The most relevant Parshat for Noachides is Parshat Noach. It is here that humanity is wiped out and reborn through our patriarch Noach. It is also in this Parshat that God makes a covenant between himself and all humanity; promising not to destroy the world again through a flood. We encounter two genealogy lists in this Parsha, one at the beginning and one at the end. Life after the flood is also examined as we see the first world empire, Bavel, and its king Nimrod come to the world stage and as a result of the incident at the tower of Bavel we see this kingdoms power greatly reduce. All of this eventually leads to Avraham. In a way setting the stage for the one whose family would become the Messiahs of the world.

There is an aspect of Parshat Noach that is perhaps the most controversial and that is the universal flood. Science and Torah have come head to head on this issue. Historically and scientifically there is doubt that a universal flood took place. Although it is true that flood myths exist in one form or another in ancient cultures; it is also true that those flood myths are not always negative. In the ancient Egyptian account their flood myth is the beginning of life and the power of Egypt.

Scientifically we are confronted with the geological record that tells us that although at one point every place on the earth has been submerged in water due to floods, what we do not find is that they were all submerged at the same time. If the geological record is trustworthy then we must take a step back and wonder about the Flood account in Bereishit. Should we take this story seriously or realize that Science has disproved the Torah? It would seem that we have pitted science against the Torah, and as honest and truth seeking individuals it is our job to determine which is right—or if they are both right.

It is clear that flood accounts are an important source of myth and fear for many cultures around the world. The question is whether or not these flood myths describe the flood of Noach or if they are really referring to floods that have happened locally.

A difficulty that many have when looking for historical backing for the Torah is that they come to their search with a belief on what the truth is before they even begin looking. No matter who discusses the subject a pre-existing bias is there. For secular scholars the flood of Bereishit is discounted from the very beginning or given lesser status as either recording a major flood of a particular area or a rehashing of the famous Mesopotamian text “Epic of Gilgamesh” perhaps the second most famous flood story exists in the “Epic of Gilgamesh.”

The issue at hand is whether or not the flood of Noach is an invention, retelling of an old story, or original and true account of a universal flood. The dilemma we find ourselves in is that if the flood of Noach is true then we would expect this story to exist in all cultures. After all, we are all descendants of Noach and therefore had a first hand account of a flood that nearly wiped out the human race. It would be a story hard to forget leaving itself etched into our collective consciousness.

If, however, we do not find a universal tradition of a universal flood, then like many secular scholars, we ought to be led to doubt the veracity of the flood in Parshat Noach. If a universal “memory” of such a flood does not exist then perhaps we are not really the product of one parent and the account in Bereishit is either wholly invented or a moralistic retelling of another favorite legend.

Whenever one wishes to determine the truth of legend from history it is important to realize that definite answers become more elusive the further back in time we travel. History is more of an art of interpretation very often dealing with matters of human perceptions of events and times either contemporaneous with the authors of those accounts or interpretations of events long since passed. Cultural, religious, philosophic are just a few of the things one must keep in mind when examining the historical records of any people. This becomes more difficult the further back in time when all we know of certain peoples and cultures are the writing that they have left us. It is important to extend this warning because as we examine myths and legends of long departed peoples, we must keep in mind that we are approaching such texts from a limited perspective. The limitations we have sometimes interfere with an accurate understanding of such texts—hence we have ceaseless debate and reinterpretation of historical events, peoples, and documents.

This affects our own examination of the flood of Noach because we are reaching outside of the revelatory knowledge of the Torah. Therefore we are comparing and examining documents of wholly different perspectives and purposes to one another; looking for verification for a document that wasn’t even written when these events took place.

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