Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Michael Hildenbrand <hildenbr AT Haas.Berkeley.EDU>]

On Sun, 24 Sep 2000, Walter Mattfeld wrote:
[snip]
> 
> WM: So, let me get this straight, copious amounts of freshwater erupted from
> the ground and combined with rainwater, causing a Freshwater flood to engulf
> the land to a height of 15 cubits over the mountain tops ? But, Dave, this
> Freshwater would have had to merge with the Saltwater ocean (wouldn't it),
> such that the debris or flood laid silt would be Saltwater laid not
> Freshwater (I don't comprehend your reasoning here).
[snip]

I am not going to get deeply involved with this discussion, I only want to
point out that the question here does not spring from the text itself.  
The comment above *assumes* that there is saltwater at the time of the
Genesis flood, which is true to our experience, but not mentioned in the
text.  This is also true regarding oceans.  There is no mention of oceans
in the text of Genesis.

Walter's first impression (which he phrases as a question) that the
"freshwater erupted from the ground and combined with rainwater, causing a
Freshwater flood to engulf the land to a height of 15 cubits over the
mountain tops" appears to be what the *text* is saying.  The difficulty we
feel in accepting this description is that we now have *very* high
mountains.  Whether you accept the flood story as realia or myth, the text
itself seems to point to a different topography than we see today.  BTW:  
hydrologists have estimated that the volume of water that exists on earth
now is well capable of covering the earth to a depth of 2 miles if the
deep valleys of the oceans were flattened.  (Don't ask me where I found
this, it is buried in files that are packed for moving.)

Michael