New geological and historical evidence for the date of Noahs Flood - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

New geological and historical evidence for the date of Noah’s Flood

Alan Dickin

What drives Creationists to insist on an unscriptural Global Flood?

• Most biblical scholars have

based the date of the Flood

• n the Sumerian King List
• The date given by the King

List does correspond to a minor flood in Mesopotamia, but it barely interrupted daily

• life. It certainly did not

annihilate all of the known world.

• Hence Paul Seely’s comment

(Biologos, 2010): “The Flood: not global, barely local, mostly theological.”

But what will we teach in Sunday School?

• “The way in which the biblical testimonies to faith refer

us to past historical events for their explanation and justification makes it difficult to believe that they imply no claim for their story’s factuality.” (John Goldingay, 1980)

• “By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen,

in holy fear built an ark to save his family.” Hebrews 11:7

The effect of basing the date of the Flood on the Sumerian King List

• The most complete

version of the King List is the Weld- Blundell prism.

• It places the Flood

before the kingdom of Kish, ca. 2900 BC.

• This is a mature

stage of Sumerian civilization, when a Flood that destroyed the known world is simply unbelievable. Name of Number Total length Dynasty

• f kings
• f reigns, yr

Eridu 2 64,800 Badtibira 3 108,000 Larak 1 28,800 Sippar 1 21,000 Shuruppak 1 18,600 ~~~~~~~~~The Flood~~~~~~~~~~~ Kish1 23 24,510 Uruk1 12 2,310

All this has changed, due to a newly published version of the King List

• The newly published

version dates from the Ur III dynasty, ca. 2050 BC (Steinkeller, 2003).

• It is at least 250 years
• lder than the Weld-

Blundell prism.

• It did not mention the

Flood at all, but began:

• When kingship

descended from heaven, the kingship was in Kish.

Historical evidence from the Kish dynasty

• Kingship really did

begin with the Kish dynasty

• A new form of

architecture: the royal palace

• The earliest

contemporary royal inscription:

• Me-Barag-gesi

King of Kish

Development of cuneiform writing

Cylinder of Cyrus, 540 BC Stele of Hammurabi, 1750 BC Weld-Blundell prism, 1800 BC

40 egir a-ma-ru ba-ur-ra-ta After the-Flood inundated 41 nam-lugal an-ta e-de-a-ba Office-of-king heaven-from was lowered 42 Kish-ki nam-lugal-la Kish-place office-of-king was

Original (Ur III) version [nam] lugal [an-ta] e-da-ba Kish-ki lugal-am

The true date of the Flood

• 1. The biblical account describes the Flood as a

cataclysm whose effects lasted a year.

• 2. Submergence for a year would have damaged

Sumerian temples built of mud bricks.

• 3. The oldest mud brick temple structures at Eridu date

back to ca. 5000 BC, and show no sign of submergence.

• 4. Therefore we should look for the Flood before Eridu.
• 5. The biblical account describes Middle Eastern peoples

as descended from Noah’s sons, placing the Flood in the distant past.

Evidence from Lake Van for major precipitation events in the Tigris and Euphrates headwaters

Evidence for an intense period of flooding from a cave stalactite near Jerusalem

• High delta C-13

signatures are characteristic of flood- waters entering the cave system (lack of equilibration with soil

• rganic matter).
• These signatures were

never subsequently repeated.

• Evidence of severe

river flooding at this time from an anoxic “sapropel’ layer in Mediterranean sea-floor sediments.

At this time, sea-level rise impinges on the Mesopotamian delta plain

• Very rapid

sea-level rise until 5000 BC, then ten times slower

Gorges cut into the pre-glacial delta plain are flooded by 5700 BC

• Prior to

5700 BC, the river is confined to the gorge.

• After 5700

BC, the river backs up and floods the plain.

Is the size of the Ark incredible?

• Biblical and

Mesopotamian accounts describe the ark as the size

• f a one-acre

field.

• It could have

been built in the Neolithic period as a giant raft with a reed-built house on it.

The spread of humanity after the Flood

• Genesis describes

the nations as descended from Noah’s sons:

• “These are the

clans of Noah’s sons, according to their lines of descent, within their

• nations. From these

the nations spread

• ut over the earth

after the flood.”

• To what extent is

this model scientifically valid?

Indo-European languages (Japheth)

• The sons of

Japheth include the Greeks (Javan) and the Medes/Persians (Madai).

• In the Indo-

European language tree, the most distinct group is Hittite, therefore closest to the source.

• The divergence
• ccurred around

the time of the Flood.

– Data from Chang et al (2015)

Genomic evidence for people movements after the last Ice Age

• The shaded

area on the map is the fertile crescent.

• The first key

event is the agricultural revolution.

• This occurred

in northern Mesopotamia (SE Anatolia)

• ca. 8500 BC.

Genomic evidence for the location of the agricultural revolution in SE Anatolia

• The earliest

domesticated wheat variety is einkorn.

• All domesticated

einkorns have a common ancestry.

• They are most

closely related to wild einkorn from Karacadag in SE Anatolia.

– Modified from Salamini et al. (2002)

Genomic evidence for an Anatolian origin of Eurasian human populations

• There was

emigration from Anatolia to the North, East, South and West in the Late Neolithic.

• In each direction,

emigrants from Anatolia mixed with local hunter- gatherer societies.

– Modified from Kilinc et al. (2017).

Timing of the westward migration

• Gen 10:4
• “The sons of Javan:

from these the maritime peoples spread out into their territories…”

• Radiocarbon dating

suggests the westward migration moved through the Aegean around 6000 BC.

– Modified after Silva & Vander Linden (2017).

Conclusions

• Empirical evidence supports a flood around 5700 BC

that is consistent with the biblical account of a catastrophic flood that destroyed all of the known earth.

• Placing the Flood at this early stage of Mesopotamian

history can explain the biblical belief that all Middle Eastern peoples were descended from Noah.

• There was a massive exodus of people from Northern

Mesopotamia around the time of the Flood, which is probably the basis for the Table of Nations.

• Genesis describes real history, but from an ancient

perspective.