Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Peter Kirk" <Peter_Kirk AT sil.org>]

You shouldn't assume that the fresh water and the salt water would mix at
all quickly. Lighter fresh water floats on heavier salt water, if I remember
rightly, and so there could be rather little mixing and the water covering
the land might have a very low salt content.

Of course the whole idea of a worldwide flood, lasting a year or so as in
Genesis rather than for geological epochs, is a very difficult one from a
geophysical and mechanical point of view. Where did all that water come
from? And where did it go? There just isn't enough in the oceans to cover
the land and all the mountains, even if the ocean beds were temporarily
raised up. This seems to be a far more serious problem with the story of a
worldwide flood.

Peter Kirk

----- Original Message -----
From: "Walter Mattfeld" <mattfeld AT mail.pjsnet.com>
To: "Biblical Hebrew" <b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
Cc: "b-hebrew" <b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
Sent: Monday, September 25, 2000 12:28 AM
Subject: Re: The Flood


<snip>
> >
> DW:> I like the way you subtly threw in the word "saltwater," something
> > that neither I nor the texts mentioned.  In fact, in Genesis the water
> > comes from the sky and from underground, so it's doubtful it would
> > be saltwater.  Another unfounded assumption.
>
> 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>