20. Heavenly Wrath
The biblical story recounts God’s displeasure with widespread human wickedness, and His decision to destroy all life with a flood. However Noah, described as a righteous man, finds favor in God’s eyes. God orders Noah to build an ark and bring aboard his family and pairs of all animals. The flood lasts for forty days and nights, waters prevail for 150 days, and finally recede and the ark’s occupants exit.
God then makes a covenant with Noah, and promises to never again destroy the earth by flood. The narrative’s historicity is debated. Fundamentalist traditions advocate a literal global flood, but mainstream scholars interpret the narrative as a mythological or theological story, not a historical account. Geological evidence does not support a global flood that lines up with a literal biblical chronology. However, a large regional flood in Mesopotamia or the Black Sea could have inspired the story.
