Significance of the Flood.

            The question of the flood is not just a detail but one of the exceptionally important circumstances of a Christian’s world-view. Besides its historical meaning, the universal flood also has a dogmatic and ethical meaning.

The flood is referred to in several passages of Scripture as historical fact; the writings of the Fathers consider the event in the same light, and this view of the subject is confirmed by the numerous variants under which the flood tradition lives in the most distant nations of the earth. The following are some of the New Testament passages which imply that the Deluge was a real historical event: “And as in the days of Noe, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, even till that day in which Noe entered into the ark, and they knew not. till the flood came, and took them all away; so also shall the coming of the Son of man be” (Matt. 24:37-39). In these words, Christ regards the flood with its circumstances as being not less real than the last days will be of which He speaks in the passage. Christ implies the same view concerning the flood in Luke 17:26-27. In the Epistle to the Hebrews 11:7, the inspired writer is no less clear about the historicity of the flood: “By faith, Noe having received an answer concerning those things which as yet were not seen, moved with fear, framed the ark for the saving of his house, by the which he condemned the world; and was instituted heir of the justice which is by faith.” Apostle Peter (I Peter 3:20) too refers to the ark and the flood as historical facts: “When they waited for the patience of God in the days of Noe, when the ark was a building: wherein a few, that is, eight souls, were saved by water.” He returns to the same teaching in II Peter 2:5. We might appeal to Is. 56:9; Nah. 1:8; Ezech. 14:14; Ecclus., 44:18 sq.; Ps. 28:10; 31: 6. These texts shows that the Bible urges the historicity of the deluge story.