I am an orthodox Christian, ask me a question!

[Jon Paul]

where does this leave Noah's flood?

Where it leaves it? Exactly where it is.

Let's take a look at what is really going on in the Biblical account of a global flood. It is a classic apocalyptic symbolism. Because man has sinned against God, there has been a global apocalypse as a consequence of God's wrath, which is necessary for the purification of the race.

The symbol of a global apocalypse is a constant in human history, and it arises particularly in times of great existential unrest. And so today we have widespread belief in a global apocalypse under many secular guises. Nuclear annihilation, global warming, etc. Both Marxism and Naziism are secularized (immanentized) versions of classic religious apocalyptic in which it was necessary to bring about a great purging of humanity through violence and terror. Hitler wanted to burn all of Germany to the ground, in advance of the Allied invasion. By burning the Jews, he was simply being true to his apocalyptic madness.

With the latest, most popular version, global warming, we are consistently told that we have 10 years, no more, no less, to repent of our sins against the planet or risk extinction. But if we put our faith in Al Gore he will save us. He will save us by destroying our capacity to produce wealth, and have us all living as monks.

So the question of whether or not Noah's flood actually covered every inch of the earth or not is patently irrelevant and irrational, since it entirely misses the theological symbolism inherent in the story.

If your question is whether I interpret the events that occured between the Patriarchs and God, such as Noah and the Flood, to be local or global, historical or symbolical/mythical, then the answer is a combination of all four, in a potent combination to create a truly universal conveyance of truth.

The myths about floods in numerous, indeed countless, nearly all other cultures seem to represent the essential universality of the flood and truth in the story in perhaps both a historical and allegorical sense, and numerous of the myths contain even the same elements as Noahs Ark, that man and wife are warned by a god to get into a boat and ride out a storm that will wipe out the rest of humanity (or most of humanity). They bring animals and plants and so forth into the boat with them.

All these numerous floods recorded mythically, orally, etc, are in many cases actual floods that have occured, both single floods in single areas, and major floods in major areas, though focusing strictly on the historicity misses the point. Many of them may be tied to a global temperature rise from 8000 years ago, which is around the time before the Black Sea was formed, that caused the sea levels to rise dramatically, causing many separate, local flooding events, and subsequently many different flooding mythologies, and a global flooding experience. In that context, some have tried to tie Noahs Flood with the specific event of the formation of the Black Sea, which is a speculation that may have some merits, as the flood story says the flood ends upon the lands of Ararat. But I don't think it's central to the story if one focuses on it sheerly for historical details. Literalism is missing the point, as is literalist historicism. "The scriptures were written to show us how to go to heaven, not how the heavens go" (St. Augustine of Hippo)

But there are enough floods, and it would only be strange if there were none in the lands where the people whom the God of the Bible entered into a covenant with resided.

The flood in Noahs story describes exactly that; that a flood came upon the lands the people of God were residing in. The entire world that knew the one True God was flooded, and cleansed, saved through water as in a baptism, in the image of 1 Peter 3, of being saved through this water of the flood and of calamity. And indeed the significance for salvation history globally is signified in that the story of the flood is about the people who knew the one God and the people elected by God for the covenent, the Apostle to the World. And obviously the eventuality of a flood is also a global experience, as seen in all the oral and mythic traditions across the world.

So the flood is both global and local, and both literal and symbolical/mythical, because the literal flood would be of no point without the symbolical point or the intent with conveying it. It would be just an empty anecdote, which is exactly not what the bible is.

So please, let's not beg the question of a narrow, evangelical sola-scriptura literalist interpretation, which squeezes the soul out of the scriptures. I advocate a perspective much like that of G.K. Chesterton about the truth of the mythic.