[1] Bill Arnold, Baker Exegetical Commentary on Genesis, writes: “The cosmic phenomena
described in 7:11–24 are not some banal punishment for the sin of that ancient generation, but they represent a reversal of creation, or “uncreation” as it has been called. The priestly creation account of Gen 1 portrayed creation as a series of separations and distinctions, whereas Gen 6:9–7:24 portrays the annihilation of those distinctions.231 As the sky dome was created to keep the heavenly waters from falling to earth (1:6–7), here the opened “windows of the heavens” reverse that created function (7:11). When the “fountains of the great deep [t ̆ehoˆm]” burst forth (7:11), the cosmic order that had been fashioned from watery chaos returns to watery chaos (1:2, 9). Strikingly the sequence of annihilation, “birds, domestic animals, wild animals, all swarming creatures that swarm on the earth, and all human beings” (7:21), follows closely that of creation itself in Gen 1:1–2:3.232.
[2] Robert Alter, Genesis Translation and Commentary (pg 33), writes “The surge of waters
from the great deep below and from the heavens above is, of course, a striking reversal of the second day of creation, when a vault was erected to divide the waters above from the waters below. The biblical imagination, having conceived creation as an orderly series of divisions imposed on primordial chaos, frequently conjures with the possibility of a reversal of this
process (see, for example, Jeremiah 4:23-26): biblical cosmogony and apocalypse are reverse sides of the same coin. The Flood story as a whole abounds in verbal echoes of the Creation story (the crawling things, the cattle and beasts of each kind, and so forth) as what was made on the six days is wiped out in these forty.”
[3] G. V. Smith (Structure and Purpose in Genesiis 1–11,” JETS 20 [1977]: 310–11) came up with the following points of contact between creation and the flood (chapters 1-2 with 8-9). I have
put the relationship from Smith in list format:
“(a) Since man could not live on the earth when it was covered with water in chaps. 1
and 8, a subsiding of the water and separation of the land from the water took place,
allowing the dry land to appear (1:9–10; 8:1–13);
(b) “birds and animals and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth” are brought
forth to “swarm upon the earth” in 1:20–21, 24–25 and 8:17–19;
(c) God establishes the days and seasons in 1:14–18 and 8:22;
(d) God’s blessing rests upon the animals as he commands them to “be fruitful and
multiply on the earth” in both 1:22 and 8:17;
(e) man is brought forth and he receives the blessing of God: “Be fruitful and multiply
and fill the earth” in 1:28 and 9:1, 7;
(f) Man is given dominion over the animal kingdom in 1:28 and 9:2;
(g) God provides food for man in 1:29–30 and 9:3 (this latter regulation makes a direct
reference back to the previous passage when it includes the statement, “As I have given
the green plant”);
(h) in 9:6 the writer quotes from 1:26–27 concerning the image of God in man. The
author repeatedly emphasizes the fact that the world is beginning again with a fresh
start. But Noah does not return to the paradise of Adam, for the significant difference is
that “the intent of man’s heart is evil” (Gen. 8:21)”
After its destruction the flood narrative presents a new creation account (recreation!). Derek Kidner, Genesis An Introduction and Commentary, writes: “. . . we should be careful to read the account whole-heartedly in its own terms, which depict a total judgment on the ungodly world already set before us in Genesis – not an event of debatable dimensions in a world we may try to reconstruct. The whole living scene is blotted out, and the New Testament makes us learn from it the greater judgment that awaits not only our entire globe but the universe itself (2 Pet. 3:5– 7). “
In the Egyptian Book of the Dead, Atum says, “I will destroy all that I have created. The earth
will once again look like the primeval ocean, like the mass of water at the very beginning. “
[Westermann, Genesis an Introduction pg. 51] It looks very much like the same is happening in
Genesis. The flood undoes the order God has established during his creative week. God is
wiping the slate clean and starting anew. Creation terminology and parallels are littered over
many aspects of the Genesis flood which is narrated as universal with respect to humanity,
regardless of the limited context of its author, which I take for granted. That the author had a
limited understanding of the size of the earth does not preclude the author from actually
believing and narrating that the entirety of the earth was flooded and all of humanity was
destroyed. This localized flood view is based on a priori assumptions. It approaches scripture
with a non-negotiable set of demands forcing specific interpretations to maintain concordant
readings. That the author does not know the earth is spherical and people lived across vast
oceans is no reason to force upon it a localized interpretation dictated by modern science. This
apologetic misunderstands the literary genre of the flood story and is motivated by the goal of
salvaging the accuracy of the Biblical account which unfortunately is being held hostage for
some by a literal, singular flood of epic but not global proportions.
The Created Order Appears Changed Post Flood:
As a further evidence of the universality of the flood, Genesis 9:2-3 reads: “The fear and dread
of you shall rest on every animal of the earth, and on every bird of the air, on everything that
creeps on the ground, and on all the fish of the sea; into your hand they are delivered. Every
moving thing that lives shall be food for you; and just as I gave you the green plants, I give you
everything. Robert Alter (ibid pg 38) writes, “Vegetarian man of the Garden is now allowed a
carnivore’s diet (this might conceivably be intended as an outlet for his violent impulses), and inconsonance with that change, man does not merely rule over the animal kingdom but inspires it
with fear.”
Arnold Writes, “However, the new order is not altogether the same as the old, since it also
involves an alteration of the food chain (9:3). Many readers assume this text implies something
inherently virtuous in vegetarianism, since it was the original cosmic order (“plan A”), or
inversely, something innately blameworthy in meat-eating. Others have assumed the change in
human diet is a concession to humanity’s weakness. But in reality, the only implication of the
text is that the new order is also accompanied by a change in the animals’ relationship to
humans (9:2). The fear of humans is new, since pre-flood animals enjoyed a primitive fellowship
with humans, now lost in the new natural order of things. Rather than placing value on either
vegetarianism or meat-eating, this supplement of Noah’s deity with meat is part of a biblical
progression toward holiness for humanity. “
Gerhard Von Rad writes, Genesis A Commentary, “The relationship of man to the animals no
longer resembles that which was decreed in ch. I. The animal world lives in fear and terror of
man. Previously ch. 9.1 assumes that until then the condition of paradisiacal peace had ruled
among the creatures. Now man begins to eat flesh (cf. ch. 1.29). “The sighing of the creatures
begins.” (Pr.) Answer: Just as God renewed for Noachic man the command to procreate, so he
also renewed man’s sovereign right over the animals. What is new, however, is that God will
also allow man deadly intervention; he may eat flesh as long as he does not touch the blood,
which the ancients considered to be the special seat of life.”
Why on earth would a localized flood change the relationship between of animals and humans
and the human diet the world over? Some scholars do dispute that Genesis 1-9 teaches preflood vegetarianism but even if that is rejected, we still have the relationship of man to the wild
animals changing. This story is set in the context of global changes that affect the entire
created order.