I've basically thought that when Genesis talks about the flood, it is
talking about a global flood. This verse makes me wonder:
Gen 41:57 (NASB)
The people of all the earth came to Egypt to buy grain from Joseph,
because the famine was severe in all the earth.
It doesn't seem realistic to imagine that Native Americans paddled the
Pacific in birchbark canoes to get to Egypt and buy grain, especially
in famine times. It seems from the flow of the story that 'all the earth'
means 'the immediate vicinity.' So I wonder: are there arguments by
people who have looked closely at these things as to whether 'all the
earth' is best not thought of as 'global' in the modern sense, but in
terms of the immediate vicinity of the writer?
-Greg