The Great Flood — Myth, Memory, or Something In Between?

[ArMaP]

The deeper question is:
What did ancient people see in the Flood story that made it worth centering in their understanding of God, humanity, sin, justice, mercy, and renewal?

I think it was because a flood is a relatively common thing for which there is no protection (unless you build a boat) and that people saw as probably being "just around the corner" and was an easy "tool" to present to the people by the religious people.

PS: I know, I'm not much of an esoterism kind of guy, I prefer simple and everyday explanations.

[andy06shake]

What did ancient people see in the Flood story that made it worth centering in their understanding of God, humanity, sin, justice, mercy, and renewal?

I'm as open to the discussion as the next man, 3rdrock.

In answer the question, i suppose the ancients loved the flood story because it explained everything at once.

Why the world felt broken, why gods got grumpy, and why you should probably behave.

It's cosmic moral storytelling with weather.

Plus, who doesn't enjoy a tale where humanity gets a divine reset button and one guy becomes the world's first zookeeper? 

[andy06shake]

[Solvedit]

It's mainly all conjecture Solvedit.

Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps.

But it is a cool take and twist on the story.

Conjecture to be sure.  Can it be there was a large-scale event which led to flood myths, though?  

Or, as 3rdrockfromsun put it,

Ancient theological narratives ...were attempts to interpret real events, real anxieties, and real human experiences through the lens of divine purpose. In other words, the line between “history,” “myth,” and “theology” was not the neatly fenced-off distinction we have now.

Apparently, some Native American, African, and Australian Aboriginal societies have some version of a flood myth.  It may prove informative to try to track the expansion of belief in a worldwide flood (which shares features in common with the ancient Near East flood myths) to see if it could be traced back to a large-scale event.  Unfortunately, it may prove difficult to track when societies without stone tablets decided to believe in a given event.

[Solvedit]

The deeper question is:
What did ancient people see in the Flood story that made it worth centering in their understanding of God, humanity, sin, justice, mercy, and renewal?
Why did this narrative — not any of the others — become the theological hinge for ideas like:

• covenant
  
• judgment
  
• divine patience
  
• human corruption
  
• cosmic reset
  
• the rhythm of sin → consequence → restoration
  

Why do you single out the flood this way?  The rest of the OT supports those concepts even if the flood narrative weren't there.  
Can it be enlightened moderns wish to impeach some of these concepts by coloring them founded primarily on an event which at best is hard to prove?  Possibly you've taken in some of the work of such a theologist?

[Solvedit]

The Flood story isn’t unique because it’s the only mythic-theological narrative out there; it’s unique because:
1) It shows up across cultures that weren’t influencing each other,

Now that's conjecture.  

There may have been a world-changing event from which a few people picked up the pieces.  

If enough people believed in it thoroughly enough, there did not have to be a high degree of cultural exchange between cultures in order for cultures to inherit a few beliefs and take them as news.

There is evidence, for example, that the ancient Near East may have been in contact with the Americas.  There were allegedly a few finds of tobacco and coca among Egyptian mummies. 

Then there's the Bimini Road.  It is shaped just like a Phoenician dock.  It is composed of mineralized sand called beach rock.  The mineralized matrix between the sand grains is 2780 years old.  Beach rock cannot form 2.5-3 meters (12-15 feet) under water.  Perhaps they built a pier out of wooden pilings with sand fill in the middle, then the top mineralized (it can take as little as 50 years, beach rock has been found with WW2 debris embedded,) then the wooden pilings forming the sides rotted away.  

There's a river near it in Florida called the Loxahatchee.  It sounds suspiciously like a Native corruption of the Arabic for "the furthest pilgrimage" or al-aqsa hajj.

[FlyersFan]

Apparently, some Native American, African, and Australian Aboriginal societies have some version of a flood myth. 

Floods are common events for mankind.
People around the world having flood stories doesn't mean that they all come from the same flood.

[FlyersFan]

There's a river near it in Florida called the Loxahatchee.  It sounds suspiciously like a Native corruption of the Arabic for "the furthest pilgrimage" or al-aqsa hajj.

Nope.

From AI GOOGLE ASSIST - The name "Loxahatchee" comes from the Seminole language, meaning the "River of Turtles" or a "turtle slough," referring to the abundance of turtles and the river's habitat for them, reflecting the area's rich wildlife, including alligators and various snakes, as noted by Rivers.gov and Ocean River Institute

And the Seminoles do not trace their ancestry back to the Arabs.
DNA says otherwise.

[Solvedit]

Floods are common events for mankind.
People around the world having flood stories doesn't mean that they all come from the same flood.

A flooded river overflowing its banks does not lend itself automatically to a myth of a worldwide flood.  

They wouldn't have survived if they couldn't deal by retreating from the waters a little bit.

[FlyersFan]

A flooded river overflowing its banks does not lend itself automatically to a myth of a worldwide flood.  

Over tens of thousands of years, humans around the world dealing with natural disasters are going to invent stories about them.   Flooding is a common natural disaster.