Global flood. Science is coming to understand Biblical events! The Flood - a biblical story

The reason for this work was the publications about the discovery of the worldwide "Flood" in the Black Sea, primarily books and articles by Bill Ryan, Walter Pittman (1997), Petko Dimitrov (2003) and Dr. Ballard.
This material is considered by the authors in a new direction in the development of geographical knowledge - "Geomythology", proposed by Academicians Leonov and Khain (2008).

The purpose of this work is the search and detailed study of events close in scale and time to the Biblical Flood and events similar to it, reflected in the memory of mankind. If the Flood really took place, then in addition to myths and legends, traces of it should have been preserved: bottom sediments of basins, paleontological remains, landforms, traces of coastlines, etc.

As a result of our research, it was possible to discover traces of a grandiose flood in the Ponto-Caspian region and its drainage basin during the deglaciation of the last (Valdai) glaciation in the interval 16-10 thousand years ago. This flooding manifested itself in various landscapes: coastal plains, river valleys, interfluves, and even on slopes.

The research materials were obtained as a result of the implementation of projects under RFBR grants No. 08-06-00061 , 05-05-64929 , 02-05-64428

Geological evidence of the "Flood" can be considered bottom and coastal sediments of flood basins, as well as paleontological remains in them. Their detailed analysis, including lithological, mineralogical, geochemical indicators, as well as the isotopic composition of sediments and fossil remains, makes it possible to reconstruct the conditions of sedimentation, the composition of flood waters, and the sequence of flood events.

In the epicenter of the "Flood" - the Caspian Basin - bottom sediments are represented by sediments of the Khvalynsk (more precisely, early Khvalynsk for the "Flood" maximum) basin. They differ from the overlying and underlying sediments in many ways. The most characteristic are the so-called. "chocolate clays", named for their distinctive reddish-brown color. In some places they are interbedded with greenish-gray and dark-gray clays, forming a thin (1-2 cm) ribbon bedding. Chocolate clays also interbed and facies change into silts, sandy loams, and rarely sands with a high content of clay matter and shells. sea ​​shellfish Caspian type. The thickness of chocolate clays and associated Khvalynian sediments usually does not exceed a few meters (3-5 m), sometimes reaching 20-25 m or more. The main area of ​​these deposits is the Caspian lowland from the modern coast of the Caspian Sea to the foothills of the surrounding uplands (Ergeni, General Syrt, Volga, Stavropol), as well as in the estuaries of the Volga and the Urals. The area of ​​the Khvalyn deposits, which are exposed directly to the day surface, reaches 0.5 million km 2 here, and the total area of ​​development of the Khvalyn sediments is up to 1 million km 2.

The characteristic reddish-brown color of chocolate clays is associated not with free iron oxides, but with clay minerals, including Fe oxides. The low content or absence of carbonates in clays indicates a cold climate, because at low temperatures, the solubility of carbonates increases, and they are retained in solution. On the other hand, the abundance of chemogenic pulverized carbonate and the absence of secondary changes in terrigenous pelitomorphic clay matter indicate that sedimentation proceeded in a dry climate. The beginning and peak of this transgression falls on arid environments with increased evaporation processes. The geochemistry of sediments and the composition of authigenic minerals allow us to conclude that the Khvalyn transgression was formed not under humid conditions, but under fairly arid conditions (Chistyakova, 2001).

In the series of marine layers of the Caspian Basin, the Khvalyn deposits occur above the Late Khazarian (Last Interglacial) and below the New Caspian (Holocene) sediments. They are separated from the Lower Khazar by the continental freshwater Atelian layers, synchronous in the deep-water basin with the sediments of the Atel regressive basin, the level of which was 110-120 m lower. modern level Caspian, i.e. at around -140 -150 m abs. (Lokhin, Maev, 1986; Chepalyga, 2002).

In the Manych depression, the analogues of chocolate clays are clayey-silty reddish-brown Abeskun layers of G.I. Popova (1980) - lie on the surface of the depression and are not covered by anything, but contain fauna of Caspian-type mollusks with Didacna Monodacna, Adacna, Hipanis, Dreissena, Micromelania. They compose the accumulative swells of the Manych Strait and correspond only to the early Khvalyn deposits of the Caspian Sea and the main episode of the flood events of 16-14 thousand years ago.

In the Black Sea depression, the "Flood" deposits lie within the New Euxinian deposits (karkinite layers). On the continental slope and in the deep-water basin, they are represented by peculiar light reddish-brown and pale-yellow silts up to 0.5-1.0 m thick. Their color resembles the chocolate clays of the Caspian basin, their age is also close (15 thousand years).

The main indicator of the marine "Flood" are specific brackish-water mollusks, represented by species close to the modern North Caspian. Among them, Caspian endemics from the family Limnocardiidae stand out: the genus Didacna Eichwald, which now does not live anywhere outside the Caspian Sea, but was widely represented in the Pleistocene of the Azov-Black Sea basin up to the Karangat basin inclusive. Didacnae are represented by Didacna praetrigonoides (dominant), D. paralella, D. delenda, D. supcatillus, D. ebersini, D. pallasi, as well as relatively deep water (>25 m) D. (Protodidacna) protracta. Other endemic limnocardiids here are characterized by Monodacna caspia, M. laeviscula, Adacna vitrea, Hypnanis pklicata. The most widespread elements of the Early Khvalynian fauna outside the Caspian are the zebra mussels of the subgenus (Pontodreissena (D. rostriformis), and in desalinated areas D. polymorpha. Representatives of the Caspian endemic genera Caspia and Micromelania are often found among gastropods. The shells of the Early Khvalynian complex are small in size ( 2-3 times smaller than modern ones) and a thin-walled shell. These deposits are usually associated with a cold climate and low salinity. However, in cold conditions, larger individuals usually develop (Cope's law), and the conclusion about low salinity is untenable, because rich species the composition indicates salinity close to the North Caspian - up to 10‰ or more.A more realistic explanation is the significant turbidity of the water and the lack of oxygen at the bottom of the basin.The cause of increased turbidity could be solifluction processes accompanying the thawing of permafrost.

The Neo-Euxinian deposits contain a fauna of mollusks of the Caspian type; moreover, Dreissena rostriformis dominates here, less often Dr. polymorpha and limnocardiids Monodacna Caspia, M. colorata, Adacna, Hipanis and gastropods Caspia, Micromelania.

Didacnae of the genus Didacna are completely absent in the Black Sea; Zap. Manych (v. Manych-Balabinka). This may be an indicator of lower salinity (up to 5-6‰) in the Novo-Evkvinsky basin.

We (Algan et oth., 2001, 2003) found a fauna of similar composition of the Caspian type in the bottom sediments of the Bosporus in borehole 14 at elevations of 80–100 m with a dating of 16–10 ka. Its composition is dominated by the Caspian Dreissena rostriformis.

The sediments of the Early Khvalyn Sea also contain microfauna: foraminifera, ostracods, and diatoms.

The waters of the “Flood” left clear traces of their dynamics in the relief morphology: sea terraces, specific coastlines, a leveled flat bottom topography, as well as erosion-accumulative relief forms of flood water discharge channels: the Manych-Kerch Strait, the Bosporus and the Dardanelles.

Valleys of the discharge of flood waters. The Manych-Kerch Strait is a giant erosional runoff trough that connected the Caspian with the Black Sea basin. The total length of the strait reached 950-1000 km and varied depending on the sea level; the maximum width is 50-55 km, the minimum is 10 km. Depth - up to 30-50 m. The slope of the strait bottom was 0.0001, and the water level difference from the Caspian (+50 m abs.) to the Black Sea (-80-100 m) reached 150 m at the beginning of the drain and 100 m at the end plum. Water consumption reached 50 thousand km3

Coastline. Early Khvalynsk basin was fundamentally different from the modern one, because at a higher sea level, it rested against the foothills of the heights surrounding the Caspian depression (Ergeni, General Syrt, Volga). Instead of accumulative shores whimsically indented by shallow bays on a flat surface Caspian lowland and large deltas of the Volga and the Urals, abrasion shores appeared with deep bays - estuaries like fiords. An example is the bay we studied along the valley of the river. Yashkul, which penetrated 50 km deep into the Ergeni and was filled with a layer of chocolate clay with Khvalyn marine fauna.

Marine terraces fix the position of the sea level and the coastline at each oscillation in the phase of the decline of the Khvalyn Sea. Due to the unusually high rise in the level of the Flood Basin, its deposits overlap much older terraces and form up to 9 marine terraces with the following levels in tectonically stable areas (Dagestan): 48, +35, +22, +16, +6, -5, 0, -6, -12 m (Rychagov 2001, ....; Svitoch 2000, ....). These terraces record the standing of the levels at the phase of the general recession of the basin, and these oscillations were interrupted by a significant decrease in the level by tens of meters. The most significant of them are 2 regressions: Eltonskaya (up to -50 m abs.) and Enotaevskaya (up to -100 m abs.). These data allow us to reconstruct
fluctuations in the level of the Khvalynsk basin in the phase of decline.

The chronology of the Khvalyn transgression of the Caspian has been studied in particular detail, for which there are more than fifty radiocarbon datings (Rychagov, 1997; Svitoch, 2002; Leonov et al., 2003). Most of the dates fit into the interval of 16-10 thousand years.

In total, during the Khvalyn time (5-6 thousand years), up to 10 cycles of level fluctuations are observed with a frequency of 500-600 years. They are united in 3 groups with a duration of 2 thousand years. Fluctuations in the level of the Khvalynsk basin, as well as displacement of the coastline for hundreds and thousands of kilometers, as well as large-scale flooding and drainage of sea basins, can be considered as waves of the "Flood" stretching for 5-6 thousand years. The first wave of the "Flood" was early Khvalynian, began 14-15 thousand years ago and lasted about 2 thousand years; it was complicated by three oscillations with sea levels +40, +50, +35 m abs. Because Since the runoff threshold in the Manych Strait at that time was only +20 m, then all these three basins overflowed into the Black Sea through the Manychko-Kerch Strait. It is this first wave, and especially its ascending phase, that can be considered as the actual World Flood in the Ponto-Caspian. The second wave of the “Flood”, the Middle Khvalynian, at the peak of the oscillations no longer exceeded +22, +16 and +6 m, and the Caspian waters did not overflow into the Black Sea, the strait probably did not function. The third wave of the “Flood”, late Khvalynian, did not rise above the current level of the ocean, and all its 4 oscillations (-5, 0, -5, -12 abs.) were below it, but above the Holocene level of the Caspian Sea.

Sea pools.
The most significant in scale and most suitable for comparison with the ancient mythical floods unfolded in the inland sea and lake-sea basins of Eurasia, known as the Ponto-Caspian.

Khvalynsk Sea. The epicenter of the "Flood" and the most sensitive indicator of its events (rising sea levels, displacement of coastlines and flooding of coastal areas) was the Khvalynsk basin of the Caspian, especially at the peak of transgression. It was in it that the bulk of the waters of the "Flood" were concentrated, their composition and habitat were transformed, and the excess water merged into the Black Sea. As a result of the development of the "Flood", the Khvalynsk Sea spilled over an area of ​​about a million square meters. km, and together with the Aral-Sarykamysh basin, its water area exceeded 1.1 million km 2, which is 3 times larger than the modern Caspian. The volume of accumulated water masses (130 thousand km 3) exceeded the modern one by 2 times. As for the events of the “Flood” itself, almost a million km 2 of low-lying territories were flooded up to +48 +50 m abs. g.o. in the Caspian plain. The type of the basin also changed: an isolated drainless lake (the Atel basin) turned as a result of the “Flood” into a giant flowing lake-sea with a one-sided discharge of water into the neighboring basin. Despite repeated flushing of the pool with fresh water, chemical composition and mineralization of waters have changed little (within 10-12‰), because. the main ecological indicator - the composition of the fauna of mollusks and other organisms has not changed significantly. Perhaps this indicates the short duration of the existence of the flow basin. Nevertheless, the water of the Khvalyn Sea differed from the Caspian low temperature (4° C in the north and up to 14° C in the south), which is confirmed by the isotopic composition of oxygen (18 O = 10‰). One can also assume the high turbidity of the Khvalynsk waters, which affected the composition of sediments and the small size of mollusk shells. This is due to the powerful influence of solifluction processes and an increase in solid runoff from river basins (Leonov et al., 2002).

Novoevksinskoe Sea. In the Black Sea depression during the "Flood" there was the Novoevksinskoe Lake-Sea, the level of which was very low and at first did not exceed -80 -100 m. As a result of the flood waters draining from the Caspian, the level very quickly rose to -50 -40 m abs. The water area increased from 350 to 400 thousand km 2, so the area of ​​the shelf flooded by the waters of the "Flood" did not exceed 20-30 thousand km 2. The volume of water masses in the Novoevksinsky basin reached 545 thousand km 3 (slightly less than the Black Sea), but these were waters of a completely different origin.

River floods were caused by a multiple increase in river flow, especially during grandiose spring floods - super-floods (super foods) in river valleys with flooding of all floodplains and low river terraces. These processes caused the formation of large river channels, much larger than the modern channels of the corresponding rivers. They are known as latitudinal valleys, macromeanders, large meanders (Dyry 1964, Panin, Sedarchuk 2005). River runoff passed through these paleochannels and served as the main source for marine flooding - transgressions of internal lake-sea basins.

slope flooding covered almost all the slopes of the valleys and other relief elements and manifested themselves especially actively in the spring-summer season during the intensive thawing of permafrost, increased solifluction flows down the slopes, their moistening, planar water runoff, accumulation of fine earth sediments on slope bends. The melting of permafrost and slope flooding were additional sources of water for the formation of river floods. These processes have been best studied in detailed studies at Paleolithic sites.

Interfluve floods covered vast areas of plateaus and interfluves with a relatively flat relief. As a result of uneven thawing of permafrost, thermokarst processes have intensified and the area of ​​thermokarst lakes - paleoalas - has increased significantly. Lakeing of interfluves has led to an increase in the spaces of water areas and a reduction in the area of ​​territories.

Cascade of Eurasian basins (Vorukash Sea). As a result of the events of the Great "Flood", a system of interconnected basins was formed in inner Eurasia. They are traced from the Caspian Sea to the Sea of ​​Marmara, which makes it possible to reconstruct the Cascade of the Eurasian basins, including the Aral-Sarykamysh basin, Uzboy, the Khvalyn Sea, the Manych-Kerch Strait, the Novoevksinskoe Sea, the Bosphorus, the ancient Sea of ​​Marmara. Further, through the Dardanelles, the waters of this Cascade merged into the Mediterranean Sea. In terms of the scale of the water area, the lake-marine system of the Eurasian cascade has no analogues. Of the modern inland basins, the largest lake system in the world is the Great Lakes. North America- are significantly inferior to the flood basin in all respects: in terms of area (245 thousand km 2) - 6 times, in terms of the volume of water masses (227 thousand km 3) - 30 times, in terms of discharge discharged under (14 thousand m 3 / sec) - more than 4 times, in terms of the catchment area - more than 3 times.

The cascade of the Eurasian basins impressed ancient man and could be reflected in the ancient epic and mythology. In particular, a description of a similar basin is given in the "Avesta" - the Vorukash Sea.

Sources of water for the flood:

It is clear that he had nothing to do with Biblical fantasies, but became a consequence on Earth and the nightmarish planetary catastrophe that followed it, caused by the fall of fragments of the destroyed moon Fatta a little more 13,000 years ago. Thanks to the accumulated scientific data, artifacts found, as well as recently discovered written historical sources, it is already possible today to quite accurately restore the chain of those tragic events and transfer them from the category of myths to the category of historical facts.

You can find out the main causes of the First World War, the Flood and the consequences of this catastrophe by reading the article "The Flood: Causes and Consequences", here we will present facts describing the circumstances of the fall of the moon Fatta to Earth and some consequences.

The fall of Fatta's fragments to the Earth

In the article “The Myth of the Flood: Calculations and Reality”, A. Sklyarov, relying on mathematical calculations, archaeological and climatic data, determined the cause of the Flood, which consisted in the fall of a large celestial body to the Pacific Ocean. From the Slavic-Aryan Vedas we know what kind of body it was. Where did the largest fragments of the second moon fall, and what facts indicate the place of the fall? Let's give a chain of logical conclusions of A. Sklyarov. Oral traditions give a very general picture of the cataclysms that occurred and do not indicate the place where the fragments of Fatta fell. Only the most general description of the consequences of the catastrophe can be found in ancient texts.

Much more material natural Sciences. Climate data show that prior to the Flood, northeast (Labrador Peninsula) and Europe were dominated by glaciers, while Siberia, Alaska, and the Arctic Ocean were in temperate zone. Thus, climatic conditions clearly indicate that the "antediluvian" North Pole was approximately somewhere between 20 and 60 meridian west longitude and between 45 and 75 north parallel (Fig. 1).

Mathematical calculations given by A. Sklyarov show that in order to shift the earth at such an angle to the Earth along a tangential trajectory, it must fall with a diameter of about 1 thousand kilometers, flying at a speed of 100 km per second. The impact of such a meteorite would inevitably lead to the death of all life on the planet. And since no traces of a catastrophe of this magnitude were found, it can be assumed that the Earth did not turn as a monolith, but there was a slippage of lithospheric plates along the planet's mantle. Such conditions are already met by a meteorite flying at a speed of 50 kilometers per second and having a diameter of about 20 kilometers.

The position of the new pole is determined by the force component directed along the meridian. Therefore, it must have happened somewhere on the circle passing through the old and modern poles. I.e. have coordinates either in the range of 20o...60o west longitude, or 120o...160o east longitude.

In the area mentioned in the western hemisphere, there are no traces of a large meteorite impact, but in the eastern hemisphere, which is largely covered by the Pacific Ocean, the bottom topography allows one to assume associations with a residual crater. of similar size, upon impact with the earth's crust, which has a thickness of about 5 km in the ocean, could well cause faults and cracks in it. Therefore, the tectonic map provides important additional information. Based on the nature of tectonic plates and faults, A. Sklyarov concludes:

The location of the impact of the meteorite that caused the Flood could well have been the area of ​​the Philippine Sea. It is there that we see, as it were, a small "fragment" of the crust - the Philippine plate, which is much smaller than any other on our planet (Fig. 2).

There are no others like it, with the exception of only the Scot plate (Fig. 3), the size of which is comparable to the Philippine one.

However, the origin of the Scota Plate may well be explained by other reasons. In particular, the fact that such a load on the earth's crust should inevitably cause strong internal stresses in it, which, according to the theory of elasticity, increase significantly near sharp edges or corners. We can observe the result of this in the form of the Scottish Plate, as if sandwiched between the sharp tip of the South American continental plate and the sharp ledge of the Antarctic (again, continental) plate.

On Fig. 4 shows a map of the Philippine Sea region with depth marks, looking at which it can be assumed that the indicated sea is located in a crater.

Several tectonic faults converge in this place, and the maximum number of foci is located here, and it is in this area that the most deep foci are located (Fig. 2). This is also well associated with the tectonic consequences of the meteorite impact.

This region is also characterized by the fact that it is, as it were, framed by the deepest depressions on Earth, which completely coincide in location with tectonic faults (read - cracks) in earth's crust. This is where the famous Mariana Trench 11,022 meters deep.

In the normal course of geological processes at the bottom of the oceans, inland and marginal seas there is a strict succession of precipitation, but geological data indicate that in the Philippine Sea region, sedimentary layers of different ages are in a mixed state, as it were, which is another confirmation in favor of the assumption that the disaster site was in the Philippine Sea. When a tectonic plate is crushed by impact, its fragment(s) can also be subjected to a rotational effect (Fig. 5).

Based on the direction of movement of the north pole at the time of the catastrophe (towards the Atlantic Ocean) and the direction of the Earth's rotation (from west to east), A. Sklyarov concludes that the tangential component of the meteorite impact had (approximately) a direction from southeast to northwest. This conclusion is confirmed by the general topography of the bottom of the Philippine Sea, since the Philippine Plate has a slope in the direction from the southeast to the northwest, which should be the case with a given trajectory of the falling meteorite (Fig. 6).

And the last fact that A. Sklyarov cites to confirm the assumption about the place where the meteorite fell is that it is in the nearby regions (from to Australia and Oceania) that mythology names a rainbow or a Serpent, often identified with each other, as the cause of the Flood. It is clear that in the eyes of primitive peoples, the trail of a falling meteorite could well look like a fiery serpent. And the last. The Philippine Sea is located in the southeast of China, and the ancient Chinese treatise "Huainanzi" tells: "The firmament of heaven broke, the earthly scales broke off. The sky tilted to the northwest, the Sun and the stars shifted. The land in the southeast turned out to be incomplete, and therefore water and silt rushed there ... ".

The position of the antediluvian poles of the Earth is specified by the orientation of the pyramids built before and after the second planetary catastrophe. Detailed description the method of determining the north pole and the approximate coordinates of its location are given in the above-mentioned article “The Flood: Causes and Consequences”, the reader who is interested in this information will read it by clicking on the link, and we will describe some of the consequences of that terrible catastrophe.

Consequences of falling fragments of Fatta

As a result of the fall of fragments of the moon into the ocean, not only did the planet's poles shift, but also huge waves arose, the height of which reached several kilometers. Tsunamis traveled hundreds of kilometers deep into the continents, demolishing everything in their path and taking with them a huge amount of soil, trees and animals. There is a lot of archaeological evidence for this, given in A. Sklyarov's article "The Myth of the Flood: Calculations and Reality." For example, in, in the Shanidar cave, an alternation of cultural layers with layers of silt, sand, shells and small pebbles was found:

“Its uniqueness lies in the fact that ancient people constantly lived in it. The oldest cultural layer dates back to 65-60 millennia, the latest - to the 11th millennium BC... the type of man called homo sapiens stopped using the cave as a dwelling just in the 11th millennium... The main thing turned out to be that cultural the layers of the Shanidar cave were interspersed with layers of silt, sand, shells and small pebbles. And this is in a cave that has never been a seabed! Archaeologists have discovered four catastrophes that befell not only the cave itself, but also the person who lived in it... Only the last Great Flood "expelled" ancient people from under the natural vaults of Shanidar into primitive round dwellings...». (1)

Due to the fact that the Ollantaytambo complex is located quite far from the ocean coast (about 400 kilometers) and on high altitude above sea level ( 2.7 kilometers), it was not completely destroyed and was not buried under the mass of soil caused by the wave. The tsunami, which had an initial height of at least three kilometers, had lost a significant part of its energy by the time it passed through the Ollantaytambo complex and did not damage other structures located above it.

The restoration of those distant events gives the following picture of the development of the catastrophe. The wave moved from west to east, that is, from the Pacific coast deep into the continent, while overcoming mountain passes at an altitude of two before five thousand meters (Fig. 18). It is quite natural that after the passage of such a wave many hundreds of kilometers from the coast deep into the mainland, animals and animals were destroyed. vegetable world, people and majestic structures created by the ants. Only mountain peaks uninhabited by people remained untouched.

If you look closely at the ruined Ollantaytambo complex, you can clearly see traces of the passage of a water stream. The stream fell approximately in the direction from west to east, destroyed the Temple of the Sun, located on the top, scattered huge blocks like chips. At the same time, it is obvious that the front wall of the Temple of the Sun could not withstand the impact of such a stream, and only that part of the back wall, which was covered by a rock, remained relatively intact. Further, the flow of water, carrying the blocks of the destroyed complex, rushed down along a parabolic trajectory, destroying the lower steps of the terrace. Later, the Incas restored masonry in this place, which can be seen today (Fig. 19).

In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep broke open, and the windows of heaven were opened; and it rained on the earth for forty days and forty nights(Gen 7:11-12).

The Fall damaged human nature. The state of the world after the expulsion of the ancestors from paradise testifies to the growth of human weakness. Sin is spreading across the face of the earth and deeper rooted in human nature. True worship of God continued to be preserved among the descendants of Seth. But after a few generations they sons of god) began to mix with the descendants of Cain ( daughters of men). The life of people has become carnal, unspiritual: And the Lord said, My Spirit will not forever be despised by men, for they are flesh.(Gen 6:3). When the whole measure of universal corruption was revealed on earth, the Lord brought global flood. This was God's judgment on humanity that has forgotten God and plunged into the abyss of corruption. St. Philaret of Moscow explains why the flood was an inevitable measure in relation to ancient mankind: “God saw a person in such a state in which he did not at all correspond to the design of Wisdom, revealed in his creation, and could no longer be involved in the love and goodness of the Creative.”

Only Patriarch Noah there was a man righteous and blameless and walked with God (Genesis 6:9). The Lord told Noah to build a large ark. Some researchers based on the words of Divine Justice: let their days be one hundred and twenty years(Genesis 6:3) conclude that Noah built it for a hundred and twenty years. This means that Noah's contemporaries had one hundred and twenty years to repent.

The ark was a huge houseboat with three floors and many compartments. The water poured out for a hundred and fifty days and covered the whole earth. Antediluvian mankind perished in the waters of the flood. Then the water began to subside. The ark landed on Mount Ararat.

The pious patriarch, leaving the ark, arranged altar to the Lord. This is the first mention of an altar in Scripture. On it Noah offered a burnt offering, taking from every clean animal and from every clean bird. This sacrifice was pleasing to God. She was brought from the whole world and for the whole world and "was therefore the most perfect prototype of the all-natural and universal sacrifice of Christ" ( Saint Philaret of Moscow. Notes leading to a thorough understanding of the book of Genesis. M., 1867. Part 2. S. 6). The Holy Fathers call Noah's Ark a prototype of the Church, which is the ship of salvation in the sea of ​​life.

For us, believers, there is not a shadow of doubt about the authenticity of the described event. The Savior himself points to its historicity (see: Lk 17:26). The holy Apostle Peter also speaks of this (see: 2 Peter 2:5).

There is extra-biblical evidence of the remains of the ark on Mount Ararat. The oldest mention is contained in the Chaldean historian Berossus (c. 350/340-280/270 BC). “In our time, only a small part of the ship that stopped in Armenia remains lying in the Kordui mountains in Armenia, and some go there, scraping off the asphalt” (Babylonian History, Book 2). The Jewish historian of the 1st century Josephus writes: “Armenians call this place the place of landing, and still the natives show there the remains of the ark. All those who wrote the history of non-Jews also mention this flood and the ark ”(Jewish Antiquities. I. 3. 5).

In the most ancient layers of culture of more than a hundred peoples (Sumerians, Greeks and others) there are legends about the flood. With significant differences in the narrative, what they all have in common is that they all talk about a gigantic flood. Fish and shell fossils are found high in the mountains on different continents.

The Flood is, first of all, a biblical story, described in the first of the books and the entire Bible. However, there are legends or tales about the global flood in a number of mythological and religious texts of various peoples of the world.

In this article, we will look at Biblical Flood or, as it is often called, Noah's Flood, because it is a key figure in the events associated with the Great Flood in the Bible.

According to the Book of Genesis, the Flood is God's punishment for the sinfulness of mankind.

And the Lord said: I will destroy from the face of the earth the people whom I created, from man to cattle, and the creeping thing and the birds of the air, for I repented that I created them. (Book of Genesis. Chapter 6)

The flood is God's way of eradicating sin from man. God left only Noah and his family alive, commanding Noah to build an ark in which Noah and his family took refuge, as well as a couple of different animals and birds. We will not dwell on the history of the construction of the ark and its navigation, since there is already an article about this on the site that you can read -. Let's talk more about the Flood, its symbolism and possible scientific interpretation.

Flood in the Bible

As we have already said, the biblical story of the Flood is told in the book of Genesis.

The Flood is a monstrous catastrophe of biblical history, the consequence of which was the flooding of the entire planet and the death of almost all living things. Water during the flood arrived not only due to the incessant 40 days of rain, but also due to the discovery of giant underground sources.

In God's plan, it assumed perfection and universal harmony. Everything changed after. Evil and sin settled on the Earth. The first result was that his blood brother did it out of jealousy. Some lived according to God, others in sin. Over time, there were so many sinners and unbelievers that the Lord decided to cleanse the Earth by sending a Flood.

All opened "fountains of the abyss" and opened "windows of heaven" It was raining. hitherto unseen strength, and he walked for 40 days. Water oozed from the bowels of the Earth for 150 days. After that, the water began to subside. It took seven months for the top of Ararat to emerge from the water. Noah came out of the ark and built an altar to the Lord and made a sacrifice. The Lord, having seen the grateful heart of Noah, decided never to repeat the Flood again.

... I will no longer curse the earth for man, because the thinking of the human heart is evil from his youth; and I will no longer strike every living thing, as I have done. (Genesis chapter 8)

The Flood in the Apocrypha.

In addition to the canonical books of the Bible, the story of the Flood can be found in, for example, in (chapter 5), as well as in the Book of Enoch. In general, the apocryphal stories about the Great Flood do not contradict the canonical text of the Book of Genesis, however, the cause of the flood in the apocrypha is the relationship of angels with women, which led to the emergence of magic and sorcery, as well as to a general decline in morals.

The Flood divided biblical history into two eras: antediluvian and post-Flood times.

The origins of the biblical story of the Great Flood.

The biblical story of the Great Flood has its source - the Assyrian myth of Gilgamesh, which has been preserved on clay tablets. These cuneiform legends date back to the 21st century. BC e. the story tells about the miraculous rescue of the Assyrian Utnapishta with all his belongings and animals in the ark during the Flood. On the seventh day of the voyage, the ark of Utnapishta stopped, clinging to the top of Mount Nizir.

The biblical story essentially differs from the legend about the salvation of Utnapishta only by the duration of the flood: according to the Bible, the flood lasted almost a year, and according to Assyrian sources - seven days.

The description of the construction of the ark, as well as the method of determining the water level with the help of birds, coincide. Utnapishty released a dove and a swallow, and Noy a raven and a dove. The amazing similarity between the Assyrian and the Biblical narrative seems even more wonderful if we mention that sometimes these versions are absolutely identical in expression. The Assyrian story of the Flood reduces the flood to a small and plausible size - the flood lasts seven days, the water does not cover the top of Mount Nisir (its height is about 400 meters).

But is the Assyrian legend the ultimate source? No. Archaeologists often refer to the land of Mesopotamia as a "big layer cake". Civilizations here replaced one another. The Assyrians, who conquered the valley of two rivers, were a very young nation compared to the Babylonians, who lived in this territory long before the arrival of the Assyrians. The Assyrians, of course, borrowed the story of Gilgamesh from the more ancient inhabitants of the Tigris and Euphrates valley - the Babylonians. After a number of Sumerian monuments were found in the 20th century, it became clear that the story of the flood migrated to the Babylonians from an even more ancient people - Sumerians. However, here we will not find the end point of our journey to the source of the plot about the Flood.

Leonard Woolley, the famous archaeologist and explorer, while excavating Ur, discovered that the Sumerian culture was preceded by another, even more ancient one, it is called El Obeid a culture named after the hill where traces of it were first found. Among other values, the people of the El Obeid period passed on to the Sumerians the story of the Flood.

The Sumerians were very ancient nomads who, coming from outside, adopted the achievements of a settled people. An analysis of the words of the Ubaid language that have come down to us shows that it has much in common with the language of the Dravidians living in South India. The Dravidian peoples also have a legend about a worldwide flood.

Was there a flood? scientific point of view.

The story of the Flood described in the Bible has analogues among different peoples, far from the Old Testament ideas. This suggests that such a cataclysm took place and its consequences were indeed difficult, since the legends about the Great Flood were preserved in the memory of the peoples of all continents of the Earth.

To date, scientists reject the version that in the times described by the Bible there really was a World Sweat. A large number of traditions, including the biblical one, most likely describe various catastrophes related to water and flooding, which occurred at different time periods and were of a local nature.

Thus, the Flood is, most likely, a huge number of local disasters in different regions, to which the inhabitants of the affected areas attributed a global character. The likely causes of local sweats were:

• tsunamis due to earthquakes or meteor impacts,
• rising water levels for one reason or another,
• water breakthroughs from closed reservoirs due to karst processes,
• typhoons.

What are we dealing with when we talk about the Biblical Flood?

Questions about the flood worried the Austrian geologist E. Suess, who studied the biblical text, as well as the primary source of the biblical legend - the Assyrian myth of Gilgamesh, concluded that Noah's Flood was nothing more than a devastating flood of the Mesopotamian lowland in the lower reaches of the Euphrates. E. Suess considered the main cause of the Biblical Flood to be the tsunami formed as a result of a strong earthquake in the Persian Gulf. Scientists - followers of Suess - found that the probable cause of Noah's Flood was still not a tsunami - tsunamis of such strength are not typical for this region, but a devastating flood that occurred as a result of prolonged downpours and a strong wind blowing against the flow of rivers. Similar floods have been observed more than once in the Bengal region. The water level during such floods quickly rose by 16 meters. Hundreds of thousands of people perished. Probably, a similar flood 4000-5000 years ago was described in the Bible as the Flood.

There is, however, another opinion among scientists, according to which the Flood took place precisely in the form of a global catastrophe, when the Black Sea ceased to be closed. Due to a strong earthquake, the water level rose by 140 meters, the Black Sea connected with the Mediterranean, causing flooding of vast regions and the death of a huge number of people.

Flood time

When was the Flood? What year? The Bible contains enough chronological information to answer these questions. In Genesis, the genealogy from the creation of the first man Adam to the birth of Noah is very accurately recorded. The flood, according to biblical tradition, began

in the six hundredth year of Noah's life (Genesis, chapter 7).

If we take as a starting point 537 BC. e., when the remnant of the Jews left Babylon and returned to their homeland, then by subtracting the periods of reign of the judges and kings of Israel, as well as the years of life of the post-Flood patriarchs indicated in the Old Testament, we get that the Great Flood occurred in 2370 BC. uh.

It should be remembered that the biblical story was borrowed from the Assyrians. An Assyrian legend describes a natural disaster that occurred about in 5500 BC.

There are also alternative versions. Based on the chronological system of the English Archbishop Ussher, the flood can be dated 2349 BC. e. According to the calculations of the chronological data of the Septuagint, the Flood occurred in 3213 BC e.