Difference between revisions of "Chronology of the Flood/2/en"
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| − | <point><b>"וַיִּגְבְּרוּ הַמַּיִם" and "וַיַּחְסְרוּ הַמַּיִם"</b> – | + | <point><b>"וַיִּגְבְּרוּ הַמַּיִם" and "וַיַּחְסְרוּ הַמַּיִם"</b> – These commentators disagree in how they date the beginning of the water's reduction:<fn>The various opinions relate to a number of other issues in the text, including the landing of the ark, chronology of the verses, and the shifting pace of water reduction, which will be discussed in the bullets below.</fn><br/> |
<ul> | <ul> | ||
<li><b>Water first decreased after 150 days</b> - The author of the Qumran Scroll, Yefet the Karaite, Ramban, and Seforno all understand the phrase "וַיַּחְסְרוּ הַמַּיִם מִקְצֵה חֲמִשִּׁים וּמְאַת יוֹם" to mean that the water did not begin to decrease until the end of the 150 days. Seforno suggests that even though the rain stopped after 40 days, the underground sources of water were still open,<fn>Chapter 7:17 speaks of the flood lasting for 40 days, but it is only in 8:2 that the text mentions the closing of the heavenly windows and subterranean sources of water.  This leads Seforno (and Ramban) to sugest that there were two stages.  However, the continuation of 8:2 reads, "וַיִּכָּלֵא הַגֶּשֶׁם מִן הַשָּׁמָיִם" which leads others to suggest that the two events happened simultaneously. </fn> causing continued water pressure during this entire period.<fn>His words are slightly ambiguous, and can be interpreted to mean either that the subterranean waters caused an increase in the water throughout this period or that they simply caused a continuous pressure, preventing the water from standing still or decreasing.</fn> Ramban, in contrast, seems to maintain that though the waters did not continue to increase after the fortieth day, due to the great humidity<fn>This was caused by the fact that the heavenly windows and subterranean water sources were still open.</fn> they retained their height throughout this period.</li> | <li><b>Water first decreased after 150 days</b> - The author of the Qumran Scroll, Yefet the Karaite, Ramban, and Seforno all understand the phrase "וַיַּחְסְרוּ הַמַּיִם מִקְצֵה חֲמִשִּׁים וּמְאַת יוֹם" to mean that the water did not begin to decrease until the end of the 150 days. Seforno suggests that even though the rain stopped after 40 days, the underground sources of water were still open,<fn>Chapter 7:17 speaks of the flood lasting for 40 days, but it is only in 8:2 that the text mentions the closing of the heavenly windows and subterranean sources of water.  This leads Seforno (and Ramban) to sugest that there were two stages.  However, the continuation of 8:2 reads, "וַיִּכָּלֵא הַגֶּשֶׁם מִן הַשָּׁמָיִם" which leads others to suggest that the two events happened simultaneously. </fn> causing continued water pressure during this entire period.<fn>His words are slightly ambiguous, and can be interpreted to mean either that the subterranean waters caused an increase in the water throughout this period or that they simply caused a continuous pressure, preventing the water from standing still or decreasing.</fn> Ramban, in contrast, seems to maintain that though the waters did not continue to increase after the fortieth day, due to the great humidity<fn>This was caused by the fact that the heavenly windows and subterranean water sources were still open.</fn> they retained their height throughout this period.</li> | ||
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<li><b>Miraculous intervention</b> – Ramban, in contrast, is forced to assert that Hashem sent a miraculous wind which decreased the waters substantially in a very short period of time.<fn>Ramban compares this to Yam Suf where it says: "וַיּוֹלֶךְ י"י אֶת הַיָּם בְּרוּחַ קָדִים עַזָּה כׇּל הַלַּיְלָה וַיָּשֶׂם אֶת הַיָּם לֶחָרָבָה וַיִּבָּקְעוּ הַמָּיִם".</fn>  </li> | <li><b>Miraculous intervention</b> – Ramban, in contrast, is forced to assert that Hashem sent a miraculous wind which decreased the waters substantially in a very short period of time.<fn>Ramban compares this to Yam Suf where it says: "וַיּוֹלֶךְ י"י אֶת הַיָּם בְּרוּחַ קָדִים עַזָּה כׇּל הַלַּיְלָה וַיָּשֶׂם אֶת הַיָּם לֶחָרָבָה וַיִּבָּקְעוּ הַמָּיִם".</fn>  </li> | ||
</ul></point> | </ul></point> | ||
| − | <point><b>Shifting water levels</b><ul> | + | <point><b>Shifting water levels</b> – A simple reading of the verses suggests that the waters decreased at an extremely varied pace: |
| − | <li>If one | + | <ul> |
| − | <li>Those who posit that the water began to recede after the rain stopped would seem to have an even bigger problem, since | + | <li>If one posits that the water first decreased after the 150 days, then it went down 15 cubits in the 2 1/2 months from 7/17 until 10/1 compared to thousands of cubits in the 3 months from then until the land dried on 1/1.  Ramban explains that there is no reason to think that the water needed to decrease at a steady pace. According to him, Hashem's intervention on the first day led to a vast decrease in the water, <fn>In his comments to 8:4, he suggests that the water fell by about 9 cubits on the first day, and assumes that the ark was submerged in 6 cubits when it rested on the mountain.  In his comments to 8:5, however, he offers a variation of the approach and asserts that since Mt. Ararat was one of the shorter mountain, the reduction in water level need not be limited to fifteen cubits and was much more than that.  He suggests that many of the taller mountain tops would have already been revealed, and had Noach been in their vicinity, he might have landed earlier.  It was only the shorter mountains in the region of Ararat that were first uncovered on the first of the tenth month.</fn> minimizing the difference in the rate of reduction slightly.<fn>As the water needed to decrease the height of an entire mountain in the period from 10/1 to 1/1, while it needed to decrease just the difference in height between the taller and shorter mountains in the period between 7/17 and 10/, there would still seem to have been a vast increase in pace at the end.</fn></li> |
| + | <li>Those who posit that the water began to recede after the rain stopped would seem to have an even bigger problem, since according to them, the water receded only 15 cubits in over 180 days!<fn>There was 110 days until the ark rested on the 17th of the seventh month and then another 73 days until the mountain tops were revealed on the first of the tenth month.</fn>   Shadal minimizes the problem by asserting that by the time the ark landed on 7/17, more than 15 cubits of water had already receded, since Mt. Ararat was not the tallest, but rather one of the shorter mountains.<fn>In other areas, the tops of the tallest mountains would have already been revealed.  It was the shorter mountain tops that were seen on 10/1.</fn>  There would, nonethless, still seem to be a significant increase of the rate of water reduction in the last 3 months, assuming that even the shorter mountains were a few thousand cubits high.</li> | ||
</ul></point> | </ul></point> | ||
<point><b>Chronology</b><ul> | <point><b>Chronology</b><ul> | ||
Version as of 10:45, 21 June 2015
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62: <mekorot>first approach in <multilink><a href="RambanBereshit8-4-5" data-aht="source">Ramban<multilink data-aht="<a href="MaaseiHashemBereshit26" data-aht="source">Ma'asei Hashem Bereshit 26</a><a href="R. Eliezer Ashkenazi (Ma'asei Hashem)" data-aht="parshan">About R. Eliezer Ashkenazi (Ma'asei Hashem)</a>"></multilink><multilink data-aht=""></multilink></a><a href="RambanBereshit8-4-5" data-aht="source">Bereshit 8:4-5</a><a href="R. Moshe b. Nachman (Ramban, Nachmanides)" data-aht="parshan">About R. Moshe b. Nachman</a></multilink>, <multilink><a href="MaaseiHashemBereshit26" data-aht="source">R. Eliezer Ashkenazi</a><a href="MaaseiHashemBereshit26" data-aht="source">Ma'asei Hashem Bereshit 26</a><a href="R. Eliezer Ashkenazi (Ma'asei Hashem)" data-aht="parshan">About R. Eliezer Ashkenazi (Ma'asei Hashem)</a></multilink></mekorot>