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Flood Traditions Show Noah’s Flood Is Fact
Every race of humans has a
flood tradition.
Scientists have documented more than 250 cultures from every
inhabited continent including Africa, Europe, Asia, China, the
Pacific Islands, New Guinea, Australia, Central America, South
America and North America.
Cultures as diverse as the Eskimos and those living in
India have a flood tradition with many points of similarity.
In 1883, Richard Andree published a report cataloging
more than ninety cultures that had a flood tradition.
He concluded that twenty-six of
them had as their source the Babylonian tradition, but that
forty-three of them were original and independent accounts.
In 1870, George Smith translated clay tablets
which had been found 19 years earlier in Nineveh.
From these cuneiform tablets, Smith discovered what is
now called the “Epic of Gilgamesh.”
Written about the time of Abraham, the Epic tells of a
universal flood.
Numerous similarities between the "Epic of Gilgamesh" and the
biblical account cannot be accidental.
Both mention:
1.
A flood
from heaven as judgment on mankind;
2.
Only one
family was saved in the ark;
3.
The sending
out of ravens and other birds after the flood;
4.
The
sacrifice after the flood of the survivors.
A similar account, though not detailed has
been found in ancient Sumeria, which mentions a flood sent from
the gods.
Flood Traditions
among Native American tribes such as the Navajo, Mojave, and
Hualapai also correspond with the biblical account.
David Young summarized the flood
traditions of North American Indians.
They were “infinitely more like the
Bible and of the Chaldean religion than among any nation of the
Old World” (The Biblical Flood
171-2).
Those who also studied flood
legends from Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua, and Peru saw there
were enough differences among them to conclude that the
traditions were not from early Christian missionaries (172).
The world oldest
continuously used language is Chinese.
The Chinese word for boat is a
pictograph made of 3 parts: one meaning vessel, the number 8,
and the symbol for mouths.
This is consistent with Peter’s
words that only eight souls (mouths) were saved in the vessel (1
Peter 3:20).
Anthropologists know that when a wide variety
of cultures have in common a body of tradition or belief, two
important facts can be derived from the evidence: (1) It shows
all these cultures have a common ancestry and origin. (2) The
common tradition also shows there was some historical event
which formed the basis for the tradition.
Peter
argues that God’s judgment upon the pre-flood world proves that
God will once again bring judgment upon mankind.
However, this time God will use fire, not water (2 Peter
3:3-13).
Are you
ready for the Judgment Day?
----Doug
Couch----
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