Monthly Archives: October 2023

Session 024: Genesis 8:18 – 9:17: God’s Covenant with Noah: Traditional Thought

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Class OverviewClass ResourcesClass Discussion Points
This week we now move into the events after the flood. We will start with Genesis Chapter 8:18 and go through Genesis 9:17. We could probably study just this passage for five or six weeks. We will just spend three weeks. I strongly encourage you to dive into your own rabbit holes as you study this passage. There are tangential aspects of the story that can be found all over the place

  • Genesis 8:18 through 9:17

    Text from The Bible Gateway starting with Chapter 9

    Genesis 9

  • Scripture Audio:

    Presented as dramatizations from The Bible Gateway

    Genesis 8 Audio
    Genesis 9 Audio

  • Suggested Study Resources

    The following three resources should be helpful. Of course feel free to chase down any study rabbit holes and you want to chase. This is your deep dive in the Word.

  • The Bible Project – The Covenants

    This is a short 5 minute video overviewing the covenants of the Bible.

    Web Site Link
    Audio Download

  • Noahide Commands and the Covenant of Noah

    This Interesting Idea on the sacrifice after the flood. Was the sacrifice a Thank Offering or was it an offering to pacify God’s Wrath? [NOTE: requires free account with academia.org]

    Article Link

  • The Noahic Covenant – A New Beginning

    45 minute sermon on the Noah Covenant. This is what might be considered an old style sermon. It includes an interpretation of the flood and the covenant that focuses on the value of life.

    Web Page with Transcript
    Audio Download

  • EXTRA CREDIT ARTICLES:

    If you want to dive deeper into this scripture, I have found a few resources that take different views of this scripture passage. They are worth your time.

    Nature of the Covenant with Noah in Genesis 6:18

    This is a detailed review of the convenant(s) within the story of Noah. Are there two covenants? This is a deep dive into the covenant. Uses text from books outside of the protestant Bible. From academia.org which requires a free account to be created.

    Article Link

    Digging Deeper into Scripture: Genesis 9

    This is a relatively short article that brings up a few interesting ideas about the covenant.

    Web Link

    GENESIS 9 – GOD’S COVENANT WITH NOAH AND CREATION – David Guzik

    A very expositorial study of the story of the covenant with Noah. This one is well worth your time.

    Web Link
    Video Link
    Audio Download

  1. Did Noah present an offering, or a sacrifice?
  2. Was there one covenant, or two?
  3. What was the important meaning behind the covenant?
    1. …from God’s perspective?
    2. …from Noah’s perspective?
  4. What intended (or unintended) consequences came from God stating that meat could be eaten?
  5. What do you find from the concept of blood being the implied source of life? … what about the accounting when a life is taken?
  6. Was the covenant with Noah? … or with Noah and his sons?
  7. What do you think of the animals now being fearful of humans?

Session 023: Genesis 6:9 – 8:22: Noah and the Flood – Looking at Bio questions.

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This week will be our last look at the Noah and floor narrative. We will be focusing on the biological aspects of the story. While on one hand you may be thinking, why bother. This is one of the areas that is the most contentious with non-believers. Having a cursory knowledge of some of these concepts will be a value to not only our own knowledge and understanding of the issues at hand, but should also prove beneficial when we have conversations with those that believe that the biological stories in Genesis are problematic.

  • Genesis 6:9 through 8:22

    Text from The Bible Gateway starting with Chapter 6

    Genesis 6

  • Scripture Audio:

    Presented as dramatizations from The Bible Gateway

    Genesis 6 Audio
    Genesis 7 Audio
    Genesis 8 Audio

  • Suggested Study Resources

    The following four resources should be helpful. Of course feel free to chase down any study rabbit holes and you want to chase. This is your deep dive in the Word.

  • Were Humans Alive During Pangea?

    One of the questions brought up was if humans were alive when the single continent Pangea existed. The following very short article provides an answer.

    Link

  • Did We All Come from Adam and Eve? | Answers in Genesis

    The next question to look at is the plausibility that we all came from Adam and Eve.

    Link

  • Science moves closer to Adam and Eve? – Richard Buggs

    We will also look at some new thoughts on the possibility of Adam and Eve being the source for all human genomes.

    Link

    This is a link to the associated video that goes with the article. It is recommended viewing.

    Video Link

  • EXTRA CREDIT ARTICLES:

    The following three resources will each take you down a unique view of the Noah story. Enjoy.

    What Became of the Genetic Challenge to Adam and Eve?

    This article shows in some ways how wrongheaded some of the philosophy of the required minimum of a population of 10,000 being required for a viable genome, and even opened up some more scientific possibilities. This is still real science that has real merit as well. Drew finds this view to be most plausible. It places Adam and Eve at a bottleneck where the population they could have come out of was plausibly < 2000, and they could have not interbred with anyone else and we would still have the genome that we do today. The caveat was that it would have to be > 500k years ago. The thing is though, william lane craig makes it clear from other evidence excluding genetics that “humans” as we think of them were living at least that long ago.

    Article Link
    Video Link

    Why Do Cains Descendants Show After Flood

    One of the constant questions relates to the idea f why we see Cain’s descendants after the flood and even see the Nephilim. The following article can be useful in that discussion.

    Article Link:

This week we will discuss how the issues of population and biological diversity play into the biological arguments around the creation story and the Flood narrative.

Session 022: Genesis 6:9 – 8:22: Noah and the Flood – Looking at the Water

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We are going to continue our look at the Flood story this week. Our focus this week is going to be on the water. This is a particularly touchy subject for just about everyone. The search for suitable resources particularly troublesome, primarily because it is so difficult to find discussions that do not include hyperbole or exaggerated assumptions on the positions outside of the one being touted. This is precisely why it is a subject that Christians need to be versed in. We need to be able to have these conversations with others. We also need to be able to adequately support our own internal beliefs on the subject.

  • Genesis 6:9 through 8:22

    Text from The Bible Gateway starting with Chapter 6

    Genesis 6

  • Scripture Audio:

    Presented as dramatizations from The Bible Gateway

    Genesis 6 Audio
    Genesis 7 Audio
    Genesis 8 Audio

  • Suggested Study Resources

    The following four resources should be helpful. Of course feel free to chase down any study rabbit holes and you want to chase. This is your deep dive in the Word.

  • List of Flood Myths

    Our first resource is not intended for a literal read. It does provide us with a rather long list of flood stories from cultures around the globe. Just understanding how many stories are out there (even if some are just two sentences long) is valuable. This list can be found at the Wikipedia page:

    Link

  • Why Does Nearly Every Culture Have a Tradition of a Global Flood?

    Our second resource is a very short read. It is interesting because it performs some simplistic statistical analysis of the various flood stories that is rather interesting. Sadly, even though it is interesting, it’s proposed answer to its own question is not really backed with much evidence other than its own circular logic.

    Link

  • Do Creation and Flood Myths Found World Wide Have a Common Origin?

    Our third resource is a rather long read. It is from the web site academia.edu (free account required) and makes an argument as to why the Biblical Creation and Flood stories should be included in our educational systems. In making the argument, Jerry Bergman does a decent job at comparing and contrasting the Biblical versions of these stories with many of the popular myths covering the same story-lines. If you have time, I found this to be one of the more balanced arguments for this cause tan I usually run across.

    Link

  • Yes, Noah’s Flood May Have Happened, But Not Over the Whole Earth

    When looking for decent arguments for or against the topic of The Flood covering the globe or a localized flood; good articles become very few ad far between. The following resource provides a compelling scientific case for a localized flood within the Mesopotamian region. I strongly suggest that you read this one.

    Link

  • EXTRA CREDIT ARTICLES:

    The following three resources will each take you down a unique view of the Noah story. Enjoy.

    Ancient Flood Stories and the Noah Account

    Link

    Exegetical Importance of Comparative Culture in the Context of Genesis Flood Narrative

    Article Link:

    A NEW LOOK AT THE THEOLOGICAL BACKGROUND OF THE MESOPOTAMIAN AND BIBLICAL FLOOD STORIES

    Article Link

Here are the broad ‘water’ issues that should be thought of and discussed this week.

  • Why are there a huge number of flood stories found around the globe?
    • What does that imply?
    • Are they unique or derivative works?
  • Is the flood coverage over the ‘known’ world, or the entire globe?
    • Is there a scientific argument for a localized flood that appears to be world-wide?
    • What are the arguments for a global flood?

Session 021: Genesis 6:9 – 8:22: Noah and the Flood: Eastern and Jewish Perspective

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We are going to continue our deep dive into the story of Noah. we will be looking at the story from the Eastern/Jewish perspective. When doing so, one of the items that will probably surprise you, is how quickly many of the items wihtin the story that brother Western readers greatly, quickly falls away. In many cases, they were intentionally placed there.

  • Genesis 6:9 through 8:22

    Text from The Bible Gateway starting with Chapter 6

    Genesis 6

  • Scripture Audio:

    Presented as dramatizations from The Bible Gateway

    Genesis 6 Audio
    Genesis 7 Audio
    Genesis 8 Audio

  • The BEMA Discipleship Podcast: E4: His Bow in the Clouds

    Our main resource for this week is going to be a session from the BEMA Discipleship podcast. It will definately plant seeds for several possible rabbit holes for you to head down. There is also a good chance that you will never look at the story of Noah and the Flood the same way ever again. Yes, these insights are that unique and powerful.

    Podcast Transcript Link
    Podcast Link
    MP3 Download Link

  • EXTRA CREDIT ARTICLES:

    The following three resources will each take you down a unique view of the Noah story. Enjoy.

    Noah’s Repetition and Contradiction

    A quick look at the repetition and contradictions within the Noah story. This touches on the concept of an ‘E’ version and ‘J’ version of the writings in the old testement. This is something that our class will look into in more detail in the near future (much like we looked at the idea of canonization while looking at the Book of Enoch). For now, this is just wetting your appetite for wonderful gems to come.

    Link

    Genesis and the Flood: Understanding the Biblical Story

    A good thought process on how to interpret Genesis from a Western view. A good ballance with what we heard from the BEMA podcast.

    Article Link:

    The Story of Noah and the Ark in the Bible

    Read this one to the end. The last section ‘Deluge of Purity’ is an interesting perspective that will probably be completely new to you.

    Article Link

As we look at this story as seen from the perspective of our Jewish bretheren, look closely for the following items.

  • How much symetry there is between the creation story and the story of the flood.
    • An interesting person study would be to write down the items between the two stories that are similar. You will be surprised.
  • What is unique about the covenent between God and Noah after the flood. This is absolutely beautiful.
  • How does God show restraint in the flood story (and due to the symetry, also in the creation story [that we didn’t see before])
  • After tying in the Chiasm wrapped in the Jewsih thought process and the uniqueness of this covenent, what are your thoughts now about this idea of God ‘remembering’?

Write them down. These are the things we want to ponder over the next few weeks. With one of the main questions being; does it matter?