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Going Biblical: Fascinating Divine Punishments Recounted in the Old Testament

Khalid Elhassan May 9, 2025 19 min

Punishment - The expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden — The expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden. Encyclopedia Britannica

7. The Flood Story Has Parallels in Many Cultures

The Subsiding of the Waters of the Deluge, by Thomas Cole, 1829. Smithsonian American Art Museum

God eventually ordered Noah to leave the ark, and in gratitude, he built an altar and offered sacrifices. God then made a covenant, symbolized by the rainbow, in which he promised never to destroy the earth by flood again. The story serves as a tale of judgment and mercy, highlighting divine justice and the possibility of redemption. It has parallels in many ancient cultures.

For example, the Mesopotamian Epic of Gilgamesh also tells of a great flood and a chosen survivor. Some believe that Noah’s Flood was a literal historic event, but there is no evidence that a global inundation had ever covered the planet. However, there have been various massive regional floods, some of which could have served as the biblical story’s origin.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.