Intentional destruction of an evil world, with only Noah and fam being worthy of being saved.
The sanitized version also conflicts with the older Ancient Near East story that the Biblical version was based on–in that one, the (multiple) gods decided to kill humanity because they were too noisy, but one god went behind their backs and warned one human that he thought was worthy of survival.
I was raised Catholic and went to Catholic school. I never got the impression that any of the bible stories were actually factual even though I never heard a nun or priest say they were just stories. I don’t believe that those who taught me actually believed it.
I’m gonna go with “C,” Alex.
I wasn’t brought up Christian, but we had a children’s storybook Bible in the house and saw *The Bible: In the Beginning… * when I was six. After the movie, I asked my Dad two questions: Why did God flood the earth? and why did Abraham try to kill (sacrifice) Issac? The answers satisfied my six year old brain. Everyone but Noah and his family were bad and God had to cleanse the earth. And God was testing Abraham’s faith.
Like the others, I’ve never heard that God didn’t cause or prevent the flood. This flies in the face of my understanding and belief that Satan has no power other than to influence people unless he’s allowed to directly mess with them like Job. Sounds like the person the OP talked to either misunderstood what she was told or had a really weird Sunday school teacher.
While I agree with (c) on the merits, I think it’s closer to (a) since the New Testament also offers the “There’s going to be an end and only a select percentage of good people will find salvation” message. Or, alternately, “Straighten up because God isn’t taking your shit”.
There is also the straightforward message: don’t fuck with (the) god(s).
Well, maybe not “punish” so much as “eliminate.” Kind of like doing a complete re-install of the operating system.
Certainly, if you take “every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time” as literally true within the context of the story (as opposed to hyperbole), destroying all the people was a reasonable thing to do within the context of the story, regardless of whether the story has any historical truth.
Was brought up Catholic, later became a Christian.
I was taught that basically, but when older, and reading a lot, I read that the human race was tainted and for Jesus to come in a pure body, that was the reason. Also the complete sinfulness of the humans other than Noah.
I was raised Catholic. I’m still a practicing Catholic.
Attending Catholic elementary school in the mid-sixties to early seventies, we were certainly taught the story of Noah, as it is told in the Bible, including that God caused the flood. But we were never taught that the story was literally true.
By the time I got to high school (also Catholic), I don’t remember Noah ever coming up, although we had regular religion classes. I guess it was just assumed that it was covered in elementary school.
Flood was intentionally caused by God to wipe out 99.9999% of humans, with Noah and his family being the only ones meant to be saved. Have never heard of this “alternative theory” that God foresaw a flood coming (as if the Flood were not deliberate.)
Yeah, pretty sure it was all handled very superficially in my upbringing i.e. ‘Captain Noah and his Floating Zoo’ style - what little was said or implied about the people not in Noah’s family was, in essence ‘they all thought Noah was stupid, and mocked him, and then they got their come-uppance when the rain started to fall’
From age 8 to about 13 I attended sunday school at different churches of different denominations, from catholic to protestant ones, including baptist. ( My recently mother, while ostensibly well meaning, was a bit daffy )
I remember it being said the flood was eliminate ( out of disgust ) all but Noah and his family, plus the animals of course.
I distinctly remember one of the sunday school teachers saying that a rainbow in the sky was God’s promise that he’ll never do that again.
I always heard Version I. The only stubborn aspect was brought up be some Irishmen in regard Unicorns or something.
I was taught the story that God decided to drown the whole world, but it was also made clear that it was a story.
Are there any sects of Judaism that take the story literally? Definitely no one in the family I married into does (except for maybe the ones who became evangelical Christians). What about Orthodox Jews, or various Hasidic sects?
Whoa, wait, what?
I’ve never heard the term “fallen Adamite” before or how they’d be (presumably, from context) superior to other humans.
Care to elaborate on all that?
I was taught “option 1”. I had never heard of the “kinder” “gentler” version until now.
You know how it is with Judaism - two people will have three opinions among them.
There are some Biblical literalists among the Jews, although not to the extreme of some Christian sects. Judaism at least allows for allegory rather than absolute literal truth, and there’s been several thousand years of commentary and argument about just about every word in their Bible.
I’d look among the Ultra-Orthodox (which the Hasidic are part of) for that sort of belief.
The OP is addressed specifically to Christians, so I’ve been waiting for an invitation. So, thanks for the invitation!
The short answer is yes, Orthodox and Hasidic Jews do take the story literally, with the caveat that the word “literal” can be somewhat flexible if the story in question is viewed as poetry or parable.
But regardless of whether one views the story as truth, fiction, or somewhere in the middle, it seems to me that any intelligent discussion should start with the words of the story itself. And it is pretty clear from several verses that (according to the author of the story) the flood was not merely known to God (so that he would be able to warn Noah about it), but that God caused it Himself:
Genesis 6:7 - “God said, ‘I will destroy…’”
Genesis 6:13 - “God said, … ‘I will destroy…’”
Genesis 7:4 - “I will destroy…”
I’ve given only tiny snippets, and the reason is because I don’t want to prejudice anyone towards or against any particular translation. If you don’t have a favorite Bible handy, just google it. For example, “Genesis 6:13”, and Google will offer you a wide variety of translations.
Yep, all as far as memory serves me, it was “God had finally had enough, and decided to clean house, except for the last really good person there was”. It was always YHWH’s intention to kick ass and make it unnecessary to take names.
The “Noah tried to give people a sign” seems more like a “think of the children” sop and I’ve heard it at times but even then it has been still that God is intentionally making it happen and garanteeing survival only to Noah & Sons. It seems that it is a sort of conflation with the stories of the warnings of the plagues of Egypt, and the tale of Jonah not wanting to warn Ninneveh about their need to repent.
BTW let’s remember that the whole “Everyone is getting whacked, except for the single righteous guy and what close relatives he can convince to come along” game is played again a couple of centuries later with Lot at Sodom, with in this case Abraham pleading “but if there were even only 50, 30, 20 good men…” and the Voice of God saying “even if there were only ten I’d spare the city” but knowing they are doomed (of course the way *that *story develops, well, erm, it is *not *something you teach the children…)