The first five books of the Old Testament were written by at least four different authors, which is why we often find two contradictory accounts of the same story, or we find a single story that contradicts itself because it is a union of two separate stories. There are also four different Hebrew words translated as "God" in these first five books, again an indication that these are a mixture of four different authors. This also explains why we have contradictory personalities for God.
The four authors are known as J, E, D, and P.
The two deluge stories worked together are from the P (Priestly Narrative) and J (Yahwist Narrative).
Priestly Narrative: vi:9-22, vii:6,11,13-16a,17a,18-21,24, viii:1-2a,3b-5,13a,14-19,1-17.
Jehovistic Narrative: vii:1-5,7-10,12,16b,17b,22-23,2b-3a,6-12,13b,20-22.
| Genesis 6:9-9:17 | Noah's Ark |
Question: How did Noah fit all the animals on the ark?
Explanation: The flood was only a local flood, not a world-wide flood.
OR: There were less animals back then. Would this
contradict the story of creation when ALL the animals
were created? How do we explain the creation of
more species after Noah? Did God start creating more?
Or do we invoke the theory of evolution to explain the creation of
more species? Or is it possible God started by creating a small
number of plants and animals (creationism) which then evolved into more numerous
species (evolution)? [The theory of evolution is currently
seen as a threat to a literal interpretation of the Bible.
There are still efforts to repress the teaching of
evolution as a science in schools.]
Noah: What about plants? Were they saved? Did they all survive
being submerged under water for forty days? What about the fish?
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