About the flood was it worldwide or local??

Question

This event is narrated in both the Bible and the Qur'an.

A careful examination of the two versions will show that the Qur'anic version . One important difference between the two accounts is that whereas the Bible describes the flood as a worldwide flood (see Genesis Ch. 7) the Qur'an mentions it as a local flood affecting the people of Noah (see Qur'an 7:59-64).

Today it is acknowledged that no record exists of a worldwide flood occurring at the time specified in te Bible. How did the author of the Qur'an avoid this mistake unless the author was God Himself?

The closest thing in history to a flood like the one described in the Bible and the Qur'an, is a discovery made by Archaeologist Sir Charles Leonard Wooley. In 1929 he discovered remains from a flood which occurred around 4000 B.C. His findings are described in the book entitled The Bible as History by Werner Keller. Keller tells us: "The incredible discovery at Ur made headline news in the United States and in Britain" (The Bible as History, 2nd Revised Edition, Bantam Books, 1980, p.27). But was this a worldwide flood? After describing the extent of the flood, Keller explains; "Looking at the map we should call it today 'a local occurrence"' (p.28). "In other words." writes Keller. that flood was "obviously not of sufficient magnitude for the Biblical Flood" (p.29). Furthermore, he says; "A flood of the unimaginable extent described in the Bible still remains 'archacologically not demonstrated" (pp.29-30).

What is your personnel opinion about the flood?

Marhamah~ every region has different type of animals do you see the animals that are in africa in europe, the answer is no, so the animals that were protected where local animals of that region.

Answer 1

Your avatar is still blasphemy to your god.

Answer 2

I suspect it was "sort of" world-wide. At the end of the last ice age, there was a huge ice sheet over half of North America. It is possible that as it melted, a large body of water accumulated trapped behind huge "ice dams". This is a theory that was put forward by some geologists studying odd geological features in the NW United States. Eventually, the "ice dam" broke and a huge amount of water rushed into the ocean.

This probably caused massive tidal waves all around the world. It also apparently permanently raised the levels of the oceans by about 100 meters.

There are a lot of cultures that have flood myths in all parts of the world. So, it seems like it there must of been a massive flood that impacted most of the world.

Another recent theory states that the North American ice sheet was possibly hit by a huge a meteor. The impact may have liquified and vaporized huge amounts of ice instantly. This could have caused sudden massive tidal waves and horrendous world-wide rain storms, (imagine millions of tons of water suddenly thrown into the air).

Plato actually wrote about a world-wide flood as a historical event. He stated that it wiped out almost all of civilization, but that there were quite a few survivors in the highlands. He also stated that most of these hill people that survived weren't well educated and that man-kind was basically set back to a prehistoric, stone-age level of knowledge and abilities.



When I read the Quran, I initially thought that Muhammed told a lot of stories that were in the Bible. However, he always seemed to get details wrong about them. I figured that he must have just heard them a couple of times and then was simply repeating them incorrectly. However, when I did some more research into some of the differences between the Quranic and Biblical versions of stories, I realized that Muhammed's versions actually often made a lot more sense.

For instance, in the story of Cain and Abel, the Bible claims that God rejected Cain's offering of vegetables because it contained no blood. The Quran gives a different reason for the rejection. When I looked at them side-by-side, I suddenly realized that the Bible seemed to project God as having some sort of weird blood-fetish, as if he were a vampire or something. The Quran version of the story seemed much more likely to be accurate.

Answer 3

It depends. Are you speaking from an ancient point of view or today's? You need to remember that back then, "world wide" was very local. Most people didn't venture out of their small communities and they believed that those communities were the world. They certainly were the world as they knew it. Even those who may have ventured outside that area did not know that Asia or North and South America existed. Their "worlds" were very small.

As you mention, there are many creation stories that mention a "world-wide" flood. I believe there is one account from China. Native Americans mention it in their creation stories, too.

As for the Qur'an, the writer of that book may have lifted the idea of a "great Flood" from either Christian or Jewish writings (the Bible as we know it did not yet exist) since Islam was formed after Judiasm and Christianity.

Answer 4

I dont know what books say, and what book to believe!.
I dont think though, that there is any comparison between these two religions!. Was? the flood real?, I dont know, even though many books refer to a 'Flood', so it could have happened. Probably by nature, as the world was very different then, and I am sure weather conditions, were also different!..
If the Tsounami, that occured last year, that killed over 1/2
a million people, happened then, How would it have been written?.

Answer 5

There is no reason to believe a world-wide flood occurred at any time in history. The primary reason being that there isn't enough water in the atmosphere to completely cover all land masses.

However, this is hardly attests to the veracity of the Qur'an.

Answer 6

I watched a documentary on TV that said there was evidence that ancient Jewish scholars read the Mesopotamian story of a flood & liked it so much they changed the names of the people, made them Jewish , added God talking to him & put the story in the Torah. The only problem was when they were translating the story into Hebrew they didn't know or hazarded a guess with was the Mesopotamians only had one word to describe both land & the world.

Answer 7

do google search for


noah's ark and common sense


also, there's another link that brings up this point about why it's a fable: the raven.

it says the raven went out to and fro until the waters dried up.

then when the dove goes out, it couldn't find a place to rest so it came back.

what happened to the raven??? when I was in catholic school I was taught the raven survived by feeding on the floating corpses of the dead aniimals but now that I think about it wouldn't they all have SUNK????? and still, that's a lot of dead animals floating around in all that space, it HAD to need rest at SOME point between scavages, SO as the write of this link points out: the raven dies, leaving ONE on the ark, since noah brought two of every animal, so there shouldn't be any ravens on earth at all.

Vin

Answer 8

If it was just local, then why God asked Noah to safe all animals?

OK, But Quran didn't mentionid clearly that the flood was local or worldwide. It just said about Noah's people...

I'm sorry I am not arab literate, I may read bad translation

Answer 9

there is not any international info of a single flood going on at one time over each and every of the planet. If the form of flood as defined interior the bible did happen, it would have required 5X the water at modern interior the oceans of the international. Getting that lots water onto the planet in 40 days and 40 nights would have provided respiration issues for each individual. additionally, if this flood occurred, the place did all that water come from and the place did it pass?

Answer 10

You are right. There is no evidence that it was world wide and there is evidence to the contrary. I am a Christian but I believe it was local but on a large scale. I think the writer in his time believed that it was world wide. The point is that they believed God and made the ark not how much of the earth was covered by water.

Answer 11

worldwide.....according to the bible....God's word

also see more recent findings.

http://www.gnmagazine.org/issues/gn47/noahsflood_worldwideflood.htm

http://www.ucgstp.org/lit/gn/gn047/worldwideflood.htm

i think because of general limitations in ancient times, it would be easy to assume whatever flood was occuring. was only local...,because people would have no way of knowing what was going around the world...