The Ancient Flood Myth (Noah's Flood)

         Most ancient civilization had a flood myth recounting, with remarkable similarity, how God or the gods sent a punishment, a massive flood to destroy most humans. A Sumerian account from 2150 BCE is the oldest written record of a flood myth, though the biblical account is most detailed. In all versions of the myth, the divine becomes angered by the actions of the newly created humans. A flood is sent to destroy all the humans that have earned divine displeasure, but in every case there is one outstanding man who is warned of coming doom and told to build a boat in order to survive the ordeal. According to Quran and Bible this man is named as Nouh or Noah. In most cases the man brings his family on board, along with a pair of every kind of animal that would be in the flood’s destructive path. Once divine wrath has ceased and the flood water recedes, the humans give thanks to the divine and then repopulate the destroyed area.

         Although some have understood this myth to be the story of an event that affected the whole world, this is not necessarily the best reading. Descriptive phrases such as “and the waters covered all the mountaintop” are probably just hyperbole, suggesting that while the global similarity of the myths makes an original historical event of some kind quite likely, it would probably be best to view it, both textually and scientifically, as a local perhaps near eastern flood.
Whatever the case, the flood myth has consistently inspired belief in some higher form of another. The flood’s consequent rainbow provides a powerful symbol of both God’s justice in a punishing way, and love in sparing the repentant.

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