The Bible does not mention a "GREAT flood" either in Old or New Testament, rather it describes the Noah's flood as
a fountain flood with rain.
A fountain is smaller than a river. Neither the Bible mentions that is was a sea flood or an ocean flood.
"...ba-hodes (in the month)
hasheni ( 2nd ),
ba-shiba (on the 7)
'asar (plus 10th)
yōm (day)
la-hodes (of the month),
ba-yom hazzeh (on this day)
nibhqa'u (burst forth)
kal- (upon)
mayanoth (the FOUNTAINS)
tehom rabah (of great deep),
wa'arubot (and the latices)
ha-shamayim (of the lofty-waters/sky-clouds)
niphtahu (were opened).
Wayhî (and was)
hagesem (the rain)
'al- (upon)
ha'ares (the earth/soil),
urbaim (40)
yōm (days)
wa'arbaim (and 40)
layalah (nights)."
- Genesis 7:11-12
Moses (Torah) is describing here that on May 20th, 2029 BCE during the flood time of Tigris-Euphrates rivers, all
MAYANOTH (fountains)
TEHOM RABAH (of great deep)
burst forth, and latices of sky-clouds were opened.
Mayanoth in Isaiah 41:18 and Proverbs 8:24 may also mean "springs," which are the sources of river waters, and it is derived from the root word "ma'yan." Joshua describes "mayan" as a well, and Solomon further describes it as what waters a garden. (Joshua 18:15, Songs of Songs 4:15).
But the fountains being mentioned in Genesis 7:11 are called "of great deep," which means the source of water of the pond or lake that could be dried up because those fountains are connected to volcanic fire in one way or another under the ground. Prophet Isaiah knew that also that there are waters of great deep that dry up.
"Art thou not it which hath dried the sea, the waters of the
great deep;
that hath made the depths of the sea a way for the ransomed to pass over? " - Isaiah 51:10
(KJV)
And in Amos 7:4 "great deep" is described as connected to fire, most likely under a mount.
"Thus hath the Lord GOD shewed unto me: and, behold, the Lord GOD called to contend by
fire, and it devoured the
great deep,
and did eat up a part. " - Amos 7:4
(KJV)
So, what were bursted out were fountains connected to volcanoes deep down in the ground, and those volcanoes are in the earth of Ararat. The plain south of Masis (Mt. Ararat) have traces of ponds that may be what Ashurbanipal's Gilgamesh Epic called "sea" during 8th century BCE and still visible during the time of Herodotus. That area is east north of Lesser Araske river and where Arzap (Kazan) is located. The mount east of Arzap turned into "island" during the Ashurbanipal's Gilgamesh Epic's writing, and where the "sacred stones" of Urshanabi are located. Some of those stones are half cut because, according to the epic, Gilgamesh has destroyed many of them (in around 2000 BCE).
In Gilgamesh Epic, the area is identified as "apsû" (fresh deep water), but Moses is more accurate in describing that it's not just deep fresh water, but also "of great deep" - or affected by volcanoes. Apsu is the Akkadian of Sumerian term "ZU.AB," derived from the words "ab" (water) and "zu" (deep).
Both Moses (Torah) and Gilgamesh Epic were derived from a common source of information but Moses describes it more vividly and accurately.
Ea (Ya), the God which made man from god's & earth's substances, instructed Atrahasis (Noah) to make roof like as apsu has roof.
"Like the Apsu you shall roof it." - Atrahasis Epic 3.1.29
(Gilgamesh Epic 11.31)
This may mean that Atra-Hasis covered the top of the ark with solidified soil or, likely, rocks, as apsu (great deep waters) is roofed with soil and rocks.
Atrahasis reason out to the elders that his god and Enlil, probably via priests, were not united and he wanted to live with Enki in the apsû, which necessitated him to build a big boat enough as a shelter for his family and a zoo for livestock. Utnapishtim (Noah) left Shuruppak and went to apsu (source of river water), that is, either in Dilmun (Diyarbakr) or in Mt. Abos.
"I will go down [the river] to the apsû to live with Ea, my Lord." - Gilgamesh 11.42
And that apsû is near Dilmun (Diyarbakr), the land of copper, east of Syria or southwest of Nairi Sea (Lake Van) in Ararat region.
There are a lot of "fountains of the great deep" in Ararat region, and that is why in Gilgamesh Epic the place where Utnapishtim (Noah) was living is described as "mouth of rivers," because Mt. Abos, in which belongs the Tendurek volcano and Nasar settlement (Akyayla site), is the starting point of Euphrates river via Arsanias river.
In around 2040's BCE, there was a lacking of grain in Aratta and its ruler did not surrender it's yoke to the lordship of Enmerkar unless the latter would send grain to Aratta.
Be noted that Moses untranslated "Aratta" as "Ararat" when he mentioned about the area where Noah's big boat floated on.
Enmerkar reigned 1300 years, cryptically meant the real Enmerkar lived in around 3100 BCE. This famine may mean that the Aratta land was under certain volcanic activities, that could dry up the land, and sooner could cause devasting flood. And probably through the Sacred Stones of gods (priests) in Arzap, a god predicted that Mashu (Mt. Ararat) was about to cause flood. And Atrahasis (Noah) encountered in a dream the god Ea which whispered on his reed wall an instruction to him to build a big reed boat because of the impending flood.
NOAH IN HISTORY
There is no direct mentioning of Noah.
But we have had indirect reference to Noah in history when Assyrian kinglist named the 10th generation king after (Tudiya-) Adam as
"Nuabu" ("Whose Father is Noah"),
who ruled during the time of biblical Shem. While king Hammurabi of Babylon traced his ancestor back to Tudiya-Adam (the first leader of Assyria) and split the descendant to Nuabu, Sumuabum on the other hand has the name that means "Whose Father is Shem."
Sumuabum (1798-1785 BCE) was the founder of Old Babylon and his name suggests that he was a descendant of "Sumu" ("Shem"), the ancestor of the people that lived in east or northeast of Beth-Eden (Bit-Adini).
Chronologically speaking, Nuabu ("Whose Father is Noah") is contemporary of the biblical Shem and he was the 10th generation after Adam, the first governor of Assyria. In the Bible, Adam was a ruler who lived in the western part of Assyria in an area called "Garden" located in Eden (Eden was a region now known as "Syria").
In Atrahasis Epic, the flood hero is named "Atra-Hasis," a translation of the Sumerian name Ziusudra ("Found Long Life"). The first user of the name "Zin-Suddu" was a king during the 2900 BCE Shuruppak river flood, but his name was used for Ziusudra, a legendary name for a flood hero of 2029 BCE.
The oldest datable Epic of such this flood was written during the time of Babylonian king Ammisaduqa (1550-1530 BCE) in which Ziusudra was the flood hero and lived in Dilmun (Diyarbakr) and which is the source of the Gilgamesh Epic's flood story.
Atra-Hasis describes the incident as a RIVER flood after of which many had died, floating on the water:
"Like dragonflies they have filled the river." - Atrahasis 3.4.6-7
And this description corroborates what the Bible says, that it was by all fountains of GREAT deep and by 40 days' rain. The major contributor of this flood was River Araxes. Herodotus described that there was a Great and a Lesser Araske river. The Greater Araxes is on the north of Masis (Mashu), whereas the Lesser Araske is at west south of Masis.
Lake of Balik Gülü might have overflown to Lesser Araske river, which in turned ran toward east of Arzap (Kazan) and started to fill in the plain area on the foot of Mashu (Mt. Ararat).
Other fountains of great deep also bursted out and increase the water supply on May 20, 2029 BCE. What triggered this bursting of fountains of the great deep? Scientists discovered that pyroclastic flow deposits covered ruins in the early Bronze Age (around 2450 BCE and perhaps 2029 BCE). There was volcanic activities deep in Masis (Mt. Ararat). And it was coupled with the fact that Mt. Ararat has much precipitation during May reaching 7 days in a month.
".... in the 2nd month, the 17th day of the month, the same day were all the
fountains of the great deep
broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. " - Genesis 7:11
There was a continuous evaporation of water and clouds above remained heavy for one month.
"And the rain was upon the earth 40 days and forty nights. " - Genesis 7:12
The flood of increasing water lasted for 40 days, and the flood of decreasing water lasted till the 150th day. And this prolonged rain might be caused by the fact that Mt. Ararat was hot during June reaching its temperature up to 32° Celsius, that may evaporate a lot of water from lakes.
The Bible is teaching that rain is localized upon certain area of the land because it is dependent on the water vapor nearby.
Did the rain drop over the entire planet?
Biblically speaking, rain rains upon certain land because according to the Bible the evaporation of water for rain flood is heavily occurring from the ends of the land (that is, from sea, lakes or body of water).
"When he uttereth his voice, there is a multitude of waters in the heavens; and he causeth the
vapours
to ascend from the ends of the earth: he maketh lightnings with rain, and bringeth forth the wind out of his treasures. " - Jeremiah 51:16
Water evaporates from the ends of land (that is, sea, lake, or body of water).
" And said to his servant, Go up now, look toward the sea. And he went up, and looked, and said, There is nothing. And he said, Go again seven times.
And it came to pass at the seventh time, that he said, Behold, there ariseth a little
cloud out of the sea,
like a man's hand. And he said, Go up, say unto Ahab, Prepare thy chariot, and get thee down, that the rain stop thee not.
And it came to pass in the mean while, that the
heaven was black with clouds
and wind, and there was a great rain. . ." - 1 Kings 18:43-45
And when evaporation happened, the clouds of heaven would be filled with water of rain.
"If the clouds be full of rain, they empty themselves upon the earth: ... "
- Ecclesiastes 11:3
"For he maketh small the drops of water: they pour down rain according to the vapour thereof: Which the clouds do drop and distil upon man abundantly. " - Job 36:27-28
Rain drops to a certain earth (land) and not necessarily to the entire planet, biblically speaking.
" And it came to pass after many days, that the word of the LORD came to Elijah in the third year, saying, Go, shew thyself unto Ahab; and I will send
rain upon the earth. " - 1 Kings 18:1
"Who giveth rain upon the earth, and sendeth waters upon the fields: " - Job 5:10
"To cause it to rain on the earth, where no man is; on the wilderness, wherein there is no man; " - Job 38:26
In the case of Noah's flood, the rain dropped on the earth of Ararat's mountains.
" Who covereth the heaven with clouds, who prepareth
rain
for the earth, who maketh grass to grow upon the mountains. " - Psalms 147:8
Since there are many snow on the high mountains in Armenia, it's expected that it melts at certain season or reason.
" For as the rain cometh down, and the
snow
from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, ... " - Isaiah 55:10 (KJV)
The usual flood of Tigris-Euphrates rivers may come in early April to June, and the Noah's flood dates it on what our calendar says May 20 - June 30, 2029 BCE.
The water became 26 feet upward, and the waters became strong. If Noah was measuring from the ground to the surface of the flood, then it means that the flood was 3 floor high. Mt. Ararat this time was just twin hills, not as high as it is today.
" ... the flood came forth.
Its power came upon the peoples like a battle,
one person did not see another,
they could not recognize each other in the catastrophe.
The flood belowed like a bull,
and like a screaming eagle was the sound of the wind.
The sun was not seen, the darkness was dense."
- Atrahasis 3.10-17
The thickness of the water (rain) covered the sky that people could not see each other, and Noah could not sea the high twin mountains (Mashu/Masis) on the north.
"... waykusu (and covered)
kal- (whole)
he-harim (the dual-hills)
ha-gabohim (high)
'aser (that)
tahat ([were] under)
kal- (whole)
ha-shamayim (the sky-clouds/heavens)." - Genesis 7:19b
The passage is telling us that the waters of rain falling from clouds had
"... covered the whole
he-harim ha-gabohim"
(high dual-hills)
that were under the whole lofty-waters (sky)."
Josephus impliedly understood
"he-harim "
(the hills)
as referring to the Twin High Mountains near the vicinity of the flooded area. And in Akkadian, this "Twin Mountain" is called "Mashu," which is referring to what the modern writers called "Mt. Ararat."
This may mean that Josephus understood the suffix
"-im"
in "harim" as a short form of
dual suffix
"-ayim."
Babylonian or Assyrian writers, if considering this passage, may understood
"he-harim ha-gabohim" as a
High Twin Mountain,
and in fact that was also how they depicted Mashu on their seal.
Our understanding of
"ha-shamayim" as
"lofty-waters"
(clouds-of-sky)
in this very passage is derived from the first part of the passage, saying that the "waters became strong more & more upon the earth (land)."
That is, Genesis 7:19 in effect, is saying, heavy falling waters were covering the whole Mashu (Mt. Ararat) under the lofty-waters (clouds).
In history, Strabo (63 BCE - AD 23) reported :
"And it is said, that in ancient times the Araxes in Armenia, after descending from the mountains, spread out and formed a
sea
in the plains below,..." - Geography 16.14.13
And in the Bible, such this spreading out of Lesser Araske river's water, is said to happen in "mountains of Ararat," in the region called by Isaiah 37:38 as
" 'eretz ararath" ("earth of Ararat").
Both Atrahasis and the Bible agree that it was a river flood by fountains and rain. Neither the Bible has mentioned it as an ocean flood.
Only later, during the 9th century BCE it was probably described as a sea flood by Gilgamesh Epic because such sea or lake was still there on the southern foot of Mt. Ararat until the time of Herodotus (c.484 - c.425 BCE).
According to Josephus,
Noah's ark drew near to the highest mountain of Armenia, and then landed on APOBATERION, Greek of the Armenian phrase "Nakhnakan Ichevan (which means, First Landing Site) in Carra, border of Nor-Shirakan (Adiabene), Iran in ancient Zaranda-Bari, in what we called today near Ziyaret Dag.
After 40 days of flood rain, the flood continued for 110 days until it abated on the 150th day.
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