“The Search for Noah’s Flood Scientists are looking in the wrong place” by Ronald S. Hendel online at 03/26/2014http://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/biblical-topics/hebrew-bible/the-search-for-noahs-flood/
He stated:
“Biblical scholars will tell you that the Flood Story in Genesis 6–9 (actually stories in the plural, since there are two versions woven together in these chapters) 2 derives most directly not from an actual event, but from earlier stories. The earlier stories are from ancient Mesopotamia, best known from the Gilgamesh Epic (Standard Babylonian version, c. 1100 B.C.E.) and the Atrahasis Epic (Old Babylonian, c. 1700 B.C.E.).”
This man confounds the truth of God’s Word. I responded in an email below:
Dear Sirs,
I strongly disagree with the overall views of this article. I have looked extensively at the Noah Flood Story evaluating it from the perspective of whether it is a True Narrative Representation or a myth, legend, or fable. I have concluded that it is a true eye witness account. Using the criteria of Dr John Oller, a linguistics expert, it conforms to the requirements of Determinancy, Continuity, and Generalizability necessary to be considered a True Narrative Representation. For Determinancy it uses ancient word forms (nouns, verbs) that a person would have used for descriptions of an event actually experienced. For Continuity it has a sequential time line and various ancient word constructs that tie it together as a single unit; and for Generalizability studies in biology, geology, and anthropology support the concept of a worldwide flood. Thus the Biblical Account is not a derivative of a Mesopotamian flood story and nor is it a local flood event. It is a true eye witness account of a worldwide flood in which a man, Noah, and his family are saved, in a boat, from a flood that covered the entire earth. Support for this view can be found in a dissertation I wrote for Trinity Southwest University in 2012 titled “Evaluation of the Noah Flood Account as a True Narrative Representation”. It is 500 pages in length. It can be found online at: http://www.DefendingtheChristianFaith.org. There many other sites that support a worldwide flood including Creation Ministries International and Answers In Genesis.
God Bless, John G Leslie PhD, MD, PhD