Below is the online edition of In the Beginning: Compelling Evidence for Creation and the Flood,
by Dr. Walt Brown. Copyright © Center for Scientific Creation. All rights reserved.
Click here to order the hardbound 8th edition (2008) and other materials.
1. M#e$g@E transliterates as geshem. It is the most violent rain. In Ezekiel 13:11–13, geshem rain destroyed mortared walls.
2. Durations are based on the Masoretic text. The Septuagint text has Noah in the Ark exactly one year. Other manuscripts of Genesis give slightly different times.
3. “Burst open” is a loose translation of (qab@f, which means a violent cleavage. Isaiah 34:15 and 59:5 uses it to describe the hatching or breaking forth from inside an egg; i.e., the breaking of a thin shell or crust. Numbers 16:31 uses it to describe the splitting open of the earth. [See also Psalm 78:15.]
4. “Greatly” is an understatement. “Greatly, greatly” would be a more accurate translation, because Hebrew uses the double superlative construction. This construction is used in only one other place in the Old Testament—in Genesis 17:2 where God makes a covenant with Abraham.
5. Noah and the Ark certainly experienced high winds during the preceding five months. So, the wind that began on the 150th day must have been unusual and extreme.
Noah released the raven 114 days after the wind began, presumably to learn how far the waters had receded. Noah would not have done this if the extreme wind were still blowing, because the raven would have had difficulty returning to the Ark. Therefore, the wind probably lasted less than 114 days.
6. This assumes the dove was released seven days after the raven.