Pollution

Well, no.

This is what used to be believed in the Holy Land before globalization. We now know about the diversity of civilizations that existed prior to and after the biblical "flood" (ie Africa, Asia, etc) One only has to look at Japan's interesting history to know that their civilization was never completely wiped out.

But, in biblical terms, the "world as they knew it" flooded and all known lives were lost except the decendants of Noah. For those that take the bible literally it is important to understand the biblical context (I have included the original Hebrew definitions below to substantiate what I am saying) to know that even though the "world flooded", looking to the original context allows the acceptance that it was only part of earth. (Please see below) I also wanted to share that the lineage back to Noah has been evidenced now with our new understanding of genetics. Only a small portion of the worlds polulation is actually decended from Noah (we have the genetic capability to determine that Ashkenazi Jewish are decendants of Japheth).

Re: God flooded the earth

"The Hebrew word from which the English word "earth" is a translation in Genesis 1:1 is Éeres, and it is generally rendered "ground," "earth," or the like.

Apparently, Moses did not use the Hebrew word tebel, which means the whole world ( or world globe) in the description of the Flood. So from the Biblical evidence tebel is simply the poetic equivalent of eretz. It should be pointed out that while many of the biblical occurences of tebel are in a univeral context (as with eretz),this is not always so (see e.g., Ps 77:18 [Hebrew 19]; 97:4, where the lightning lights up the "world" tebel, obviously not the whole globe.) Furthermore, the basic meaning of tebel actually refers to "the inhabited world, the world where crops are raised" (see Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament, 1:359), and for Moses to use this word might have given just the opposite impression than intended, i.e., that only the inhabited places in the "world" were destroyed. Thus, even though tebel does often refer to the whole world, it is also not free from ambiguity any more than eretz." (http://www.grisda.org/origins/08013.htm)

The human occupants of the ark were Noah, and Shem, and Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah's wife, and the three wives of his sons. Gen. 7:13

Another View

According to the book of Genesis indeed the Hebrew word for earth is 'erets and is the same word used in GENESIS 1:1: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth" God created the whole heavens and the whole earth.

In Genesis 6:11-12 the same word was used for earth ('erets) : "The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. So God looked upon the earth, and indeed it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way on earth".

Genesis 6:17 tells us: "And behold, I Myself am bringing floodwaters on the earth to destroy from under heaven all flesh in which is the breath of life; everything that is on the earth shall die". Again the same word for earth that was used in Genesis 1:1, meaning the whole heavens and earth is the same word used here, ie 'erets.

All flesh on the earth perished by the Great Flood with the exception of Noah, his wife and their three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth and their wives and the animals that were taken into the Ark.

Genesis 7:19-20; "And the waters prevailed exceedingly on the earth, and all the high hills under the whole heaven were covered". The waters prevailed fifteen cubits upward, and the mountains were covered". This would have been 22 ft above the highest mountain. The highest peak in that area is Mt Ararat, which is 17,000 ft high. This was a global flood and took almost 8 months before Noah could leave the Ark.

Are we descended from Noah? According to the book of Genesis we are because all humans with the exception of Noah and the other seven person on the Ark were destroyed in the Great Flood that covered the whole earth.

Depending on which son you descended from determines your race (Shem, Ham. and Japheth). Actually there are only two types of people on earth. Gentiles and Jews. Jews descended from Shem.

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View #3 and Response to "Another View"

Not sure where you are getting your info from but please be careful to take out the folklore. Just like we know the world is no longer flat, and that seizures do not mean you are possessed by the devil, we know that the world was poplulated in many different regions.

And your comment about Jewish people coming from Shem is totally incorrect. Note below that Eastern European Jews are decended from Japheth. And, our Asian and African neighbors bear no genetic relation to Mr. Noah. There are more than six billion people in the world...hello!!!

Ashkenazi Jews, also known as Ashkenazic Jews or Ashkenazim (Hebrew: אַשְׁכֲּנָזִים‎, pronounced [ˌaʃkəˈnazim], singular: [ˌaʃkəˈnazi]; also יְהוּדֵי אַשְׁכֲּנָז, Yehudei Ashkenaz, "the Jews of Ashkenaz"), are the Jews descended from the medieval Jewish communities of the Rhineland valley (in the west of Germany) and northern France. Ashkenaz is the medieval Hebrew name for the region which in modern times encompasses the country of Germany and German-speaking borderland areas. Ashkenaz is also a Japhetic patriarch in the Table of Nations (Genesis 10). Thus, Ashkenazim or Ashkenazi Jews are literally "German Jews."

Many Ashkenazi Jews later migrated, largely eastward, forming communities in non German-speaking areas, including Hungary, Poland, Lithuania, Russia, Eastern Europe, and elsewhere between the 10th and 19th centuries. With them, they took and diversified Yiddish, a Germanic Jewish language that had since medieval times been the lingua franca among Ashkenazi Jews. To a much lesser extent, the Judaeo-French language Zarphatic and the Slavic-based Knaanic (Judaeo-Czech) were also spoken. The Ashkenazi Jews developed a distinct culture and liturgy; influenced, to varying degrees, by interaction with surrounding peoples of Central and Eastern Europe.

Although in the 11th century they comprised only 3 percent of the world's Jewish population, Ashkenazi Jews accounted for (at their peak) 92 percent of the world's Jews in 1931 and today make up approximately 80 percent of Jews worldwide.[4] Most Jewish communities with extended histories in Europe are Ashkenazim, with the exception of those associated with the Mediterranean region. The majority of the Jews who migrated from Europe to other continents in the past two centuries are Ashkenazim, Eastern Ashkenazim in particular. This is especially true in the United States, where most out of the 5.3 million American Jewish population[5] is Ashkenazi, representing the world's single largest concentration of Ashkenazim.

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VIEW #4

And, Don't believe everything the Priest has told you!!!!!!!!!!!!! And so many people just believe it even though deep down they know it is not true or possible. Then we are told that is what faith is all about. That is not true at all. Believing in God does not mean ignoring what you know to be true. God gave you a brain... that is the biggest miracle of all. Don't depend on other people to tell you what you should believe. GOD GAVE YOU YOUR CONSCIENCE>> NOW start listening to it.

Church is a business. A huge, money making business.

There are many themes and stories in the Bible for which no hard evidence has ever been found:

If millions of Israelites lived in Egypt for centuries, one would expect some evidence of their occupation to have been preserved in Egyptian writings. If the Israelites camped for three decades in one spot, as described in the Book of Exodus, one would expect that archaeologists might have found evidence of their sojourn. Other Christians might expect that there should be some evidence in the archaeological record of Abraham, Moses, Joshua and other major Bible personalities mentioned in Genesis. If Noah's ark landed on a mountain within a small mountain range there should be some hard evidence of its remains; after all, it was the size of two football fields. If Heaven is "up there" then there should be some astronomical evidence of its existence. If Hell is just under the earth, as described in the Hebrew Scriptures, then deep holes drilled into the earth's crust should have produced some evidence of its existence. If dinosaurs and humans were created in one week circa 4004 BCE, then one might expect some evidence in the fossil record of men and dinosaurs coexisting. Another view

I am so sorry. I was under the impression we were discussing the Old Testament and not someones off the wall thoughts.

The Old testament states that Abraham was a descendant of Shem. Abraham is the father of the Jewish people. There were no Jews before Abraham.

Ashkenas, was the first named of the sons of Gomer, son of Japheth, and equivalent to Assyrian, the Scythians. They were not very civilized and were basically known as barbarians. They at one time lived in the neighborhood of Ararat.

If no one is willing to discuss the O.T. I for one don't want to hear your babbling.

Yes we are all descendants of Noah!