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There are different flood legends among several civilizations that are similiar to the flood in the Bible.

A flood myth or deluge myth is a mythical or religious story of a great flood sent by a deity or deities to destroy civilization as an act of divine retribution. It is a theme widespread among many cultures, though it is perhaps best known in modern times through the biblical and Quranic account of Noah's Ark, the Hindu puranic story of Manu, through Deucalion in Greek mythology or Utnapishtim in the Epic of Gilgamesh. (Wikipedia)

  • Are these other stories relevant to Christianity?
  • Do they describe the same event?
  • Why are they so similar and at the same time different (reasons and causes)
  • How can a valid exhaustive list of flood legends exist if it supposedly killed every man on earth besides the ones that were saved
curiousdannii
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2 Answers2

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Relevant? Yes. Universally viewed as supportive? No.

Scholars disagree on this. Some use those other accounts to lend credence to the Biblical account. Other scholars say that it is evidence that the author of Genesis stole from those accounts to make up the flood. Either way, it is a relevant discussion without universal agreement.

(In my personal opinion I think the other accounts give the Biblical account credibility)

blundin
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    If there are other accounts of a Noahadic flood in other cultures, then another theory is that the flood didn't do it's job on the scale claimed by the Bible. It could, indeed, suggest merely a period of significant, damaging, but not all-people-destroying weather conditions. – Marc Gravell Sep 28 '11 at 17:11
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    @Marc, wouldn't it have done exactly its job and show that we all may have descended from a common ancestor? – wax eagle Sep 28 '11 at 17:16
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    @MarcGravell If the Biblical account of Noah is true, there's one single event with only 8 survivors. After languages were confused at Bable (Genesis 11) the single human culture was split and the multiple cultures began to diverge. Each culture could carry on an account of the flood. – jimreed Sep 28 '11 at 17:18
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The exhaustive list of other flood legends from around the world are relevant as supporting evidence to the story of the Bible. If there were no other mention of the flood in any other culture, we would wonder how such a significant event was not remembered, when the dispersion on of people occurred a relatively short time after the flood in the biblical account.

The fact that so many cultures retain stories of the flood suggests that the biblical account is at least tenable.

wax eagle
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Narnian
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    Your last paragraph is not relevant to the question and furthermore very questionable. I think you should delete that. –  Sep 28 '11 at 16:58
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    I wonder how a exhaustive list of a flood legend that supposedly killed every man on earth besides the ones that were saved.. How could anyone other than Moses write about that story and how could Moses write about something only Manu survived? –  Sep 28 '11 at 17:00
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    @Sven - perhaps all of humanity descended from that one group that was saved from the flood? – wax eagle Sep 28 '11 at 17:16
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    Noah, Shem, Ham, Japheth, and their descendants could certainly have written about it. Names may have been confused or mispronounced after Babel, but there would've been a common history. – Narnian Sep 28 '11 at 17:21
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    I agree with Sven. The last paragraph should be removed. Also, pradators don't necessarily disperse the bones. for example Big predators that can disperse bones generally don't. Little ones can't. – Richard Sep 28 '11 at 18:29
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    @Narnian - per discussion above I've deleted the last paragraph, it doesn't add to the discussion, it actually opens a new tangent. – wax eagle Sep 28 '11 at 18:32