“Perhaps, to the author of Genesis, it appeared that the entire world was flooded ... but it would be impossible for the human writer of Genesis to verify that”
I think the book of Genesis was written by Moses. It seems reasonable that Moses and other prophets would have made sciptural writings to the best of their abilities, and if there are errors of observation, this does not (IMO) render the Bible doctrinally false. Moses was not a direct witness of the flood, as he was born long after it happened. So he was either relaying a verbal or written account of the flood, or he was writing based on direct revelation from God, I’m not sure which. If he was relaying a previous account, it seems plausible that some changes could have been introduced to the account unless he was using a direct record written by the hand of Noah. Even if he was using an account directly written by Noah, it is possible that Noah himself thought the entire earth was covered with water even if it wasn’t, because Noah would be describing events from his point of view.
Don’t you see, if Genesis was just written by Moses, it has no authority. Only a fool would believe a word of the Bible if it was just written by men.
>> It seems reasonable that Moses and other prophets would have made sciptural writings to the best of their abilities, and if there are errors of observation, this does not (IMO) render the Bible doctrinally false.
>> Even if he was using an account directly written by Noah, it is possible that Noah himself thought the entire earth was covered with water even if it wasn’t, because Noah would be describing events from his point of view.
Exactly.
It helps somewhat to think of Genesis as a “need to know” Cliff-Notes version of Creation. God didn’t give all the gritty details ... He gave the authors a quick, very broad overview.
And, within Christian doctrine, the details are truly not necessary, and are entirely debatable within the broad framework given in the Bible. If something is truly PROVEN scientifically, then it must fit within the Bible’s framework ... it is a matter of adjusting human interpretation of the Word to fit the evidence.
SnakeDoc