quote:
Here are some people that I know of who spoke on the intention of the author to record history
If you're going to look at the reality of the Bible, then stop dealing in possibilities.
Reality: Each writer has a style of their own. Even on this board, if you pay attention you can see the various styles of writing and debating. The individual doesn't vary much.
The flood story isn't written by one person. There are two distinct styles of writing. One is the Priestly writer and one is the J writer. (See
documentary hypothesis)
The other trait of a writer is to remain consistent within their own writing. The flood story doesn't do that. The Priestly writer refers to the deity as God and the J writer refers to the deity as YHWH.
We also have a difference in referring to the gender of the animals. In the English Bible the words are translated as male and female, but the Hebrew words are different.
In Genesis 7:2 the words translated male and female carries the meaning of man and his wife.
Genesis 7:2
Of every clean beast thou shalt take to thee by sevens *,
the male ('iysh) and
his female ('ishshah): and of beasts that are not clean by two,
the male and
his female.
In Genesis 7:9 the words refer to gender of humans or animals.
Genesis 7:9
There went in two and two unto Noah into the ark,
the male (Zakar) and
the female (N@qebah), as God had commanded Noah.
Each writer is consistent with their own style. The person splicing the two stories together didn't take that into account. That was his style.
Oral stories do change with the culture, so we have no way of knowing what the absolute original version of this tale is, let alone the original creator's intent.
Odds are there was a flood (maybe small, maybe large) at some time that influenced the original creator of the tale, but the details have probably changed through the ages. Just between these two writers mentioned above we see the details changed to suit the writer and again with the person who spliced the two stories together. Even today's rendition of the flood story, the writers adjust the details.
This excerpt is taken from a book of Bible stories.
Again and again Noah warned the people to repent of their sins or they would be destroyed in the flood. None of them believed him.
The text in the Bible says nothing about Noah warning the people of the impending disaster and asking them to repent.
So the details are unimportant since they can be changed as one pleases. The important part is that there probably was a good sized flood. What lessons a storyteller wished to teach with that story is up to him and changes from storyteller to storyteller to meet the needs of the culture/religion.
ABE: How does the need for Moses to be the author of the Pentateuch fit in with the question you asked in your OP?
The question to answer is this one: Is belief in God or the Bible necessary to believe of a past recent massive flooding event ? ...
Once again, I do not want piles of evidence for or against such an event, just discuss if you can believe in naturalism and still accept the idea of such an event as possible. It obviously doesn't have to be worldwide lol, since people could have exagerated such an event to the extent it was worldwide.
(I want to specify that personnally, I believe that there was such an event in the past that do link all the different accounts of it in cultures around the world)
Edited by purpledawn, : ABE
"Peshat is what I say and derash is what you say." --Nehama Leibowitz
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