How could Noahs family be the only survivors?

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I was reading the thread on Gods promise to Noah and it got me thinking about how the bible says Noah and his family were the ONLY people to survive, but in another verse, regarding the Nephilim, it says they were on the earth before AND AFTER the flood, so, which is it?

** I want to point out, I do not wish to discuss what the Nepilim actually were, whether they were just normal men (like many on here believe) or something else, too many threads on that already, Im just trying to find out how its possible ‘someone’ other than Noahs family could live on to be there after the flood.

For the sake of this thread, lets assume the Nephilim were just regular men.
 
This might be way off base, but I would like to hear what others hold.

In the Bible we often hear that people are goats, sheep, fish canine and the like.

Jacob even tells his children that they are animals–one, a raw boned ***.

Could Noah have gathered together many different kinds of people?

THANKS!
 
Noah’s family is symbolic of New Creation . And Just as Adam and Eve and sons were a new a start outside of Eden, Noah’s family is symbolic of a New start for humanity. Again , the earth’s population is replenished by One Family. We are all related to one another- we have common ancestors . We are our Brother’s keeper.
 
Well since the entire Creation story is a metaphor , the Noah family has to resemble the Adam’s family😁 ^All of humanity was born from a Adam,Eve and son. In the Noah story new Creation, New humanity is a",again , birthed by One Family.
 
Which parts of the biblical flood story do you reckon are actually true facts?
 
Thank you, Deacon Jeff, for your cogent explanation. I have a sense of these prehistoric events passed on verbally long before they were reduced to writing by inspired authors for the purpose of revealing theological truth transcending mere police blotter reportage of matters all but lost to human memory. There is much physical evidence of a catastrophic flood happening after the Ice Age. Did it involve “all” mankind? Perhaps we can say that for all practical purposes, it did. Were there isolated human tribes far away from the epicenter of this event? Who knows, and what difference would that make to the essential theological message?
 
I believe that post-flood Noah’s family, like Adam and Eve, were not the only people on earth. They are spoken about as if they were the only people on earth because they were the only people that mattered in the story of our salvation. Adam and Eve, then Noah, were the beginning of the line of people that ended in Mary and Jesus. But other people were on earth also. How else could the children of Adam and Eve find spouses?

Many cultures have flood traditions. Some cultures say their ancestors were saved by building a raft and putting their families and animals on it. This may have been going on all over the world at the end of the ice age. But Noah’s family is the center of the saga of salvation, that’s why they alone are featured in the story of the flood. :twocents:
 
juliamajor said:
Well since the entire Creation story is a metaphor , the Noah family has to resemble the Adam’s family😁 ^All of humanity was born from a Adam,Eve and son. In the Noah story new Creation, New humanity is a",again , birthed by One Family.
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Party pooper! 🙂
 
The lesson is not only that people should live justly, but trust God - respond when he leads us, even when others who seemingly should know better, seem to be ignoring God’s leading. But this means not just people in general, but the person reading the story of Noah (or the persons posting and writing on this forum).

I find it hard to keep affirming Christian faith on subjects like prolife and marriage, when the culture in general, and my friends and relatives, regard my views as quaint. The example of Noah needs to be taken literally in my life, and yours as we respond to God’s call, no matter what the opinion polls say, no matter the people who either directly oppose us, or (worse) are condescending. Sometimes for years.

Yeah Noah!
 
I’m afraid if I stay a few more months on CAF…I will completely lose my faith & become an atheist! :eek:
 
Thanks for responding. Just one more question. In your interpretation of the flood story, does God directly cause this (localized) flood – as he does in the biblical story – or does he merely permit it?
 
boomerang said:
I believe that post-flood Noah’s family, like Adam and Eve, were not the only people on earth. They are spoken about as if they were the only people on earth because they were the only people that mattered in the story of our salvation.
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Well, no, not really, from Noahs account, we can surmise the Nephilim were a terrible people, keep in mind God floods the earth as a way to kind of start over…yet he allows at least some of these other people to live on…which means, they can go on to procreate, raise their kids with the same terrible ways, how is this ‘starting over’?

I dont think the entire story is a metaphor, saying that to justify other people surviving the flood has some huge implications, it also means, many other very important events in the bible may just be metaphors too. I dont like where that road leads.
 
I dont doubt any of this, after all, God can do anything he likes, We have to keep in mind, God was heavily involved in the logistics of this, its not like Noah was doing this all on his own. Plus, the bible gives the exact dimensions of the ark, if it never existed, why bother with the details?

Its getting a bit scary when we try to interpret these things away to a point where they didnt even happen…if this is true, it may also mean, some other very important, very incredible things in the bible didnt actually happen either.

I think the problem is we keep trying to look at these things with human eyes, imaging how we could do such a thing on our own, but thats not possible, many of these OT events, God played a huge part in them.
 
truetofaith said:
I’m afraid if I stay a few more months on CAF…I will completely lose my faith & become an atheist! :eek:
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Why? When has the Church ever taught that ever single word of the Bible is to be taken literally and fundamentally?
 
The thing is the church has never encouraged literalistic reading of scripture. And a fundamentalist reading is heresy. We are like the Jews, we interpret and study and try to discern what is really being said.
Meanwhile metaphors , images and other literary devices are to give depth to the words. Booksvw would be really boring without them. And not every book is to be read as a narrative. There are multiple genres in the bible. You can’t read poetry like a novel, can you?
 
My view is that the story of Noah and the Flood is partly figurative:
size of Ark, extent of flooding, extend of those killed outside the Ark, extent of animals on the Ark
and partly literal:
a worldwide flood event occurred (though not all land was submerged), there was a Noah and an Ark, there were some animals on the Ark.

Date of the Flood: 2807 BC based on W. Bruce Masse’s work on the subject. He says the event was a comet strike in the deep ocean, that threw massive amounts of water into the upper atmosphere, causing torrential rainstorms and extreme weather worldwide.

The Flood happened, but not all those outside the Ark died.
 
It’s not only this thread…but on many threads, everything I believed since a child in the '50s has been attacked & bashed by posters on this site.

I came on CAF to have my faith increased, explained & encouraged, but it’s been torn apart with shouts of “this is not literal” or “it’s just a metaphor.”

Adam & Eve, creation, even miracles & the Resurrection were criticized in different threads.

I rather talk to people in our prayer group or after mass & not hear a lot of confusion on CAF.
 
Thank you for the excerpt from the Pope’s address. Even in 1960, I learned in science class, God may have acted through evolution & then breathed the soul into the first man to make him in God’s image.
I don’t have a problem with that.
 
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