The Flood Sources

A detailed Summary of The Flood Sources

One of the most famous stories of all time is found in the first book of the Hebrew Bible. Most people have heard it enough times to be able to recognize and finish the tale after hearing "Noah's Ark" or "the animals entered into it two by two." However, many would be surprised to hear that, more than likely, the flood story found in Genesis has multiple sources. According to RTOT there are two distinct contributors (Bandstra 35). The Yahwist source was written at an earlier date and is combined with the Priestly source which is more recent (Bandstra 38). While both have many similarities, a thorough comparison of the two styles contained in this story will show how each source writes and will make it easier to recognize in other stories. There are many clues that can be used to show first, that there is more than one source within this document, and secondly discern the particular sections that each source contributed.

The Yahwist source is given its name because the author during that time used the name YHWH for their God (Bandstra 39). It is pronounced Yahweh, even though it was never meant to be spoken at all. The people of this time were so concerned with using God's name in vain that YHWH (an unpronounceable wor

The story may seem repetitive in places, because it is. It repeats itself in numerous places, actually. As discussed in class, this too is evidence of multiple authors. The story states twice and in two different ways that the Earth had become evil. The first is attributed to the Yahwist (Genesis 6:5) and the second to the Priests (Genesis 6:11-12). God states that he is going to erase the population of everything on Earth two times. Each source assigns God a different emotion. God seems to feel angry at the people in the Priestly source (Genesis 6:13), while saddened by his creation in the Yahwist's (Genesis7:9). In addition to these, the animals are told to have entered the ark two times (Genesis 7:9), and life is extinguished on Earth in two sections (Genesis 7:22).

One of the more obvious differences is the almost contradictory portions found in the story. The first instance of this is found when God commands Noah to gather animals to go onto the ark with him. The Yahwist reports that God told Noah to bring seven clean and two unclean animals of every kind (Genesis 7:2-3). Contrast this with the Priestly section when God only commands Noah to bring a pair of each animal (Genesis 6:19). Another major difference in dealing with the details of the story is the length at which the rain fell. The Yahwist story informs us that it lasted forty days before God told Noah to leave the ark (Genesis 7:17). In contrast, the Priestly source tells us the ordeal lasted much longer. Waters prevail for 150 days and all

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Approximate Word count = 1034
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Religion