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APPENDIX B.

OF THE FLOOD'.

IN whatever way it may have been attempted to explain the mode in which it seemed meet to the Almighty to bring about the destruction of mankind, as recorded in the seventh chapter of the Book of Genesis, two distinct secondary natural causes are considered to have been in operation ; namely, the rising of the waters from below,-that is, either from the sea, or else out of the abyss supposed to be within the bowels of the earth,-and the descent of the rain from above: which opinion has arisen, chiefly, if not entirely, from the construction which has been put upon the words of the text, "All the fountains of the great deep [were] broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened."

The total inability to reconcile the Scriptural account of this awful visitation of the Divine wrath as generally understood, with the results of modern geological research into the changes which have taken place upon the earth's surface, has eventually

1 The present article is founded upon the contents of a paper already published in the Imperial Magazine for July 1833, 2nd series, vol. iii. pp. 313-315, entitled 'FOUNTAINs of the Great ⚫ DEEP. A critical Inquiry into the meaning of this Scriptural 'expression, in Gen. vii. 11, &c.'

2 Gen. vii. 11.

caused the consideration of this subject to be in the present day tacitly relinquished by the major part of the scientific world; and in the minds of many the feeling has been induced that this portion of the Holy Scriptures, if not actually untrue, is of such a character as will not permit it to stand opposed to what are conceived to be the established truths of science.

It is, however, to be seen whether the attributing the destruction of mankind at the Flood to the operation of two distinct natural agents, has not arisen from a construction of the Scriptural statement, which neither the literal meaning of the particular passage above cited, nor the general indications of the entire History, can be deemed to authorize and whether, in fact, by divesting the Scriptural narrative of the traditional interpretation which it has, for ages past, received, it will not be found that only one natural instrument is referred to as having been employed by the Almighty to cause the destruction of His sinful creatures,—and that that instrument was simply, 'the RAIN from heaven'.

The words of the text in question, which have been translated the fountains of the great deep',

-mah) מַעְיְנוֹת תְּהוֹם רַבָּה are in the original Hebrew

yenóth tehóm rabbáh). Without entering into any discussion as to whether a great abyss may or may not exist beneath the surface of the earth,-respecting which it may be observed, however, that the Sacred Records afford no authority whatever for its

existence, it is sufficient to say that the meaning of the word Din (tehóm) may, wherever it is used throughout the Scriptures, be satisfied by interpreting it a collection of waters'; it being, as Gesenius observes', a poetical expression for DD (máim). Hence the meaning of the words tehóm rabbáh will be the great collection of waters', that is to say, the SEA and consequently the words maḥyenóth tehóm rabbáh will signify the fountains ' of the sea'.

This being, then, the literal interpretation of the words of the text, divested of every secondary meaning which has been attached to them, the next point to be ascertained is what is meant by the expression, 'the fountains [i. e. the sources] of the 'sea'. The opinion which I would offer upon this point is, that they are simply THE CLOUDS,-from whence the waters of the sea are supplied, and which are themselves in turn renewed by the exhalations from the ocean; as is beautifully expressed by the Preacher' in his description of the perpetual renovation of all nature: "All the rivers run

into the sea; yet the sea is not full: [for] unto "the place from whence the rivers come, [i. e. the clouds,] thither they return again"". In fact, I conceive that the two parts of the sentence, 'the ' fountains of the great waters were broken up', and the windows of heaven were opened', are

Heb. Lex. art. Din: and see particularly Deut. viii. 7.

2 Eccles. i. 7.

:

Y

nothing more than two different modes of expressing the same idea; it being in strict accordance with the genius of the Hebrew language to make use of a duplication of expression, where the idea and sentiment are (to all appearance) single.

It is scarcely necessary to adduce examples of what must be familiar to the minds of all who are in the least degree conversant with the phraseology of the Hebrew Scriptures, especially with that of the poetical compositions which they contain; but two parallel passages may be adduced, not merely as being striking examples of the same verbal reduplication, but as confirming also the construction which is thus put upon the words of the text in question. The one of these passages is, "When He esta"blished the clouds above: when He strengthened "the fountains of the waters (Dina niy henóth tehóm)""; the other is, "By His knowledge the "waters (niin tehomóth) are broken up, and the "clouds drop down the dew"".

It appearing, then, that the literal interpretation of the words of the text will permit of the construction that the rain from heaven was the sole natural means by which the Flood was produced, it is to be seen how far such a construction is in accordance with the other portions of the Scriptural account of that miraculous occurrence. In the first place, build the Ark, the

then, in the command given to

words of the Almighty to His servant Noah are,

1 Prov. viii. 28.

2 Prov. iii. 20.

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And, behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters (Drp hap mabbúl máim) upon the earth, to de

stroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life, from "under heaven; and every thing that is in the "earth shall die"": which awful denunciation is repeated upon the subsequent command to enter the Ark, and (as it were) with an express explanation of what is intended by the previous expression mabbúl máim a flood of waters'. In this latter text the words of the Almighty are, "For yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth

forty days and forty nights; and every living "substance that I have made will I destroy from "off the face of the earth"": the only legitimate inference from which declaration is, that the Flood, -miraculous and supernatural as we know it to have been in its origin, and mighty as it was in its operation and in its results,—was a flood of RAIN alone.

The Scriptural narrative then proceeds as follows: "And it came to pass after seven days, that "the waters of the Flood were upon the earth. In "the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the se"cond month, the seventeenth day of the month, "the same day were all the fountains of the great "waters broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened and the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights"": in which statement

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:

1 Gen. vi. 17.

* Gen. vii. 4.

Gen. vii. 10-12.