When I first sat down to study and research the flood account through the lens of Jesus Christ, I initially thought that the key to this text was found in faulty English translations.
We must admit that the vast majority of Bible translators hold a view of God in which He is angry about sin and violent toward humanity as a result. As such, they often translate texts to reveal this theological bias, even if the text as originally written does not. I initially thought that the account of the flood was a perfect illustration of this bias.
Translating Genesis 6:13a
For example, according to many translations, the first part of Genesis 6:13 says that because God saw the great evil and violence that was upon the earth, God decided or determined that He would destroy everything living upon it. Here are three sample translations which show this perspective:
So God said to Noah, “I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them…” (NIV).
And God said to Noah, “I have determined to make an end of all flesh; for the earth is filled with violence through them…” (RSV).
So God said to Noah, “I have decided to destroy all living creatures, for they have filled the earth with violence…” (NLT).
As can be seen from these two translations, the text seems to indicate that as a result of violence in the world, God decided or determined to send some violence of His own, and wipe out every living thing.
But a brief look at a few other English translations shows that another way of reading the text is possible:
And God said to Noah, “The end of all flesh has come before Me, for the earth is filled with violence through them…” (NKJ).
And God said unto Noah, “The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them…” (KJV).
Then God said to Noah, “The end of all flesh has come before Me; for the earth is filled with violence because of them…” (NAS).
These three translations show that the first part of Genesis 6:13 can clearly be translated in a different way. In contrast to the first three translations above, these second three translations show that it is not that God decided or determined to send destruction upon the earth, but that God saw that death and destruction was going to come upon the earth. The destruction of the earth had come before Him. The Hebrew literally reads that it had come “before His face,” or “into His presence.”
Genesis 6 and Job 1
Though slightly different terminology is used, the imagery of Genesis 6:1-13 is echoed in many ways by Job 1:1-12. In both cases there are “sons of God” who are seen in some way to be antagonistic toward mankind (Genesis 6:1-2; Job 1:6). There is also in both accounts a blameless and righteous man who feared God and shunned evil (Genesis 6:9; Job 1:1). And in both cases, an evil power comes into the presence of God, seeking to kill and destroy (Genesis 6:13; Job 1:6, 12).
We will look at Job in more detail in later posts, but we mention it here just to show the parallels. It is the destroyer who seeks to destroy; not God. God seeks to rescue, redeemed, and deliver. We will see how God does this in Job, but we are already seeing it here in Genesis 6 as well. Due to the violence that was on the earth, God saw that all that was on the earth was about to be destroyed. The end of all flesh came into His presence.
There is a vast difference between deciding to send destruction and seeing that destruction will come. If I see a car spinning out of control down a street toward a crowd of pedestrians, and I shout out a warning to them, this is very different than somehow being the one who sends the car spinning out of control toward that crowd of pedestrians. So also with God and the flood. He saw that destruction was coming because of the violence on the earth. The text is quite clear that “the violence of ‘all flesh’ is the reason for the disaster.” (Fretheim, Creation Untamed, 52). This is the best and most literal way of understanding the first part of Genesis 6:13.
But although there are various ways of translating the first part of Genesis 6:13, we do not have this flexibility with the second half of the verse, where God says, “I will destroy them with the earth”? Almost all English translations agree on this part of the text and there is no way of translating it much differently. Furthermore, Genesis 6:7 and 6:17 reiterate this point even more clearly:
So the Lord said, “I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them” (Genesis 6:7).
“And behold, I Myself am bringing floodwaters on the earth, to destroy from under heaven all flesh in which is the breath of life; everything that is on the earth shall die” (Genesis 6:17).
And when the flood actually does come upon the earth, the text pretty clearly states that God destroyed all living things that were on the earth (Genesis 7:23). Though I spent hours researching each word and the few textual variants within these verses, I could discover no realistic way of translating these passages to say much of anything different than what is found in the majority of our modern English translations.
So my initial attempt at finding an alternative explanation for the troubling texts in the flood led nowhere. Overall, the English translations of this account do a pretty good job representing what the original Hebrew says. The surface reading of these texts clearly indicate that it is God Himself who sent the flood waters to destroy all life on earth. So I guess all those Hebrew scholars can be trusted after all! Ha! So I guess I’m not this guy (not today, any way):
How can a God who says "Love your enemies" (Matthew 5:44) be the same God who instructs His people in the Old Testament to kill their enemies?
These are the sorts of questions we discuss and (try to) answer in my online discipleship group. Members of the group can also take ALL of my online courses (Valued at over $1000) at no charge. Learn more here: Join the RedeemingGod.com Discipleship Group I can't wait to hear what you have to say, and how we can help you better understand God and learn to live like Him in this world!
This can turn into a discussion on Bible inerrancy. Seems that you have found a contrast in these verses.
It does seem that there is a night and day difference between the God of the Old Testament and the God of love that Jesus introduced to us. Even BEFORE the cross, Jesus said, if you’ve seen me, you’ve seen the Father.
Jesus also said, i do everything I see and hear the Father do.
Jesus wasn’t running around killing people, stoning sinners or drowning evil doers. He was the embodiment of love. He showed a God opposite of the God painted in the Old Testament.
You said, “Jesus wasn’t running around killing people, stoning sinners or drowning evil doers. He was the embodiment of love.”
YES!
And since Jesus reveals God to us, it must be that this is what God is also like. I don’t think they were different Gods. I think we just need to rework the way we read the Old Testament.
I agree.
First of all to set your minds in the right direction ask your self this question. If 1-3 of the angels I. Heaven rebelled with and were cast out of heaven with satan where did they go? I believe right down here to the earth.
The sons of God always refers to angels. In the case if the flood I think the scriptural evidence is enough to surmise it is referring to fallen angels. The sons of God so the daughters of men and married who they chose.” I believe we are talking about an occursnce of an earth being populated with a hybrid race of half angel/half human beings who were probably depraved both by the nature of being parented by a fallen angel and part human. There is a reference to the nelherim which means the fallen and also mighty men of old. God just doesn’t decide one day to have a flood and flood the earth the next. He gives 120years for this horrific event to stop. It never did and but eventually the only family that has not had their human blood tainted is Noah and his family. That is why it says Noah was perfect in his generations. There was no mixing of angelic beings and humans in his blood line. God had to act. God had to do one important thing that if He had not done none of us would be here now experiencing grace. He had to protect the human blood line that’s generations would eventually lead to Jesus. The only way He could do this was to flood the earth and kill all the hybrids that being half human could experience death.
I think when Jesus says the end times will be like the days of Noah He is speaking about once again the human blood being tainted. Do a quick web search on transhumanism and the things scientist are standing on the threshhd of being able to do with the mixture of the DNA of different species. We must stop and at least ponder with so much emphasis on purity of blood and how precious humanity is to God do these ideas not at least seem pheasible?
Wendy,
Yes, I think you might be right about much of this, as well as the phrase about Noah being perfect in his generations. It is not about moral perfection (for who can be perfect), but about a clean bloodline not being polluted by the Sons of God or the Nephilim.
As to what will happen in the future, I hadn’t thought about the pollution of humanity with animal DNA, but I hesitate to say it is the exact same thing. Nevertheless, lots of this is kind of science-fiction speculation, and the best we can do is try to follow Jesus as best we can whatever is going on around us.
mixing mythology and scripture in Genesis has long been a way the enemy has used to discredit the entire biblical record. beginning with the LXX and the book of Enoch and now the NIV and some other translations which push this angels-human offspring = giants/monsters, (even 500′ ones who ate the people- 1 Enoch 6-7). Now the NOAH movie is out, and even he is not righteous. Propagate the natural reading of the account from a version true to the Hebrew (such as nkjv): godly men marrying women for their beauty producing a generation of ungodly “men of renown;” and lead people to scholarly sites where they can see what the Hebrew says and compare the Biblical basis for the various interpretations, such as Who Were The Nephilim, Genesis.6 & Numbers 13 A Fresh Look, by Bodie Hodge at Answers in Genesis.
Ecclesiastes 3:1 ¶ To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
2 A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
3 A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;
4 A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
5 A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
6 A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
7 A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
8 A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.
God is not either or. God is both. Jesus was the season of redemption. But the season of judgement is coming. This is so simple that to miss it one must do so on purpose.
The nephillim, or giants and monsters created by the Watchers or fallen angels were destroying mankind off the face fo the Earth. They were already destroying everything. God had to make an end of them, as well as the evil men and an women on the Earth. There reaches a point where God has to deal with you if you are not going to turn away from being truly evil. He says for US to love our brothers and sisters, yet we still have a right to defend ourselves. And let’s not put God on par with us, he is the supreme ruler of existence, not us. He alone has the right to judge HE says. If he had not destroyed these vile creatures, (which is what demons are), there would have been no one left. The stories of the flood around the world stand as a testament today of the validity and truth of the bible.
Find me as a 1970 graduate of Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary, Mequon WI. My interest is 6:13b, where I see -0- support for AiG, ICR etc. Re-Creation-ism. So I fault any eth/with interpretation (past a strict “with”) of “both…and” or “along with” the earth. Just now I’m told that variants might allow same without any intent to steer people toward “Catastrophic Plate Tectonics.” God says “destroy,” but a pre-Flood (imagined) supercontinent (AiG “Rodinia” vs. ICR “Pangea”) was merely fragmented, the pieces skating about at speed, in their story – where only pre-Flood ocean bottom dove into the mantle to make room for half our Globe’s surface crust Re-Created by miles-deep molten rock creating off-shore tectonic plate. I like eth = “with the help of” (Eve, 4:1) picture, God designating deep-mantle “pancakes” under deepest ocean to disobey his gravity law. Destruction applies only to humans “from the face of the earth.” The same in 2 Peter 3:6, with “ge/earth” in 3:5 & 7a, but “world” the same as John 3:16 and 2 Peter 2:5 & 20, world of people. Now to see if this old site is still being looked at, to get me a reply. You need to know God’s good reasons for the Turkey of today being exactly the topography Created 9,700 BP, and why God wanted a world flood leaving -0- “evidence” – except a bit at: Jerusalem Neolithic city. GLL