Floating away

The story of Noah’s flood is a story in which the waters of chaos were no longer held at bay and the world ended! Modern people struggle making sense of the story because we cannot understand how there could be a global flood in which the tops of the highest mountains were submerged. Where on earth could so much water come from, and what happened to it afterwards? But we are trying to understand the story from the wrong cosmology. In our understanding of the earth there isn’t enough water for the job, but in a biblical cosmology there most certainly is, for the world is surrounded by water. The book of Genesis tells its audience exactly where the water came from: “In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened” (Gen 7:11).

Contrary to common claims, even by scholars, biblical authors did not think that the rain came from holes in the sky. They were well aware that rain came from clouds. However, this was no ordinary rain. On this occasion—and only on this occasion—the rain did come through holes in the sky-dome. Water also burst forth from the subterranean ocean beneath the earth. That is how there was enough water to flood the earth.— The Biblical Cosmos, pages 38–39 (emphasis original)