The Worldwide Flood
The next major event in the Bible record was the worldwide Flood.
Noah was asked to make an ark (or chest) in which his family and animals would be saved. Genesis 6:14 records God telling Noah “Make for yourself an ark out of wood of a resinous tree”. The dimensions were big according to Genesis 6:15 “And this is how you will make it: three hundred cubits the length of the ark, fifty cubits its width, and thirty cubits its height”. It was to have three storeys.
Finally, he and his wife and three sons and their wives were told to go into the ark. Genesis 7:1, 7 tells us “After that Jehovah said to Noah: “Go, you and all your household, into the ark, because you are the one I have seen to be righteous before me among this generation. … So Noah went in, and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives with him, into the ark ahead of the waters of the deluge.”
Noah builds the Ark
The ark was therefore a very big boat. All eight of them, Noah and his wife, Shem and his wife, Ham and his wife and Japheth and his wife went into the Ark.
If we add the characters for 8 (bā) + mouths (kǒu) + boat (radical 137 – zhōu), we get the character for big boat (chuán).
八 8 + 口 mouths + 舟 boat, ship = 船 big boat.
We have to ask the question, why is the character for a big boat made up of these particular sub characters if it is not referring to the Bible account in Genesis 7? Surely it has to be.
What shape was the Ark? (Genesis 6:14-16)
Genesis 6:15 tells us, “And this is how you will make it: 300 cubits the length of the ark, 50 cubits its width and 30 cubits its height”.
While many pictures and paintings show it with rounded prow and hull the Genesis account describes a floating rectangular box. While the Chinese characters for an Ark could have originated when Christianity first reached China, nonetheless it is interesting to note that it is comprised of rectangle (fāng) + boat (zhōu) = ark.
方 + 舟 = 方舟.
God floods the whole earth
Once Noah was inside the ark with the 7 other mouths, 7 days later the worldwide Flood started.
It should come as no surprise to readers that the Chinese character for flood (hóng) comprises of the sub pictograms of total (gòng) + water (radical 85 – shuǐ), = Total Water.
共 + 氵= 洪.
Yes, indeed in the flood of Noah’s day “the earth was covered totally in water”.
Before leaving this subject of the flood however, we need to mention that in Chinese mythology a Nǚwā god (some say goddess) is associated with a deluge myth, creating and reproducing people after a great calamity. The earliest literary reference to Nuwa, in Liezi (列子) by Lie Yukou (列圄寇, 475 – 221 B.C.E.), describes Nüwa repairing the heavens after a great flood, and states that Nüwa molded the first people out of clay. The name “Nuwa” first appears in “Elegies of Chu” (楚辞, or Chuci), chapter 3: “Asking Heaven” by Qu Yuan (屈原, 340 – 278 B.C.E.), in another account of Nuwa molding figures from the yellow earth, and giving them life and the ability to bear children. (Interestingly two small mouth symbols next to the name indicate that it is the pronunciation not the meaning of the characters that is important. Nǚwā is pronounced Nu-wah. Is this evidence of the name Noah from the Deluge, from whom all alive today descended?
Who have we descended from?
The Bible record indicates that all alive today descended from Noah’s 3 sons and their wives.
It is interesting to note that the pictogram for descendants is made up of the following sub characters:
Descendants (yì) = eight + mouth + wide = (light / bright) + clothing/skin/cover
八+口+冂= 冏+衣=裔
This could be understood as “From Eight mouths descendants covered wide [the earth]”
The Tower of Babel
Just a few generations later Nimrod united people together and started to build a tower.
Genesis 11:3-4 records what happened, “And they began to say, each one to the other: “Come on! Let us make bricks and bake them with a burning process.” So brick served as stone for them, but bitumen served as mortar for them. 4 They now said: “Come on! Let us build ourselves a city and also a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a celebrated name for ourselves, for fear we may be scattered over all the surface of the earth.”
The Chinese character for unite = hé. Its sub characters are All the people + one + mouth.
人 people, mankind + 一 one + 口 mouth = 合or unite.
This clearly draws a picture that one language meant people were / could be united.
So, what could a united people do?
Why, build a tower of course. All they needed was some grass and clay. If then, we add:
Grass 艹 + soil, clay, earth 土+ unite 合, then we get 塔 which is a tower (tǎ).
Are these not still yet more coincidences of Chinese pictograms telling the same story as the Bible?
What was the result of Nimrod and the people building this tower to reach the heavens?
The Bible account reminds us that God was very displeased and concerned. Genesis 11:6-7 reads “After that Jehovah said: “Look! They are one people and there is one language for them all, and this is what they start to do. Why, now there is nothing that they may have in mind to do that will be unattainable for them. 7 Come now! Let us go down and there confuse their language that they may not listen to one another’s language”.
Yes, God caused confusion among them. The Chinese pictogram for confusion = (luàn) is the sub characters of tongue (radical 135 shé) + right leg (yǐn – hidden, secret)
舌(tongue) + 乚(secret) = 乱 (confusion), (this is a variant of 亂.)
How could we understand this story? “Because of tongue, no longer understood (hidden) or (scattered, walked) in one direction (outwards, away)” or “mystery tongue (language) caused confusion”.
The Great Division
Yes, this confusion of tongues led to the earth (the people) being divided.
Genesis 10:25 describes this event as “And to Eʹber there were two sons born. The name of the one was Peʹleg, because in his days the earth was divided;”.
Even in the Hebrew language this event was remembered with the name of Peleg (a descendant of Shem) coming from a root word “peleg” meaning “division”.
Divide (fēn) in Chinese is composed of eight, all around + knife, measure.
八 (eight, all around) + 刀 knife, measure = 分 (fēn) divide.
This could be understood as “the division (measure) [of people] was all around [the earth] [from Babel]”.
Peoples migrate
This division caused people to migrate away from each other.
If we add the characters for great + walk + west + stop, we get the complex characters for “to migrate”. (dà + chou + xī + yǐ)
辶+西+大+已 = 遷 (qiān).
This tells us how the Chinese settled where they are now. “They went on a big walk from the West until they stopped”. We should also remember that embedded in “west” means “where the first person was put in an enclosed garden [the Garden of Eden).
In doing so this brings us nicely back to the Garden of Eden and encompasses the time from the creation of man to the end of the great migration of mankind all over the world as a result of Babel.
These are all characters used in modern Chinese. If we research into oldest Chinese script known as the Oracle Bone script, we find even more characters that we can understand as telling the story found in the early books of the Bible.[i]
Conclusion
One can explain away a single character such as a garden, or a tree, because it could be drawn that way based on the object. However, when it comes to the complex pictograms of many sub characters, explaining concepts rather than literal objects there are just too many coincidences for these pictograms to not have been created to tell a story. Then for that story to agree with the accounts we find in the Bible is yet more evidence for the truth of these events.
Indeed in this short examination we have found evidence for all the major events from Creation, through the fall of man into sin, the first sacrifice and murder, to the Worldwide Flood, to the Tower of Babel and the resulting confusion of languages and spread of all mankind all over the post-flood world. Certainly, a dramatic history and a wonderful way to try to remember the lessons from what actually happened.
We surely can have our faith built up by these facts and understandings. We also can ensure that we too continue to worship the one Lord, and God of Heaven, who through his Word, Jesus Christ, created all things for our benefit, and wants us to continue to benefit.
[i] See God’s Promise to the Chinese, ISBN 0-937869-01-5 (Read Books Publisher, USA)
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Hello all, great memorial the other day with the brotherhood. On another note here is a link which is compelling as to how koalas may have settled in Australia and in other places in the world. See below.
https://youtu.be/LEAbPwmJ14U?t=21
Love o all from Alithia/John Contrary.
This little guy here I think is trying to tell us the compelling truth about the matter.
https://www.savethekoala.com/sites/savethekoala.com/files/uploads/BBC%20News%20%20%20Koalas%20bellow%20with%20unique%20voice%20organ.webm
Psalmbee
Well done Psalmbee! Then I suppose this settles the matter!
Thank you Alithia. You have defended the scriptures with good reasoning and some interesting films. So, let me get this right, for us Ignoramuses. The flood came, and at the same sort of time, the plates around the earth were greatly disturbed and resulted in some extraordinary movements of continents and mountains. The Bible alludes to something at Genesis 7:11, where we read that “all the springs of the vast watery deep burst open….” One of the consequences, or otherwise, of all this was an Ice age, for which the discovery of mammoths and other animals in Siberia supports such… Read more »
Hi Leonardo For a fascinating book on a very scientific and likely explanation for the mammoths and the way flood affected the earth I have Frozen in Time by Michael Oard, The World that perished, 3rd edition by Jon C. Whitcomb, and The Genesis Flood 50th anniversary edition by John C.Whitcomb and Henry M.Morris. And if you really love in depth, Earths Catastrophic Past Vol 1&2 by Andrew Snelling. I am intending to do an article or maybe 2 or 3 based on these when time permits. These give the most reasonable explanation I have come across ever and I… Read more »
Hello Tadua, why hold out on us all this time! Bring it on!!!!!!!! Looking forward to the presentations as much as I enjoyed these ones.
Great summary Leo!! I agree. You might think about producing your own You Tube explaining the process!!! (I am wondering now if after this you might spring a “beauty” on us). I suppose one must be a little philosophical here, in that no one can be 100% sure about anything, but one can only draw conclusions based on what the evidence most strongly suggests and which explanation has the strongest inference for what we will accept as what most likely happened. Of course one must be honest with oneself and allow the facts to speak as objectively as possible without… Read more »
Hi Alithia, thanks for your thoughts. You say you do not understand my lingering doubts about animals traversing great distances by sea. As I understand things, the flood and the movement of the plates can have all happened at the same time, along with all sorts of other cataclysmic things. This would leave a load of water on the surface of the earth, which had to drain off, after which the earth looked something like it does now, with 70% water covering the surface, albeit moving about. At this point Noah let the animals out. If I am reading what… Read more »
Hello again still dodging necessary chores, it is Sunday morning for me here! In response to the vexed Koala Bear question for what it is worth it could be worth looking at a few “Creationist” You Tubes on the whole flood story. They are well resourced with scientific information. I do not personally subscribe to the “young earth” theory that they espouse however with regards to a world wide flood there is compelling evidence in these You Tubes of rapid tectonic plate movements, extensive land masses that are now under water and mountains having recently appeared that were underwater. And… Read more »
Hi Alithia, it is good you have your thoughts on the matter. Thanks for pointing me in the direction of the creationist articles. You obviously have your views, while I am just trying to balance the little cutie animals with the scriptures. I think we could have a great discussion one to one, although I have no idea whether we would arrive at a conclusion. But it is good to talk about these things. The shame is that you really could never do this as a JW when you have to simply accept what you are taught. Meanwhile all the… Read more »
When this series started I did not fully understand the rhetorical question that was made; being, what would be the best literary writing method that could be used for people to forever after remember an event that carried a warning message for future generations down through aeons of time? Well as it turned out the answer to that question would be a colourful story filled with drama, horror, events that would evoke great passion and emotion, events that would challenge the everyday experience of the everyday individual as to whether they are plausible, ethical and moral dilemmas, unbelievable logistics, philosophical… Read more »
Wow, Alithia. You certainly are passionate about this subject. Let me state that I was not doubting the Bible account. I fully believe that Jehovah brought about the event, and used the flood to wipe man off the earth, barring Noah and his family. You at least offer an explanation on the Kangaroos etc – new creation after the flood. I have no idea how many others go along with that idea. I is a solution, though there is nothing in scripture to support it. As Eric also pointed out, the population by the time of the flood would have… Read more »
Hello Leonardo, all I was trying to get across was that you cannot argue backwards from a situation such as a Koala bear to try to make sense of what took place in the flood account such as the scope of the flood. There is simply not enough in scripture for us to deduce what may or may not have happened. There is only enough for us to understand the reason the account was recorded. Also as the account relates, God promised he would never wipe out mankind using a flood again. So it is a one off event and… Read more »
Hi Josephus. I was watching a VDO and thought it might introduce you nicely to the genre that may influence you around a world wide flood and not just a local one. Enjoy it and let me know what you think. See link. https://youtu.be/UM82qxxskZE?t=5810
Regards Alithia/John Contrary
Thanks Alithia, that was an excellent film. I do not think I was ever doubting the flood, but I did wonder how world wide it was. Clearly the expression at Genesis 7:11 (the vast watery deep burst open) takes on even more significance. The film presents the view that these events could indeed have happened over a short period of time, which is what the Bible says. A lot of excellent information. However, if all these things happened, did the plates move the continents at that time, or later, while I still have no real answer to how our little… Read more »
Hello Leonardo, here is some more information that I think could be sufficient to resolve the mystery of the koala bear conundrum!!! There are ideas that I had not considered before and stuff that is in our life time that demonstrate the definite possibility of animals travelling and living in what appears unexplained circumstances. See the link below.
https://youtu.be/LEAbPwmJ14U?t=21
Hello Tadua.
Thank you for very interesting series. Information about the early history of mankind, encoded in Chinese characters, is remarkably accurate. This information is much more accurate than the Flood legends of the various nations that have been preserved through oral form.
The early history described in the first chapters of the Bible is often the target of attacks against the credibility of entire Bible. Such articles surely strengthen our belief in the truth of God’s Word.
God bless you. Frankie
Hi Eric, I assume your reply was to my comment. Perhaps I could add to my reasoning. While I agree the population could have numbered into any number you might like, and those doing the Coronavirus scans are probably better equipped to calculate the sort of population present by the time of the flood, the fact is that the account of the flood being in many lands does not prove that those who wrote about it were present at that time. The source has to be from the account at the tower of Babel, when the whole earth were forced… Read more »
This has been a fascinating series. I was aware of some of the things you have brought out, but never so many. Thank you for your research and presentation. It is clear that there is a common source of creation, flood etc. That source goes back to Babel, when the languages were confused, and from there mankind has taken the accounts with him. For people at Babel, they could only take what they knew, which goes back to what Noah and his family knew. What it will never tell us, is how world wide was the whole flood. No one… Read more »
Imagine if all the history of humanity from the time of Constantine and the formation of the Catholic church down to our day was summed up in a document the length of the first six chapters of the Bible. That was it. No other record at all of any kind anywhere. Just six short chapters covering 1700 years of human history. All we have is speculation to go on. However, given exponential growth rates of population tied to a population that lives hundreds of years not just 70 or 80, and tied to the fact that the women were able… Read more »
Hi LJ. I think, there is another possibility. Before flood, there was no Everest, no Kilimanjaro. The highest mountains were in the regions where wicked people lived. Hence, there was the only possibility – the flood over the entire globe. The enormous amount of water that had fallen on the Earth could squeeze the earth surface from all sides, like someone squeezes a grapefruit.
The shifting of lithospheric plates, the Himalaya’s rising or other morphology changes on planet could be the result of worldwide flood, or, according to Eric’s hint, this could be God’s intervention.
Fair comment Frankie. But at Genesis 7:19, it states, and probably as Noah witnessed it, that all the tall mountains under the whole heavens came to be covered. He had no view other than where he was and what he could see. If the plates moved and caused great mountains at that time, he witnessed little more than a combination of what he knew before and where he found himself, on mount Ararat. So we are either looking from Noah, and his sons’ view, or Jehovah inspired the saying giving Noah insight into things he did not know. As the… Read more »
Yes, you are right LJ, the Bible account is written from Noah’s point of standing. My hypothesis (nothing more than hypothesis) assumes three situations. Before Flood: The highest mountains, much lower than Everest (for example), were out of Noah’s sight. But the wicked people lived there. So the Flood had to cover all the globe (Gen 7:19). During Flood: Noah and his family were in Ark. During that time the huge morphological changes took place on Earth. The lithospheric plates were “probably” moving, the mountains were rising. Because of this, the Ark was shielded by God’s power, as the Ark’s… Read more »