Anomalies and Misplaced Fossils).

And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights.

Genesis 7:12

The “rains” lasted 40 days and nights.  The flood created by the rains lasted nearly a year.  The  seventeenth day of the second month (verse 7:11) through the first day of the first month (verse 8:13).

¹³ In the selfsame day entered Noah, and Shem, and Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah’s wife, and the three wives of his sons with them, into the ark; ¹⁴ They, and every beast after his kind, and all the cattle after their kind, and every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind, and every fowl after his kind, every bird of every sort. ¹⁵ And they went in unto Noah into the ark, two and two of all flesh, wherein is the breath of life.

Genesis 7:13-15

7:13-15  One again, the animals are referred to as “after their kind” unlike the animals that are outside the ark, many of which would have been hybrids.

And they that went in, went in male and female of all flesh, as Elohim had commanded him: and Yahweh shut him in.

Genesis 7:16

Elohim, himself, shuts them into the ark.

¹⁷ And the flood was forty days upon the earth; and the waters increased, and bare up the ark, and it was lift up above the earth. ¹⁸ And the waters prevailed, and were increased greatly upon the earth; and the ark went upon the face of the waters.

Genesis 7:17-18

“The flood was forty days upon the earth” – the number forty is not always an exact number, but it denotes a time of significance (e.g., Israel wandering in the wilderness; Christ in the wilderness).  This is probably the literal number of the days that the waters continued to rise based on the use “forty days and forty night” in verse 4.  Whenever the Word uses ‘day and night’, it is being definitive.

    The ark “went upon the face of the waters.”  It only needed to float and not capsize.  It did not need to steer – there was no where to go.

And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth; and all the high hills, that were under the whole heaven, were covered.

Genesis 7:19

All the high hills were covered – the great mountains probably did not exist, yet.  When water vapor condenses into rain droplets, it releases heat in a process referred to as ‘latent heat of condensation’.  If the flood had been high enough to cover Mount Everest, it would have cooked everyone in the ark, causing their death.

    The great mountains would have been formed by the shifting tectonic plates that had been forced by the violence of the waters escaping their deep basins.  Most mountain ranges run generally North and South, as do the great trenches in the ocean.

Fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail; and the mountains were covered.

Genesis 7:20

Fifteen cubits equals 262.5 feet (80 meters).

    It is unclear whether the water was 262 feet above sea level (one would still be able to see the torch held aloft by the Statue of Liberty had it existed, then) or 262 feet above the highest hilltop.  I believe the latter since the great pyramid is 481 feet tall – it is reported to have been built 200 years before the flood (Brian Handwerk – National Geographic – Pyramids at Giza).

    Josephus writes that “a great pillar” (the great pyramid) was built to store special wisdom (the many writings of Enoch? – 1Enoch 82:1-3) and protect it from a predicted flood (Flavius Josephus – The Antiquities of the Jews: 1.2.3.).  Isaiah also refers to the Great Pyramid as a pillar (Isaiah 19:19).

²¹ And all flesh died that moved upon the earth, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of beast, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth, and every man: ²² All in whose nostrils was the breath of life, of all that was in the dry land, died.

Genesis 7:21-22

The ark would have been known to everyone (it was the largest wooden ship ever built), so when the rains continued and the flooding began, 700,000 men and women descended on the ark and demanded admittance. 

   The animals still surrounding the ark (the ones not chosen to be admitted to the ark) were probably also trying to get in the ark.  With the window sealed, none could get in, but the commotion of the animals and men clamoring over the vessel must have been unnerving.  The frustrated animals proceeded to attack the frustrated men and drive them off (Jasher 6:16-25).

And every living substance was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground, both man, and cattle, and the creeping things, and the fowl of the heaven; and they were destroyed from the earth: and Noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark.

Genesis 7:23

When we choose to be baptized, we symbolically end our old life and begin anew with Yeshua (the living waters – John 7:38) as our Lord and Savior. [BBC]

And the waters prevailed upon the earth an hundred and fifty days.

Genesis 7:24

The waters quit raising after forty days but the slow abatement of the flood water meant the Earth remained covered for another 110 days.

Next week I plan to expound upon Chapter 8 – The abatement of the Flood waters.