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One of the favorite stories of the Old Testament has to be the flood and Noah’s faithfulness to God in building an ark. The death of all human life except for those on a single boat is quite grim, but the pictures in children’s nurseries always show Noah and the animals smiling on the boat. This event is pre-history, meaning it happened before there were written records of events (the biblical record was written much, much later than the actual event). So is it merely legend, or did it really happen? And if it happened, is there any evidence?
Even though I believe the Bible is the inerrant Word of God, and therefore, true, I want to look outside the record for evidence of truth. This is helpful in to understand how parts of the Bible should be interpreted. Someone who believes the same as I do could make the argument that the story of the flood is true in that what it teaches is true, even if the exact historical events didn’t happen. How should we interpret this Bible story then?
What would you expect to see if there really was a worldwide flood thousands of years ago? For one, fossils of marine life in places where they don’t belong, like mountains. That’s well-known that we do see fossils of sea creatures, such as giant oysters and ancient eels thousands of feet above sea level in mountain ranges. Most are millions of years old, meaning they could be the result of shifting plate techtonics. But if some are much younger, then they couldn’t result from mountains rising from the sea because not enough geological time has passed. So far, there don’t seem to be marine fossils (or any other fossils, for that matter) that are too young to be the result of shifting plates, but that doesn’t rule out other causes; it merely means this isn’t evidence of the flood; unless Noah is far, far older than scientists believe humans existed.
Another reason why the lack of more recent marine fossils doesn’t have much impact on this discussion is because the end of the last ice age would have made the oceans significantly less salty, as well as changed ocean currents. The result would have been a mass dying off of the most susceptible sea creatures that required certain levels of salinity to survive. However, we see no fossil evidence of this mass death (I can’t say extinction, because many most likely survived through luck and migration). So a lack of marine fossils from this fairly recent period is neither evidence for or against the flood.
Another thing we would expect to see if the flood was a historical event is a lack of any major man-made construction prior to the flood. In other words, no ancient cities could have survived the flood, particularly if it was somewhat violent. They would have been wiped off the face of the planet. It is commonly accepted that the oldest city is Jericho, dating to somewhere around 9500 BCE. Enough archeological evidence of Jericho remains that it is safe to say the flood must have happened before Jericho’s founding. And in order to found a city, crops must be domesticated. Without domesticated crops, people had to live nomadic lives, following seasonal animal migrations.
Interestingly, the last ice age is thought to have ended around 9700 BCE. That would have caused sea levels to rise drastically, wiping out any towns that were anywhere near a major water source (as they all were). Scientists estimate the end of the last ice age cause a rise in sea level of 394 feet. Just think of the destruction we’ve seen recently in Nepal from just a “small” piece of a single glacier breaking free. The fact that the most ancient city began within a few hundred years of the end of the last ice age is too coincidental to be ignored. The ice melted, causing major global flooding, followed in a few hundred years by the founding of a single ancient city, taking advantage of warmer weather and a longer growing season. If this is accurate, Noah lived about 11,700 years ago.
Genesis 7:11 says, “the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened.” Water levels rising does sound like the more gentle water level rising that would be expected far from the immediate area of the melting ice caps. It should be said, however, that a rise in sea level of 394 feet does not match the description of Noah’s flood covering mountains; even with forty days of rain. That part may be more metaphorical than historical fact. But that’s a discussion for another day.
I clearly cannot prove any of this. All I can do is look at the evidence and try to draw likely connections. The Flood may not be related to any ice age. It could have been the result of catastrophic shifts in continental plates, or many other things. But we do know water has not been added or subtracted from the earth. It may change from solid, to liquid, to gas, but all the water that exits today has been here since God made it. And we don’t require evidence for our faith, but that doesn’t mean God hasn’t given us all the evidence we need, for those who are willing to see it.
