Q&A: The Flood
The Flood
Question
Does the fact that 127 different cultures wrote about the Flood serve as a source that it really happened? It seems like the event was etched into the whole world as a collective memory.
Answer
That is not necessarily evidence, but neither is it a refutation.
Discussion on Answer
Because maybe they influenced one another. Just as in Jewish law, manuscripts that were copied from one another do not combine into a majority vote (when there is doubt about a version), and just as a rabbi and his student do not combine into a majority in a religious court.
If it’s possible to plant a story about a flood in so many cultures, what’s the difficulty in introducing into one culture a story about the giving of the Torah?
An answer to Heh Heh: because the Flood is an event on a broad scale, whereas the giving of the Torah is only a national event.
Why isn’t it evidence?