William R. Harper⁠University of Chicago

“ Jehovah has endured all that even a God can endure. Man has become wicked, utterly depraved. There must be a new beginning. The old race shall die; the deluge punishes the world for its sin; the deluge purifies the world of its iniquity. Could anything be more reasonable or more consistent ? What was his purpose ? Clearly and distinctly to show that for sin man must die. ”

“ The various deluge stories must be viewed in combination and explained on a common principle. What was the original significance of the non-biblical stories ? Not merely an annual recurring river flood such as those of the Euphrates, for the phenomenal basis of myths must be something striking and wonderful as well as frequently recurring. The phenomena of the sky and especially of the sun are daily miracles. The deluge of these stories has been transferred from the skies to the earth. ”

“ The deluge is a mythical presentation of creation. Cheyne, the writer on this subject in the Encyclopædia Britannica, presents this view in the following language: "The story of the deluge is a subdivision of the primitive man's cosmogony. The problem with which he had to deal was a complicated one — given the eternity of matter to account for the origin of the world. The best solution which presented itself was to represent creation as having taken place repeatedly, and the world as having passed through a series of demolitions and reconstructions. ”

“ It is an ether myth. The attempt to explain the existence of the world on the basis of an ether myth was not uncommon. The deluge was not the last of these destructions. Some races supposed a great fire to have swept over the earth and to have destroyed all save a few who hid themselves in caves."
4. We may understand the basis of the deluge story to be a legend transmitting historical memories which, though mythical and colored, have still the fate of actual men as their subject — an historical origin.
This is the view advanced by Delitzsch. [3]
5. ”

“ Hundreds of pages would be necessary to present at all adequately the stories of the deluge which have come down to us in literatures outside of the Hebrew literature. It will be at once clear that there is no space even for an abstract of the various statements. It is true that some of the stories are more interesting than others. But no satisfactory conclusions can be reached except upon the basis of an examination of all or practically all of the material. ”

“ It is certain that none of these accounts are derived from the pages of the Bible. They are independent of each other. Their differences are as striking and characteristic as their analogies; they are echoes of a sound which had long vanished away. ”

“ Coincidences not limited to details; they extend to the whole outlines; it is almost everywhere the sin of man which renders the determination of an all just judge irrevocable; one pious man is saved with his family to form the nucleus of a new population; an ark is introduced; and pairs of the animal creation are collected; birds are sent out to ascertain the condition of the earth; an altar is built and sacrifices are offered. ”