John Walton - "Lost World of the Flood"

Introduction and Methodology

The speaker opens with a prayer and discusses the methodology for examining the question of the size of the flood.

Size of the Flood

• There are different options to consider when discussing the size of the flood, including global, universal, regional, or local.

• The methodology used to examine this question should prioritize what the text clearly claims over scientific objections.

• We should not make the Hebrew text carry modern or sophisticated ideas and must be careful not to impose our ways of thinking on them.

• We need to be willing to think outside the box and evaluate traditional ideas.

Cultural Context

The speaker discusses how understanding cultural context is important in interpreting biblical texts.

Modern Cultural River

• Our modern cultural river includes various words and ideas that define us as a society.

• Conversations take place within this cultural river because it frames our discussions.

Ancient Cultural Context

• Biblical authors did not know our cultural river and were addressing their own cultural context.

• Understanding ancient culture is important in interpreting biblical texts accurately.

The Importance of Cultural River in Understanding the Bible

In this section, the speaker emphasizes the importance of understanding cultural river when reading and interpreting biblical texts.

Cultural River Includes Politics, Economics, Philosophy and Science

• Market economy does not discuss democracy nor does expanding universe or Big Bang theory.

• Cultural river includes politics, economics, philosophy and science.

• Biblical texts are communicated within their own cultural river.

• It is important to understand the cultural context of biblical texts.

Reading the Bible Against Its Own Cultural River

• To understand biblical texts, it is necessary to read them against their own cultural river.

• We are accountable to the authors of scripture and their intentions.

• The authority of scripture is vested in its authors.

• Our mandate is to try to understand that world.

Challenges in Understanding Ancient Cultural Rivers

• There are challenges in understanding ancient cultural rivers as they may differ across time periods and regions.

• However, there are commonalities across ancient cultures that can help us better understand biblical texts.

Imposing Foreign Ideas on Biblical Texts

• Reading biblical texts without understanding their cultural context means imposing foreign ideas on them.

• It is important to avoid letting our own cultural biases influence our interpretation of scripture.

Holding Ourselves Accountable to the Author's Intention

In this section, the speaker emphasizes the importance of understanding the author's intention when interpreting a text. He explains that we cannot take a text more literally than by understanding what the human author meant.

Understanding the Author's Intention

• We need to submit to the author's intention.

• We can't take the text more literally than by understanding what the human author meant.

• If we believe that the text is metaphorical, we read it as a metaphor.

• We have to ask the questions that the ancient author and audience were asking.

Interpreting Difficult Questions for Children

In this section, the speaker uses an example of how to interpret difficult questions for children. He emphasizes that if we don't have the question right, we have no chance of giving a right answer.

Example: Explaining Birth to a Child

• The speaker gives an example of explaining birth to a child.

• It is important to understand what questions they are asking and what claims they are making.

• We must turn to ancient Near Eastern culture to try and understand their cultural context.

• This helps us avoid anachronism because if we're thinking only in our cultural river, that's anachronism.

The Importance of Recognizing Cultural Context

In this section, the speaker emphasizes that faithful interpretation requires recognizing not only what the Bible is but also how it carries out its authority and reflects its ancient world context.

Recognizing Cultural Context

• The biblical text is embedded in ancient culture; it uses Hebrew and assumes ancient world culture.

• The biblical text can't be culture-free.

• The ancient Near Eastern texts can prompt us to think differently about the biblical text because it can help us step away from our cultural river and start to understand theirs.

• It provides windows into how people thought in the ancient world that helps us avoid anachronism.

Understanding How They Thought About the World

In this section, the speaker explains how understanding how they thought about the world is important when interpreting a text. He uses an example of a Babylonian map to illustrate his point.

Example: Babylonian Map

• The speaker shows a Babylonian map from the fifth or sixth century BC.

• There are over 1 million cuneiform texts that have been dug out of the ancient world that help us understand how they thought about the world around them.

• An Israelite is going to think more like a Babylonian than he's going to think like us.

• God doesn't give them any other cosmic geography to understand the world, so we must look at their worldview.

The Flood Story in the Bible and Akkadian Literature

This section discusses the similarities between the flood story in the Bible and Akkadian literature. It highlights some of the words used in Genesis 6:14 that appear to be Akkadian rather than Hebrew.

Similarities between Flood Stories

• There are many references to the flood throughout Akkadian literature.

• A flood story was part of the cultural river, meaning it was a common theme across different cultures.

Words Used in Genesis 6:14

• Three words in Genesis 6:14 appear to be Akkadian rather than Hebrew.

• The word for "rooms" actually refers to reeds built to breathe, which matches how boats were built from reeds in ancient Near Eastern accounts.

• The word for "pitch" is actually "bitumen," a petroleum product, which is also used to make boats waterproof in Mesopotamian love accounts.

• The word for "wood" is uncertain but may refer to reeds taken from shepherds huts and woven together using Akkadian terminology.

Conclusion

The flood story has similarities across different cultures, including both biblical and Akkadian literature. Some of the words used in Genesis 6:14 suggest that there may have been borrowing or influence from other cultures, but this does not necessarily mean that one culture copied another.

The Validity of Universal Language

In this section, the speaker discusses the use of universal language in the biblical account of the flood and whether it should be interpreted literally or rhetorically.

Universal Language in the Flood Account

• The flood account uses strikingly repeated universal language.

• All doesn't always mean all and can be used rhetorically.

• If there are other occurrences of universal language used rhetorically in the Bible, it cannot be used as a determining factor for a global flood.

Rhetorical Use of Universal Language

• Examples of rhetorical use of universal language include Genesis 41:57 and Joshua 21:43-45.

• Universalistic language is also used rhetorically in Lamentations 2:22 to describe the Babylonian conquest.

Other Evidence for Interpreting Universal Language

• Other evidence must be considered when interpreting universal language in the flood account, such as cultural context and literary genre.

• Rhetoric was commonly used in ancient times to exaggerate conquest claims, which may explain why universal language was used in describing the flood.

Understanding the Flood as a Text

In this section, the speaker discusses how to approach the flood as a text rather than an event. The narrator is the key figure in understanding the flood and its characters.

Literary Curve of the Narrator

• The text is the vehicle by which the event has been portrayed to us.

• The narrator provides a literary curtain through which we engage with biblical characters and events.

• We cannot shake hands with Abraham or have a private conversation with Esther. We can only engage with them through the narrator's portrayal.

• The narrator shapes what they deliver by choosing certain things and framing it in certain ways.

Limitations of Reconstructing Events

• Our ability to reconstruct an event is extremely limited and beyond the scope of what the author is trying to provide.

• The author just wants us to believe him, not confirm what he's telling us because his message carries authority from God.

• New Testament writers have no independent access to events; inspiration does not grant them insider information.

Importance of Narrator's Message

• The message that carries authority from God is based on what he is delivering, not on our ability to reconstruct events.

• New Testament writers have only that same literary current (narrator's message) to work with.

The Flood and Order

In this section, the speaker discusses the flood account in Genesis 1 and 8. He talks about how the flood is a re-creation text that brings back order from non-order.

The Flood as a Re-Creation Text

• The narrator of Genesis is building a pattern by recapitulating creation.

• The flood is a reset that brings back order from non-order.

• While the New Testament treats the flood as judgment, it's not explicitly presented as such in Genesis.

Disruption of Order

• Genesis 1 through 11 is all about order and disruption.

• The flood represents an inversion of the created order.

• Understanding what the flood is doing is more important than how big it was.

Tower of Babel and God's Presence

In this section, the speaker discusses how people in Genesis 11 are trying to get God's presence to come down by building a tower. He also talks about how God establishes order in the land by removing those who are contrary to his established order.

Tower of Babel

• People in Genesis 11 are trying to get God's presence to come down by building a tower.

• Taking fruit from wisdom represents wanting control over order.

Order Established in Land

• God establishes order in the land for his presence to reside there.

• Those who are inherently contrary to God's established order must be removed from his people.

• The Hebrew word "timbó" means not in the order that God has established and therefore they can't be there.

Corruption and Violence

In this section, the speaker discusses how corruption and violence are disordered and consciously work against the order that God has established. He explains that God will not tolerate this disorder and will destroy them to start over.

Corruption and Violence as Disorder

• Corruption and violence are disordered.

• They consciously work against the order that God has established.

• God will not tolerate this disorder anymore.

• He will destroy them to start over.

The Bigger Picture

In this section, the speaker talks about how there is a bigger picture involved in recording history than just reporting counts. He also mentions that patterns in the Bible and ancient world use elements of order, disorder, and non-order.

Recording History

• There is a bigger picture involved in recording history than just reporting counts.

• Patterns in the Bible use elements of order, disorder, and non-order.

• These patterns can also be found in the rest of the ancient world.

Conclusion

This section concludes the talk with some final thoughts from the speaker.

Final Thoughts

• The issue of order, disorder, and non-order are very important elements.

• The Hebrew needs to be checked for more information.

• The talk ends at 2:49.