Was Noah’s Flood Real?

“And, behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all… from under heaven; and every thing that

is in the earth shall die.” – Genesis 6:17

Noah’s flood isn’t so believable to many that his ark could hold a small amount of people and animals capable of restarting a large population again.

The Old Testament indicates that the flood was long ago though – at least in 3000 BC.

Over the years, stories would be exaggerated as they were passed down orally. ◦ Noah’s flood could have been just a small flood, but it

maybe has been inflated to have covered “all the high hills that were under the whole heaven”.

Now archaeologists think that Noah’s flood really could have happened, and the flood was so great that anyone who experienced it would think the whole Earth was being flooded.

A Biblical Myth

The Book of Genesis led archaeologists to believe that the place of the Flood was near Mount Ararat.◦ On the Eastern border of

Turkey◦ There was no evidence to

prove it happened here. Scientists believe they

know where the flood occurred: the Black Sea. ◦ The Black Sea which lies

between the modern countries of Bulgaria, Georgia, Romania, Russia, Turkey, and Ukraine.

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Location of the Flood

The Black Sea was formed around 12,000 years ago at the end of the Ice Age. ◦ The glaciers thawed and freshwater lakes began

to gather in low areas of land.◦ One of these small lakes grew into the Black Sea

over the centuries, and evidence of settlements emerged at the shoreline of the growing sea.

Location of the Flood cont.

Next to the Black Sea is a narrow body of water called the Sea of Marmara.

Between Marmara and the freshwater lake (the future Black Sea) is a narrow ridge of land, the Bosporus, that acted as a dam.◦ The Bosporus straight kept the pressures of the swelling

Mediterranean from entering the lake. ◦ The Sea of Marmara held all the weight of the Mediterranean

behind it, becoming a force too powerful for the neck of land to withstand any longer.

◦ Finally, about 7000 years ago, the sea broke through the Bosporus and started trickling into the sea on the other side. The force of the of the sea rushing into the freshwater lake was

200 times more than the Niagara falls!

Why did the flood occur?

Every day, 10 cu miles of seawater would’ve poured through to the future Black Sea.

More than 60,000 sq miles of land had been covered in saltwater coming from Marmara in less than a year.◦ The Black Sea had then become a salt sea and

had a water level 500 ft higher than before.

The Flood

The breaking of the Bosporus (Bosphorus) dam

William Ryan and Walter Pitman’s Great Flood Theory◦ Two marine biologists from Columbia University◦ In 1993, they tested sediments and mollusk shells off the

bottom of the Black Sea by its northern shoreline. They found freshwater shells older than the earliest saltwater

ones. This showed that there had been a change from fresh to salt water about 7500 years ago.

◦ Ryan and Pitman also collected samples from the seabed that strongly proved that the area had once been flooded.

◦ From the article, it states that the mollusk shells had started to decay all at the same time: “the creatures within them could have all died in a single catastrophic incident.”

Proving the flood happened

The shells and the sediments Ryan and Pitman used as evidence showed that the Black Sea was once freshwater.

The transitional layer between the freshwater and saltwater sediment was less than a millimeter.◦ This means the switch from

fresh to saltwater must have been almost instantaneous, like a flood.

Evidence found in the shells

In 1999, Robert Ballard used sonar and an underwater camera to find an ancient shoreline where Ryan and Pitman estimated it would be – 550 ft down and 20 miles off the Turkish coast. ◦ More mollusk shells, sand bars, and other

evidence showed the exact age and fresh water to salt water transformation that Ryan and Pitman saw using radiocarbon dating.

Proving the flood happened cont.

Although a great flood did occur, was it Noah’s? ◦ It was in the right part of the world and the flood that created the

Black Sea was on a scale big enough to convince the ancient people that it covered the whole Earth.

The Epic of Gilgamesh:◦ An example of the way stories change over time, the Epic of

Gilgamesh tells of a giant flood that covers the earth.◦ Certain details from the Epic of Gilgamesh could have been added

to the Bible story of Noah also. Noah’s flood could have been exaggerated over time

(like how the parts of the Gilgamesh tale was weaved into the story) from the what really happened in the Black Sea.

Even now, we can’t tell how much of a myth this story really is after thousands of years of dramatic exaggeration.

A Flood Story