antediluvian

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According to the Bible, the only survivors from the antediluvian period were Noah and his family. (Image by Gustave Doré)

The word antediluvian (syn.Prediluvian) (latin for "before the flood") is used to describe a period of time that preceded the Great Flood of Noah as related in the Book of Genesis in the Bible.

The antediluvian period

Writers such as William Whiston (A New Theory of the Earth 1696) and Henry Morris (The Genesis Flood 1961) describe the antediluvian period as follows:

• People lived much longer than people today, typically between 700-950 years, as reported in the Genealogies of Genesis;
• The Earth contained many more people than the Earth contained in 1696 . Whiston calculated that as many as 500 million humans may have been born in the antediluvian period, based on assumptions about lifespans and fertility rates;
• There were no clouds or rain. Instead, the Earth was watered by mists which rose from the Earth. (Another interpretation is that the Earth was covered completely by a global cloud layer; the upper waters mentioned in the Creation. This is commonly called the Canopy theory.)

The Bible speaks of this era as being a time of great wickedness. There were Gibborim (giants) in the earth in those days as well as Nephilim; some translations identify the two as one and the same. The Gibborim were unusually powerful; Genesis calls them "heroes of old, men of renown;" (Enoshi Ha Shem). The antediluvian period ended when God sent the Flood to wipe out all life except Noah, his family, and the animals they took with them. Nevertheless, the Nephilim (literally meaning 'fallen ones', from the Hebrew root n-f-l 'to fall') reappear much later in the Biblical narrative, in Numbers 13:31-33. (However, since the Bible was not assembled in chronological order, it is possible that the related verses actually overlap time-wise.)

Other uses

• "Antediluvian" is sometimes used figuratively to refer to anything of great age and/or outmoded; H. P. Lovecraft was particularly fond of the term, using it frequently in his horror stories.

• In the Vampire: The Masquerade role-playing game, the Antediluvians are the most ancient of vampires (in excess of 10,000 years old) who founded the thirteen vampire clans, and who have remained in hiding or suspended animation from the time of the flood of Noah. They are the grandchildren of Caine, a mere three generations down from the first vampire. Their return is a sign of the end times known as Gehenna.

• "Antediluvian" is used to describe the "Kings of Atlantis" in the song "Atlantis" by Donovan.

See also

• Sons of Noah
• Sumerian king list

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