By Kelly O'Connell ——Bio and Archives--March 30, 2014
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It starts In the Beginning, revisiting Adam and Eve, original sin and the fatal rivalry between Cain and Abel, catching up with Noah as a boy who, by virtue of his lineage and an enchanted snakeskin bestowed on him by his father, is clearly destined for greater things. Canaan is a desolate world of arid deserts, ruthless tribal warfare and dead cities, but also supernatural wonders. When Noah begins to experience visions of the apocalyptic flood to come...The film differentiates itself from the biblical account by not being about God's rejection of man's general immorality, but instead is a condemnation of mankind's destruction of the earth. The Genesis race of giant's called Nephilim aid Noah building his ark. Noah is furious about the earth destroyers, and is glad when they are judged and wiped off the earth.
Noah is a kind of Old Testament vegan. He eats nothing but plants and is horrified by watching Cain's children kill animals for food. When he journeys into the city we are given a vision of hell that includes industrial fires, pollution, rape and the abuse of animals. Noah retells the creation story...to illustrate it with the Big Bang, followed by the formation of the Sun, Earth and Moon. Then plants and animals evolve--including giant animals that no longer exist, dinosaurs. Finally, monkeys swing down from the trees and enter Eden... If Noah were a real guy he would be an abusive psychopath who locks his family away in a ship and watches as the world drowns. Most of the movie hinges on a question--Do humans deserve to "be fruitful and multiply" in the post-flood world? Or should Noah destroy his progeny so that the Earth can be left in peace, and humans can no longer abuse nature and themselves?In other words, the differences between this movie and the Bible's text are large, humanistic and certain to frustrate biblical literalists. In fact, it's hard not to see the script as a rejection of the biblical story in general. Instead, it replaces the vision of Yahweh with that of the neo-pagan GAIA, and makes mankind a type of virus despoiling mother earth.
God saw how great wickedness had become and decided to wipe mankind from the face of the earth. However, one righteous man among all the people of that time, Noah, found favor in God's eyes. With very specific instructions, God told Noah to build an ark for him and his family in preparation for a catastrophic flood that would destroy every living thing on earth. God also instructed Noah to bring into the ark two of all living creatures, both male and female, and seven pairs of all the clean animals, along with every kind of food to be stored for the animals and his family while on the ark. Noah obeyed everything God commanded him to do. After they entered the ark, rain fell on the earth for a period of forty days and nights. The waters flooded the earth for a hundred and fifty days, and every living thing on the face of the earth was wiped out. As the waters receded, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. Noah and his family continued to wait for almost eight more months while the surface of the earth dried out. Finally after an entire year, God invited Noah to come out of the ark. Immediately, he built an altar and worshiped the Lord with burnt offerings from some of the clean animals. God was pleased with the offerings and promised never again to destroy all the living creatures as he had just done. Later God established a covenant with Noah: "Never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth." As a sign of this everlasting covenant God set a rainbow in the clouds.
More than 250 Flood legends from all parts of the world have been found. Most have similarities to the Genesis account, but none of them contain all the details of the Genesis account. This suggests that the Genesis account is the original, and all others are derived from it.Here are a few examples of these ancient flood myths: Netsilik Eskimo:
A flood killed all animals and humans except for two Shaman, who survived in a boat. They copulated, and their offspring included the world's first women. [Balikci]Munda (north-central India):
Sing Bonga created man from the dust of the ground, but they soon grew wicked and lazy, would not wash, and spent all their time dancing and singing. Sing Bonga regretted creating them and resolved to destroy them by flood. He sent a stream of fire-water (Sengle-Daa) from heaven, and all people died save a brother and sister who had hidden beneath a tiril tree. God thought better of his deed and created the snake Lurbing to stop the fiery rain. This snake held up the showers by puffing up its soul into the shape of a rainbow. Now Mundas associate the rainbow with Lurbing destroying the rain. [Frazer, p. 196]Yoruba (southwest Nigeria):
A god, Ifa, tired of living on earth and went to dwell in the firmament with Obatala. Without his assistance, mankind couldn't interpret the desires of the gods, and one god, Olokun, in a fit of rage, destroyed nearly everybody in a great flood. [Kelsen, p. 135]Michoacan (Mexico):
When the flood waters began to rise, a man named Tezpi entered into a great vessel, taking with him his wife and children and diverse seeds and animals. When the waters abated, the man sent out a vulture, but the bird found plenty of corpses to eat and didn't return. Other birds also flew away and didn't return. Finally, he sent out a hummingbird, which returned with a green bough in its beak. [Gaster, p. 122]Mamberao River (Irian Jaya New Guinea):
A rising river caused a flood which overwhelmed Mount Vanessa. Only a man and his wife, a pig, a cassowary, a kangaroo, and a pigeon escaped. These became the ancestors of humans and other species. The bones of drowned animals can still be found on Mt Vanessa. [Gaster, pp. 105-106]Lolo (southwestern China):
In primeval times, men were wicked. The patriarch Tse-gu-dzih sent a messenger down to earth, asking for some flesh and blood from a mortal. Only one man, Du-mu, complied. In wrath, Tse-gu-dzih locked the rain-gates, and the waters mounted to the sky. Du-mu was saved in a log hollowed out of a Pieris tree, together with his four sons and otters, wild ducks, and lampreys. The civilized peoples who can write are descended from the sons... [Gaster, pp. 99-100]Quillayute Native (Washington):
Thunderbird was once so angry that he sent the ocean over the land. When it reached the village of the Quillayute, they got into their canoes. The water rose for four days, covering the mountains. The boats were scattered by the wind and waves. Then the water receded for four days, and people settled in many areas. [Clark, p. 45]One must ask, if there was no flood, how did all these far flung people groups end up with such a similar myth?
In those days the world teemed, the people multiplied, the world bellowed like a wild bull, and the great god was aroused by the clamour. God Enlil heard the clamour and he said to the gods in council, "The uproar of mankind is intolerable and sleep is no longer possible by reason of the babel." So the gods agreed to exterminate mankind. Enlil did this, but Ea because of his oath warned me in a dream. He whispered their words, "tear down your house and build a boat, abandon possessions and look for life, despise worldly goods and save your soul alive. Tear down your house, I say, and build a boat. These are the measurements of the barque as you shall build her: let hex beam equal her length, let her deck be roofed like the vault that covers the abyss; then take up into the boat the seed of all living creatures."
Marine archaeologists have found the first evidence of a people who perished in a great flood of the Black Sea that has been linked with the story of Noah's ark. Using robot underwater vehicles more than 300ft below the sea's surface, they have begun to map a rolling landscape, fed by meandering streams and marked with wattle and daub houses, that was flooded more than 7,000 years ago.Other natural evidence have been used to propose a worldwide flood, such as mass dinosaur graves. Others include: Polystrate Fossils:
One of the strongest pieces of evidence for a worldwide flood is the existence of "polystrate fossils." Such fossils are found all over the world. They usually consist of fossil trees that were buried upright.Stunning New Evidence of a Higher Ancient Sea Level
Newly described fossils of marine creatures found in a rock quarry in Bermuda indicate that ancient sea levels used to be 70 feet higher than they are today, which presents a puzzle to standard geological thinking.Other evidence of a worldwide flood includes: Fresh Frozen Mammals; Fast Wood Petrification; Grand Canyon Proof of Flood; Worldwide Deposits of Sea Life on Mountains; Vast Water Deposits Deep Within Earth; Ground Penetrating Radar Reveals Ancient Civilization; Petrified Wood Found Across Globe: Massive Fossil Graveyards; Remains of Animal Diverse Groups Found on Mountains and in Caves; The Massive Number of World Fossils, The Evidence of Flooding in Many World Sites, Such Flood Evidence as Britain's Separation from Europe; Sedimentary Rock Found Worldwide; etc An amalgamated list if these facts is found here.
Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him: "I now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you and with every living creature that was with you—the birds, the livestock and all the wild animals, all those that came out of the ark with you—every living creature on earth. I establish my covenant with you: Never again will all life be destroyed by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth."The third, and perhaps the most important symbol of Noah's flood is that of the ark itself, being a foreshadowing of Christ. All Christians put their faith in Jesus to be saved, and he carries them as the Church universal to salvation. The symbol of this is the rainbow, in Genesis 9:12-15,
And God said, "This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth."
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Kelly O’Connell is an author and attorney. He was born on the West Coast, raised in Las Vegas, and matriculated from the University of Oregon. After laboring for the Reformed Church in Galway, Ireland, he returned to America and attended law school in Virginia, where he earned a JD and a Master’s degree in Government. He spent a stint working as a researcher and writer of academic articles at a Miami law school, focusing on ancient law and society. He has also been employed as a university Speech & Debate professor. He then returned West and worked as an assistant district attorney. Kelly is now is a private practitioner with a small law practice in New Mexico.