Vernon writes:
>But how do you reconcile that belief with the
>words of 7:11, "...all the fountains of the great deep were
broken up..."?
>What is your understanding of this verse?
In the Septuagint, the word "fountain" appears
rather than the KJV word, "mist" in Genesis 2:6. This
word "fountain" refers to an irrigation system in all
likelihood. The ground was not watered by dew at the time of Adam,
but by irrigation canals. The Hebrew word for "deep" can
mean the sea, it can refer to subterranean waters, or it can mean the
depths of a river. In the flood account "fountains of
the deep" again points to irrigation.
In the Atrahasis epic, our hero waits out a long period of draught
sitting in his boat loaded with animals before the rain falls and the
flood waters come. The phrases "fountains of the deep" or
"fountain of the deep" appear four times. In all
instances, fountain(s) pertain to "fields," as in this
example:
Below the fountain of the deep was stopped,
that the flood rose not at the source.
The
field diminished its fertility.
From the consistency in usage, and knowing the history of Mesopotamia,
we can see these were canals or levies used for irrigation. In the
Gilgamesh account, Ninurta was the "lord of the wells and irrigation
works." So we should know precisely what the phrase
"fountains of the deep" means. The expression is defined
by usage, and was employed by Semites long before Moses used it in the
flood narrative. It was the overflowing rivers that caused the
dams, dikes, and irrigation canals to burst open, flooding the
land. We can now properly interpret "fountains of the
deep" as a reference to irrigation, which clearly mandates a local
flood.
Dick Fischer - Genesis Proclaimed Association
Finding Harmony in Bible, Science, and History
www.genesisproclaimed.org
Received on Thu Oct 28 16:56:24 2004