THE GENESIS FLOOD: ALL PEOPLE TODAY DESCENDED FROM NOAH

(Message by Tanny Keng)

1. The Genesis Flood

a) The book of Genesis describes a great flood which destroyed the world. Only four women and four men survived. The four men were Noah, and his sons Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and the women were their wives. The question occasionally arises as to whether this flood was universal or local. Did it cover Planet Earth entirely, or the vicinity of Mesopotamia only?

b) Memories of a great flood are world-wide. Those originating in the vicinity of Mesopotamia are closest to the Genesis account (for example the second tablet of the Babylonian Epic of Gilmesh). It is moot as to whether a world-wide or local flood is indicated by these facts. We must rely on the Genesis account.

c) Various statements in the Genesis account show the flood to be universal. Here is one of the statements and see what light it sheds on the question.

2. All People Today Descended From Noah

a) Genesis further says that everyone in the world today is descended from those who came out of the ark, Noah and his sons, and their wives. God said to them, as he had said to Adam and Eve, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth" (Genesis 9:l), and so, "From the sons of Noah, the whole earth was populated" (Genesis 9:18-19). 

The End ...