The Narrative of the Universal Flood (Genesis Chapter 7)
Go, you and all your household, into the ark, because you are the one I have seen to be righteous before me among this generation (Genesis chapter 7)
“After that Jehovah said to Noah: “Go, you and all your household, into the ark, because you are the one I have seen to be righteous before me among this generation. 2 Of every clean beast you must take to yourself by sevens, the sire and its mate; and of every beast that is not clean just two, the sire and its mate; 3 also of the flying creatures of the heavens by sevens, male and female, to preserve offspring alive on the surface of the entire earth. 4 For in just seven days more I am making it rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights; and I will wipe every existing thing that I have made off the surface of the ground.” 5 And Noah proceeded to do according to all that Jehovah had commanded him.
6 And Noah was six hundred years old when the deluge of waters occurred on the earth. 7 So Noah went in, and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives with him, into the ark ahead of the waters of the deluge. 8 Of every clean beast and of every beast that is not clean and of the flying creatures and everything that moves on the ground, 9 they went in by twos to Noah inside the ark, male and female, just as God had commanded Noah. 10 And seven days later it turned out that the waters of the deluge came upon the earth.
11 In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on this day all the springs of the vast watery deep were broken open and the floodgates of the heavens were opened. 12 And the downpour upon the earth went on for forty days and forty nights. 13 On this very day Noah went in, and Shem and Ham and Japheth, Noah’s sons, and the wife of Noah and the three wives of his sons with him, into the ark; 14 they and every wild beast according to its kind, and every domestic animal according to its kind, and every moving animal that moves on the earth according to its kind, and every flying creature according to its kind, every bird, every winged creature. 15 And they kept going to Noah inside the ark, two by two, of every sort of flesh in which the force of life was active. 16 And those going in, male and female of every sort of flesh, went in, just as God had commanded him. After that Jehovah shut the door behind him.
17 And the deluge went on for forty days upon the earth, and the waters kept increasing and began carrying the ark and it was floating high above the earth. 18 And the waters became overwhelming and kept increasing greatly upon the earth, but the ark kept going on the surface of the waters. 19 And the waters overwhelmed the earth so greatly that all the tall mountains that were under the whole heavens came to be covered. 20 Up to fifteen cubits the waters overwhelmed them and the mountains became covered.
21 So all flesh that was moving upon the earth expired, among the flying creatures and among the domestic animals and among the wild beasts and among all the swarms that were swarming upon the earth, and all mankind. 22 Everything in which the breath of the force of life was active in its nostrils, namely, all that were on the dry ground, died. 23 Thus he wiped out every existing thing that was on the surface of the ground, from man to beast, to moving animal and to flying creature of the heavens, and they were wiped off the earth; and only Noah and those who were with him in the ark kept on surviving. 24 And the waters continued overwhelming the earth a hundred and fifty days” (Genesis chapter 7).
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Noah’s Log of Events
(Genesis chapter 7)
The main points of this chapter are that God gave Noah and his family seven days to enter the ark, along with the animals. There is the exact date of the beginning of the flood: “In the 600th year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the 17th day of the month, on that day all the springs of the vast watery deep burst open and the floodgates of the heavens were opened” (Genesis 7:11). Before the Mosaic Law, the beginning of the biblical calendar coincided with the end of the agricultural year, which means that the first month corresponded with the month of Ethanim or Tishri (September/October) (Exodus 12:2, the first month mentioned in this verse is the month of Abib (Nisan) (March/April)). The second month was the month of Heshvan (October/November), Heshvan, 17th, is the beginning of the month of November. The year 600 of Noah’s existence, would correspond, according to biblical chronology, to the year 2370 Before Common Era.
It is written in verses 12 and 17, that the flood took place for forty days and forty nights. The names of Noah’s children with their respective wives, were Shem, Ham and Japheth (verse 13). These three sons, would represent the three main branches of the current humanity. It is interesting to note that in verse 16, it is written that it was God who closed the door of the ark, and probably by ensuring its sealing.
The end of the chapter mentions the extinction of all living creatures on earth outside the ark. This includes humans and the Nephilim, the offspring of angels. As for the disobedient angels, they went to Tartarus, according to what is written in the second letter of Peter: “Certainly God did not refrain from punishing the angels who sinned, but threw them into Tartarus, putting them in chains of dense darkness to be reserved for judgment” (2 Peter 2:4). The word “Tartarus” is a transliteration of a Greek word (Strong’s Concordance G5020). The context of verse 4 seems to give quite a complete definition of it, namely a place of divine punishment, a condition of spiritual abasement, even as to their appearance may have become hideous, before being cast with the devil into the abyss for a thousand years, mentioned in Revelation 20, followed by their destruction at the end of the thousand years. There is a text that might make one think that the reintegration of their spiritual body would not have been as happy as expected for them: “wild goatlike demons will skip about there” (Isaiah 13:21).
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Where did such a quantity of water come from?
“In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on this day all the springs of the vast watery deep were broken open and the floodgates of the heavens were opened. And the downpour upon the earth went on for forty days and forty nights”
(Genesis 7:11,12)
It came from an ocean of heaven. This is what is written in the narrative of Genesis chapter 1: “Then God said: “Let there be an expanse between the waters, and let there be a division between the waters and the waters.” Then God went on to make the expanse and divided the waters beneath the expanse from the waters above the expanse. And it was so. God called the expanse Heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, a second day” (Genesis 1:6–8).
“The waters above the expanse” represent this famous heavenly ocean. This heavenly ocean has been called heaven. Is this a metaphorical description of the atmosphere in the sky having the same blue color as the ocean? From the immediate context of the book of Genesis, this is indeed the real and literal existence of a heavenly ocean. This heavenly ocean is mentioned in chapters 6 and 7 of Genesis.
This ocean of heaven is designated by the expressions, flood, floodgates of the heavens (Genesis 6:17; 7:6–10,17 “flood”; 7:11 “floodgates of the heavens “): “As for me, I am going to bring floodwaters upon the earth to destroy from under the heavens all flesh that has the breath of life” (Genesis 6:17). This text shows that God announces that he will literally make this heavenly ocean fall upon the earth. “In the 600th year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the 17th day of the month, on that day all the springs of the vast watery deep burst open and the floodgates of the heavens were opened” (Genesis 7:11). This text shows the gradual fall of this heavenly ocean, upon the earth, during forty days and nights of rain, over the whole surface of the earth. The Hebrew word translated by flood is “Mabûl” (Strong’s Concordance (H03999)), which appears in the book of Genesis, is translated by “Ocean of Heaven” in the King James Version, in Psalms 29:10.
The logical question is to ask how such a quantity of water could have been suspended in the upper atmosphere, while letting sunlight pass through, while at the same time allowing its contours to be perceived (the sun, the moon and the stars)? By studying the different layers of the atmosphere and the upper atmosphere we realize that this can be quite possible. We live in the lower layer of the atmosphere which is called the troposphere. It is about fifteen kilometers in altitude. Above, there is successively the stratosphere which top of the layer is located at fifty kilometers in altitude and then the mesosphere, located at about eighty kilometers in altitude. In these three layers of the atmosphere, the temperatures are very low (in the high altitude), and consequently they do not allow to maintain a very large quantity of water, comparable to that of the oceans, in suspension. On the other hand, the space and the temperature of the thermosphere, can allow it.
Indeed, the thermosphere above the mesosphere is 500 to 1000 km thick at altitude, with a temperature of up to 2000 degrees Celsius (speed of molecules). The space and temperature in the thermosphere can keep a very large quantity of water in very fine particles in suspension, allowing us to clearly see the celestial bodies (the sun, the moon and the stars). As an indication, the orbital satellites are located above the thermosphere, in the exosphere, between 500 and 2000 km of altitude (while geostationary satellites are 36,000 km from the earth).
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