Noah’s Flood: Exposing The Biblical Myths Part 4

The story so far. In Part 1, we tackled the query whether Africans were also descendants of any of Noah’s children, specifically Ham through his youngest son Canaan whom God cursed in true “trokosi style” because Ham had seen the father Noah naked when he was heavily drunk, as whites claimed before, and some misinformed Africans are now claiming in spite of this claim being debunked by white Abolitionists in the C19th. It was concluded that they are not – in effect, not descendants of the Jews/Hebrews, and that the flood story in the Bible was simply a juxtaposition of myths from earlier civilisations in the Middle East, chief among them the Gilgamesh Epic. In Parts 2 and 3, we saw an article which debunked an attempt on CBS TV by Creationists purporting to show the discovery of Noah’s ark. It was presented as an example of a rational and scientific way of questioning claims by Christians [and believers in general], a way of thinking or viewing the cosmos (cosmology) which most Africans lack, irrespective of their level of education. They [Africans] are mostly grounded in the Weberian primitive, substantive rationality.

In Part 4, we examine the biblical texts from Genesis 6:5 to 8:22 that narrate the flood story and point out the two main versions, the Jehova (J) and Priestly (P) texts, which were joined together to make what is Noah’s flood story. As mentioned earlier, the Gilgamesh Epic provided much of the material for the Noah flood story but not all. The Gilgamesh Epic of Sumerian origins and thus older than the Bible is available on the Internet at several links with comments and comparisons with the Noah Flood story by both Christians and biblical scholars. The reader seeks who knowledge and the truth is advised to google for and read some of those links to complement this presentation in order to gain a broader and deeper insight. One, for example, will find several comparisons of the Genesis and Gilgamesh Epic versions of the deluge.

The motive remains the same: making a little dent in the behemoth of ignorance and superstition that bedevil Africans and form one of the cogs in the vicious cycle of continuing backwardness and underdevelopment of most people of African origins, especially those of the continent. As I told our senior brother – equally now dismayed at the thick-headedness, dim-witness and mendacity of our wannabe leaders - when 2012 was coming to a close, after 500 years of association with the white people whom our coastal ancestors saw as barbarians without a refined culture, with our father managing over 20 of them at John Holt Bartholomew in a senior position when S. Africa was getting Apartheid, I was tired of being classified among the “developing peoples,” the current politically correct euphemism for “backward people,” “savages” or “underdeveloped people.” So after nearly 30 years of living in Europe and listening to and rubbing shoulders with some of the foremost scholars and development consultants of the West, etc., I declared myself civilised. In fact, even more than some of them, as the civilising process is a continual and changing process, a topic I shall be returning to in itself. It doesn’t mean though I had discarded my spikes-studded club carved for the T-hustlers, just as Obama is still keeping the nuclear bombs and nearly dropped uranium depleted bombs on poor Syrian women and children too as if drone bombing innocent Afghans and Pakistanis was not enough. I told my brother they [those in Ghana] could continue to remain uncivilised, as even Ken Kuranchie went to prison and realised, and continue to believe that a god created this universe; hold séances at the seat of government; that trokosi is a culture that must be respected (that’s why I am not even a cultural relativist and scorn those who push that concept); build new and “modern” witch camps, and sacrifice to river goddesses not appeased when new roads and bridges were built and untrained drivers turn the new roads into race courses leading to horrendous traffic deaths! In short, it is my little contribution to bringing the Enlightenment to Africans too, after my “plenty, plenty education,” as one of my more imaginative clansmen put it. Gold and silver have I none to give! I made a great sacrifice years back in order to retain my freedom of conscience and freedom to speak my mind without fear or favour of the powers-that-be. Time to speak is here.

Such are the contradictions and repetitions contained therein that the narration in Genesis would not be accepted as a well written end of first term sophomore essay. For the sake of brevity, I shall not make long comments, trusting that the reader shall be able to observe the differences pointed out. Perhaps, a table of the contradictions would have served to bring them clearer for the less able but I have dispensed of that in this version in order to save space. After all, this discourse is only an introduction to the material exposing the biblical myths and the insight provided, hopefully, will generate some debate amongst we Africans too, leading to deeper insight to fight off the religious charlatans now holding the mental shackles.

The Jehovah (J) texts are in regular type, the Priestly (P) in bold and italic:

Genesis 6:5 And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
Genesis 6:6 And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.
Genesis 6:7 And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.
Genesis 6:8 But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.
Genesis 6:9 These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God.
Genesis 6:10 And Noah begat three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
Genesis 6:11 The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.
Genesis 6:12 And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.
Genesis 6:13 And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.
Genesis 6:14 Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch.
Genesis 6:15 And this is the fashion which thou shalt make it of: The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits.
Genesis 6:16 A window shalt thou make to the ark, and in a cubit shalt thou finish it above; and the door of the ark shalt thou set in the side thereof; with lower, second, and third stories shalt thou make it.
Genesis 6:17 And, behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life, from under heaven; and every thing that is in the earth shall die.
Genesis 6:18 But with thee will I establish my covenant; and thou shalt come into the ark, thou, and thy sons, and thy wife, and thy sons' wives with thee.
Genesis 6:19 And of every living thing of all flesh, two of every sort shalt thou bring into the ark, to keep them alive with thee; they shall be male and female.
Genesis 6:20 Of fowls after their kind, and of cattle after their kind, of every creeping thing of the earth after his kind, two of every sort shall come unto thee, to keep them alive.
Genesis 6:21 And take thou unto thee of all food that is eaten, and thou shalt gather it to thee; and it shall be for food for thee, and for them.
Genesis 6:22 Thus did Noah; according to all that God commanded him, so did he.


Genesis 7:
Genesis 7:1 And the LORD said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark; for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation.
Genesis 7:2 Of every clean beast thou shalt take to thee by sevens, the male and his female: and of beasts that are not clean by two, the male and his female.
Genesis 7:3 Of fowls also of the air by sevens, the male and the female; to keep seed alive upon the face of all the earth.
Genesis 7:4 For yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights; and every living substance that I have made will I destroy from off the face of the earth.
Genesis 7:5 And Noah did according unto all that the LORD commanded him.
Genesis 7:6 And Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters was upon the earth.
Genesis 7:7 And Noah went in, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons' wives with him, into the ark, because of the waters of the flood.
Genesis 7:8 Of clean beasts, and of beasts that are not clean, and of fowls, and of every thing that creepeth upon the earth,
Genesis 7:9 There went in two and two unto Noah into the ark, the male and the female, as God had commanded Noah.
Genesis 7:10 And it came to pass after seven days, that the waters of the flood were upon the earth.
Genesis 7:11 In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.
Genesis 7:12 And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights.
Genesis 7:13 In the selfsame day entered Noah, and Shem, and Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah's wife, and the three wives of his sons with them, into the ark;
Genesis 7:14 They, and every beast after his kind, and all the cattle after their kind, and every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind, and every fowl after his kind, every bird of every sort.
Genesis 7:15 And they went in unto Noah into the ark, two and two of all flesh, wherein is the breath of life.
Genesis 7:16 And they that went in, went in male and female of all flesh, as God had commanded him: and the LORD shut him in.
Genesis 7:17 And the flood was forty days upon the earth; and the waters increased, and bare up the ark, and it was lift up above the earth.
Genesis 7:18 And the waters prevailed, and were increased greatly upon the earth; and the ark went upon the face of the waters.
Genesis 7:19 And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth; and all the high hills, that were under the whole heaven, were covered.
Genesis 7:20 Fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail; and the mountains were covered.
Genesis 7:21 And all flesh died that moved upon the earth, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of beast, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth, and every man:
Genesis 7:22 All in whose nostrils was the breath of life, of all that was in the dry land, died.
Genesis 7:23 And every living substance was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground, both man, and cattle, and the creeping things, and the fowl of the heaven; and they were destroyed from the earth: and Noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark.
Genesis 7:24 And the waters prevailed upon the earth an hundred and fifty days.




Genesis 8:
Genesis 8:1 And God remembered Noah, and every living thing, and all the cattle that was with him in the ark: and God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters assuaged;
Genesis 8:2 The fountains also of the deep and the windows of heaven were stopped, and the rain from heaven was restrained;
Genesis 8:3 And the waters returned from off the earth continually: and after the end of the hundred and fifty days the waters were abated.
Genesis 8:4 And the ark rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, upon the mountains of Ararat.
Genesis 8:5 And the waters decreased continually until the tenth month: in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, were the tops of the mountains seen.
Genesis 8:6 And it came to pass at the end of forty days, that Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made:
Genesis 8:7 And he sent forth a raven, which went forth to and fro, until the waters were dried up from off the earth.
Genesis 8:8 Also he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters were abated from off the face of the ground;
Genesis 8:9 But the dove found no rest for the sole of her foot, and she returned unto him into the ark, for the waters were on the face of the whole earth: then he put forth his hand, and took her, and pulled her in unto him into the ark.
Genesis 8:10 And he stayed yet other seven days; and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark;
Genesis 8:11 And the dove came in to him in the evening; and, lo, in her mouth was an olive leaf plucked off: so Noah knew that the waters were abated from off the earth.
Genesis 8:12 And he stayed yet other seven days; and sent forth the dove; which returned not again unto him any more.
Genesis 8:13 And it came to pass in the six hundredth and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried up from off the earth: and Noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked, and, behold, the face of the ground was dry.
Genesis 8:14 And in the second month, on the seven and twentieth day of the month, was the earth dried.
Genesis 8:15 And God spake unto Noah, saying,
Genesis 8:16 Go forth of the ark, thou, and thy wife, and thy sons, and thy sons' wives with thee.
Genesis 8:17 Bring forth with thee every living thing that is with thee, of all flesh, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth; that they may breed abundantly in the earth, and be fruitful, and multiply upon the earth.
Genesis 8:18 And Noah went forth, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons' wives with him:
Genesis 8:19 Every beast, every creeping thing, and every fowl, and whatsoever creepeth upon the earth, after their kinds, went forth out of the ark.
Genesis 8:20 And Noah builded an altar unto the LORD; and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar.
Genesis 8:21 And the LORD smelled a sweet savor; and the LORD said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake; for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done.
Genesis 8:22 While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.

Here ends the relevant quote. As earlier mentioned, I shall not indulge in any indepth criterion or internal analysis of the above except point to some areas of contention and pose some questions.

Now, can we say precisely how many pair of animals and fowls were taken into the ark? The P text of Genesis 6:9 says pair each, whereas the J text of Genesis 7:2 and 7:3 says seven of unclean beasts and birds and two of each clean beasts.

How long did the flood last before Noah sent out the raven, conforming to the Gilgamesh Epic? Forty days, 150 days or 360 days? The J text in Genesis 8:6 says forty days, whereas the calculation of P texts in Genesis 7:24 and 8:3 says 150 but the calculation in the P texts altogether show that it took 360 days for the flood to dry before Noah and the animals could leave the ark. If for only 40, not to mention 360 days, how were the herbivores and carnivores fed? We can speculate. They were not fed at all: God prevented them from feeling hungry and eating! Ok! I know that the biblical years were not of the same length as we have today but don’t tell me the days and nights were shorter then too!

Anyway, which bird was sent out first, raven or dove? Raven, according to the P text, as mentioned in the Gilgamesh Epic. Dove, according to the J text.

I think the reconciliation of these contradictory accounts shall form a good exercise to leave the readers with. We have a long way to go and just starting.

Andy C.Y. Kwawukume©
cyandyk@ymail.com