Was the Flood Universal?

Most people are familiar with the story of Noah and the ark, having learnt it in childhood. We took it for granted that the flood was universal -- covering the highest mountains on earth. We also took for granted that the only survivors were Noah, his family and a host of animals they took into the ark.

This basic story is known by billions of people and is included in the sacred writings of Christians, Jews and Muslims. However, what we have generally believed about the Flood may not be what really happened!

Was the Flood universal -- covering the entire planet? Or was it regional, involving human and animal life in one specific land or country? Naturally, there are dedicated Christians on both sides of this question, and each side has its enthusiastic defenders, arguments, strengths and weaknesses. But when all the evidence is in, the bulk of the evidence favors Noah's Flood as being REGIONAL -- not universal.

A correct understanding of Noah's Flood boils down to a correct understanding of the original Hebrew of the Old Testament. There are key words that have been mistranslated by the Bible translators -- and these key words can profoundly alter the truth about the Flood, the ark and the early civilizations that were flourishing shortly after the Flood waters abated.

Fausset's Expository Bible Encyclopedia comments that the difficulties that surround a universal flood "make a partial one probable;" while the scholarly and detailed Hasting's Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics clearly notes that "the belief in a universal Deluge has long been abandoned by well-informed writers." Will you be well-informed -- both Biblically and scientifically? -- JDK.