Brad Alles

When someone reads the beginning of the Bible, the first events are Creation in Genesis chapters 1-2, the Fall into Sin in chapter 3, the first murder in chapter 4, and the genealogy of the descendants of Adam to Noah in chapter 5. Following these chapters is the Flood account in chapters 6-9. The world had become so sinful that God had to put an end to mankind and start over with Noah and his family. Why was it “Judgment Day” for all humanity except Noah? Because in Genesis 6:5 it says, “The LORD saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time.” Yet Genesis 6:9 says Noah “was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God.”

Emphasizing the reality of this historical event, Jesus spoke about the Flood in Matthew 24:38-39 and in Luke 17:26-27, as did the writer of Hebrews 11:7 and Peter in 2 Peter 2:5 and 3:5-6. While there are many references for Noah and the Flood in the Bible, there are many references to a worldwide deluge in the annals of history outside the Bible all over the planet. There are over 270 Flood accounts today on all the continents, some with amazing details from the account in Genesis 6-9, which happens to be the longest and most detailed account of all. However, these various versions, with their subtle changes, are best explained as people retold the event, yet lost or changed some of the details as the story was handed down. The following are some examples from around the globe.

The Hawaiians tell of one good man and his family who survived a flood that covered the whole earth that killed all the wicked people. The man’s name was Nu-u and he built a great canoe with a house on it and filled it with animals. The Chinese have a similar account, but is more specific. The man’s name was Fuhi, and he alone survived a flood that covered the highest mountains on the earth with his wife, three sons and three daughters (not the three son’s wives as the Bible states in Genesis 7:13). In a Chinese temple’s painting depicting Fuhi’s flood, a dove with an olive branch in its beak is flying toward the boat, just as the Bible stated in Genesis 8:10. The Toltecs of Mexico state that the world lasted 1716 years before being destroyed by a worldwide flood that covered even the highest mountains. (Their time-span of 1716 years fits the biblical genealogy from Genesis 5.) A few people survived in a “closed chest.” Afterward, the people had families and began building a huge tower in case of another flood. However, the language became confused so people wandered from there to other parts of the world. (Gee, sounds like the Tower of Babel to me from Genesis 11:1-9! By the way, there are nine other accounts like this on the planet similar to the Tower of Babel. ) The Toltecs claim they started from seven friends and their wives who spoke the same language and traveled together until they settled in southern Mexico, 520 years after the Flood.

Why should we bother to know these accounts? Because they verify the Bible as true—the truth fits the facts, corresponding to the evidence we have. Here are over 270 stories from across the planet telling the same account—the event of a worldwide flood, where all perished except the inhabitants of a boat. Coincidence? Hardly! Did all of these cultures just happen to come up with similar stories? Or did the event really happen, and people later told the story, altering parts or omitting details as time went on? What other event do we find repeated hundreds of times with such detail?