At 01:08 PM 2/24/98 -0500, Bill Hamilton wrote:
>At 08:49 AM 2/24/98 -0800, Greg Billock wrote:
>>
>>I know I'm a bit late on the hermeneutical thread, but here's something
>>I'm wondering about that someone here probably has more information on.
>>
>>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.
>>
>I believe Glenn pointed out a while ago that the Hebrew word "eretz", which
>is translated as "earth" in the flood account, can also mean "land"--
>meaning the immediate vicinity.
Bill is correct that "eretz" can be translated as land or country. In fact
Abraham was told by God when he lived in Ur, to get out of his 'eretz'. If
eretz means planet earth as the global flood advocates believe, then Abraham
was told to go to Mars or some other distant place. But to get out of his
country or land, is another matter.
One other "universal" phrase used in Genesis 6-9 is not so universal in Job.
Job 37:3-5 is talking about God unleashing his lightning "beneath the
whole heaven" and "sending it to the ends of the earth." The very next
verse talks about hearing the thunder. Well, if the above is to mean a
universal as in world wide, you couldn't hear the thunder. I can't hear the
thunder in Oklahoma City, Tulsa, Cushing, or Drumright or Ardmore, Oklahoma
from here in Dallas (I lived in all those places.)
So the phrase "beneath the whole heaven" does not mean the whole heaven. It
means a region from horizon to horizon, a distance of less than 5 miles. In
that region I can always hear the thunder, if I have my hearing aids in.
With this usage of one of those universals in a context in which it clearly
is not universal, one is free from internal Biblical evidence to say that in
Genesis 7:19 is not referring to the ENTIRE earth. This verse says,
"They rose greatly on the earth, and all the high mountains under the entire
heavens were covered."
The universalist case is not as firm as they would want you to believe. And
a "straight forward" (whatever that is) reading of Genesis 6-9 in English,
is quite different than a "straight forward" reading in Hebrew. Especially
when comparison is made to how the phrases are used elsewhere.
glenn
Adam, Apes, and Anthropology: Finding the Soul of Fossil Man
and
Foundation, Fall and Flood
http://www.isource.net/~grmorton/dmd.htm