Noah's Flood

Rating: All Ages

To some, the idea of “Noah’s Flood,” conjures up images from Sunday School Bible stories of a small boat overstuffed with cute animals that gently bobbed in an ocean. Many simply call it a myth. Fewer and fewer these days believe the Flood account from Genesis 6-9 is actual history. The Bible frames the Flood as an actual, historical event—one that involved a specific family of 8. Genesis says the Flood lasted for a full year, engulfed the entire world, and preserved animals, plants, and humanity from well-deserved judgement. The Flood represents the most detailed account of any single event in the Bible. Both the apostle Peter and Jesus even referred to the Genesis Flood as a real, historical event. So it’s safe to say that the credibility of the Bible–and even Jesus Himself–hinges on whether the Flood account actually happened as described in Genesis.

Noah's Flood vs the Epic of Gilgamesh

The Biblical Flood versus the Epic of Gilgamesh: which account came first? Which one is based in real history? What about other Babylonian or Mesopotamian flood myths? The Epic of Gilgamesh is based on a series of 12 tablets dated to around 650 BC that archaeologists found in 1853 (although parts of the story existed in earlier, fragmentary versions). Because the story had many of the same elements as the Genesis account, skeptics believed that Gilgamesh preceded the Biblical account, negating the Genesis account as just a spin-off. Fortunately for Christians, however, there are major clues that point to the Biblical account as the accurate one, and Gilgamesh as a later work of fiction that incorporated legendary elements of a flood within a cultural fantasy. This video explains why.