Noah and the Great Flood

by Robert D. Mock MD

Part One in a presentation to the Forum on Creation and Ancient History

Houston, Texas

Spring, 1998

scale model of 120ft reed ship Image courtesy of: http://www.geocities.com/noahsreedship/

PRE-FLOOD PATRIARCHS

4000 0 Adam 4004-3074 “Man”

3900 100 ----- Seth 3874-2962 “appointed”

3800 200 ----- -----Enos 3769-2864 “mortal”

3700 300 ----- ----- ----- Cainan 3679-2769 “Acquisition”

3600 400 ----- ----- ----- ----- Mahalabeel-3609-2714-“Praise of God

Jared-3544-2582-“Descent”

3500 500 ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- -----

3400 600 ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- -----

Enoch-3382-3017-“Dedication

3300 700 ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- Methusaleh-3317-2348-“

‘Man of a Dart”

3200 800 ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- -----

3100 900 ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- Lamech-3130-2345

3074 “Destroyer”

3000 1000 ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- 3017 ----- -----

2962 Noah-

2900 1100 ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- 2948-1988

2864 “Rest”

2800 1200 ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- -----

2769

2700 1300 2714 ----- ----- ----- -----

2600 1400 ----- ----- ----- -----

2582

2500 1500 ----- ----- -----

Shem-2446-1846-“Renown”

2400 1600 ----- ----- ----- -----

__________________Noachian Flood-2345-Onset First Ice Age _________ 2348____2345_______

----- Arphaxad-2346-1908 -----

2300 1700 ----- ----- Salah-2311-1878 -----

Eber(Heber)-2281-1817

_________Dividing of the Continents-2248________Peleg-2248-2008-“division” ________________________

Reu-(Raquel)-2217-1978-“Friend of God”

2200 1800 ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- -----

Serug-2185-1955-“strength”

----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- Nahor-2155-2007-“slayer”

Terah-2126-1921

2100 1900 ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- “delay” ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- Abram

2056-1881

2000 2000 ________Tower of Babel destroyed__ 2008 ----- ----- 2007 ----- “high father”

1978

_____Sodom destroyed - 1957____________ 1955 ----- 1988(Noah)

1921 “high father”

1900 2100 1908 ----- -----

1878

1846 ----- -----

Noah and the People in his Life.

Sources which identify Noah in the Ancient Records

Hebrew - Noah

Parents: - And Lamech lived an hundred eighty and two years, and begat a son” (Genesis 5:28)

Name: “And he called his name Noah saying, This same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the Lord hath cursed. (drought or desert conditions were coming in the land) (Genesis 5:29)

Upright and Perfect: “And Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. These are the generation of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God.” (Genesis 6: 8-10)

Evil by the sons of men: “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 6:5)

Evil by the sons of God: “ That the sons of God saws the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.” (Genesis 6:2)

Genetic reengineering: “There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the children to men, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.” (Genesis 6:4)

2. Extra-biblical - Noah and the world during his life.

The Book of Jasher -

Parents - “And Lamech was one hundred and eighty years old when he took Ashmua, the daughter of Elishaa the son of Enoch his uncle, and she conceived (Jasher 9:11)

Climate changes- arid land conditions: “And at that time the sons of men sowed the ground, and a little food was produced.” (Jasher 9:12)

Name of Noah: “And Methuselah called his name Noah, saying, the earth was in his days at rest and fee from corruption, and Lamech his father called his name

Menachem, saying, This one shall comfort us in our works and miserable toil in the earth, which God had cursed” (Jasher 9:14)

Upright and Perfect: “And the child grew up and was weaned, and he went in the ways of his father Methuselah, perfect and upright with God.” (Jasher 9:15)

Evil done by sons of men: “And all the sons of men departed from the ways of the Lord in those days…and they taught one another their evil practices….And every man made unto himself a god, and they robbed and plundered every man his neighbor as well as his relative, and they corrupted the earth, and the earth was filled with violence. (Jasher 9:16-17)

Evil done by Judges and rulers (Sons of God in Genesis, Watchers in Jubilees): “And their judges and rulers went to the daughters of men and took their wives by force from their husbands according to their choice” (Jasher 9:18)

Genetic reengineering: “and the sons of men in those days took from the cattle of the earth, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the air, and taught the mixture of animals of one species with the other, in order therewith to provoke the Lord.” (Jasher 9:18)

Book of Jubilees

Parents: “And in the fifteenth jubilee, in the third week, Lamech took to himself a wife, and her name was Bilanos, the daughter of Barakel the daughter of the sister of this father” (Jubilees 4:27)

Name of Noah: “And he called his name Noah, saying: ‘This one will comfort me on account of all my work and on account of the earth which the Lord has cursed.”(Jubilees 6:28)

Upright and Perfect: “And Noah alone found grace before the eyes of the Lord.” (Jubilees 5:4)

Evil done by the sons of men: none

Evil done by the angels: “and he called his name Jared; for in his days the angels of the Lord descended upon the earth, those that are called Watchmen, that they should teach the children of men to do judgment and right over the earth.” (Jubilees 4:15)

“And he (Enoch) testified to the Watchmen, those that sinned with the daughters of men; for they had commenced to mix with the daughters of the earth, so that they were defiled; and Enoch testifies against them all” (Jubilees 4:24)

“And it happened, when the sons of the children of men commenced to increase over the face of the whole earth and daughters were born to the, that the angels of the Lord saw them in one year of this jubilee, that they were beautiful to look upon; and they took unto themselves wives from all of them whomever they chose, and they bore them sons, and these were giants.” (Jubilees 5:1)

“And concerning the angels whom he (God) had sent upon the earth, he was greatly enraged, that he would root them out of all their power;…(Jubilees 5:3)

Genetic reengineering: “And injustice increase over the earth and all flesh corrupted its way, from men to animals and to beasts and to bird and to all that walks upon the earth; all corrupted their ways and their orders and began to devour each other, and unrighteousness increase over the earth, ..” (Jubilees 5:2)

Josephus

Parents: “Now Lamech when he had governed seven hundred and seventy-seven years, appointed Noah his son to be ruler of the people, who was born to Lamech when he was one hundred and eighty two years old,…” Josephus 3:4)

Upright and Perfect: “Now God loved this man for his righteousness.” (Josephus 3:2)

Evil done by the sons of men: “Now this posterity of Seth continued to esteem God as the Lord of the universe, and to have an entire regard to virtue, for seven generations; but in process of time they were perverted, and forsook the practices of their forefathers, and did neither pay those honours to God which were appointed them, nor had they and concern to do justice towards men. But for what degree of zeal they had formerly shewn for virtue, they now shewed by their actions a double degree of wickedness, whereby they made God to be their enemy.”

Evil done by angels: “for many angels of God accompanied with women, and begat sons that proved unjust, and despisers of all what was good, on account of the confidence they had in their own strength, for the tradition is that these men did what resembled the acts of those whom the Grecians call giants. But Noah was very uneasy at what they did; and being displeased at their conduct, persuaded them to change their dispositions and their acts for the better; but seeing that they did not yield to him, but were slaves to their wicked pleasures, he was afraid they would kill him, together with his wife and children, and those they had married; so he departed out of that land.” (Josephus 3:1)

Koran

The latter statement in confirmed in the Koran, “Behold, their brother Noah said to them; ‘Will ye not fear (Allah)? I am to you a messenger worthy of all trust: …..They said: ‘If thous desist not, O Noah! Thou shalt be stoned (to death).” (Koran Surah 26:116)

Concerning the Authorship - Moses -

The life of Moses is met with the same brevity in the scriptural account as with most of the ancient participants in the Hebrew dialogue. The names of the parents are not mentioned, but in the book of Jasher we recognize them as Amram and Jochebed. The old kingdom palaces were in the beginning of the delta where the land of Goshen has been identified. The ruling governmental seat in this era was Heliopolis. Heliopolis is a Greek word for the ancient capital of Egypt called Annu or On. The latter if identified as the city where the parents of Joseph’s wife lived:

“ And Pharaoh called Joseph’s name Zaphenath-paneah; and he gave him as Asenath, the daughter of Potiphera, Priest of On.” (Genesis 41:45 KJV). See also Genesis 41:50. This same Hebrew word is used in Ezekiel 30:17, but translated as Aven in a prophetic utterance of destruction for that city.

On (Heliopolis, Annu, or Aven) remained the seat of authority, both priestly and royal for centuries. It must be recognized that Moses, in training to become a Pharaoh would also receive the highest and most rigorous training in the land before assuming the leadership as Pharaoh and High Priest of the Egyptian land. The training University at On, the city where Joseph and his family lived, no doubt held some of the most valuable archival records of the then-known world.

Abraham, only a few centuries before, had visited Egypt, and during this time Josephus tells us that Abraham transmitted to the Egyptian cultural and scientific elite, the mysteries of the stars and the secrets of mathematics and of heavenly knowledge. As stated, Abraham “was admired by them in those conferences as a very wise man, and one of great sagacity, when he discoursed on any subject he undertook; …He communicated to them arithmetic, and delivered to them the science of astronomy; for Abram came into Egypt, they were unacquainted with those parts of learning; for that science came from the Chaldeans into Egypt, and from thence to the Greeks also.” (Josephus 10:2) This information no doubt also included the original creation story which was transmitted to the Egyptian archival records from Sumeria. Where did this information come from? Noah, Shem and according to the Book of Jasher, with Abram’s father as a ranking member of the government of Nimrod, then Abram could have had records also from Nimrod’s royal archives and library.

3. Egyptian - Nu (Seb)

The Egyptian pantheon is described in the Egyptian Book of the Dead , the most important religious ritual book in all Egyptian history. Chapters were carved on the walls of the pyramids of the 5^th dynasty Egypt. Found in 1888 in an 18^th Dynasty tomb (Tomb of Ani) near Luxor, E.A. Wallis Budge, the famous late

keeper of Assyrian and Egyptian Antiquities in the British Museum in London purchased a copy of the Egyptian Book of the Dead, written for Ani, Royal Scribe of Thebes, Overseer of the Granaries of the Lords of Abydos, and Scribe of the Offerings of the Lords of Thebes, and translated i

Seb (Noah) in the Egyptian hierarchy, was recognized as the “Father of the gods”, and the “begetter of the great company of the gods,”

Budge, The Book of the Dead, p. cvi

He was recognized as the son of Shu, and husband of Nut. Yet Nut was recognized as the female principle of Nu, who also was called the “father of the gods” This suggests that Nu and Seb were one and the same.

According to Budge, “He (Seb) is depicted in human form, sometimes with a crown upon his head and scepter in his right hand, and sometimes he had upon his head a good which bird was sacred to him. In many places he is called the “great cackler” and he is supposed to have laid the egg from which the world

Budge, Ibid, p.cxii

sprang. Already in the pyramid texts he has become a god of the dead by virtue of representing the earth wherein the deceased was laid.” (Budge, E.A. Wallis, The Egyptian Book of the Dead, Dover Publications, NY 1967, first

published by the Trustees of the British Museum in 1895., p. exii) ) (Parenthesis by author)

These eight gods were regarded as passing through judgment and survived, achieved great longevity which was not transferred by inheritance.

Nu represented the “primeval watery mass (great flood) from which all the gods were evolved (came forth from), and upon which floats the

bark (ark) of “millions” of years” (Budge, ibid) This we begin to recognize at the Ark of Noah.

If one seeks to challenge the primal concept of evolution on the basis of literature and formation of myth making, than the theory that man evolved from a marine, primal watery mass and was associated with primal ooze then one should possibly conceptualize that evolution is no more than a corruption of the true idea that man emerged (evolved) out of the watery mass and ooze of the debris and waters of the Great Flood. The world around on that ‘day’ in which Noah and his family entered or evolved in the new age and the new world was truly a world of primalooze and watery debris left over from that great catastrophy. Therefore,evolution can be seen as a ‘myth’ of the Great

The Bark of a Million Years (Noah’s Ark) Flood.

4. Sumerian and Chaldean - Utnapishtim -

Noah in the Hebrew literature was recognized as the preserver of the seed of mankind, a popular concept in Sumerian and Akkadian literature.

The most famous of all Flood epics is the Gilgamesh. This post-flood king (Gilgamesh) seeks to find the source of eternal like, and so he went to search and find the reclusive Utnapishtim, the Noah of the Akkadian and Sumerian flood stories to learn the secrets of longevity.

5. Chinese - Fu-Hsi

According to ancient Chinese traditions, Fu-His (Noah) arrived into Sz-Hai (with the four seas” at 2852 BC. This place is recognized by Chinese scholars as being not far from the Caspian Sea near Lake Balkat.

The land of ancient China was known as Tien-hua, “under the heavens,” and ruled by a Shang Ti, the supreme heavenly ruler. The Chinese remained monotheistic for almost two thousand years in which a strict moral code remained and no archeological evidence of idols has ever been found.

C.H. Chang in 1950 explored the origins of the Chinese in his book, Genesis and the Chinese. Later collaboration with Ethel R. Nelson, in The Discovery of Genesis, they explored evidence in the ancient pictorial graphic Chinese characters depicting the Genesis account of the Flood

EIGHT + United + Earth = Total …. + Water = Flood

In further detail, it also depicted the following:

Vessel + Eight + Mouth = Boat

C.H. Kang And Ethel R. Nelson, The Discovery of Genesis, Concordia Publishing House,

St.Louis, 1979 as recorded in Fasold, Ibid, p. 83.

The famed historian, Will Durant, in Our Oriental Heritage, notes that the Chinese believed in a world-wide flood event. The devastation as recorded was so great that flood survivors were reduced to living like beasts, eating raw meat and recognizing “their mothers but not their fathers, a trait not exclusive to the

ancients or the Chinese.” (Will Durant, Our Oriental Heritage, Simon and Schuster, New York, 1954, as recorded in

Fasold, Ibid, p 33.)

6. Mayan -

The Mayan, the Dresden Codex, recognized as one of four Mayan codexes is noted for specifying the

fourth world age as beginning on 9-9-3114, another variation as 8-11-3114. This world age began after a

devastating flood

7. Berossus - Xisouthros (Ziusudra)

He was a 3^rd c. BC Babylonian priest who wrote a history called Babyloniaka. In this account Xisouthros

was warned in advance of an impending flood and told to write a history and bury to preserve it for a later

era. This was to have been buried in the city of Sippar. He was then commanded to build a boat and with

his family and friends and a stock of animals. There is also a account of sending out bird to check on the

declining waters. When they leave the ship in Armenia, he, with his wife and daughter disappear. This has

similarities with other accounts of their immortality.

8. Persian - Yima and Varuna’s House of Clay

In the sacred ancient Zoroastrian literature, the literature of the Magi who visited Christ, is a body lengthy work called Vendidad. If describes the creation of a good deity, Angran Mainyu, was attacked and altered by an evil opponent called, Angra Mainyu.

After 1200 years, Yima, the primeval man, who was in charge to oversee the earth was informed that the beings in heaven had made a new decision. “Upon the material world the evil winters are about to fall, that shall being the fierce, deadly frost;…that shall make snow-flakes fall thick, even an aredvi deep on the highest tope of the mountains. ….Therefore make thee a Vara .. and thither bring the seeds of sheep and oxen, of men, of dogs, …Thither thou shalt bring the seeds of every kind of tree, of the highest of size and sweetest of odour on this earth…. Two of every kind, to be kept inexhaustible there, so long as men shall stay in the Vara….thou shalt make nine streets, six in the middle part, three in the smallest. ..That Vara thou shalt seal up…and thou shalt make a door, and a window self-shining within…..” (Vendidad, translated by Darmesteeter and recorded in Bailey, Lloyd, Noah, the person and the Story in History and Tradition.”)

A Persian’ expedition about 800 BC found what they described to be fortress deposition of clay which they entered at the surface and discovered that it was three stories under ground. This they identified as the ‘Varuna’s House of Clay. The structure was a virtual fortress, which was called a ‘var’ in Persian and attributed to Yima recognized by the Persians as the Biblical Noah.

9. Indian - Manu

The Rig-Veda written in classic Sanskrit, is the most ancient literature which has come down from the great empires of the Indian subcontinent. In the eyes of the Vedic, all human beings are descendants of Manu who is the Hindu counterpart to the Biblical Noah. He was recognized as “the progenitor of the human race in our present world cycle.” Feuerstein, Georg, Subhash Kak, and David Frawley, In Search of the Cradle of Civilization, Quest Books, Wheaton, Ill.,1995. The Dravidian kings claim to be of Aryan descent and traced their descent from Manu as do all Vedic inhabitants.

In the Indian Mahabbarata, there are striking passages that associate the King Varuna, with Noah. Varuna, associated in antiquity with Varuna’s House of Clay, was known as the deity associated with the waters above the firmament, directly connected with the Deluge. The ‘Ma-banda-anna’, known as the boat of the sky was like the Egyptian “bark of a million years” and the “divine boat of Nu” can find no other correlations except with the Ark of Noah.

B. The Wife of Noah

1. Hebrew -

“And Noah was five hundred years old: and Noah begat Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

2. Extra-Biblical

Book of Jasher

“And Noah went and took a wife, and he chose Naamah the daughter of Enoch, and she was five-hundred and eighty years old. And Noah was four hundred and ninety-eight years old, when he took Naamah for a wife.” (Jasher 5:15-16)

3. Book of Jubilees

“And in the fifty-fifth jubilee Noah took to himself a wife, and her name was Emzarah, the daughter of Rakel the daughter of his sister (sic) (Jubilees 4:32)

4. Egyptian -

Nut was regarded in the Egyptian Book of the Dead as the female principle of Nu, the wife of Nu as well as the wife of Seb. This correlation gives Nu and Seb the identity with Noah. Nut was also

held to be the mother of all living.

Budge, The Book of the Dead

From this union, according to Budge in the Book of the Dead, we can document four offspring:

Osiris (Ham) and Isis, his sister and wife

Set (Shem) and Nephthys, his sister and wife.

The identity of Japheth, the third son of Noah, is not clear at this time even though eight ‘gods’ are recognized as the progenitors of the race of man.

5. Arabian Koran - The Unbelieving Wife of Noah

The Koran also states that Noah had an unbelieving wife as well as an unbelieving son. “Allah sets

forth, for an example to the unbelievers, the wife of Noah and the wife of Lut (Lot);…(Koran Surah

66:10)

6. Chaldean - Ashtarte (Ishtar and Venus in Greek) -

In the ancient Chaldean mysteries, “all blessings to the human race which the Ark contained in its bosom were held to issue from Astarte, the mother of all living and benefactress to the world” (Fasold, Ibid, p232) Therefore Asthtarte, Ishtar and Venus are recognized as paganization of Noah’s wife.

C. The Children of Noah -

1. Hebrew -

“And Noah was five hundred years old: and Noah begat Shem, Ham, and Japheth. (Genesis 5:32 KJV)

Note: The Mother/s of each son is/are not identified.

The order of children: Shem, Ham, and Japheth (Shem may be first, not because he is

the oldest but the prime descendent of the Hebrew Semitic account.

2. Extra-Biblical -

Book of Jasher

“And Naamah conceived and bare a son, and he called his name Japheth, saying, God has enlarged me in the earth; and she conceived again and bare a son, and he called his name Shem, saying, God has made me a remnant, to raise up seed in the midst of the earth. And Noah was five hundred and two years old when Naamah bare Shem, and the boys grew up and went in the ways of the Lord.” (Jasher 5:17-18)

Note: The order of children: Japheth and Shem

No record of Ham being born to this family unit.

Book of Jubilees

“And in the fifty-fifth jubilee Noah took to himself a wife, and her name was Emzarah, the daughter of Rakel the daughter of his sister (sic) in the first year, in the fifth week; and in the third year therof she bore him Shem, in the fifth year thereof she bore him Ham, and in the first year in the sixth week she bore him Japhet.” (Jubilees 4:32)

3. Egyptian -

Osiris (Ham) was the sixth member of the company of the gods of Annu. He has been directly identified with Egypt and in the most mystical past of the Egyptian era, even beyond the first dynasty of Menes, stood the Osirian dynastry. In this era stands the story of Osiris who was killed by Set and his death later avenged by his son, Horus in which Set was driven out of the country. The question then arises, is Horus the Biblical Mizraim or the Menes, the first ruler of the 1^st dynasty

of Egypt.

Nu (Noah) father of Osiris (Ham) father of Horus (Mizraim (Heb.) or Menes (Egypt)

Set (Shem) - was the eight member of the company of gods as of Annu as recorded by Budge in the

Egyptian Book of the Dead. Fasold and other writers have identified Set with the biblical Shem. In this

book of beginnings, Set (Shem) was recognized as a visitor to Egypt, “Hail to thee Set, son of Nut,

Aa-peh-peh (Apheti) in the bark of millions of years.” (Ark) (Budge, The Egyptian Book of the

Dead)

It is a unknown factor the real source of conflict between Set(Shem) and Osiris

(Ham), but we’ll explore some interesting factors while studying the account of the

bones of Adam in a later study.

D. Long Lives and Reigns of the Patriarchs

The length of life into hundreds and thousands of years is well documented in all literature for the

patriarchs. The identities of the ten patriarchs with the pre-diluvian kings in the literature of the

ancient Babylonians, Chinese, Arabians was documented in prior studies with the Forum on Creation

and Ancient History in the talks Ten Challenges to the Students of Ancient History.

E. The Sister of Noah - Legend states and identifies the tomb of Noah’s sister in modern day

Syria. If she died prior to the flood, the tomb location would not be known, so if this legend is factual,

Noah’s sister could have been aboard the ark, but eventually did not have any children since the

Biblical accounts reference is towards the capacity to repopulate the world with the untainted true

genetic image of man as designed by God.

F. The Boatmen of Noah’s Ark - Buzar and Uragal

The Babylonian records depict two men, Buzar and Uragal, who were responsible in handling the

anchor lines which controlled the “braking stones” or drouges which controlled and stabilized the

ark as it floated in the stormy seas.

In the Epic of Gilgamesh, we note a boatman who had brought into the ark shards of oil. Fasold

identifies him as possibly the boatman, Urshanabi, who stayed and lived with Utnapishtim (Noah)

in his old age.

G. Other People on the Ark

Other Believers - There are hints that more people came on the ark. In the Koran, it states, “ ‘Embark therein, of each kind two, male and female, and your family - except those against whom the Word has already gone forth - and the Believers.’ But only a few believed with him.” (Koran Surah 11:40.)

The Epic of Gilgamesh denotes that Utnapishtim’s “kith and kin” went into the boat with him.

The unbelieving Son who did not come on the Ark.

Within the Koran it is specific that not all the children of Noah came on the ark. “And Noah called

out to his son, who had separated himself; “O my son! Embark with us, and be not with the

unbelievers! And the son replied: ‘I will betake myself to some mountain: It will save me from the

water.’ Noah said: ‘This day nothing can save. From the command of Allah, any but those on

whom he hath mercy!’ And the waves came between them, and the son was among those

overwhelmed in the Flood.” (Koran Surah 11:42-43)

J. The Unbelieving Wife of Noah

The Koran also states that Noah had an unbelieving wife as well as an unbelieving son. “Allah

sets forth, for an example to the unbelievers, the wife of Noah and the wife of Lut (Lot);…(Koran

Surah 66:10)

K. Puzuramurri - The Builder of the Ark

The Epic of Gilgamesh”states, “I went into the boat and sealed the entry. For the caulking of the

boat, to Puzuramurri, the boatman, I gave the palace together with its contents.” (The Epic of

Gilgamesh Tablet 11: 93-95) The recipient of this gift of the royal palace did not enjoy it very

long.

Go to Part Two – The Ark of Noah in Classical Literature