The global Flood
Genesis 6:9–8:19; Matthew 24:37–39; 1 Peter 3:20; 2 Peter 3:5–6
God judged a violent world with a worldwide Flood, saving Noah, his family, and representatives of every kind of land animal aboard the ark.
In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst open, and the sky’s windows opened.
Genesis 7:11 (World English Bible)
In Noah's 600th year the “fountains of the great deep” burst open and rain fell for forty days and nights. The waters rose for 150 days until they covered every high mountain, and every air-breathing land creature outside the ark died.
Eight people survived: Noah, his wife, their three sons, and their wives (1 Peter 3:20). They stayed aboard for just over a year before God told them to come out.
Jesus spoke of the Flood as real history and a picture of his return (Matthew 24:37–39). Creation geologists see the Flood as the cause of most of the fossil-bearing rock layers found around the world.
Places
Ancient witnesses outside the Bible
Historical sources, not Scripture.
- Antiquities 1.3.6 — Josephus quotes Berosus the Chaldean and Nicolaus of Damascus on the Flood and the ark
- Against Apion 1.19 — Berosus on the Flood and the ark
Dating notes
Noah was 600 (Genesis 7:6, 11). Ussher's years begin in autumn, so the start of the Flood (second month) falls in late 2349 BC on the Julian calendar; that is why some charts give 2349 BC. This project uses 2348 BC throughout. Noah left the ark in his 601st year, second month, 27th day (Genesis 8:13–16), dated here 2347 BC. Ark dimensions in the illustration use a long cubit of about 20.4 inches; a common 18-inch cubit gives about 450 feet.