This is arguably the most debated event in the bible. Modern scholars claim there's no evidence for an event like the flood, and the Evangelical Protestants insist on biblical literalism. Not to mention there's also the argument that the flood wasn't global, but local. What is the Orthodox position on the flood?
Noah's flood
- Cyprian
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Re: Noah's flood
The Orthodox Church teaches that the flood is an actual historical event, and it was a universal flood.
St. John Chrysostom - Homily VIII on Thessalonians:
You have heard of the deluge. And were those things also said by way of threat? Did they not actually happen? Those men too said many such things, and for a hundred years while the ark was building, and the wood was being wrought, and the righteous man was calling aloud, there was no one who believed. But because they did not believe the threat in words, they suffered the punishment in very deed. And this will be our fate too, if we shall not have believed. On this account it is that He compares His coming with the days of Noah, because as some disbelieved in that deluge, so will they in the deluge of hell. Were these things a threat? were they not a fact? Then will not He, who then brought punishment upon them so suddenly, much more inflict it now also? For the things that are committed now are not less than the offenses of that time. How?-- because then, it says, "the sons of God went in unto the daughters of men" (Gen. vi. 4), and those mixtures were the great offense. But now there is no form of wickedness, which is unattempted. Do you then believe that the deluge took place? Or does it seem to you a fable? And yet even the mountains where the ark rested, bear witness; I speak of those in Armenia.
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Re: Noah's flood
Cyprian wrote:The Orthodox Church teaches that the flood is an actual historical event, and it was a universal flood.
St. John Chrysostom - Homily VIII on Thessalonians:
You have heard of the deluge. And were those things also said by way of threat? Did they not actually happen? Those men too said many such things, and for a hundred years while the ark was building, and the wood was being wrought, and the righteous man was calling aloud, there was no one who believed. But because they did not believe the threat in words, they suffered the punishment in very deed. And this will be our fate too, if we shall not have believed. On this account it is that He compares His coming with the days of Noah, because as some disbelieved in that deluge, so will they in the deluge of hell. Were these things a threat? were they not a fact? Then will not He, who then brought punishment upon them so suddenly, much more inflict it now also? For the things that are committed now are not less than the offenses of that time. How?-- because then, it says, "the sons of God went in unto the daughters of men" (Gen. vi. 4), and those mixtures were the great offense. But now there is no form of wickedness, which is unattempted. Do you then believe that the deluge took place? Or does it seem to you a fable? And yet even the mountains where the ark rested, bear witness; I speak of those in Armenia.
Thank you Cyprian, Do you know if there's any archaeology to back up the account?
- Cyprian
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- Joined: Sat 12 November 2005 6:40 am
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Re: Noah's flood
I do not concern myself with such matters. The Church accepts that the flood during Noah's time actually occurred, and that is enough. I don't wish to devote precious time to concerning myself with the findings of modern archaeology.