The Animals and Insects

[mikekle]

I believe it’s literal too, but sometimes I question that the whole world was completely covered by water and that Noah and his family were the only ones in the whole world to not be destroyed.

There are a few cases in the Bible, where when the word “world” is used, it means “the known world” or "the political world of the time. Take for example when Jesus was born, there was a census, and the “whole world” was commanded to go to the place of their birth and be registered. “In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered.”

I know there is evidence of a world-wide flood, but the only ones who survived from the WHOLE earth were Noah and his family? Maybe…

This gets into another topic, the Nephilim.

**Genesis 6:
The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God (bene Elohim) came in to the daughters of men, and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown. **

The question is, does the statement ‘on the earth in those days and also afterward’ refer to the world pre-flood and post flood or afterward referring to something else?

So, even if they were men, they would have had to have parents, I dont believe Noah or any of his family had any Nephilim offspring, but I could be wrong, so…

 

[Faith1960]

You can believe it actually happened, or didn’t actually happen as written (but happened in some other fashion.) The thing is we are supposed to be learning lessons from it that are not ‘scientific’ lessons but theological lessons. Knowing the style of writing helps tremendously in figuring that out. That’s why when we look at a piece that is ‘epic’ in nature, like the story in the Garden of Eden, we don’t read it for factual information… but for the lesson it is supposed to impart.

At some point there was an Adam (first man) and Eve (first woman.) That’s just truth. Is that story really only 6000 years old? That’s not important. What is important is the lesson learned from it. That God and man once walked face to face and man fell. Now we seek to restore that relationship.

The story of Noah isn’t supposed to be a scientific treaty on how spiders go through the flood etc… It’s about sin. It’s about cleansing. It’s about God’s love and protection of his chosen people. etc. The other questions are usually an attempt to discredit the story to make it impossible… for if it didn’t happen just as written… it must not have happened at all… but we Christians aren’t asking those questions. We are asking, Who is God? Who are we? And what kind of relationship can we/do we have with Him? Theology. Not science.

Is that what the Church teaches?

 

[anon67074017]

I also think the flood was regional. I believe that the “world” referred to in the Bible refers to the known world. This is not a bad interpretation.