The ancient history of Noah and the Flood has been preserved in our memory since childhood. The Flood allegedly became a punishment to people from the Almighty, for their unbelief and deviation from the laws of God.
But I wonder if the flood was really global and universal, how does a page of history present it to us? Or it was a local flood, which is not uncommon today.
So, let's look into the depths of the centuries, go on an amazing adventure from the times of hoary antiquity. We will go towards old legends and see if there was actually Divine retribution for human sins?
According to the sacred writings, a catastrophe of a planetary scale came from the sky as a torrential rain for 40 days and nights, although according to Sumerian records, the downpour lasted a week.
Obviously, the described catastrophe should leave many traces in the form of deposits, both on land and at the bottom of the oceans. But have researchers found at least some traces of a catastrophe of planetary volume? Geologists have carried out research on all continents, but no reliable evidence of the Flood has been found.
But such a disaster must necessarily leave traces, and quite noticeable, but for some reason there are none. There is no evidence that once the entire land was hidden under water. What's more, climate scientists say the lack of direct evidence isn't the only problem. After all, the very idea of a universal flood contradicts what we know about our planet. According to one of the assumptions of biblical critics, in order to flood the entire planet with water, it will take about three times more water than the water basins of the entire planet store.
Flood, where did the water come from?
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From the point of view of logic, it is impossible to explain the appearance of such colossal volumes of water, just as it is impossible to imagine the container where it was contained. Biblical records report 40 days of heavy rain, but even this amount of rain is not enough for the entire planet to be under water. So what is this container where such volumes of liquid were stored?
Maybe the answer lies in the sacred books, which mention a certain great abyss: “all the sources of the great abyss were opened, and the windows of heaven were opened”; Genesis 7:12. I agree, not a very meaningful answer, but it is clear from it that there were two sources of the elements - underground waters and heaven.
I wonder if the firmament could open up and water gush out from the bowels of the earth? Scientists say that this is a crazy idea, no underground sources have the ability to provide such an amount of water. But let's assume for a moment that water really got close to the earth's surface and saturated the earth's soil.
In this case, the water turns the land into a liquid substance, and quicksand does not give a chance to resist on it. Moreover, all this took place in a sandy area, and the sand saturated with water is a disgusting support for the legs.
But even if the circumstances turn around so that all sorts of geysers have started working, then all the inhabitants of the earth and Noah with his entire family are held hostage to other problems.
Suppose geysers brought the Flood, in this case, it changes the gas composition of the atmosphere. The air becomes extremely humid and saturated with water, so much that people and animals could simply choke on inhalation. At the same time, do not forget that strong atmospheric pressure could rupture the lungs of any living creature.
But this is not all the dangers of the hypothetically happened tragedy, since there are widespread eruptions from the Earth's interior, this greatly worsens the overall picture of the catastrophe. Allowing geysers gushing with water, we will have to agree that huge volumes of poisonous gases and acids are emitted from the depths of the earth into the atmosphere, which are capable of destroying all living things and those fleeing on Noah's ark as well. As you can imagine a similar scenario, trillions of tons of toxic gases that enter the atmosphere are guaranteed to destroy a living creature even before the start of the Flood.
Discarding the version with the appearance of water from under the ground, it remains to look at the sky, in the end, it is this that gives us precipitation. But since the law of the circulation of substances in nature is inviolable, and the clouds simply cannot bear so much water, we have to look for the source of a global catastrophe in space.
A comet is a huge reservoir of frozen water. However, a comet, which is a huge volume of frozen liquid, will have the size of a small planet of three or even more than thousands of kilometers across.
So the story with the comet is not beautiful either, since we are not looking at the origin of life billions of years ago, but the relatively recent time of the Great Flood - according to various estimates, this happened from 5-8 thousand years ago before the birth of Christ.
If our planet meets a comet of such an impressive mass on its way, then in the event of a collision with it, all living things will most likely be annihilated. Such a meeting will end with an explosion with so much energy that in a matter of seconds the temperature of the atmosphere can reach 6600 degrees Celsius! By the way, it's a little hotter than on the surface of the Sun. It is unlikely that someone would have managed to escape this madness, including the inhabitants of Noah's ark, even if the Almighty helped him.
In such a situation, the flora and fauna of the planet, including Noah and those rescued on the Ark, would turn into clouds of steam, initially scalded in it, and even before the Flood. Unless, trust ufology, and consider the Ark a ship of a highly developed alien civilization. In this case, yes, a lot of rescue problems disappear.
The Flood, the interweaving of ancient legends
As can be seen from all of the above, most likely the flood was not universal, for such a large-scale incident there is no source of abundance of water. But do not rush to leave the page, this is not the end of our story. As the biblical scripture tells us, Noah's ark ran aground and got stuck in the area of Mount Ararat.
But if this actually happened, then somewhere there must be at least some traces of the rescue ship. However, no, research expeditions climbed Ararat in search of the ark of salvation more than once, but all to no avail, none of them found the slightest trace of the supertanker.
Well, do not count as a serious find a couple of logs found there. Although it is a little embarrassing that the logs are still present there.
Interestingly, what if the story of the Flood and the rescued Noah and his entire family is skeptical? Hundreds of people who study the Bible say that the legend of the Flood and Noah was written down in the 6th century BC by Jewish priests who, being in exile, settled in Babylon (possibly offended and angry).
One must not lose sight of the fact that they once wrote a story about what a terrible punishment anger would fall on those who disobey the law of God. What? - by introducing such an idea into the minds of the peoples, you can acquire a good leverage to influence society, and as a bonus, then promote any proposal on behalf of God.
But whatever the fairy tale, in every fiction there is a certain piece of truth. It is likely that the story of the Flood and Noah is still a reflection of a real event that happened in the past, but while the story was passed down through generations and recorded, it grew in scale.
About one hundred and fifty years ago, archaeologists excavating in Iraq found amazing artifacts that made it possible to take a fresh look at the story of the Flood, Noah and the Ark. British archaeologists were in for a great success, they found many different clay tablets.
At first, archaeologists could not decipher the inscriptions on the tablets, and sent them to the British Museum, where the records lay on the shelves for some time until they were deciphered. As it turned out later, the clay tablets contained a story about the Great Flood! It was actually an amazing discovery, the significance of which should not be underestimated.
After all, this miraculously echoed the epic of Gilgamesh. Amazingly, it turned out that the biblical story of Noah and the epic of Gilgamesh have a lot in common.
The epic says the following: "The great gods decided to send a flood … Build a boat and take every creature into it in pairs …". The biblical Noah receives almost exactly the same advice / recommendation.
In subsequent studies, other evidence was found in Iraq, talking about a flood in ancient Mesopotamia, exactly in the place where the Sumerian, Assyrian and Babylonian civilizations arose.
All the ancient flood stories, written at different times and under different names, seem to have a common source, dating back about five thousand years BC (Nativity of Christ). It is very likely that the story of the destructive flood in Mesopotamia was taken as the basis of the biblical story of the global flood, at least the similarity of ancient myths indicates this to us.
Two different legends tell the story of how the gods decided to exterminate the human race and sent the Flood. In both cases, it is described how one family builds the Ark, takes every creature there in pairs, and when the waters finally subside, all those who survived again inhabit the earth.
One of the oldest testimonies of the flood is the epic of Atrahasis, which was written long before the famous epic of Gilgamesh. The epic was discovered not so long ago, and tells about a flood in a certain area. Yes, the flood really happened, but it was not a universal flood, but a local flood in Mesopotamia.
In 1931, a group of archaeologists excavated the ancient city of Ur, in Mesopotamia. Archaeologists came across finds whose age numbered five to six thousand years, which corresponded in time to the biblical story of the rescuer Noah.
A little later, archaeologists stumbled upon a layer of earth that could have remained only after the flood. Soil samples were taken, and as the analyzes showed, it was indeed river silt.
In this area, seasonal floods of rivers occur and this is not uncommon, but such an extensive layer of muddy earth is a phenomenon out of the ordinary. Also, archaeological excavations show that five thousand years ago, at least three cities in Mesopotamia experienced severe flooding.
Thus, the discovery of archaeologists in 1931 allows us to conclude that there was a severe flood in ancient Mesopotamia, and this may be evidence that real events of a regional scale lie at the heart of the Babylonian and Biblical texts.
Of course, when the Sumerian priests dictated the history of events to the scribes, they could adorn it with many invented facts. But in their narrative there are many details that are invaluable landmarks in the reconstruction of past events.
Many facts tell us that one can forget about the fantastic capacity of the Ark of Salvation and the Universal Flood, about the many animals on board the Ark and the subsequent descent from Mount Ararat. You can also forget about the biblical Noah, and try to imagine a person who looked and lived completely differently.
Based on archaeological finds, we can assume that the flood story took place in the ancient Sumerian civilization, which flourished in the lands of today's Iraq. Sumerian tablets contain references that, like grains of bread, send us to the very beginning of the supposedly universal tragedy in the city of Shuruppak (a place of healing and prosperity).
It was in this city that the Sumerian Noah lived and flourished, who later became a legendary character in history, so given the records of the tablets, let's see a completely different picture of the flood.
Noah, a Sumerian rescuer or a merchant?
First of all, looking at Noah himself, we do not see any biblical attire on him, this is a normal Sumerian man who looks down, shaves off his hair, and wears a skirt. In the epic of Gilgamesh, it is mentioned that the Sumerian Noah was a very wealthy man who had silver and gold - which only rich merchants paid off.
Most likely, the Sumerian Noah was a winegrower, but a wealthy and well-to-do merchant, who did not build an ark to save him from the flood, but a merchant ship on which he planned to transport all kinds of goods - grain, beer, livestock. All large ancient cities, such as Ur, are located on the Euphrates, so it was more convenient, faster and cheaper to transport goods by water, moreover, it was safer than caravan routes by land.
But this begs the question, how big was the merchant Noah's ship? The Sumerians used different boats, small reed barges and large wooden six-meter barges.
All Babylonian texts say that the ship was huge - which is not an indication of size. Probably the merchants needed an incredibly large barge to transport more cargo. However, in those days they still did not know how to build large ships, how then could the Sumerians build a large ship?
Perhaps they fastened together like pontoons several small boats. In the epic of Gilgamesh, it is reported that the rescue ship was sectional, most likely recruited as a pontoon, and an ark was erected on this structure.
Well, since this Sumerian ark was a merchant ship, it can easily be assumed that the Sumerian Noah loaded cattle, grain and beer on it for sale, but not at all as described in the Bible. And yet, according to the epic, the Sumerian Noah was not just a wealthy merchant, he was the king of the city of Shuruppak.
Moreover, the king also obeyed the adopted laws, and if he did not deliver the load on time, he not only faced ruin, but also the loss of the throne.
Clay tablet from Shuruppak, circa 2600 BC.
Yes, in Sumer the law ruled, which is now difficult to believe, in those days anyone who did not return the debt, and even the king, was amazed in all rights and was sold into slavery. What does the flood have to do with it, you ask? We can assume that the Sumerian Noah could have become a victim of natural disasters.
The thing is that in some places the Euphrates was navigable only during the flood, which means that Noah had to carefully calculate the time of departure. Around 3 millennia BC, in Shuruppak and in some other Sumerian cities (Ur, Uruk and Kish), a severe flood occurred, which was confirmed by Schmidt's expedition, having found silt deposits at a depth of 4-5 meters.
In July, melting glaciers from the mountain peaks filled the Euphrates, then the river became deep enough to receive large ships. Although there was always a risk that torrential rains in Shuruppak, the waters of the Euphrates would very quickly turn into raging streams.
The risk of becoming a victim of the July rains was low, often at that time it was dry law, and there was no serious rainfall. Such catastrophic natural disasters happened in Mesopotamia extremely rarely, maybe once in a thousand years, and if such a disaster happened, it would definitely be mentioned in the annals, right?
The old epic tells us that on the day of the flood, the Sumerian Noah and his family had a feast on the ship, when all of a sudden, the weather deteriorated sharply, and a heavy downpour began, leading to a flood. Such a downpour did not bode well for Noah and his family, as in the highlands it could quickly lead to a flood. Although Mesopotamia is not in the tropics, it is known that hurricanes and tropical showers happened in these latitudes.
Remembering that time six thousand years ago, one recalls the warmer and wetter climate of these places and the rare but powerful tropical showers. In the past, such showers led to catastrophic consequences, it is precisely such events that were described in the epics, since they go beyond the ordinary. And if such a tropical downpour coincided with the melting of glaciers in the mountains, then the waters of the Euphrates could well have flooded the plain regions of Mesopotamia.
Biblical records assure that the downpour did not stop 40 days and nights, while the Babylonian epic speaks of only seven days of rain. But in fairness, it should be noted that even a one-day heavy downpour could lead to catastrophic consequences, filling the banks of the Euphrates.
Thus, the barge of the Sumerian Noah could find itself at the mercy of the raging waves (not to be confused with the biblical). The next day, the Sumerian Noah and his family could no longer see the land, water was spreading all around. After the downpour ended, the Sumerian Noah and his family waited until the big water left, and they could again land on the shore. Then they did not yet know that their misfortunes were just beginning and the "Book of History" was waiting for them.
In all versions of this story, only one thing remains unchanged, they have not seen the land for a week. The Bible keeps the memory of the Flood, but another explanation can be given for this:
Noah's family believed that their ship was carried by the waters of the Euphrates, since the water was fresh. But in the Babylonian narrative it is said that the water was salty, which means that the Ark of Sumerian Noah left the waters of the Euphrates, and was carried away to the Persian Gulf.
In the epic of Gilgamesh, it is said that the sea spread out in front of Noah on all sides. We do not know how long Noah's ship was in the Persian Gulf, the Bible says - more than a year, and those who survived could really believe that there was no more land. But in the Babylonian epic it says - just over a week.
But in any case, Noah and his family faced a serious problem, they were surrounded by salt water. They did not have fresh water, the only thing left for them to quench their thirst was to drink beer, which was in abundance on the ship. By the way, beer is not a bad alternative, since it is known to represent 98% of water, in which many nutrients are dissolved.
The Bible mentions that Noah's ark stopped on the slope of Mount Ararat, and if there was no universal flood, then the ark could have ended up in a completely different place. Ararat, located much to the north of the ancient Shuruppak, the ark could have carried about 750 km. and he could actually be in the waters of the Persian Gulf. Noah's biblical story ends there, but in the Babylonian narrative, Noah's adventures take a longer path.
Sumerian Noah, continuation of the legend
There are interesting records on clay tablets, some say that Noah lost his throne, in another that he was expelled. But this is not important now, just remembering the Sumerian law, it is obvious that Noah could not return to Shuruppak. And even after the water disappeared, he was still in mortal danger.
It is clear that Noah's creditors survived the flood safely, found it and demanded to return the debt. According to Sumerian laws, Noah was supposed to be sold into slavery, but could flee the country to avoid punishment.
The question of exactly where Noah went after escaping punishment remains a mystery. One record says that he went to the country of Dilmun, where he found peace and quiet, as the Sumerians called the modern island of Bahrain.
Bahrain is the very place where the gods sent the Sumerian Noah after the Flood. It seems that this is a wonderful place where the former tsar could live for his own pleasure without particularly bothering himself with work. And if the Sumerian Noah ended his days in Dilmun, then the island of Bahrain keeps the greatest secret of ancient history.
On this island, hundreds of thousands of burial mounds, and only a few have been dug up. Many burials date back to Sumerian times, and it is likely that the burials of great kings, including Noah, lie in them.
Over time, the story of the Sumerian king could turn into a beautiful legend, since each of the storytellers embellished it with their own additions. Then this story was written down on clay tablets, and generations of scribes changed it by publishing more and more new versions.
Probably two thousand years later, one of these stories caught the attention of the Jewish priests who wrote the Bible. Most likely, it was this story that attracted them by the kind of disaster and punishment that can fall on people if they do not live according to the laws of God.
