(April 25, 2015 at 4:05 pm)Iroscato Wrote:(April 25, 2015 at 1:29 pm)Wyrd of Gawd Wrote: The Noah story is just a damn fairy tale. If you think the world was completely flooded with water fifteen feet over the tallest mountain go for it. And if you think that the Earth is the oldest object in the universe have a six pack.
Of course it is, but I think Nestor meant 'where are you getting this interpretation from?' I've never heard the flood be used as a metaphor like that before, only that it's rooted in localised flooding in areas, which to the people living there would indeed have felt like the end of the world.
The flood story as a metaphor for war is obvious if one reads the story and understands how the words are used.
For one thing the word flood is used to signify an irresistible force.
A flood metaphor is used in 2 Samuel 5:20 (CEV)
20 David attacked the Philistines and defeated them. Then he said, “I watched the Lord break through my enemies like a mighty flood.” So he named the place “The Lord Broke Through. “
In 2 Samuel 22:5 (NKJV) = “When the waves of death surrounded me, The floods of ungodliness made me afraid.
In 2 Kings 21;16 (CJB) = Moreover, M’nasheh shed so much innocent blood that he flooded Yerushalayim from one end to the other — this in addition to his sin through which he caused Y’hudah to sin by doing what is evil from Adonai’s perspective.
In Matthew 7:25 (RSVCE) the writer uses a couple of metaphors to convey an idea. In this verse floods and rock are the metaphors.
"...and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat upon that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock."
Visualize Acts 17:16 (CEB) = While Paul waited for them in Athens, he was deeply distressed to find that the city was flooded with idols.
There might have been countless idols in Athens but was the city actually flooded?
Anyway, you can easily find over 100 different verse in various versions of the Bible where the word "flood" doesn't mean actual water.
Likewise you can find about 800 verses in various versions where the word "water" doesn't mean H2O.
Do you think the Jesus character was talking about H20 water instead of spiritual truth and spiritual knowledge in John 7:37-38 (RSVCE) =
37 On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and proclaimed, “If any one thirst, let him come to me and drink. 38 He who believes in me, as the scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water.’”
Now as why the Noah flood didn't mean actual wet water but rather war consider the metaphor of the words "raven", "dove" and olive branch in Genesis 8:7-12 (RSVCE) =
7 and sent forth a raven; and it went to and fro until the waters were dried up from the earth. 8 Then he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters had subsided from the face of the ground; 9 but the dove found no place to set her foot, and she returned to him to the ark, for the waters were still on the face of the whole earth. So he put forth his hand and took her and brought her into the ark with him. 10 He waited another seven days, and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark; 11 and the dove came back to him in the evening, and lo, in her mouth a freshly plucked olive leaf; so Noah knew that the waters had subsided from the earth. 12 Then he waited another seven days, and sent forth the dove; and she did not return to him any more.
Ravens are associated with carrion and there are a lot of corpses in war. In the Noah story the raven went to and fro feeding its young until the invasion was over. The raven signifies a war party. See Job 38:41.
Doves are associated with peace. So Noah sent out peace delegations. The first one returned empty handed. The second one returned with a peace treaty (the olive branch).
Here's a link to some biblical metaphors http://http://www.biblesecrets.org/METAPHOR.htm
Here's another http://http://literarydevices.net/15-fam...the-bible/
There are many more such links and you can Google them if you want to.
This had to be a long post in order to partially explain that words in the Bible have different meanings than those normally associated with them. It would take pages to examine all of them.
