Deuteronomy 2:25 also uses the phrase that you have translated as `under
the whole heaven'. It would seem clear that this would not include all the
peoples from the entire planet, for those who had never heard of the
Israelites would not have feared them.
Gordon Brown
Department of Mathematics
University of Colorado
Boulder, CO 80309-0395
On Thu, 30 Jul 1998, Matthew Bell wrote:
> 'And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth/land; and *all* the
> high hills, that were under the *whole* heaven, were covered'.
>
> This verse was brought to my attention from another list where the
> following 'difficulty' was also posited.
>
> '. If ALL the high mountains under the WHOLE heaven were covered, then we
> can reasonably conclude that at least several HIGH mountains were covered,
> can't we? So how can this be harmonized with the fact that water will seek
> its own level? In other words, how could water cover just some "high
> mountains" without first leveling off, as it sought its own level, so that
> NO high mountains could have been covered until the water had fallen to a
> level that was higher than the "HIGH" mountain? To imagine the local-flood
> scenario that Matt hinted at, one would have to visualize a "mound" of
> water standing suspended over the mountains of Ararat in defiance of the
> scientific law that says water will seek its own level.'