The Search for Noah’s Flood
Scientists are looking in the wrong place
Ronald S. Hendel
September 04, 2025
45 Comments
102062 views
Read “The Search for Noah’s Flood” by Ronald S. Hendel as it originally appeared in Bible Review, June 2003. —Ed.
Ronald Hendel
On my wall is a newspaper headline proclaiming, “Noah’s Ark Found in Pennsylvania! Scientist: Old Testament ship is buried in mountainside—and it looks exactly like the Bible says!” Slightly lower on the same page is another headline, “Kitty survives after being sucked into vacuum cleaner!” Now you know where I get most of my news about the Bible, once I finish my Bible Review.
Another headline about the flood has flickered on newspapers and TV in recent years. Two geologists at Columbia University made a splash when they announced that a massive flooding of the Black Sea 7,500 years ago may have been the origin of the biblical Flood legend. Shortly thereafter they published a book called Noah’s Flood about their theory.1 More recently a team of marine biologists has announced that there was no massive flooding of the Black Sea at that time, based on their study of the sediments in the sea floors of the region. So it seems that the headlines were premature. Noah’s Flood hasn’t been found in the Black Sea.
But let’s imagine that the first guys were right, and that there was a massive flooding of the Black Sea around 5500 B.C.E. What, if anything, does this have to do with Noah’s Flood?
Biblical scholars will tell you that the Flood Story in Genesis 6–9 (actually stories in the plural, since there are two versions woven together in these chapters)2 derives most directly not from an actual event, but from earlier stories. The earlier stories are from ancient Mesopotamia, best known from the Gilgamesh Epic (Standard Babylonian version, c. 1100 B.C.E.) and the Atrahasis Epic (Old Babylonian, c. 1700 B.C.E.).3 In these stories we learn of a wise man named Atrahasis (later known as Utnapishtim) whom the god Enki saves from a cosmic flood by commanding him to build an ark, put all animal species on it, and save himself and his family. The ark eventually lands on a mountain called Mt. Nimush, which has been identified with Pir Omar Gudrun, an impressive mountain in the Kurdish region of Iraq, northeast of Kirkuk. (Our marines probably have a couple of Humvees parked by this mountain around now.)
The biblical versions of this older story name the flood hero Noah, but many of the details are reminiscent of the Mesopotamian story. In his classic commentary on Genesis, E.A. Speiser concludes, “It is clear that Hebrew tradition must have received its material from some intermediate … source, and that it proceeded to adjust the data to its own needs and concepts.”4 One adjustment was to relocate the mountain where the Ark lands to a higher mountain range to the north, “the mountains of Ararat” (Genesis 8:4) in eastern Turkey. The highest of these mountains is today called Mt. Ararat, and it is nearly 17,000 feet high.
If we wanted to find the flood that gave rise to the legend of Noah’s Flood, it seems to me that we should look for a big flood in northern Mesopotamia, not one in the Black Sea. And, indeed, there is archaeological evidence for many local floods in ancient Mesopotamia, since the Tigris and Euphrates rivers occasionally flood. Even a relatively small flood can be catastrophic if it kills many people in your village, and from this local trauma a story can grow and grow, until it takes on cosmic proportions. (Compare how a battle for a Late Bronze Age city in western Anatolia became Homer’s Trojan War, in which even the Greek gods are locked in battle.)
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Many cultures have flood stories, and it is no coincidence that many cultures suffer from local floods. It is more compelling to connect these phenomena than to appeal to the melting of the Ice Age glaciers or a hypothetical flooding of the Black Sea. Stories happen. Even stories enshrined in the Bible. The best stories, of course, are a vehicle for profound insights into our relation to the world, each other, and God (or, for the Old Babylonians among us, the gods). The biblical story of Noah’s Flood is an exemplary and immortal narrative in this respect. Even if it didn’t happen, it’s a true story.
“The Search for Noah’s Flood” by Ronald S. Hendel originally appeared in Bible Review, June 2003. The article was first republished in Bible History Daily on March 26, 2014.
Notes
1. William Ryan and Walter Pitman, Noah’s Flood: The New Scientific Discoveries About the Event That Changed History (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1999).
2. Richard E. Friedman, Who Wrote the Bible? (New York: Harper & Row, 1987), pp. 53–60.
3. See the recent translations of Stephanie Dalley, Myths from Mesopotamia (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998); and Andrew George, The Epic of Gilgamesh (New York: Penguin, 2000).
4. E.A. Speiser, Genesis (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1964), p. 55. See also the superb essay of William L. Moran, “A Mesopotamian Myth and Its Biblical Transformation,” in Moran, The Most Magic Word: Essays on Babylonian and Biblical Literature, ed. Ronald S. Hendel (Washington, DC: Catholic Biblical Association, 2002), pp. 59–74.
Related reading in Bible History Daily
The Animals Went in Two by Two, According to Babylonian Ark Tablet
Video: The Exodus as Cultural Memory: Poetics, Politics and the Past
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Turkey as location loses it weight in light of gen 11v1 points to Iran.
Turkey as local was famed by Neros mother another catholic scam same thing with mt Sinai Rome put it in the traditional setting st Katherine’s etc. apostle Paul galatians 4v25 puts it in Arabia jabal alawz.
Just for the record, the purpose of the Bible is to illustrate “how Man goes” rather than “How goes Man”.
To Joe: if you read the Bible in Hebrew, check out Genesis 8:4. It clearly mentions the mountains of Arrarat. Where those mountains are is anyone’s guess.
to Paul: Two months ago, fresh water springs were located beneath the ocean floor. It was reported in the news. Probably the source of the water of the deep which erupted prior and during the flood of Noah.
To those who think the ark was round: please read the text. It gives the dimensions in cubits. Clearly not a circle.
I agree with Stephen Ray, they physical evidence of the flood is world wide. I also agree with Pip! How can the findings in Turkey not be considered?
I find the cat in the vacuum cleaner the most credible. Keep looking though, God will choose what to reveal in His time, for His purpose and in His way.
Dear Sirs,
I strongly disagree with the overall views of this article. I have looked extensively at the Noah Flood Story evaluating it from the perspective of whether it is a True Narrative Representation or a myth, legend, or fable. I have concluded that it is a true eye witness account. Using the criteria of Dr John Oller, a linguistics expert, it conforms to the requirements of Determinancy, Continuity, and Generalizability necessary to be considered a True Narrative Representation. For Determinancy it uses ancient word forms (nouns, verbs) that a person would have used for descriptions of an event actually experienced. For Continuity it has a sequential time line and various ancient word constructs that tie it together as a single unit; and for Generalizability studies in biology, geology, and anthropology support the concept of a worldwide flood. Thus the Biblical Account is not a derivative of a Mesopotamian flood story and nor is it a local flood event. It is a true eye witness account of a worldwide flood in which a man, Noah, and his family are saved, in a boat, from a flood that covered the entire earth. Support for this view can be found in a dissertation I wrote for Trinity Southwest University in 2012 titled “Evaluation of the Noah Flood Account as a True Narrative Representation”. It is 500 pages in length. It can be found online at: http://www.DefendingtheChristianFaith.org. There many other sites that support a worldwide flood including Creation Ministries International and Answers In Genesis.
God Bless,
John G Leslie PhD, MD, PhD
Personally I welcome the film, anything that draws attention to our faith is good, let’s get people talking and discussing Christianity. As to authenticity, well all we have is the Bible, the written inspired word of God, we either believe it or we don’t, if we don’t, then we bring the whole of the Bible into doubt. If we believe that Christ was the Son of God, God incarnate, fully human and fully God, he must have known the truth. Jesus as fully God believed in ( or knew the facts) the flood of Noah’s time, so what, we call Him a liar? The question we must ask, is not about the technical authenticity of the film, but why did the real event happen, then we must look at our lives and ask, would we have been on the Ark or among the millions that perished?
The above article is less than encouraging about the even and fails miserably in making an objective assessment of the flood event. The article leans heavily on the Gilgamesh Epic as the root of the story, has not Mr. Hendel heard of the recent discovery (from a store room) of a much earlier account, which is almost word for word of the Bible telling. I do wonder if BAC sets out to debunk the bible rather than impartial investigation into the biblical events and places. Just because the world fails to believe, why must we agree?
Agree with the most of the posters here: BAC should be supporting articles that demonstrate the validity of the Bible account, and not authors/archaeologists who are clearly biased against it, or who think it’s something to be deconstructed.
That’s not to say they should follow the equally biased agenda of the extreme right or any single interpretation of scripture. E.g., the Hebrew “ereth” means earth, but it can also mean the land. Therefore, a catastrophic flood in and around ancient Mesopotamia *could* be indicated in the Genesis account and still represent it faithfully. That’s not being stated dogmatically, but rather it’s the kind of debate I’d prefer to see rather than the clichéd and pointless “Did Noah’s flood originate with the Babylonians?”
John, I was onboard with everything you were saying until you cited the website you wrote for, a site that claims that “homosexuality is a treatable gender-role disorder.” You should think twice before aligning yourself with the hate-mongering false-Christian bigoted crowd. The right-wing modern Pharisees do NOT represent Christians (even if they have given rise to the hate-mongering new-atheist and anti-theist movement).
Was the Flood of Noah’s Day Really Global?
The Noachian Flood occurred more than 4,000 years ago. So there are no eyewitness survivors on earth to tell us about it. However, there is a written record of that catastrophe, which states that the floodwaters covered the tallest mountain of that time.
The historical document reads: “The deluge went on for forty days upon the earth . . . And the waters overwhelmed the earth so greatly that all the tall mountains that were under the whole heavens came to be covered. Up to fifteen cubits [about 22 feet [6.5 m]] the waters overwhelmed them and the mountains became covered.”—Genesis 7:17-20.
Some may wonder if the story of the whole earth being covered with water is a myth or at least an exaggeration. Not at all! Indeed, to some extent the earth is still flooded. Seawater covers about 71 percent of the earth’s surface. So in reality the floodwaters are still here. And if the glaciers and polar ice caps were to melt, the sea level would rise to cover cities like New York and Tokyo.
Geologists studying the landscape of the northwestern United States believe that as many as 100 ancient catastrophic floods once washed over the area. One such flood is said to have roared through the region with a wall of water 2,000 feet [600 m] high, traveling at 65 miles an hour [105 km/hr]—a flood of 500 cubic miles [2,000 cu km] of water, weighing more than two trillion tons. Similar findings have led other scientists to believe that a global flood is a distinct possibility.
For those who believe that the Bible is God’s Word, though, a global flood is more than a possibility. It is a fact. Jesus said to God: “Your word is truth.” (John 17:17) The apostle Paul wrote that God’s will is that “all sorts of men should be saved and come to an accurate knowledge of truth.” (1 Timothy 2:3, 4) How could Paul teach followers of Jesus the doctrinal truth if God’s Word contains myths?
Not only did Jesus believe that the Flood took place but he also believed that it was global. In his great prophecy about his presence and the end of this system of things, he likened those events to the time of Noah. (Matthew 24:37-39) The apostle Peter also wrote about the floodwaters in Noah’s day: “By those means the world of that time suffered destruction when it was deluged with water.”—2 Peter 3:6.
If Noah was a mythical figure and a global flood a fable, the warnings of Peter and Jesus for those living in the last days would be meaningless. Instead of serving as a warning, such ideas would befuddle a person’s spiritual senses and endanger his chances of surviving a tribulation greater than the Noachian Flood.—2 Peter 3:1-7.
In speaking about his abiding mercies for his people, God said: “Just as I have sworn that the waters of Noah shall no more pass over the earth, so I have sworn that I will not become indignant toward you nor rebuke you.” As surely as the Noachian Flood did overwhelm the earth, so God’s loving-kindness will be with those trusting in him.—Isaiah 54:9.
https://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/1200272195
https://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/1200001150
Ps 29:10 (footnote). By sitting upon “the deluge,” or “heavenly ocean,” Jehovah indicates that he is in full control of his power.
Why does Biblical Archeology have such lame articles?
Why is it so hard for Christians to believe in the sciences. Because science adds information to the Bible, it doesn’t make the Bible untrue. I believe the Bible is the Word of God, but I also believe that science adds to my knowledge of what the Bible writers said. Science helps me to understand how and what and why the events of the Bible occured. We don’t have to be blinded by ignorance of the world around us in order to believe completely in the Word of God, the Bible. I believe that science enhances my knowledge of the Holy Word and helps me to grow in my faith.