A Study of Genesis 1-11

The day had finally arrived and all the preparations were complete. This seems to be the message of verses 6-9; the writers (presumably Noah’s 3 sons) mark the solemn occasion by recording the age of their patriarch father and emphasizing that all of God’s instructions to him were carried out. The promises God made would be kept, Noah and his family and two of every land animal would be safe and preserved through the flood. When we compare these verses with verse 13 we see that all these preparations were completed on the very day that the flood came. The grace period of 7 days (verse 4) had ended and the time for judgment had come. To punctuate this the exact date of the flood’s beginning is recorded for us “in the second month, the seventeenth day of

the month”.

The giving of this date raises the question as to what calendar was in use then, or was the date added by Moses later to correspond to the Jewish calendar. We cannot be sure about this, but we can be sure that by divine inspiration this date was included for a reason (see also Gen. 8:4). No matter what calendar was used, the account stresses that on this particular day “all the

fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.”

We must now set about to determine what these statements mean!

We have previously discussed when we studied Gen. 1:6-8 that the Earth’s pre-flood water system was completely different from the present day water cycle. The pre-flood system was controlled by two great reservoirs of water formed from the “deep” (Gen. 1:2) on the 2nd day of the creation week when God made the “waters above the firmament” and the “waters

below the firmament”.

The waters above the firmament (see also Psalm 148:4) constituted a vast canopy of water vapor which provided the earth with a uniform tropical climate, preventing wind and rain. Because the water was in vapor form it was invisible and completely transparent, but contained a large quantity of water that extended far out into space.

The waters below the firmament became what are referred to as “the great deep”. This water, of course, was in liquid state and visible to men at the time in the form of rivers (Gen 2:10-14) and seas (Gen. 1:10). These rivers were not fed by run-off from rainfall (Gen. 2:5); instead they emerged through controlled fountains or springs from deep below the earth’s crust. (See also Prov. 8:24; Job 38:16). These subterranean reservoirs were apparently all interconnected as well as the surface seas and rivers. The energy required to force the water beneath the earth to the surface was provided by heat implanted deep in the earth at creation.

When the time for the flood came, all that was required was to bring these two vast bodies of water together again as they were on day 1 of the creation week. The waters above the firmament must be condensed and precipitated, and the waters below the firmament must burst from their bounds and escape to the surface. Exactly how God brought this about has been the subject of much speculation. Many theories have been suggested: the sudden tilting of the earth’s axis, a bombardment of asteroids or meteorites, a sudden slipping of the earth’s crust, nuclear explosions detonated by extra-terrestrials, a near miss by a wandering planet, etc. All of which are completely incapable of proof. Before we propose a solution we must examine some foundational principles:

1.) Occam’s Razor 2.) The Principle of Least Action – 3.) The Economy of Miracles The Bible specifically attributes the flood to the bursting of the fountains of the great deep and the pouring down of torrential rain from heaven. These two events are sufficient in themselves (in light of the Biblical data discussed earlier) to explain the flood and its effects without supernatural miracles or extraterrestrial visitors.

The breaking up (literally “cleaving open”) of the fountains of the great deep is mentioned first and so evidently was the initial action that triggered the rest. In order for this underground water system to burst on the same day all over the world, pressure must have been building worldwide, most likely from heat build-up in the earth’s core. Once the pressure built to the point of worldwide fracture of the earth’s crust not only would water have rushed to the surface but perhaps volcanic eruptions as well.

With volcanic eruptions large quantities of volcanic dust would have been shot into the atmosphere. This dust along with the expanding and cooling gases from the volcanic eruptions would have caused the water in the vapor canopy to condense and fall to the earth as a torrential rainstorm. All of the geological evidence we see in our earth today correlates to this explanation of a worldwide upheaval of the earth’s crust and a worldwide flood of waters. The phrase “windows of Heaven” is a graphic picture of the great quantities of water, formerly restrained in the sky, suddenly released to deluge the Earth- for 40 days and 40 nights as God predicted.