Only Eight Survivors of Noah's Flood?
At least two different verses of the Bible clearly state that there were eight,
and only eight, survivors of Noah's flood.
Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God
waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing wherein few,
that is, eight souls were saved by water. - I Pet. 3:20 (KJV)
For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to
hell... And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth, a
preacher of righteousness, bringing the flood upon the world of the
ungodly... - II Pet. 2:4-5 (KJV)
Most people have been taught the eight people who survived the flood
were: Noah, his wife, his three sons and their wives. If we look at all this in
more detail, however, another possibility might just come to the surface.
First, if we notice, I Peter 3:20 mentions these eight in the terms of "souls"
- why? The other mentions "Noah the eighth" - the eighth what? What is
going on here? Could these "eight" possibly refer to something else,
something specific - a specific type of soul, perhaps?(1)
The Bible references itself as a book of a specific generation, or family
line, of people:
This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God
created man, in the likeness of God made he him.
- Gen. 5:1 (KJV)
The Bible clearly states that it is a book about the life of the man Adam,
and his future generations. It does not mean that those from any other
group of people are not significant, however; or don't matter! It simply is
trying to show an account of this man's formation, all the way down his
subsequent generations, to what would be Jesus Christ, and his mark on
the world - this first Adam down to the "last Adam"(see I Cor. 15:45).
Since we now know the Bible calls itself, for the most part, this story of
the descendants of Adam, it's also possible that the above two verses are
indeed are telling us the truth: they are just referring to eight souls - eight
Adamic souls (eight souls from Adam's generation)![2] In other words,
only eight people were saved who had this chosen seed line of Adam.
Interestingly enough, the Bible states that Noah was "perfect" in his
generations (Gen. 6:9). Now, what does that mean? It probably means he
was from this special seed of Adam and Eve, and that's it.[3] His bloodline
was not compromised by the genes of Cain, the Nephilim, or the Watchers.
Also, after the flood, ancient sources stated that Noah built a city. The
name of this city was Themanon - "City of the Eight." Yet, some ancient
Arabs of the day made known this city as the "City of the Eighty."[4]
Could there have been more survivors to the flood - perhaps up to eighty
individuals? If there were just eight souls as the descendants of Adam
aboard, could the possibility be that others who didn't have this direct seed
were allowed on, too?
As we know, from "Birds" and "Beasts", there could have been up to five
groups of people on the earth at this time; beyond those of Adam. There
could have been the Chay (beasts) of the Field, the Owph (fowl) of the
Air, the Bahemah, the Remes (creeping thing) that Creepeth, as well as
other Adamites. Could members of these groups be allowed to board the
ark?
Gen. 7:
13 In the selfsame day entered Noah, and Shem, and Ham, and Japheth,
the sons of Noah, and Noah's wife, and the three wives of his sons
with them, into the ark;
14 They, and every beast (i.e. Chay) of the Field after his kind, and all
the cattle (i.e. Bahemah) after their kind, and every creeping thing
(i.e. Remes) that Creepeth on the earth after his kind, and every
fowl (i.e. Owph) of the Air after his kind, every bird of every sort.
15 And they went in unto Noah into the ark... wherein is the breath
of life.
Traditionally, people thought this referred to Noah, and the groupings of
animals aboard the ark. We notice, however, that the verses mention the
Owph (fowl) of the Air and the birds separately. Why? If the two names
both stood for birds only, then why separate the two? Why - unless the
Fowl of the Air could have been a specific name for a group of individuals
- another group of individuals that were not birds?
Also, the term "breath of life" doesn't necessarily only mean that these
animals were alive - they had to be alive; or else Noah wouldn't have
brought them on board the ark! This term, in the Bible, could also stand
for those who had a "spirit" of a certain kind. Could the Bible be talking
about people, here - those with a specific type of spirit? The verses were
already talking about Noah and his family in verse 13. Obviously, there
were no other of the Adamite group mentioned; just the other four. Could
verse 14 and 15 be just an extension of this list of human beings going
aboard the ark - those with the human spirit?
We'll see these same four groups, again and again, as going aboard, and
surviving on Noah's ark; as well as how they are all of this specific type of
spirit:
Gen. 7:
22 All in whose nostrils was the breath of life, of all that was in the dry
land, died.
23 And every living substance was destroyed which was upon the face
of the ground, both man (Adamites), and cattle (Bahemah), and the
creeping things (Remes), and the fowl (Owph) of the Heaven; and they
were destroyed from the earth: and Noah only remained alive, and
they that were with him in the ark.
One might ask: why make these verses so complex, anyway; if we're only
talking about Noah's human family and a bunch of animals? Isn't it much
easier for the Bible to exclaim that "Noah's family and a bunch of animals
went aboard the ark," or that "all humans and animals died who were not
aboard?" Why continually mention these same groups, in the same way (as
was also done during the Six-Day Creation of Genesis, Chap. 1)? Why
mention these groups as more of a proper name; rather than just
generalizing "Noah's family" and "animals?"
Another thing that may begin to perplex the reader, now, is: if the flood
truly destroyed all of the rest of the human beings on earth, then how did
the mixed offspring of the fallen, terrestrial angels (i.e. the giants) survive
the flood? How did the Cainites survive? The Bible mentions both as
having lived after.
And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak (i.e. the Anakim), which
come of the giants (i.e. the Nephilim): and we were in their sight as
grasshoppers... - Num. 13:33 (KJV)
...So the Kenites (a.k.a. Cainites) departed from among the Amalekites.
- I Sam. 15:6 (KJV)
How did these descendants of the Nephilim (i.e. the Anakim) lived after
the flood, if they were all destroyed?[5] There are even a number of these
post-flood giants mentioned by name: (Og, Sihon, etc. (in Deut. 3:11, Josh.
13:12, Num. 32:33, etc.). There are ancient sources which even state that
these two - Og and Sihon - were in existence before the flood.
Many of us know of the giant Goliath, who was among those giants
plaguing the children of Israel, since the flood. How could this happen - if
all of them were destroyed? Could more of these antediluvian human
beings - those with that human "breath of life" - have been allowed onto
Noah's ark, at this same time?
And, also, could a number of these same antediluvian individuals, existing
before the flood, have begun to gone astray again, after; to make their own
mark on this new, post-flood world? Could many have continued on, with
much of the deviant knowledge and influences their antediluvian world
ancestors could have given them; and brought it all over to Babylon, and
beyond? Legacy of Nimrod could tell us more.
Footnotes:
[1] Book of the Glory of Kings (Kerba Nagast), 8. Concerning the Flood, trans. Sir. E. A.
Wallis Budge (London: Humphrey Milford, 1932).
[2] Saltair na Rann, 2433-6, 2513-6, trans. David Greene; Were there any pre adamic humans
in the ark?, 2, http://www.truebiblecode.com/understanding238.html (accessed Sept. 7, 2005).
[3] The Companion Bible, Appendix 26 (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Kregel Publications, 1990),
28.
[4] The Book of the Bee, Chapter 20: Of Noah and the Flood, trans. Earnest A. Wallis Budge,
M. A., http://www.sacred-texts.com/chr/bb/bb20.htm (accessed Oct. 10, 2004); Armenian
Apocrypha Relating to Adam and Eve, Question 10 (notes), trans. Michael E. Stone (Leiden: E.
J. Brill, 1996), 122; The Book of the Cave of Treasures, The Third Thousand Years, From the
Flood to the Reign of Reu, Noah Founds Themanon, The City of the “Eight.” (and notes),
trans. Sir E. A. Wallis Budge (London: The Religious Tract Society, 1927), 116-18; The History
of al-Tabari – Volume I: General Introduction and From the Creation to the Flood, The Events
That Took Place in Noah’s Time, 196, trans. Franz Rosenthal (Albany: New York Press, 1989),
366.
[5] The Zohar, Volume 1, Beresheet A, Section 20. The five types of the mixed multitude, 231,
http://www2.kabbalah.com/k/index.php/p=zohar/zohar&vol=2&sec=41 (accessed Feb. 24,
2010); Josh. 14:12.
Copyright 2010, Brett T., All Rights Reserved