1) Flood myths are found in every culture because they evolved from the Tower of Babel event described in the Bible. 2) The myths generally involve a deity who decides to flood the world because it has become evil, but spares one righteous man and tells him to build a boat to survive the flood with his family and animals. 3) After the floodwaters recede, the man releases birds to check if the land is dry, and is told never to flood the world again as seen in the sign of the rainbow.

1. Have you everwonderedwhythere are so manyfloodmyths?Orhow they came to be?Well afterthis
speechyouwill knowthe answerstoyourquestions. Floodmythscanbe foundineveryculture inthe
world,because theyenvolvedfromthe time of Babel.FirstI’ll give youasummary of a few floodmyths
fromaround the world.SecondI’ll pointoutthe similaritiesthesefloodmythshave. ThenIwill talk
abouthow the Towerof Babel fitsin.FinallyIwill conclude how all of these thingsIhave talked aboutall
fitnicelytogether.
We all knowthe storyof Noahand the flood. Now God saw that Noahwas surroundedby evil people.
God regrettedcreatinghumansonearth,sohe decidedhe’dsendafloodthatwould kill everyone.But
Noahfoundfavorin God’seyes.Because of this GodtoldNoah aboutthe flood thatwas to come and he
toldhimto buildanark. God toldNoah whenthe arkwas done to take hisfamily andeveryanimal into
the ark. Noahwas laughedatbecause he wasmakingan ark. Once Noahwas finishedwithbuildingthe
ark, itbeganto rain. It raineduntil the earthwascompletedflooded. Noahsentout a ravento see if
the floodwatershadgone,but the ravencame back. Aftera weekNoahsentouta dove and againit
came back.AfteranotherweekNoahagainsentoutthe dove,thistime thoughinitsbeakwas a freshly
pluckedolive leaf!ThenNoahknewthatthe waterhadrecededfromthe earth.He waitedsevenmore
daysand sentthe dove out again,butthis time itdidnot returnto him. ThenGod made an oath never
floodthe worldagain.He showedthisoathby makinga rainbow .
The secondfloodmythcomesfromthe Aztecswho livedinMexico.There livedamannamedTapi in the
Vallyof Mexico.The creatortoldhimto builda boat to live in, andtotake hiswife anda pairof every
animal thatexisted. Nowneighborsthoughthe wascrazy andwas made funof. Assoonas he finished,it
beganto rain.The valleyflooded;everythingwasdestroyed. The rainended,watersreceded,and
eventuallythe valleywasfinallydry.Tapi realizedthatthe floodwatershadrecededafterhavingsenta
dove that didnotreturn.Tapi rejoiced. (FloodMyths -- PartOne,2006)
Now thisnextfloodmythcomesfrom Hawaii. inthe time of Nuuthe floodcame uponthe earth.It
destroyedall livingbeingsthatNuu,bycommandof his god,builta large vessel withahouse ontopof
it.This iscalledthe royal vessel,inwhichhe andhisfamily,consistingof hiswife,Lilinoe, histheresons
and theirwives,were saved. Whenthe floodsubsided,Kane,Ku,andLonoenteredthe waahalauof
Nuu,and toldhimto go out.He didso,and foundhimself onthe topof Mauna Kea (the highest
mountainonthe islandof Hawaii).He calledacave there afterthe name of his wife,andthe cave
remainsthere tothisday as a testimonyof the fact. (Thrum, 1907)
Obviously, these myths have alotincommon. The firstthingthese mythshave incommonare both
the God or gods sawthat the worldwasbecomingevil andwantedtostartover.In orderto start over
theyhad to wipe the worldof all the animalsandhumans.
The nextsimilarityisthatineachfloodmyththere isone human andhis familywhothe godor godssee
as beinggoodand sothe godor gods warn them.
NextIhope you noticed howinmostof these, the god told the man to buildsome kindof aboat.
NowI don’tknowaboutyou butI’m amazedthat these flood myths fromdifferentculturesandplaces
still have somuch incommon.The reasonfor thisis the Towerof Babel.

2. The Tower of Babel was builtinthe Babylonregion. The Towerof Babel wasa ziggurat.A zigguratisa
pyramid-shapedtemple, solidonthe insidewithaflightof stairsupone face.At the top of thismassive
structure was placeda temple tothe city’schief deity.
Nowthiszigguratmade God not happywiththe people.He said“If as one people speakingthe same
language theyhave beguntodo this,thennothingtheyplantodowill be impossible forthem. Come,
letus go downandconfuse theirlanguage sotheywill notunderstandeachother.”Godthenmixedup
all the languagesandwe nowtoday have a lotof languages.
Nowsome nonbelieversdon’t believethisstory,but an ancientMesopotamian mythbacksitup.The
ancientMesopotamianmyth dealtwithatime whenall peoplesonlyspokeone language.Thisoriginal
language waschanged bythe “fatherof the gods” insome sort of a judgment.Inotherwords,the
ancientMesopotamianthemselveshada versionof the changingof the languagesasseenin the storyof
the Towerof Babel inGenesis 11. (ProfessorCharlesF.Aling)
Afterthe Towerof Babel,everyone spreadacrossthe worldbutkept the floodstory.
AfterNoahcame out of the ark, hisfamilyinhabittedthe earth.Thisone culture throughtheirarrogance
decidedtobuildthe towerof Babel.ThiscausedGodto angry, sohe decidedtoconfuse theirlanguage.
Due to the manylanguage, manyculturesdeveloped. These cultureskeptthe truth,butchangeditto
be part of theirculture. Thisiswhythere are somany floodmythsandhow theycame to be.