Bible Flood

Many skeptics claim that Noah’s big boat (ark) housed a pair of every kind of land animal on the face of the earth. They laugh at the notion that one such craft could carry millions of animal species and that eight people could care for and feed every species. But does the Bible teach this? The error is thinking that Genesis 6–7 refers to all the land animals on Earth. But the Hebrew words for the animals on the ark is nephesh life, also called soulish life (see nephesh page ). The Bible states that animals that bond with humans and have intelligence, will, and emotion can bond with each other and with humans. (These are all birds and mammals.) The ark animals are the ones that had contact with the ungodly people at that time. Today, see this to a lesser degree: look at the dog of an angry man; you do not want to be near them, the angry dog or the dog's angry owner. Noah would have aboard about 1,000 pairs of nephesh animals on a 450-foot-long ark. Evidence that the flood was real is found in the fact that many cultures around the world have flood stories; the stories vary because this event was long ago but were passed down through oral tradition. Almost all of these flood stories share a common message: a god or gods sent the flood as punishment.

The text tells us about the animals: "even pairs of every kind of clean animal" Gen 7:2. This tells us about the many types of animals that were placed on the ark. The clean animals in the Mesopotamia Valley at that time were: doves, pigeons, quail, pheasant, partridge, deer, cows, sheep, antelope, gazelles, oryx, addax (white antelope), goats, ducks, grouse, marbled teal, sparrow, and geese. So seven pairs of these were on board. Some animals were not clean to eat, but the Israelites used their labor, such as donkeys (the primary pack animals then), also over animals that bond to humans, such as: wolves (dogs), and crows (maybe a raven). Crows were on the ark, so we know useful animals were on board; they just wouldn't have been eaten. These are animals that would have had some contact with the evil people of that time, and that Noah would have needed to start a new settlement after the flood. Since the City of Nineveh is both very old and close to the "mountains of Ararat" (which would include the foothills of the Ararat mountain range), the ark may have come to rest north of the city of Nineveh. The wood of the ark may have been used to build the new city; either way, the wood has rotted away by now.

God gave us 66 Books in the Bible; each is the Word of God. If you're studying a topic, such as the scope of the flood, you need to check all 66 Books for information on the topic, rather than looking for a single verse that supports your viewpoint. Young Earth creationism (YEC) flood views is linked to the YEC age of the earth; see Earth's Age page for more info.

2 Peter 2:5 “ if he did not spare the ancient world when he brought the flood on its ungodly people, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others”.

This tells us the scope of the flood: "ancient world " and the place of "ungodly people". The Bible mentions Mesopotamia both before and after the flood. The flood was in Mesopotamia.

"flood on its ungodly people", where were the "ungodly people" in this ancient world? The Bible and history tell us that in the Mesopotamian Valley, people had not yet spread out. The flood was before human migration out of the Mesopotamian Valley. The Bible and the Record of Nature agree that human civilization started in the Mesopotamian Valley around the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Southern Mesopotamia is where we have evidence for the domestication of animals and wheat. Mesopotamia has cities that made glass, wheels, jewelry, many types of art, and religious objects. The first writings and written math (3,500 BC) come from Mesopotamia. Farmers grew enough food that artisans, craftsmen, and priests could specialize. All this archaeological evidence agrees with the Bible record of where civilization was founded. Mesopotamia is called the Cradle of Civilization. From Mesopotamia, civilization spread north, west, and into Egypt.

The flood was about saving mankind, as the murder rate was so high that humans were threatened with extinction. Human sin greatly harms the animals bonded to humans. We see that today; that is why a dog owner is responsible for their dog's harm. Angry, aggressive dogs are usually owned by angry, aggressive owners. This is why God wanted not only the "ungodly people" gone but also "ungodly people's animals.

To global flood thinkers: why would God kill penguins in Antarctica when penguins had never seen any ungodly people? Or kill Australia kangaroos that had not yet seen a human? In the Bible, God always limits his judgment to the ungodly. This limited judgment is the main point of Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 19:14-26). The flood killed all of mankind and their animals, but saved Noah. The flood was global to Noah, but not planet globally.

The earth started as a water world; both the Bible and the Record of Nature agree with this point. (Gen 1:2). In Psalm 104, God promises that He will never cover the whole earth with water again. This makes it clear that the flood was universal (global) to Noah from his perspective, but not around the whole earth.

Psalm 104:7-9 "But at your rebuke the waters fled, at the sound of your thunder they took to flight; they flowed over the mountains, they went down into the valleys, to the place you assigned for them. You set a boundary they cannot cross; never again will they cover the earth."

God promises that the earth will never be a water world again, after creation.

How do we know that from Noah's perspective, the flood looked global, but was not? Because of Earth's curvature, the whole world would have looked flooded. The Bible often uses words like earth and world to refer to something less than the whole planet. Like:

A) 1 Thessalonians 1:8 "Now the news of your faith in God is known all over the world"

Do you think this faith was known in the jungles of Africa or in Australia? Or was this the Roman World? The writer did not include "Roman world" because the reader would already understand the context.

One must read the WHOLE bible and see what it says. The words "world" and "earth" are often used to describe the world the people were living in. The book of Thessalonians is written about the world known at the time of the Roman Empire.

B) The Bible says in 1 Kings 10:24, “And all the earth sought the presence of Solomon.” But the “earth” is the earth of the world known to Solomon at the time of the writing.

“the whole world” is described as coming to Egypt for food (Gen. 41:57; cf. 1 Kings 10:24).

Not until the British and Spanish Empires did people start to think about the world in a global (whole planet) way. It is not correct to look at ancient writings with only our current world-citizen mindset.

Genesis 6:7, “So the Lord said, ‘I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth"

Genesis 8:9 records that the dove sent out by Noah could find no place to set her feet “because there was water over all the surface of the earth.” Yet four verses prior, in Genesis 8:5, the text says that the flood waters had receded enough so that for Noah the “tops of the mountains became visible.” Correct interpretation here depends on establishing the dove’s frame of reference. Likewise, the phrase “under the entire heavens” in Genesis 7:19 must be interpreted from Noah’s perspective in Mesopotamia, not from a modern global perspective.

So Noah's World was the area south of the mountains of Ararat and in Mesopotamia (the region where people lived and where the Cradle of Civilization was located). The flood was a response to human sin; there is no need to kill penguins or other animals that have not seen mankind.

The Mesopotamian valley is low and flat; it took time for the water to reach the sea and the land to dry out.

The animals in the Mesopotamian valley could not recover quickly, so Noah would not have to wait for them to return after the flood; he took some aboard. It was not only 2 of each; he needed more of some, so seven pairs were taken. The Dove is a universal symbol of peace and harmony. He uses the dove as a homing pigeon, on the ark as it would always come back. Dove/pigeon (same) has been domesticated for a long time.

The Bible is clear that the flood was in the world of people at the time of the flood, that is, the Mesopotamia valley and the mountains to the north, the mountains of Ararat, which would also be the foothills of the mountains of Ararat. When the text says the mountains were covered this reffering the the flash flooding that would have sweep down the sides of the mountains. In 1887, a large flood killed between 1,000,000 to 2,000,00 people on the Yellow River in China. Flash floods cover mountains without submerging them. In 1931, floods killed between 422,000 to 2,000,000 in China. The Bible teaches that a large flood covered the Mesopotamian Valley and flash-flooded the mountains of Ararat.

As flooding the Mesopotamian Valley and flash-flooding the mountains of Ararat would require lots of water, the flood must have been during the last ice age. Before humans had migrated out of the Mesopotamia valley, some 60,000 to 70,000 years ago.

See chart of warm times around 50,000 to 60,000 years ago, before humans departed the Mesopotamian Valley :

https://www.antarcticglaciers.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Vostok_420ky_4curves_insolation_to_2004.jpg

Mud flow layers have been found with thickness of one to 8 feet. The Mesopotamian Valley has very gradual flow to the sea, with the two major rivers, the Tigris and the Euphrates, which together created the fertile floodplain known as the "cradle of civilization".

Flood Proof:

From ancient Mesopotamia to the Americas, hundreds of distinct cultures feature stories of a massive, civilization-ending deluge in their mythologies. These narratives often share striking themes, including a divine warning, the construction of a vessel, the rescue of a select group, and the repopulation of the earth. The only reason for all these flood stories is that there was a flood a long time ago, before people spread out around the globe. Key to all: flood sent by a deity or deities to destroy civilization as an act of divine retribution.

The water was from rain, underground springs, and melting ice from the end of an ice age. Also, a storm surge from the sea that pushed the ark inland.

Could one flood kill everyone in Mesopotamia valley and the hills (mountains of Ararat.) above the Mesopotamia valley? The 1887 Yellow River flood in the Qing Dynasty of China began in late September 1887 and killed at least 930,000 people. It was the single deadliest flood in China, making it one of the largest disasters in China by death toll. The highest estimated death toll is 2,000,000. It rained for many days, and in some areas it took up to six months to recede.

Scripture recounts the flood as a real event, even by Jesus (Is. 54:9, Matt. 24:37–38; Luke 17:26–27; 1 Pet. 3:20).

Epic of Gilgamesh reed boat : A 6-day and 6-night storm raged across the land. The boat was made with reeds, poles, and tar. The boat is square, same length on each side (cube-shaped vessel), made from his house. On boat Utnapishtim and his wife, His relatives and family and the Craftsmen and workers who helped build the boat. Landed on Mount Nimush, in the Zagros Mountains (east of the Mesopotamian Valley), located in modern-day Iraqi Kurdistan. ( Note: A reed and tar boat could not be used to build a large ship, 6 days of rain would not flood the Mesopotamian Valley. )

Young Earth creationism

Young Earth creationism (YEC) are the main group teaching a flood that covered the whole earth. To explain this, Young Earth creationism has adopted early Seventh-day Adventist (cult at the time) teachings. This YEC teaching uses the same Seventh-day Adventist flood and flood geology teachings of George McCready Price (1870–1963) using his theories.

To get a flood to cover the whole earth, Price and now YEC claim: all mountains were made during the flood, and all geological layers and fossils were made during the flood. No mainstream geologist would agree with this.

1) To make all the mountains in this short time span of the flood would cause such movement as to make today's earthquake look like a rocking chair. The movement would have killed those on the ark with huge waves. Accelerated or "catastrophic" plate tectonics would release enough kinetic energy, heat, and seismic force to vaporize the oceans and obliterate any vessel on Earth, including Noah's Ark.

2) All the geological layers are different and have different fossils in them; they cannot have been made all at the same time. Things like the Colorado River could not have laid down many geological layers and then cut the canyon during one flood as YEC claims.

3) There are many animal and sea fossils on land. A fossil is where mineral-rich water has replaced a cell. Then, when dry, the mineral water turns to rock. The sea fossils on land are there due to plate tectonics. We also have NO fossils of human bones, as humans have not been on earth long enough for bones to turn into rocks, we have old human bones, but no fossils. See Fossil Record page

Key leaders of Young Earth creationism are: Ken Ham, Henry Morris, Jason Lisle, Kent Hovind, John Whitcomb, Jonathan Sarfati, and Andrew Snellin. The leaders mentioned above did not start Young Earth creationism. George McCready Price (1870–1963) , a Seventh-day Adventist, started the Young Earth creationism movement. At that time, the Seventh-day Adventist Church was classified as a cult by most Christian scholars. Seventh-day Adventism was listed among the major cults, largely due to its unique doctrines regarding Ellen G. White. By 1965, most Seventh-day Adventists had moved away from the cult teachings of Ellen G. White and were thus removed as a cult by many Christian scholars, including Walter Martin, widely regarded as a premier authority on cults.

George Price's teachings, Young Earth creationism teachings, are from the cult days of the Seventh-day Adventist. George Price not only came up with the 6,000-year-old earth theory, but also other Young Earth creationism teachings that are NOT in the Bible, like the flood over the whole earth.

Sea shells on mountains are a result of earthquakes and plate tectonics. Plate tectonics Earth's outer crust is broken into large pieces that glide slowly over the semi-molten asthenosphere. Plate tectonics moves and lifts sea floors into mountains through two main processes: building underwater mountain ranges by pulling plates apart, and pushing ancient ocean floors into high continental peaks when plates collide.

There are many other false claims about the flood.

Word Study:

Biblical Hebrew: earth, Strong's H776 - 'ereṣ

1. earth

   1. whole earth (as opposed to a part)

   2. earth (as opposed to heaven)

   3. earth (inhabitants)

2. land

   1. country, territory

   2. district, region

   3. tribal territory

   4. piece of ground

   5. land of Canaan, Israel

   6. inhabitants of land

   7. Sheol, land without return, (under) world

   8. city (-state)

3. ground, surface of the earth

   1. ground

   2. soil

4. (in phrases)

   1. people of the land

   2. space or distance of country (in measurements of distance)

   3. level or plain country

   4. land of the living

   5. end(s) of the earth

Biblical Hebrew: mountain Strong's H2022 - har

A hill, mountain, hill country, mount

Text says: Mountains of Ararat (NOT Mount Ararat) are the Mountains north of the Mesopotamian Valley, including the foothills.

Biblical Hebrew: Animal or Beast, Strong's H929 - bᵊhēmâ

1. cattle, livestock (of domestic animals)

2. wild beasts

Biblical Hebrew: Cover (as in mountains were covered) Strong's H3680 - kāsâ (does not mean submerged)

To cover, conceal, hide

1. (Qal) conceal, covered (participle)

2. (Niphal) to be covered

3. (Piel)

   1. to cover, clothe

   2. to cover, conceal

   3. to cover (for protection)

   4. to cover over, spread over

   5. to cover, overwhelm

4. (Pual)

   1. to be covered

   2. to be clothed

5. (Hithpael) to cover oneself, clothe oneself

Also see the Death and Sin page (TEC teaching)

Ref:

1. Manfred Heun, et al, “Site of Einkorn Wheat Domestication Identified by DNA Fingerprinting,” Science, 278 (1997), pp. 1312-1314.

2. Jared Diamond, “Location, Location, Location: The First Farmers,” Science, 278 (1997), pp. 1243-1244.

3. he World Factbook 1994 (Washington, DC: Central Intelligence Agency, 1994), 191.

4. G. Brent Dalrymple, The Age of the Earth (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1991), 122.

5. World Maps, topographic color and shaded relief from GLOBE Elevations with bathymetry from Smith and Sandwell, available from ftp://ftp.ngdc.noaa.gov/GLOBE_DEM/pictures/ GLOBALeb3colshade.jpg; Internet;accessed 24 January 2002.

6. TheGlobal Land One-km Base Elevation(GLOBE) Project, available from https://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/seg/topo/img/globecol.gif; Internet; accessed 24 January 2002.

7. Sverre Pettersen, Introduction to Meteorology (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1969), 274.

8. National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, available from https://hurricanes.noaa. gov/prepare/surge.htm; Internet; accessed 24 January 2002.

9. Ash Parton et al., “Alluvial Fan Records from Southeast Arabia Reveal Multiple Windows for Human Dispersal,” Geology 43, no. 4 (April 2015): 295–98, doi:1130/G36401.1;

10. Tom Higham et al., “The Earliest Evidence for Anatomically Modern Humans in Northwestern Europe,” Nature 479, no. 7374 (November 2, 2022): 521–524, doi:10.1038/nature10484; Stefano Benazzi et al., “Early Dispersal of Modern Humans in Europe and Implications for Neanderthal Behaviour,” Nature 479 (November 2, 2011): 525–528, doi:10.1038/nature10617; Mark A. Jobling, Mathew Hurles, and Chris Tyler-Smith, Human Evolutionary Genetics: Origins, Peoples and Disease (New York: Garland, 2003), 284–285.

11. Sahra Talamo et al., “A 41,500 Year-Old Decorated Ivory Pendant from Stajnia Cave (Poland),” Scientific Reports 11 (November 25, 2021): id. 22078, doi:10.1038/s41598-021-01221-6; Jonathan A. Haws et al., “The Early Aurignacian Dispersal of Modern Humans into Westernmost Eurasia,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 117, no. 41 (September 28, 2020): 25414–25422, doi:10.1073/pnas.2016062117; Benazzi et al., “Early Dispersal of Modern Humans, 525–528; Jobling, Hurles, and Tyler-Smith, Human Evolutionary Genetics, 284–285.

12. Marta Mariotti Lippi et al., “Multistep Food Plant Processing at Grotta Paglicci (Southern Italy) around 32,600 Cal B.P.,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 112, no. 39 (September 8, 2015): 12075–12080,doi:10.1073/pnas.1505213112.

13. Ceren Kabukcu et al., “Cooking in Caves: Palaeolithic Carbonised Plant Food Remains from Franchthi and Shanidar,” Antiquity 97, no. 391 (February 2023): 12–28, doi:10.15184/aqy.2022.143.

14. Rasmus Nielsen et al., “Tracing the Peopling of the World through Genomics,” Nature 541 (January 18, 2017): 302–310, doi:10.1038/nature21347; Iosif Lazaridis, “The Evolutionary History of Human Populations in Europe,” Current Opinions in Genetics & Development 53 (December 2018): 21–27, doi:10.1016/j.gde.2018.06.007; Serena Aneli et al., “Through 40,000 Years of Human Presence in Southern Europe: The Italian Case Study,” Human Genetics 140, no. 10 (October 2021): 1417–1431, doi:10.1007/s00439-021-02328-6.

15. Qiaomei Fu et al., “Genome Sequence of a 45,000-Year-Old Modern Human from Western Siberia,” Nature 514 (October 22, 2014): 445–449, doi:10.1038/nature13810; Solange Rigaud et al., “Symbolic Innovation at the Onset of the Upper Paleolithic in Eurasia Shown by the Personal Ornaments from Tolbor-21 (Mongolia),” Scientific Reports 13 (June 12, 2023): id. 9545, doi:10.1038/s41598-023-36140-1; Melinda A. Yang, et al., “40,000-Year-Old Individual from Asia Provides Insight into Early Population Structure in Eurasia,” Current Biology 27, no. 20 (October 23, 2017): 3202–3208.E9, doi:10.1016/j.cub.2017.09.030; Fabrice Demeter et al., “Anatomically Modern Human in Southeast Asia (Laos) by 46 ka,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 109, no. 36 (August 20, 2012): 14375–14380, doi:10.1073/pnas.1208104109; Graeme Barker et al., “The ‘Human Revolution’ in Lowland Tropical Southeast Asia: The Antiquity and Behavior of Anatomically Modern Humans at Niah Cave (Sarawak, Borneo),” Journal of Human Evolution 52, no. 3 (March 2007): 243–261, doi:10.1016/j.jhevol.2006.08.011.

16. J. F. O’Connell and J. Allen, “The Process, Biotic Impact, and Global Implications of the Human Colonization of Sahul about 47,000 Years Ago,” Journal of Archaeological Science 56 (April 2015): 73–84, doi:10.1016/j.jas.2015.02.020; Anna-Sapfo Malaspinas et al., “A Genomic History of Aboriginal Australia,” Nature 538 (September 21, 2016): 207–214, doi:10.1038/nature18299

17. International Council on Biblical Inerrancy, The Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy: Articles of Affirmation and Denial (November 7, 1978); International Council on Biblical Inerrancy, The Chicago Statement on Biblical Hermeneutics: Articles of Affirmation and Denial (November 13, 1982).

18. J. Rohling et al., “Antarctic Temperature and Global Sea Level Closely Coupled over the Past Five Glacial Cycles,” Nature Geoscience 2, no. 7 (June 21, 2009): 500–4, https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo557.

19. Byung Ho Choi et al., “Distribution of Runup Heights of the December 26, 2004 Tsunami in the Indian Ocean,” Geophysical Research Letters 33, no. 13 (July 1, 2006), https://doi.org/10.1029/2006gl025867.

20. David K. Lynch, “Land Below Sea Level,” com, accessed May 27, 2020, https://geology.com/below-sea-level/.

21. William B. F. Ryan et al., “An Abrupt Drowning of the Black Sea Shelf,” Marine Geology 138, no. 1–2 (April 1997): 119–26, https://doi.org/10.1016/s0025-3227(97)00007-8.

22. Glenn A. Milne, “Searching for Eustasy in Deglacial Sea-Level Histories,” Quaternary Science Reviews 27, no. 25–26 (2008): 2292–302, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2008.08.018.

23. “Imaging Israel’s Dead Sea Fault to Understand How Continents Stretch and Rift,” USGS, July 31, 2018, https://www.usgs.gov/center-news/imaging-israel-s-dead-sea-fault-understand-how-continents-stretch-and-rift

24. H. U. Sverdrup, Martin W. Johnson, and Richard H. Fleming, The Oceans, Their Physics, Chemistry and General Biology (New York: Prentice-Hall, 1942), 19, https://ark.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/kt167nb66r/.

25. Jim E. O’Connor and John E. Costa, “The World’s Largest Floods, Past and Present: Their Causes and Magnitudes,” U. S. Geological Society, Circular 1254 (2004): https://pubs.usgs.gov/circ/2004/circ1254/pdf/circ1254.pdf.

Additional resource on the flood:

Hugh Ross's new book, featuring cutting-edge new science, presents the facts that demonstrate the flood was a real event. "Noah's Flood Revisited: New Depths of Insight from Science and Scripture" Out on Oct. 7, 2025, In Noah’s Flood Revisited, Hugh Ross uncovers fresh insights from both Scripture and science, showing how recent discoveries illuminate the historical reality of the flood—and why it matters today. Ext. Link to book

Free Youtube video ext link on Noah’s Flood Revisited.