Noah's Flood - should 'erets' be translated 'land' or 'Earth'?

Was their flood local or global? 


According to the modern plate tectonics theory, there was originally only one land mass. Even if this is true, we don't know when the continental seperation took place. It may have happened before Adam. 


Genesis 1:1

ECB 1 In the beginning Elohim creates the heavens and the earth.

When we say 'earth' today, we mean all the lands and seas combined because we have named the whole planet 'Earth'. Every language has a name for our planet which means 'ground', 'soil' or 'land'. 


Genesis 1:9-10

CLV 9 And saying is the Elohim, "Flow together shall the water from under the heavens to one place, and appear shall the dry land." And coming is it to be so. And flowing together is the water under the heavens to one place, and appearing is the dry land. 10 And calling is the Elohim the dry part "land" [or "earth"] and the confluence of the water He calls "seas. "And seeing is the Elohim that it is good.

The seas biblically came to represent the unstable pagan nations. To be in the land is was to be in Yahwey's territory; on solid ground. Aliens had corrupted Yahwey's people in his land, so he brought in the literal water to clean it up.

Genesis 6:17-18 (He flooded his land)
ECB 17 And behold, I, even I, bring a flood of waters on the earth, to ruin all flesh, wherein is the spirit of life, from under the heavens; so that all in the earth expires. 18 But with you I raise my covenant; and you come into the ark - you and your sons and your woman and the women of your sons with you.

We have one verse that is often assumed to refer to plate techtonics; that is to assume that the 'continental drift' took place in the days of Peleg. The continents would have moved thousands of miles in one lifetime, with people on them. Of course, "God can do anything", but this is a one flimsy verse to base all of that on. God divided the land after his people entered Canaan too, but nobody calls that event continental drift. If Peleg was born 100 years after the flood, then it was time for Yahwey's renewed people group to apportion their land among themselves.

Genesis 10:25

CLV 25 And to Eber two sons are born. The name of one is Peleg, for in his days the land was distributed. And the name of his brother is Joktan.

We didn't regard the earth as a planet until three hundred years ago. All the other planets were already named after gods and goddessess. The following verses refer to some Earth events that should sound just as global as the flood does to us, because the same two words translated 'all' and 'earth' in Genesis 6:17 are in these verses too:

Yahwey's people stopped cultivating his land and were all building a tower; in one place.

Genesis 11:1  Tower of Babel
KJV 1 And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech.
(try 'land' here instead of 'earth', meaning Yahwey's covenant land)

This 'land' refers to David's army.


1 Samuel 14:25

ECB 25 And all the land comes to a forest; and there is honey on the face of the field:

I don't think "all the earth" has ever been in a drought. 'All the Earth' makes as much sense as 'all the Mars'. Try 'all the land', meaning all of a certain land or people and not all the planet.

Judges 6:37
CLV 37 lo, I am placing the fleece of wool in the threshing-floor: if dew is on the fleece alone, and on all the earth drought--then I have known that You do save Israel by my hand, as You have spoken;.

Did the whole world weep or just a whole lot of David's people?


2 Samuel 15:23

LITV 23 And all the land was weeping with a loud voice. And all the people were passing over. And the king was passing over through the torrent Kidron, and all the people passed over, toward the way of the wilderness.

All the Earth was before Lot, but this modern translator knows that Lot chose the Jordon Valley and Abraham moved into the land of Canaan; the promised covenant land, so he chose to use the word 'land' here instead of 'Earth'.


Genesis 13:9

LITV 9 is not all the land before you? Please separate from me. If you go to the left, then I will go to the right. Or if you go to the right, then I will go to the left.

The whole planet did not dry up after the flood. 


Genesis 8:7

LITV 7 And he sent out a raven, and it went out, going out and returning until the waters were dried up from off the earth.

We just assume earth quakes are local. When we hear of one we ask, "where?". In other words they are earth quakes not Earth quakes; land quakes. 


1 Samuel 14:15

ECB 15 And they tremble in the camp, in the field, and among all the people: the standing camp and the ruiners also tremble; and the earth quakes - and so be it, a trembling of Elohim:

Just as God carried forward His old covenant with Noah before destroying the unbelievers on His land, He made a new covenant with his son before destroying the unbelievers in his corrupted old covenant land. 


2 Peter 3:6

ECB 6 through which the cosmos then being flooded with water and destructed:

Biblically, 'cosmos' does not mean the planet or the universe. It means the order or the constitution. Yahwey's old world order was represented in Jerusalem and it ended in a local fire not a global fire.

2 Peter 3:6-7 

ALT 6 through which the then world, having been flooded by water, was destroyed. 7 But the present heavens and the [present] earth having been stored up [or, reserved] for fire by His word are being kept for [the] day of judgment and of destruction of the godless people.

Was Moses speaking to God's covenant land or the whole panet?


Deuteronomy 32:1

LITV 1 Give ear, O heavens, and I will speak. And hear, O earth, the words of my mouth.

The heavens is where God's leaders rule from. The land is where all his people live. Moses addressed heavens and land: leaders who ruled for God were distincly in God's presence in order to speak God's word to his congregation; they therefore ruled the land from the heavens. The old rulership and old land were destroyed.

Peter was given authority for the new covenant like Moses had in the old. He ruled from the heavens.


Matthew 16:19 (the heavens and the land were being changed)

ECB 19 and I give you the keys of the sovereigndom of the heavens: and whatever you bind on earth becomes bound in the heavens: and whatever you release on earth becomes released in the heavens.

The modern meaning of Earth may almost be an acceptable translation in Matthew 16:19, since God's covenant land is anywhere on the whole planet now; wherever his people are. The new land of God however is only in the body of Christ; in the city of God; in the church. 

You are still in your individual body of flesh. You are not in the old covenant corporate body of flesh. The corporate body of Christ is not dependent on geneologies or flesh sacrifices or flesh location anymore. We will die someday and lose this flesh body, yet we will still be in the city of God. 


Romans 8:9 

CLV 9 Yet you are not in flesh, but in spirit, if so be that God's spirit is making its home in you. Now if anyone has not Christ's spirit, this one is not His."

The Jews were told to stay in Jerusalem until Yahwey took up his new temple residence in them. "Do not leave".


Acts 1:4-5

YLT 4 And being assembled together with them, he commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, `Ye did hear of me; 5 because John, indeed, baptized with water, and ye shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit—after not many days.'

Jerusalem was destroyed by Roman war.


Daniel 9:26

CLV 26 After the sixty-two sevens, Messiah will be cut off, and there is no adjudication for Him. The city and the holy place shall be laid in ruins with the other governor's coming; then its end is by an overflow, and till the end of the war desolations will be decided."

Jesus told his discipes to make sure they leave before the Roman war trapped them in old covenant Jerusalem's last days. 

Matthew 24:15-22
LITV 15 Then when you see the abomination of desolation, which was spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place (the one reading, let him understand), Dan. 11:31; 12:11 16 then let those in Judea flee on the mountains; 17 the one on the housetop, let him not come down to take anything out of his house; 18 and the one in the field, let him not turn back to take his garment. 19 But woe to the woman having a child in womb, and to those suckling in those days! 20 And pray that your flight will not be in winter nor on a sabbath. 21 For there will be great affliction, such as has not happened from the beginning of the world until now, no, nor ever will be. 22 And except those days were shortened, not any flesh would be saved. But on account of the elect, those days will be shortened.

Yahwey's people were saved from destruction by entering his new covenant. They saved their individual bodies of flesh by leaving Jerusalem before the Roman war arrived.

1 Peter 1:1-7, 2:5, 3:3, 3:18-22, 4:17, 5:11-14 
SALUTATION 
ECB 1:1 Petros, an apostle of Yah Shua Messiah: To the pilgrim diaspora throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Biyournia, 2 Select according to the prognosis of Elohim the Father, in holiness of Spirit, to obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Yah Shua Messiah: Charism to you and shalom be multiplied.  
THE LIVING HOPE 
3 Eulogized be the Elohim and Father of our Adonay Yah Shua Messiah; who according to his vast mercy rebirthed us to a living hope through the resurrection of Yah Shua Messiah from the dead: 4 to an inheritance incorruptible and unpolluted and amaranthine, guarded in the heavens to you 5 who are garrisoned in the dynamis of Elohim through trust to salvation - prepared to be unveiled in the final season: 6 wherein you jump for joy: though now for a little, if necessary, you are sorrowed in divers testings 7 that the proofing of your trust: being much more precious than gold that destructs: though being proofed through fire be found unto halal and honor and glory at the apocalypse of Yah Shua Messiah: 2:5 and you yourselves, as living stones, are built a spiritual house - a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices, well-received to Elohim through Yah Shua Messiah. 3:3 whose cosmos is not outward - of braiding the hair and of wrapping around of gold or of enduing garments: 3:18 because Messiah also suffered for sins once - the just for the unjust, to bring us to Elohim, indeed deathified in flesh and enlivened in the Spirit19 wherein he also went and preached to the spirits in the guardhouse 20 - who sometime distrusted when once the patience of Elohim awaited in the days of Noach while the ark was a preparing, wherein few - that is eight souls were saved through water: 21 to which baptism, the antitype, now also saves us - not the laying aside of filth of flesh but the question of a good conscience to Elohim through the resurrection of Yah Shua Messiah22 who went into the heavens - at the right of Elohim angels and authorities and dynamis being subjugated to him. 4:17 Because this is the season that judgment must begin from the house of El: and if first from us, what is the completion/shalom of them who distrust the evangelism of Elohim? 5:11 To him be glory and dominion to the eons of the eons. Amen.
FINAL SALUTES 
12 Through Silvanus your trustworthy brother, I reckon that I scribed through few words, beseeching and witnessing that this wherein you stand is the true charism of Elohim. 13 The co-select in Babel and Markos my son salute you. 14 Salute one another with a kiss of love. Shalom with all in Messiah Yah Shua. Amen.