re: #53 LudwigVanQuixote

The flood story and the Gilgamesh story are much much older than the Babylonian exile and were well known throughout the region long before the the exile.

My personal take is that there really was a massive flood somewhere that left a cultural memory in those that migrated to the region. Much has been made of the flooding of the Black sea some 10,000 years ago along those lines.

In any case, from a purely archeological point of view, it is not ridiculous to note that almost all major civilizations formed around rivers and that rivers flood. It is not unreasonable to expect accounts to come out of such things.

However, my real take on it is that the message of the story, what you are supposed to take home and meditate on, what you are supposed to guide your life by, is absolutely true. I repeat, that message is that it is possible for man’s sins, greed, avarice and stupidity to endanger mankind itself - and that is absolutely, literally true.

I recall part of the Mediterranean sea wall collapsing?
Something of that nature…