From Flood to Fallen Kingdoms E-Book

Jarno Moilanen

• Herausgeber: Books on Demand
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 292

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2020

Beschreibung

From Flood to Fallen Kingdoms (FFFK) is the first truly authoritative, detailed and coherent, young-earth creationist overview of the post-flood history of the ancient Near East (and the land of Israel), for laypersons and scholars alike. It is a unique work which does not have serious rivals in the biblical-creationist book market. The lack of a good and comprehensive introductory book was the main reason why I started to write the book in the first place. I have made use of the best available scholarly literature, Christian as well as secular. The book contains a lot of my own research, but it is also in very good agreement with the archaeological articles written by A. J. M. Osgood (can be read at creation.com) and the books of David Down (Unwrapping the Pharaohs and Unveiling the Kings of Israel), for example. FFFK follows the absolute chronology of Floyd Nolen Jones' The Chronology of the Old Testament. As a Bible-faithful narrative introduction to the history and archaeology of the ancient Near East, From Flood to Fallen Kingdoms is far better than the existing apologetic works that come towards the genre of FFFK (Evidence for the Bible by Clive Anderson and Brian Edwards; Ancient Post-Flood History by Ken Johnson; The World's Story 1: The Ancients by Angela O'Dell, for example). From Flood to Fallen Kingdoms will strengthen the faith of numerous believing readers who take the Holy Scriptures seriously. They will also be surprised to see how well the first five post-flood centuries, from Ararat to Abraham, which until now have been in great darkness, can be elucidated through proper interpretation of biblical and archaeological evidence.

Leseprobe

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER 1: FROM THE BEGINNING TO THE FLOOD

the creation of the world, the fall, Noah's flood, radiometric dating

CHAPTER 2: AFTER THE FLOOD — A NEW BEGINNING

the end of the flood, Shinar, Nimrod, Babel, the dispersal of the people, hunter-gatherers, Stone Age

CHAPTER 3: HUNTERS, FARMERS, AND NEW CIVILIZATIONS

early Nineveh, Hassuna culture, Samarra culture, Halaf culture, Ubaid culture, "Great Migration", early Europe, Ice Age, Neanderthals

CHAPTER 4: IN THE DAYS OF ABRAHAM, ISAAC AND JACOB

Uruk period, Uruk Expansion, Palestinian Neolithic period, Chalcolithic period, Early Bronze period, early Egypt, Gen 14, Jemdet Nasr period, Early Dynastic period, the seven-year famine, Dynasty of Akkad, Third Dynasty of Ur

CHAPTER 5: IN THE DAYS OF MOSES, JOSHUA AND THE JUDGES

Exodus, the conquest of Canaan, the end of Palestinian Early Bronze III period, Amorite kingdoms, Palestinian Middle Bronze period

CHAPTER 6: IN THE DAYS OF THE KINGS

the glory of Israel's united kingdom, Palestinian late Middle Bronze II period, 18th Dynasty of Egypt, Late Bronze period, Iron Age

EPILOGUE

ABBREVIATIONS

BIBLIOGRAPHY

APPENDICES

CHART 1: MESOPOTAMIA AND SURROUNDING AREAS AFTER THE DISPERSAL AT BABEL C. 2215 B.C.

CHART 2: COMPARATIVE STRATIGRAPHY OF TELL ARPACHIYAH, NINEVEH AND TELL HASSUNA

CHART 3: PALESTINE FROM THE CONQUEST OF THE LAND BY THE ISRAELITES UNTIL ALEXANDER THE GREAT

CHART 4: KINGS OF ISIN, LARSA AND BABYLON C. 1600–1480 B.C.

INTRODUCTION

Everyone should understand the fact that ancient history cannot be observed. The events from long time ago are already gone and will never repeat themselves. Past times just do not exist anymore. Can we observe and experience, that is to say, really prove something that does not exist anymore? Of course we cannot. That is why we are totally dependent on trusting our own interpretations and the external authorities that we choose for ourselves.

Trusting, or believing, is a human limit above which no student of ancient history can rise. In other words, history can be grasped only through faith — to have a view of history means to have an unprovable belief of history, no matter how well-reasoned the view is. To reconstruct/interpret/imagine historical events inside a head is not the same thing as seeing to the past and proving it. Unfortunately, many people do not understand this, and they deceive themselves and others by continually claiming that their historical views are not beliefs but scientific facts that no reasonable person should deny.

But what should we believe then? History does not exist anymore for us, but it still does exist for the eternal God, the almighty Creator of the universe, who is above time. If we wish to get a good understanding of the ancient times, and especially the ancient times of the Near East, we must found our interpretations and views on His own testimonies which are recorded in the Holy Bible, the inspired and inerrant book of God who cannot lie. Being grounded in this solid starting point I have now written a brief introduction to the history of the ancient Near East that is in agreement with the biblical timeline according to which the world was created about 6,000 years ago. I have tried to draw up a clear narrative which begins with the creation of the world and the great flood of Noah and then flows through the post-flood centuries to the end of the Old Testament time. The biblical storyline serves as the main road of history along which, as the journey progresses, the most important archaeological and cultural periods are explained in a simple and understandable way and set in their right chronological places. I have made use of the best available scholarly literature, Christian as well as secular, and argued that ancient history and archaeology are not in conflict with the Bible as long as they are understood and dated correctly.

Perhaps not many nonbelievers will be immediately convinced, but I am sure that this book will strengthen the faith of numerous believing readers who take the Holy Scriptures seriously. They will also be surprised to see how well the first five post-flood centuries, from Ararat to Abraham, which until now have been in great darkness, can be elucidated through proper interpretation of biblical and archaeological evidence.

My work would not have been possible without the previous contributions of many great scholars from whom I have learnt a lot and whose works I often refer to. Many thanks to them, and great praise to God for leading me to the best sources. When I started my research many years ago, I had no idea that I would someday complete a book like this. I have been very blessed. But still many things need more investigation, and errors correction. I strongly believe, however, that the overall picture of the ancient Near Eastern history (from the biblical-creationist perspective) is already very secure.

Finally, as an important advice to the reader, I suggest that he or she will always keep the chronological charts, appended to the end of this book, at their fingertips while they are reading through the chapters. But without waiting any longer, let’s now begin our journey on a road of history during which we will learn a lot of new things about the ancient Near East. Dear Lord, please give light to our way and lead us to the truth; thank You for leading us to the truth. Amen.

Your word is a lamp to my feet

And a light to my path.

Ps 119:105 NKJV

CHAPTER 1: FROM THE BEGINNING TO THE FLOOD

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, the whole existing world (Gen 1:1).1 He created everything in six days approximately 6,000 years ago, or 4000 B.C.2 The first man and woman, Adam and Eve, were created on the sixth day (Gen 1:26–27).3

The whole creation was very good (Gen 1:31), and the life of Adam and Eve was perfectly happy in the garden which God had planted for them (Gen 2:8). Death or any suffering did not exist yet. After a while, however, Adam and Eve ate from a tree which God had forbidden (Gen 2:16–17; 3:6, 11, 17). In this manner the first man and woman violated God’s will, that is to say, they sinned for the first time. This tragic event is known as “the fall of man/humankind”.

The sin broke the perfect relationship and friendship that had been between the human couple and God. As a result of the fall man (including both man and woman) became mortal (Gen 2:17; 3:16–19). Death and suffering became now the reality for animals too. Because of the sin the original perfect purity and goodness of mankind was corrupted. Since the fall all kinds of evil things, errors and sufferings have entered the world: hatred, envy, theft, murder, idolatry, witchcraft, atheism, drunkenness, adultery, fornication, war, oppression, slavery, hunger, sickness, sorrow, depression, loneliness. Indeed, the world has changed a lot from the original good condition that was in the beginning.

After the fall Adam and Eve began to have children. At first their children had to marry with each other because there were no other people in the world.4 During the following centuries the number of people increased substantially (Gen 4; 5). But as the number of people increased so increased also the amount of sin, and the earth was filled with corruption and violence (Gen 4:8, 23; 6:1–4, 11–12). Then God grieved greatly that he had created man and decided to destroy the land everywhere and to wipe off all its inhabitants, including animals (Gen 6:5–7, 13). Of all the living people only Noah, a righteous believing man who found grace before God (Gen 6:8–9; 7:1), and his family would get deliverance.

God told Noah to build a wooden ark, a kind of large covered boat approximately 450 feet (137 meters) long, 75 feet (23 meters) wide and 45 feet (14 meters) high, inside which Noah’s family and selected animals could survive through the determined devastation, the great flood (Gen 6:14–21). Noah’s family consisted of his wife, his three sons and their three wives, eight persons altogether. God also caused seven pairs from each ritually clean animal kind and a pair from each ritually unclean animal kind, males and females, to come to Noah and go inside the ark. These were all air-breathing, landdwelling animals (including birds) which could not have survived over the flood by themselves. The total number of animals inside the ark was probably only a few thousand.5

The flood started (approximately) 1,656 years after the creation of the world or 2348 B.C. when Noah was 600 years old (Gen 7:6):6

Now the flood was on the earth forty days. The waters increased and lifted up the ark, and it rose high above the earth. The waters prevailed and greatly increased on the earth, and the ark moved about on the surface of the waters. And the waters prevailed exceedingly on the earth, and all the high hills under the whole heaven were covered. The waters prevailed fifteen cubits upward, and the mountains were covered. And all flesh died that moved on the earth: birds and cattle and beasts and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, and every man. All in whose nostrils was the breath of the spirit of life, all that was on the dry land, died. So He destroyed all living things which were on the face of the ground: both man and cattle, creeping thing and bird of the air. They were destroyed from the earth. Only Noah and those who were with him in the ark remained alive. And the waters prevailed on the earth one hundred and fifty days. (Gen 7:17–24 NKJV)

This worldwide cataclysm lasted a little more than a year (Gen 7:11; 8:14) and killed all the people save Noah and his family. It also totally devastated the then-existing land and completely changed the geography all around the world. An enormous amount of plant material and billions of dead aquatic and terrestrial animals (and people) were buried in water-carried mud and sand which formed thick and wide sedimentary deposits which then slowly hardened into rock during the centuries after the flood. When plants and animals were buried in those sediments the world over, huge numbers of them were fossilized or turned into fossil fuels (coal, oil and natural gas).7

Many powerful geological and physical processes took place during the days of the great flood. It was then that almost all of Earth’s radioactive material was produced naturally inside the continental granite crust. There occurred also extremely fast decay among the new radioactive atoms which fissioned (broke into many parts) and produced their “daughter atoms”. During the flood, when “all the fountains of the great deep” were open (Gen 7:11 NKJV), large amounts of those new radioactive as well as non-radioactive isotopes8 were transferred by water and dirt from deep inside the crust up to the surface. Finally, they ended up inside the sedimentary layers of mud and sand which later hardened into rock. Volcanic rocks contain those same elements too because molten magma rises towards the surface of the earth through the granite crust and the sedimentary rocks.9

Scientists who believe that Earth is billions of years old think that they can determine the age of a rock10 by first measuring the sample’s parent-daughter (e.g. potassium-40 and argon-40) isotope ratio and then calculating (by applying the present-day decay rate) how much time has passed since the rock solidified from the molten state. But those same scientists must assume that (1) the decay rate has always been as extremely slow as observed today, (2) the amount of parent and daughter elements in the original, newly solidified sample can be known, and (3) no parent or daughter atoms were lost or added to the sample over time. None of these assumptions is provable by real scientific testing.11

Relative concentrations, or ratios, of parent and daughter atoms can be measured very accurately from samples of rock, but those ratios are not applicable to radiometric dating because the daughter atoms did not come from their radioactive parent atoms over millions and billions of years — in reality most of the parent and the daughter atoms came into being practically at the same time, during the flood, and then they were rationed inside the sedimentary and volcanic rocks more or less randomly. Thus, in the light of the real origin of Earth’s radioactive isotopes and their daughter products, it is totally pointless to try to determine ages of rocks through analyzing their elemental compositions.12

Radiocarbon (or carbon-14, or 14C) has been used to determine ages of organic remains of once-living plants and animals (particularly at archaeological sites) which are thought to be under 100,000 years old. For many reasons, however, radiocarbon dating is very unreliable.13

Radiocarbon is formed in high altitudes of Earth’s atmosphere where fast-moving free neutrons convert ordinary nitrogen (14N) into carbon isotope 14C. After 14C has been formed it can combine with oxygen to give the carbon dioxide 14CO2 which then is absorbed by plants from the air. 14C atoms will get into animals when they eat those plants. People too will get radiocarbon into their body tissues when they eat plants and animals.

Eventually 14C will convert back to 14N. A half of an amount of 14C in a sample of a once-living organism will convert into 14N in approximately 5,730 years. This rate of decay is so fast that after about 100,000 years there should theoretically be no detectable 14C left in any sample. That is why radiocarbon dating cannot give ages of millions of years as other radiometric dating methods claim to do, albeit those dating results are not true (see above). In fact, if a sample contains a detectable amount of 14C (contamination excluded) it positively cannot be millions of years old.

The startling fact is that detectable amounts of radiocarbon have been found inside plant and animal fossils14 and fossil fuels (coal, oil and natural gas) from all around the world and from all depths. Even diamonds have been found to contain small concentrations of 14C, which is truly amazing if diamonds are really millions or even billions of years old as is popularly believed. Contamination cannot explain these findings away.15

The small quantities of 14C inside coal, oil and natural gas are even quite uniform throughout the rock deposits of the Earth. Starting with the typical assumptions of the radiocarbon dating (e.g. that the ratio of radiocarbon 14C to ordinary carbon 12C in Earth’s biosphere has been relatively constant for tens of thousands of years) the small 14 C-contents of these materials can be calculated to ages between 44,000 and 57,000 years, which greatly contradicts what is normally believed about their ages, usually hundreds of millions of years. The uniform distribution of 14C throughout the pre-flood vegetation and animals explains the uniform traces (and “ages”) of 14C found at present within fossil fuels and carbon containing rocks.16

The fossil materials inside the rock strata are not really 44,000–57,000 years old, however. The ratio of radiocarbon to ordinary carbon (the 14C/12C ratio) in the biosphere was just very low during the centuries before the flood, much lower than today. The great flood which buried the then-existing biomass in the sedimentary layers all around the world happened only about 4,350 years ago.

So, the 14C/12C ratio in the biosphere just before the flood can be roughly estimated from the sedimentary fossil materials. After the flood the 14C/12C ratio increased quite rapidly because more 14C is formed in the atmosphere all the time but the quantity of 12C in the biosphere was vastly reduced by the flood. Other factors like the amount of cosmic rays hitting Earth’s atmosphere, the decrease of the strength of Earth’s magnetic field, volcanic activity and burning of fossil fuels have also significantly affected the carbon ratio in the course of history.

When organic remains from the immediate post-flood decades and centuries (about 2350 B.C. forward) are radiocarbon dated they may show ages of even tens of thousands of years because the 14C/12C ratio was then generally still much lower than today. Therefore, when ages of archaeological sites of the post-flood centuries are estimated by the radiocarbon dating method the obtained ages are very easily thousands of years older than the real ages of those sites.

However, there are still some important factors which can greatly affect the radiocarbon dating results. Firstly, not all plants take 14C-containing carbon dioxide inside them at the same rate. In other words, plants have different levels of discrimination against 14C. Secondly, the organic remains lying in the earth are not closed systems, so 14C-atoms can leach into an object from outside or they can leak out of it, thus altering the 14C/12C ratio and the obtained age of the sample.17 For these and other reasons the measured ages may differ a lot from those expected. In fact, “incorrect” dating results are very common, which makes the whole method highly problematic and unreliable, as Robert E. Lee writes:18

The troubles of the radiocarbon dating method are undeniably deep and serious […] Continuing use of the method depends on a “fix-it-as-we-go” approach, allowing for contamination here, fractionation there, and calibration whenever possible. It should be no surprise, then, that fully half of the dates are rejected. The wonder is, surely, that the remaining half come to be accepted […] No matter how “useful” it is, though, the radiocarbon method is still not capable of yielding accurate and reliable results. There are gross discrepancies, the chronology is uneven and relative, and the accepted dates are actually selected dates.

In 1969 an international scientific symposium was held in Uppsala, Sweden, on the subject of “Radiocarbon Variations and Absolute Chronology”. Torgny Säve-Söderbergh and Ingrid U. Olsson begin their chapter in the proceedings of the symposium with these words:19

C 14 dating was being discussed at a symposium on the prehistory of the Nile Valley. A famous American colleague, Professor Brew, briefly summarized a common attitude among archaeologists towards it, as follows: “If a C 14 date supports our theories, we put it in the main text. If it does not entirely contradict them, we put it in a foot-note. And if it is completely ‘out of date’, we just drop it.” Few archaeologists who have concerned themselves with absolute chronology are innocent of having sometimes applied this method, and many are still hesitant to accept C 14 dates without reservations.

There are plenty cases of those “out of date” results in scientific literature. For an example, three charred grains of wheat from trench 300, layer 6, of Nahal Oren cave, Israel, were radiocarbon dated. The layer 6, an “extremely hard, stony and brecciated” layer, was thought to be approximately 16,000 years old. However, the first grain was dated over 33,000 years old, but the second grain was dated only 2,940 years old. The third grain was dated 3,100 years old (charred material) and 6,650 years old (humic extract).20 Surely these measured ages are not reliable. Some kind of change in the carbon ratios could have happened while the grains were lying in the earth, or else they had different 14C/12C ratios already when they were still fresh and unburied. Of course both could be true.21 In any case, in reality those grains were most probably about the same age — in my view from the middle of the 22nd century B.C. (c. 200 years after the flood), approximately.

Sometimes radiocarbon dating can give very absurd results. For example, some modern mollusks have been dated up to 2,300 years old.22 Some living snails, in turn, were dated even up to 27,000 years old.23

It is obvious that radiocarbon dating results are quite arbitrary and thus practically useless in determining the absolute or even the relative ages of ancient organic remains and archaeological sites. In reality the researchers just pick out the “fit” dates and explain away or simply dismiss the “unfit” ones.24 Such is the dating game. All this is done (by the supposedly objective scientists) to validate the prevailing historical and archaeological views which are based on naturalistic and evolutionistic presuppositions. In contrast the historical view presented in this book is based on the biblical accounts and chronology which are allowed to guide also all archaeological interpretation. Radiometric dating methods are deliberately ignored.

I hope the following chapters will give a clear and sound Bible-centered survey of the ancient Near Eastern history, an overview which could be able to lift the reader’s historical understanding to a new high level and to kindle his or her heart to appreciate and love the Holy Scriptures even more.25

1 ”To the question whether God used preexistent material to create the universe or rather he created it ‘out of nothing’ (the early Jewish-Christian doctrine of creatio ex nihilo, first explicitly occurring in 2 Macc 7:28; and see Rom 4:17; Heb 11:3), it must be admitted that Gen 1 neither precludes nor defends the possibility, and we must look elsewhere for data to decide the issue. However, such a concept is not false to the intent of Gen 1. Indeed, had we an opportunity to pose the question to the author of this text, we may assume with Westermann [1994, 108] and others that he would ‘certainly have decided in favor of creatio ex nihilo.’” Arnold 2009, 35, 36. — “Regardless of how one reads [Gen]1:1–3, there is no room in our author’s cosmology for co-eternal matter with God when we consider the theology of the creation account in its totality […] Verse 1 declares that God exists outside time and space; all that exists is dependent on his independent will.” Mathews 1996, 139. See also Collins 2006, 50–55; Day 2013, 6–9; 2022, 1–13; Chambers 2020. On the question how to correctly understand the verse 1 and its relation to verses 2 and 3 (or 2–31) see Young 1959; 1964a, 48; 1964b, 1–14; Fruchtenbaum 2009, 27 (the description of Young’s view). — “The creation was a free and voluntary act of God. Scripture explains: ‘He does whatever He pleases’ (Psalm 115:3). Has God created or is He still creating other worlds? Scripture has not revealed this to us, so such a question cannot be answered. The Bible speaks of the creation of the world in which we now live.” Koehler 2006, 73. Almost certainly, in my view, our created universe is the only one there is.

2 A more precise estimate is 4004 B.C. See Floyd Nolen Jones (2015), The Chronology of the Old Testament, ix, 26–29, and Chart 1 and Chart 6 in the CD-ROM; see also Sarfati 2003; Freeman 2008; Cosner 2013; Hardy & Carter 2014; Sexton 2015; 2018; Day 2013, 3, 4. Floyd Nolen Jones’ chronology strongly supports Archbishop James Ussher’s chronology which is presented in his classic 17th-century work The Annals of the World (new updated edition published in 2003). In this book I have adopted Jones’ year numbers for the important persons and events of the Old Testament.

3 On the scientific evidence for the existence of Adam and Eve see for example Jeanson & Tomkins 2016; Sanford 2018.

4 God gave the law forbidding intermarriage between close relatives only much later, at the time of Moses about 2,500 years after the creation of Adam and Eve. Even Abraham (about 2,100 years after the creation) was married to his half-sister, Sarah (Gen 20:12). In those early times the number of genetic defects was still very low, so there was no great danger of serious biological problems in the offspring of brother-sister unions, unless close inbreeding continued over many generations.

5 See Jonathan D. Sarfati (2015), The Genesis Account, 516; Ken Ham & Bodie Hodge (2016), A Flood of Evidence, 209–217; Froman (ed.) 2016. How could Noah’s family and all the animals inside the ark stay alive during and immediately after the flood? For a comprehensive study answering this and related questions see John Woodmorappe (1997), Noah’s Ark: A Feasibility Study. See also Laura Welch (ed.) (2016), Inside Noah’s Ark: Why It Worked.

6 See Jones 2015, ix, 278 and Chart 6 in the CD-ROM. — “According to the existing text [of the Book of Genesis], the Flood began in the year 1656 after the creation and ended in 1657.” Cassuto 1961, 252. See also Sailhamer 2008, 111, 112; Hendel 2024, 254.

7 For an exhaustive study of the chronology and historicity of the flood see Steven W. Boyd & Andrew A. Snelling (eds.) (2014), Grappling with the Chronology of the Genesis Flood. See also, for example, John Morris (2007), The Young Earth; Michael J. Oard & John K. Reed (eds.) (2009), Rock Solid Answers; Andrew A. Snelling (2014), Earth’s Catastrophic Past; John K. Reed (2014), Rocks Aren’t Clocks; Michael J. Oard & John K. Reed (2017), How Noah’s Flood Shaped Our Earth.

8 Isotopes are atoms of the same element with differing numbers of neutrons in their nuclei.

9 See “The Origin of Earth’s Radioactivity”, a chapter in the continually updated online edition of Walt Brown’s In the Beginning: Compelling Evidence for Creation and the Flood; creationscience.com/onlinebook/Radioactivity.html. The highly simplified description in the main text above is based on that chapter. Most creationist scientists do not endorse Brown’s theory (that the formation of Earth’s radioactive material and its fast decay occurred both during the flood), but I think he may very well be right.

10 Usually only volcanic (igneous) rocks are dated, not sedimentary rocks for certain reasons.

11 See also, for example, Don Batten et al. (2012), The Creation Answers Book, 73, 74.

12 On radiometric dating methods and their many flaws see also John Woodmorappe (1999), The Mythology of Modern Dating Methods; Don DeYoung (2005), Thousands…Not Billions; Rupe & Sanford 2019, 269–305.

13 See Batten et al. 2012, 67–73, 79, 80. But see also Michael A. Cremo & Richard L. Thompson (1998), Forbidden Archeology, 764–794.

14 See for example Brian Thomas & Nelson Vance (2015), Radiocarbon in Dinosaur and Other Fossils.

15 See DeYoung 2005, 48–62. See also Baumgardner 2005.

16 DeYoung 2005, 58, 59.

17 It is, however, impossible to know objectively whether a sample’s 14C/12C ratio has indeed been changed this way. See Woodmorappe 1999, 41.

18 Lee 1981, 9, 29. Underlining added. J. G. Ogden wrote in 1977: “It may come as a shock to some, but fewer than 50 percent of the radiocarbon dates from geological and archaeological samples in northeastern North America have been adopted as ‘acceptable’ by investigators.” Ogden 1977, 173.

19 Säve-Söderbergh & Olsson 1970, 35. Underlining added. See also Bowman 1990, 62.

20 See Legge 1986.

21 A change in carbon ratio through contamination can occur also when the sample is being collected and stored, and during the dating procedure itself.

22 See Keith & Anderson 1963, 634–637.

23 See Riggs 1984, 58–61.

24 This is the truth not only of the radiocarbon dating but of all the other radiometric dating methods too. See for example Woodmorappe 1999; Rupe & Sanford 2019, 287–305.

25 There exist many excellent scholarly and biblically faithful literary resources which together examine, explain and clarify all kinds of pertinent topics of the first chapters of the Bible (and consequently of the earliest times of the world). Some of those resources have already been named in the previous footnotes (e.g. Woodmorappe 1997, 1999; DeYoung 2005; Boyd & Snelling (eds.) 2014; Snelling 2014; Jones 2015; Sarfati 2015). Besides these see also, for example, Henry M. Morris (2002), The Biblical Basis for Modern Science; Terry Mortenson & Thane H. Ury (eds.) (2008), Coming to Grips with Genesis; Andrew S. Kulikovsky (2009), Creation, Fall, Restoration; Jonathan Sarfati (2011), Refuting Compromise; Henry M. Morris III et al. (2013), Creation Basics and Beyond; Jason Lisle (2015), Understanding Genesis; William VanDoodewaard (2015), The Quest for the Historical Adam; Henry M. Morris III (2016), The Book of Beginnings; Terry Mortenson (ed.) (2016), Searching for Adam; Nathaniel T. Jeanson (2017), Replacing Darwin; (2022), Traced. Still many other books will be mentioned later. For the beginners, however, I recommend John F. Ashton (2012), Evolution Impossible; Don Batten et al. (2012), The Creation Answers Book; Ken Ham (2012), The Lie; (2021), Creation to Babel; Carl Wieland (2013), Stones and Bones; Paul Garner (2015), The New Creationism; Ken Ham & Bodie Hodge (2016), A Flood of Evidence. See also The New Answers Book, volumes 1, 2, 3 and 4, by Ken Ham and others.

CHAPTER 2: AFTER THE FLOOD — A NEW BEGINNING

The flood had lasted 150 days when the water level began to “decline” (Gen 8:3).26 This was caused by the rapid uplifting of the new continents from below the global sea. At the same time were formed the wide and deep basins of the present-day oceans.27 On that same day the ark was floating above a region which was later known as “Ararat” (Gen 8:4) or “Urartu”, located in modern eastern Turkey. There the ark finally rested when the floodwaters withdrew and the land dried.28

When the land was dry enough God told Noah to leave the ark (Gen 8:14–19). So, Noah, his family and all the animals which had stayed in the ark a little more than a year entered a new world. This new and strange world was rugged and barren, only little vegetation growing yet on the exposed soil. The climate was cool and wet, probably much different than before the flood. It took a while to get used to those unprecedented harsh conditions.

Fairly soon, however, the life of Noah’s family became settled. They built their housings at some distance from the resting place of the ark. There they began to cultivate crops (Gen 9:20) which they found from the surroundings or which they had stored in the ark.29 They probably kept some domestic animals too. After many years, when wild animals had already somewhat multiplied, they could start hunting.

God had commanded Noah and his sons to multiply in the earth (Gen 9:1, 7). Accordingly new members were born into Noah’s family during the years after the flood. Finally, possibly after some decades, the group decided to leave the mountainous and challenging Ararat region and to go in search of a better place to live. They “journeyed from the east” (Gen 11:2 KJV)30, that is to say, they “migrated westward” (ISV) from their initial habitation. Most probably they followed the river Murat which is the major headwater stream of the Euphrates. It starts near Mount Ararat and flows some 440 miles (700 kilometers) westward through the mountains of eastern Turkey.

After journeying alongside the rivers Murat and Euphrates and after all that mountainous terrain Noah and his extended family arrived finally at an edge of a wide and fertile plain. This plain lies approximately between the modern cities of Gaziantep and Diyarbakır in southeastern Turkey which is also the area where the two great Mesopotamian rivers, Euphrates and Tigris, originate. Perhaps that is the reason why this region was named “Shinar” (Gen 11:2) which probably meant originally “the two rivers”.31

It was not necessary for the people to wander any farther from the extensive plain that they had just found in the land of Shinar. There they could easily grow and domesticate their crops and raise their animals. The area offered everything they would ever need, and the climate too was more pleasant there than in the mountainous land of Ararat.32

After Noah and his people had settled down in some place, probably in the vicinity of Euphrates, they continued to live together like before. As years and decades passed the number of people grew so that they became a large tribe. Wild animals had the capability to increase much faster so there was always more prey to hunt. Some persons became exceptionally skillful in this art. The most famous among the hunters during those days was Noah’s great grandson Nimrod, “a champion hunter before the LORD”33 (Gen 10:9). It can be speculated that he was not only very able to provide game animals for food but that he could also heroically protect his folks against ferocious predators and dangerous beasts like lions, wolves, bears, and even dinosaurs which were known in ancient times as dragons.34

The outside world might be scary but together in the village people had safety and fellowship. In order to firmly establish the common identity and to strengthen the communal harmony a shared decision was made to improve the settlement infrastructure and to build a monument which all could be proud of.35 They spoke to one another:

Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth. (Gen 11:4 NKJV)

People wanted to build their new town fine and durable. Therefore, they made hardburnt clay bricks and had bitumen for mortar (Gen 11:3).36 However, this new achievement of Noah’s descendants did not please God:

But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built. And the LORD said, “Indeed the people are one and they all have one language, and this is what they begin to do; now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them. (Gen 11:5, 6 NKJV)

God knew that those people’s strong intimacy and unity would ultimately lead to great depravity and wickedness, as had happened before in the pre-flood world. That is why He decided to execute a preemptive action:

Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech. (Gen 11:7 NKJV)

As a result of this miraculous intervention tens of new (proto-)languages were suddenly spoken by different groups of people.37 This was a mighty shock and a clear sign from

God that they should not all live together anymore.38 For the fear of God’s additional punishments people gathered their closest family members and friends and quickly left the city and the area to stay somewhere else:39