9 Climate Change and Eschatology
165
Historical Background
I will now turn to the historical aspect of the flood story. There are two questions
over which Christians have battled for years. The first is: Is the flood story a myth
or has it an historical basis? The second question is: If there is some historical basis
to the flood story, was it a world-wide flood or a regional event? I will address both
questions here.
As for the first question and the proposed alternative between myth and history, this
is—in my opinion—a false dichotomy. For the Greek word mythos (μ ´
θoς) does not
connote “unhistorical”, but rather implies an event which transcends, in significance
and meaning, the realm of time and space. In other words, a biblical event may very
well have historical roots which in the course of time gained a mythical implication
for man’s existence. The myths of an ethnic group or a nation say much about that
group’s or nation’s identity and self-understanding. What matters is not so much
whether these myths are “true” in a strict historical sense but whether they are true
in an existential sense. Myths are rooted in reality, but grow and blossom in the
collective subconsciousness of an ethnic group which draws from it its identity,
the meaning of its existence, and the interpretation of the lives of its members.
Myths are the presuppositions upon which people base their thinking, reasoning,
and weltanschauung.
2
As for Noah’s flood, there has come to the fore in recent years a theory which
commands and deserves attention when we speak of the biblical flood narrative.
In 1998 two geologists, Walter Pitman and William Ryan, published their book
Noah’s Flood. The New Scientific Discoveries About the Event That Changed History
(Pitman and Ryan 1998). In it, the authors describe their theory about the Black Sea
Flood which occurred some 7500 years ago (ca. 5500 B.C.) when the rising waters
of the Mediterranean Sea spilled over the Bosporus to flood the Black Sea which up
to that time had been a freshwater lake some 100 meters (more than 300 ft) below
the level of the Mediterranean. The spilled-over salty seawater flooded much of the
coastal areas of the Black Sea, especially in the north where the coastal regions were
rather flat, turning the once freshwater lake into a deadly (“black”) saltwater sea
and irrevocably submerging large swaths of land never to be retrieved again. The
evidence for the Black Sea Flooding was impressive, and a Bulgarian research team
around Petko Dimitrov substantiated much of the evidence previously collected by
Pitman and Ryan and other teams (Dimitrov 2004). While there are still controversies
regarding some details of the Black Sea Flood, the actual flooding appears to be
factual. Culture and language expert Harald Haarmann has described the cultural
and linguistic repercussions of the Black Sea Flood, consolidating and corroborating
2 For a fuller discussion of my understanding of myth, see my chapter „Schöpfungsmythen” in: Kurt
Bangert, Und sie dreht sich doch! 50 Antworten auf die Frage, wie alles begann, Theiss: Darmstadt 2015, S. 14–41. For further discussion on the concept of myth see also: Norbert Bischof: Das
Kraftfeld der Mythen. Signale aus der Zeit, in der wir die Welt erschaffen haben, Piper: München
1996/ 3 2004; Christian Danz and Werner Schuessler: Die Macht des Mythos. Das Mythosverständnis
Paul Tillichs im Kontext, de Gruyter/ Kindle Edition 2014; Mircea Eliade: Myth and Reality,
Waveland Press/HarperRow: Prospect Hights, Ill. 1963.
165
Historical Background
I will now turn to the historical aspect of the flood story. There are two questions
over which Christians have battled for years. The first is: Is the flood story a myth
or has it an historical basis? The second question is: If there is some historical basis
to the flood story, was it a world-wide flood or a regional event? I will address both
questions here.
As for the first question and the proposed alternative between myth and history, this
is—in my opinion—a false dichotomy. For the Greek word mythos (μ ´
θoς) does not
connote “unhistorical”, but rather implies an event which transcends, in significance
and meaning, the realm of time and space. In other words, a biblical event may very
well have historical roots which in the course of time gained a mythical implication
for man’s existence. The myths of an ethnic group or a nation say much about that
group’s or nation’s identity and self-understanding. What matters is not so much
whether these myths are “true” in a strict historical sense but whether they are true
in an existential sense. Myths are rooted in reality, but grow and blossom in the
collective subconsciousness of an ethnic group which draws from it its identity,
the meaning of its existence, and the interpretation of the lives of its members.
Myths are the presuppositions upon which people base their thinking, reasoning,
and weltanschauung.
2
As for Noah’s flood, there has come to the fore in recent years a theory which
commands and deserves attention when we speak of the biblical flood narrative.
In 1998 two geologists, Walter Pitman and William Ryan, published their book
Noah’s Flood. The New Scientific Discoveries About the Event That Changed History
(Pitman and Ryan 1998). In it, the authors describe their theory about the Black Sea
Flood which occurred some 7500 years ago (ca. 5500 B.C.) when the rising waters
of the Mediterranean Sea spilled over the Bosporus to flood the Black Sea which up
to that time had been a freshwater lake some 100 meters (more than 300 ft) below
the level of the Mediterranean. The spilled-over salty seawater flooded much of the
coastal areas of the Black Sea, especially in the north where the coastal regions were
rather flat, turning the once freshwater lake into a deadly (“black”) saltwater sea
and irrevocably submerging large swaths of land never to be retrieved again. The
evidence for the Black Sea Flooding was impressive, and a Bulgarian research team
around Petko Dimitrov substantiated much of the evidence previously collected by
Pitman and Ryan and other teams (Dimitrov 2004). While there are still controversies
regarding some details of the Black Sea Flood, the actual flooding appears to be
factual. Culture and language expert Harald Haarmann has described the cultural
and linguistic repercussions of the Black Sea Flood, consolidating and corroborating
2 For a fuller discussion of my understanding of myth, see my chapter „Schöpfungsmythen” in: Kurt
Bangert, Und sie dreht sich doch! 50 Antworten auf die Frage, wie alles begann, Theiss: Darmstadt 2015, S. 14–41. For further discussion on the concept of myth see also: Norbert Bischof: Das
Kraftfeld der Mythen. Signale aus der Zeit, in der wir die Welt erschaffen haben, Piper: München
1996/ 3 2004; Christian Danz and Werner Schuessler: Die Macht des Mythos. Das Mythosverständnis
Paul Tillichs im Kontext, de Gruyter/ Kindle Edition 2014; Mircea Eliade: Myth and Reality,
Waveland Press/HarperRow: Prospect Hights, Ill. 1963.