question on the great flood?

Question

I'm not christian, but I believe in some form of intelligent design. Question is: When God sent flood waters over the earth, he said it was to kill all living things, what about water creatures, like fish etc. I have an NIV version and it has explanations on the side bars, but it says nothing about this.

He said take animals on the ark, so they can repopulate the world, all that wasn't taken, was killed, water creatures wouldn't have been killed.

That makes sense, cheese and rice. I don't think fish or any other water creature can sin, lol

Answer 1

That is one of the most misunderstood stories in the Bible. In the Hebrew, there is no reason to assume that the Flood covered the whole earth. In fact, the language used to describe the Flood is identical to the language used to describe the destruction of Soddom. But 16th and 17th century translators had no reason to assume that the flood was local, so they translated it in global terms ("earth"), while translating the story of Soddom in local terms ("land").

The Flood described in Genesis has been confirmed by Babylonian records at the Ashurbanipal library, as well as in excavations of ancient Sumer in southern Mesopotamia. The story in Genesis was part of a larger narrative that covered the history of Sumer as it was understood in among the pre-exile Jews. But the context of the narrative was not uncovered until the 1940's. The Bible is even accurate (to a few centuries) about the time of the Flood, as well as the period required for the waters to abate.

Even in the Bible, races that existed before the Flood continue to exist after the Flood, indicating that the author of Genesis never intended to say that only Noah and his family survived the ordeal. Even Josephus describes a local Flood, and quotes pagan historians regarding the multitude of survivors who took to the hills.

As for the other elements of the Flood narrative, part of the story ties into the ancient solar-based religious philosophies. Noah enters the ark at the time when the Sun descends toward the winter solstice, and emerges at the time when the sun approaches the spring equinox. The door of the ark was shut at the same time of year that Osiris was locked in his "ark" by Typhon in Egyptian mythology.

Answer 2

NIV is not a good study bible, but your point is a valid one.

Gen 6:13
Then God said to Noah, "The end of all flesh has come before Me; for the earth is filled with violence because of them; and behold, I am about to destroy them with the earth.

Gen 6:17
"And behold, I, even I am bringing the flood of water upon the earth, to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life, from under heaven; everything that is on the earth shall perish.

Gen 7:4
"For after seven more days, I will send rain on the earth forty days and forty nights; and I will blot out from the face of the land every living thing that I have made."

These are all from the New American Standard, a good bible to use in many cases because the translation is so literal. It seems pretty clear from these verses that God was speaking of all land animals, not plants or aquatic life. Notice the "on the earth" and "face of the land".

I hope this helps.

Jim

Answer 3

In my opinion, actually it's not God sent flood waters over the earth to kill living things or anything else but God just want to warn as a sign to all the creatures especially human being, that we should live in peace with each others, cares all the things that He gives to us...show how we or learn to appreciate that. We just should keep our sense to earth. No need to blame anybody because we have big responsibility to make sure the earth safe to live for any creatures by our own self.

Answer 4

So here ya go, god made the universe and earth and it was good for a while. Then some of his creations 'sinned', which then he had to 'let' the world become engulfed in sin and become ****. Then later he said "oh ****, i screwed up again, lets kill everyone except for 1 family with a flood, then it will be better" Phew, that was close god, 3rd time is a charm right? Wait no no, lets wait for armageddon, THEN you'll finally get it right I'm sure.

Answer 5

God/Enlil didn't send the floods. He allowed the humans to die in the floods. He knew it was coming and decided to get rid of us in the flood. He had already tried to kill us with disease, pestilence and drought. He said that the humans were too noisy and disrupted his afternoon naps.
The god/Enki, Enlil's brother, saved mankind from his plan of human eradication. Marduk, Enki's son, took his people to the Americas and saved them by taking them deep underground, ancient Hopi beginnings. Enki had stocked and designed the animal life here and he restocked after the flood. This flood was a natural phenomena and not caused by the gods. They just made use of it.

Answer 6

Do keep in mind that to the people that
lived in those days, the whole world was
the middle east and the Mediterranean sea.

They didn't even know the world was round.

So, you need to see it from their eyes.

also, the devil is in the translation...they prob.
are referring to living things on the land.

God did not have Noah set up fish tanks on-board,
because God knew the sea creatures would be
fine.

Answer 7

the flood story was written in a region that lacked water, the writer didnt know about fish and other animals that live in the sea

Answer 8

Because there are many flood stories but the only one that the bible used was the one about Noah, it is mythology, and unless your NIV bible says this then it's just another fundamental babble of a bible

Answer 9

It wasn't to kill all living things... that's why animals were taken onto the ark in the first place.

Answer 10

God hated man so he wanted a flood to destroy all men. he sperated all of us with different languages because we were bad and he wanted to wipe us all out. Obviously the so called flood didn't work. Because all men and womean prevailed.