Genesis 6–9 · The Deluge · Featured Study

The Flood

A real, global Deluge — the world so filled with violence that God resolves to wipe it out, yet grace precedes the ark: Noah “found favor” (6:8) before he was ever told to build (6:14). Judgment and mercy run together, and salvation comes through the water — a figure of baptism into Christ (1 Pet 3:20–21).

The World Is Destroyed by Water — Gustave Doré — The world destroyed by water — the rising half of the flood chiasm below — Gustave Doré, Doré’s English Bible (1866), public domain · Gen 7:19–24

The Flood Chiasm

— a mirror pivoting on five words (Wenham, palistrophe)

The fountains and windows are opened

Gen 7:11

150 days the waters prevail

Gen 7:24

The LORD shuts Noah in

Gen 7:16

The waters rise over the mountains

Gen 7:19–20

The fountains and windows are closed

Gen 8:2

150 days the waters abate

Gen 8:3

Noah opens the window

Gen 8:6

The waters fall; the land appears

Gen 8:5, 13

The pivot — Genesis 8:1

“And God remembered Noah.” The whole story turns here — from rising judgment to receding mercy.

The Ark & the One Door

— salvation through water

The tebah — a word used in all of Scripture only of Noah's ark and Moses' basket (Exod 2:3) — is a pitch-sealed vessel of salvation through water. The single door the LORD Himself shuts (7:16) stands beside “I am the door” (John 10:9).

MannaFest reads the Flood as literal, global history (YEC) — the Deluge of Genesis 7, the pattern Peter makes of the final judgment by fire (2 Pet 3:6–7).

Read Genesis 7 →Noah →tebah — ark →The Covenants →The Story of Genesis →