Hello everyone! How has your week been? Interesting and not to chaotic I hope! Throughout the week, I have listened to several friends tell me different stories. But the interesting thing is, each story had a basis, a thread of truth in it.
The bible gives us the historical account of a global flood. Are there references to a global flood other than the bible? And that, my friends, is the question of the week.
The answer is yes! “In fact, Flood stories which include the saving of only a few people and animals, are found in many cultures worldwide and provide fascinating circumstantial evidence that the common ancestor of Aborigines, Jews, and indeed all modern races of man was Noah.” Dr. Duane Gish tells us in his book, Dinosaurs by Design, there are more than 270 flood legends throughout the world.
How did all these cultures obtain a global flood story? The descendents of Noah, as they spread to the ends of the earth, carried the knowledge of the global flood event with them.
Noah’s descendants dwelled in close proximity for about 100 years. Then another catastrophic event occurred – God confused their language at Babel (Genesis 11:1–9). “As these people moved away from Babel, their descendants formed nations based primarily on the languages they shared in common. Through those languages, the story of the Flood was shared, until it became embedded in their cultural history.”
Global flood legends are found in China, Greece, Asia minor, Syria, Peru, Egypt, India, Italy, Cree, Cherokee, Aztecs, and Hawaii just to name a few. The name of the man in the Hawaiian legend is even very similar to Noah – Nu’u. And the Chinese legend tells us of one man, his wife, three sons, and their wives all spared from the flood on a boat. Sound familiar?
But perhaps, at least to me, the most interesting global flood legend is one from the aboriginal people in Australia. There are two reasons this particular legend is so fascinating. One is, the aborigines have been isolated from the rest of mankind for a few thousand years (only since the late 1700’s have they been in contact with ‘civilized’ man and where it was first heard). And two, they have a legend that is almost intact with the biblical account. It tells of people being bad; a god that brings judgment on evil; the same god tells a man he will flood the world; this god directs the man to build a boat; animals are brought onto the boat; god makes it rain and he brings waters in from the sea to flood the world; this god spares the man, his wife, his son and his sons’ wives on the boat, everything else dies; the man sends out a bird to search for dry land; and – get this – the god puts a rainbow in the sky to keep the rain clouds back. Wow! It is not exactly the same account as the recorded event in the bible, but do you see the similarities? The account has actually survived fairly whole for being passed down from generation to generation by word of mouth over several thousands of years! Why would the aborigines have such a legend? Why would they even think up a global flood story…unless, it was true. “As the story of the Flood was verbally passed from one generation to the next, some aspects would have been lost or altered.” And this is exactly what we see (check out the chart).
Each legend shares remarkable similarities to the account of Noah in the Bible. That fact, and the abundance of the same legend throughout the world, I believe is evidence for the compelling support of this historical event.
Until next week!
God Bless and take care!
Willow
Reference:
http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/am/v2/n2/flood-legends
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