"Fountains of the Deep"

From: Dick Fischer <dickfischer@earthlink.net>
Date: Thu Oct 28 2004 - 16:55:22 EDT
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

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