Deluge

DELUGE. Not only that terrible Inundation is in Scripture called Diluvium, or Deluge, whereby God destroyed all Mankind, and all the animals of the earth and air, which were not in the Ark; but likewise all sorts of Inundations or collections of extraordinary Waters. Thus the Psalmist speaking of the waters of the sea, or of a violent tempest, expresses it by the word Deluge. Dominus diluvium inhabitare facit. And in another place, that a deluge of water shall not come near the righteous: Ps. xxxi. 6.In diluvio aquarum multarum ad eum non appropinquabunt. The same expression may be observed in the common language of the World. All extraordinary Inundations are called Deluges, such as those which happened in the time of Deucalion and Ogyges, and those which we see in our rivers after long rains or unusual storms. In a spiritual and alleallegorical sense we say, an inundation of evil and afflictions. In the style of Scripture, great waters mean often great calamities.

But we understand principally by the word Deluge, that which happened in the time of Noah, wherein, as St. Peter says, there were but eight Persons saved. Gen. vi.Moses’s account of this matter is as follows. The men of Seth’s family having corrupted themselves with the daughters of Cain’s race, God resolved upon their destruction, and said within himself, My Spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh; yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years. These last words may admit of several senses; for example, I will shorten the life of man, and reduce it from between eight and nine hundred years, which was the length of it before, to an hundred and twenty; or else I allow them no more than an hundred and twenty years of life from this time to the Deluge: all which time was required, they say, for Noah’s building of the Ark, and collecting all the necessary provisions.

God therefore having determined to destroy sinful man, and the animals which he had created for him, said to Noah, Make thee an Ark of Gophar wood, rooms shalt thou make in the Ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch.——Behold I will bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life from under heaven: and every thing that is in the earth shall die. But with thee will I establish my covenant, and thou shalt come into the Ark, thou and thy sons and thy wife, and thy sons wives with thee. He performed all that God commanded Gen. vii. 17.him. In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened—and the flood was forty days upon the earth, and the waters encreased and bare up the Ark, and it was lift up above the earth——All the high hills that were under the whole heaven were covered with it, and the waters rose fifteen cubits above the highest mountains—All men died, and generally every thing that had life, and breathed under heaven.

We have discoursed in another place of the Ark, and every thing relating to it. See the word Ark; as also the article Noah. We confine ourselves here to what regards the Deluge, its Causes, Circumstances, Universality, and Effects. The sins of mankind, the measure whereof was now compleated, were the occasion of the Deluge, as Moses in several places inculcates. But why did God take this method rather than any other? This we are not permitted to search into; and if he had made use of any other way to extirpate sinners, the curiosity of man would not fail to form still other questions as little reasonable as this.

The Commentators are very well agreed as to the Year of the Deluge, which happened 1656 Years after the creation of the World; but there is more difficulty as to the month wherein the Deluge began. Several of the Fathers were of opinion, that it began and ended in the spring; they understood the second month mentioned by Moses to be the second in the ecclesiastical Year, beginning at the month Nisan, which answers to March, about the vernal Equinox. Among other proofs of this, they borrow one from the Dove’s bringing back the olive-leaf to Noah, which was, they say, a tender shoot of that year. We believe however with the most learned Chronologists, that the sacred Author spoke in this place of the second month in the civil year, which began in Autumn, about our October, and that this second month answered partly to October and partly to November: so that the Deluge began in Autumn, and in the beginning of Winter. Here follows a Calendar of this melancholy year 1656, according to M. Basnage, who is in some Antiq. Judaiq. t.2. p.399.manner of our opinion.

The year of the world’s creation M.D- C.LVI. I. Month, September. Methuselah died at the age of 969 years. II. October. Noah and his family entered the Ark. III. November, the 17th. The fountains of the great deep were broke open. IV. December, the 26th. The rain began and continued forty days and forty nights.

V. January. All the men and beasts that were upon the earth, were buried under the waters. VI. February. The rain continued. VII. March. The waters remained in their elevation till the 27th, when they began to abate. VIII. April, the 17th. The Ark rested on mount Ararat in Armenia. IX. May. They did nothing while the waters were retiring. X. June, the 1st. The tops of the mountains appeared. XI. July, the 11th. Noah let go a raven, which return’d no more to him.

the 18th. He let go a dove, which returned.

the 25th. The dove being loosed a second time, brought back the olive-branch. XII. August, the 2d. The dove went out a third time, and returned no more. The year of the world’s creation M.D- C.LVII. I. Month, September, the 1st. The dry land appeared. II. October, the 27th. Noah went out of the Ark with his family.

The question concerning the universality of the Deluge, is of the most serious and important nature. Some learned men have denied it, and pretended that to maintain it, were an absurdity, and a great argument of want of reason; that to believe God capable of making things contrary to nature and reason, were to form a mistaken idea of his power and greatness; that the universality of the Deluge is contrary to both; that it may be geometrically demonstrated, that although all the clouds in the air were reduced to water, and fell upon the earth, yet would they not cover the whole superficies of it to the height of a foot and an half; and that if all the water contained in rivers and in the sea, were to be spread over the earth, it would never rise to the height of four thousand paces, so as to reach the tops of the highest mountains, unless it was rarified in an extraordinary manner, and then it would not be in a condition to support the weight of the Ark; that if all the air which encompasses the earth were changed into water, this would not make above one and thirty feet of water, which would be very far from what were necessary to cover the whole surface of the earth and the highest mountains so far as fifteen cubits above their tops.

All this seems contrary to Reason, and what follows, to Nature. The rain does not fall upon eminences above 600 paces high: it does not descend from a greater altitude than this, and there can be no rain formed higher which would not immediately be frozen by the cold that prevails there: whence then came the water which was to cover the tops of those mountains that are above the middle region of the air? Will any one say, that the rain found a way back again? How could the plants be preserved so long under water? How could the animals that came out of the Ark, disperse themselves throughout the whole world? Besides, all the Earth was not then peopled: why then should the Deluge be intended to be universal? Was it not sufficient for it to reach those countries which were inhabited? How were beasts brought from the extremities of the world into the Ark?

These are the principal objections which are form’d against the universality of the Deluge¹. Isaac Vossius mentioned them in a dissertation composed particularly by him, under the title, de Ætate Mundi, in his epistle to Andrew Colvius, and in his answers to Andrew Scotanus, and George Hornius. This opinion was examined while F. John Mabillon was at Rome, in the journey which he made thither in 1685. And the counsellors of the Sacred Congregation de l’Indice having done him the honour to advise with him concerning it², he set forth the reasons to them which might be alledged against Vossius, and at the same time those which might be offered to excuse him. He observes, that his opinion contains nothing contrary either to faith or good manners; that Vossius proposed this System with no other design but to reply more easily to the objections of such Libertines, who made use of what was said concerning the universality of the deluge, to destroy the authority of the Holy Scriptures.

That Vossius said nothing exasperating or injurious to the church of Rome, nor against those who maintain the opinion which he opposes, but only declared his own as the most probable: that it is of advantage to receive, or at least tolerate, diverse senses in the explanation of the Scripture, provided they do not contradict the manifest authority of the Sacred Writings, and the Church. That these expressions omnis terra, omnes montes, omnis caro, may be construed with restriction, and so are often understood in Scripture. That some Catholick Doctors, such as Cajetan, believed that the mountain upon which he supposes Paradise to have been situated, was not covered with the waters of the Deluge. That as this opinion of Vossius had hitherto produced no disturbance among Catholicks, and had been attack’d by Protestants only, there was no danger in tolerating it; and that it were better to leave it without censure, than to concern themselves in disputes which are carried on among Protestants: that however, if the Congregation were inclined to stigmatize this opinion by any censure, they should farther censure Hornius’s confutation of it, because of his injurious reflexions on the Pope and the Catholick Church. Such was the advice of this wise and learned Monk.

We shall now show whether Vossius had reason to depart in this particular from the common opinion of the Fathers, and of all Commentators, as well Catholicks as Protestants. He visibly departs from the Text of Moses which we have related, and which cannot more clearly evidence than it does, the universality of the Deluge.

But the universality of the Deluge, says Vossius, is impossible and unnecessary; why should the whole Earth be overflowed to destroy all mankind? was it not sufficient to pour forth the waters into countries where there were men? But who told Vossius that the World was not then intirely peopled, after above two thousand years continuance? for, according to the Septuagint, whose Chronology is supported by him, the World was above 2200 years old in the beginning of the Deluge: Was a longer time necessary for the settling inhabitants in all the countries in the World? Besides, did he think to find less considerable difficulties in the system of a particular Deluge? Supposing this, what necessity was there to build at great expence a prodigious Ark, to bring all sorts of animals into it, to oblige eight persons to enter into it? Was all this done to secure them from an inundation which was to cover some part only of the Earth? Was it not more easy to command these people to stay in those countries which the Deluge was not to reach, and by a particular providence to conduct those animals thither, which as yet were not there?

How could the waters continue at the height of fifteen cubits above the tallest mountains of Armenia, for example, Chaldæa or Persia, without spreading into the neighbouring countries? How should such a vessel as the Ark float for many months upon a mountain of water, without sliding by its own weight down the declivity of it? Now Vossius himself confesses, that supposing a particular Deluge, this would be the situation of the Ark upon the waters.

He says, that if the Deluge had extended itself throughout all the World, the plants and trees would have died: that according to his own System they did not, since Noah and his family, and the animals which he had preserved in the Ark, when they went out of it, lived and settled in those very countries, to which, by his confession, the Deluge did extend; that is to say, round about mount Ararat, in Mesopotamia and Chaldæa. If the plants and trees did not die in this country, why should they die elsewhere? And if Noah could have stored the country afresh with them, supposing they did die, why might he not have done the same in the rest of the World in time, and a succession of Ages? And if the waters of the Deluge, which he asserts to have been particular only, corrupted all the trees and plants wherever they reached, whence came the branch or shoot of the Olive-tree, which the Dove brought to Noah? We have many experiments of an infinite fertility of nature in the production and reproduction of plants; we know of many wonderful effects from the preservation of seeds, both under the water in the Earth, and out of the Earth for many years, and which are afterwards as fruitful as before; we know that water, with respect to plants, is a principle of fertility infinitely more proper to preserve than to destroy them: that many plants grow under water, that all require moisture to produce and multiply; the dung Plin. l. 13. c. 25. See M. le Pelletier of Rohan, his Dissertation on Noah’s Ark, c. 33.of beasts and birds reproduces Licet. l. 3. c. 7. De his quæ diu vivunt sine alimento. Scalig. in Cardan. Exercit. 14.those grains in the fields which have been eaten by them; virgin earth exposed to the air produces herbs which were never sown there; earth taken from under the water will do the same. No one can boast that he knows those wise precautions which the Author of nature has taken for the preservation of the species. Trunks of trees have been seen to grow green again, and become fruitful, after having been ten or eleven years plucked up by the roots.

Gen. viii. 3, 4.Add to all this, that the waters of the Deluge did not cover the whole surface of the earth for more than about an hundred and ten days: for from the first day of the tenth month they began to discover the tops of the mountains. Noah entered the Ark upon the seventeeth day of the second month, after which the rain fell forty days and forty nights, and 256 days before the end of the Deluge the waters began to rise again in vapours; so that the time of all the seeds and plants continuing under water, was far from being a whole year.

The difficulty of bringing beasts from all places of the world to Noah, is not so great as may be imagined. The number of beasts created in the beginning, is not so considerable as we might believe. God created one man and one woman, and probably a couple of every kind of animals, male and female. From this couple, of horses, for example, of dogs, or goats, all the animals that we know of, of the same species, were born. The difference which is observed between the different sorts of dogs and horses, is not greater than that which we see between the different sorts of men, of whom some are white, and others black, others of an olive colour, others red; some have a beard, others have none.

Besides, there were all the several species of animals in the places round about Paradise, since God brought all sorts of them to Adam, in order to be named by him. It is very credible that the terrestrial Paradise was not far from Armenia, and the source of the Tigris and Euphrates, which are expressly mentioned by Moses in Gen. viii. 11. Gen. ii. 19. Gen. ii. 8, 9, 10, 11.his description of this garden. Lastly, there is scarce any doubt to be made, but that Noah’s Ark was built in Mesopotamia, somewhere towards Chaldæa. It is very probable therefore, that there were as many animals in this country and the places adjacent, as were necessary to be put into the Ark. If there are some, that through long habit, which becomes as it were a second nature, cannot now live in this part of the world, which however I think very difficult to prove, it does not follow that there were any such in Noah’s time. If on a sudden any men or beasts were to be conveyed from the warmest parts of Africk to the coldest places in the North, it is very credible, that both would perish there; but the case would not be the same, if they were to be removed by insensible degrees nearer to these places, or were to be bred there from their being young: and if there are some beasts which are to be found only in particular countries, we are not to infer from thence, that there never were any of them elsewhere. We know very well, that formerly there were many beasts of a particular species in some countries, where at present very few or none at all of the same kind are to be met with, such as the Hippopotomi in Egypt, wolves in England, and beavers³ in France.

But the strongest objection proposed against the universality of the deluge is taken from the impossibility of finding so much water in nature, as was requisite to cover all the Earth to the height mention’d by Moses; that is to say, of fifteen cubits above the highest mountains, which are supposed be about a thousand or twelve hundred paces in perpendicular height. The question is, whether the waters of the Earth may be sufficient to cover it to such an height; that is to say, whether the waters of the sea, of fountains, rivers, and the conservatories of water upon Earth, together with the clouds in the air, could suffice for the purpose we are speaking of.

It has been believed, that tho’ all the air in the world, that is to say, in the atmosphere, which extends itself between us and the moon, were to be condensed into water, it would not yield a depth of water of above two and thirty feet over all the earth; because it has been supposed, that a column of air from the earth to the top of the atmosphere, does not weigh more than two and thirty feet of water: and this supposition is founded upon the best experiments which have been made to prove the gravity of the air. Nevertheless, these experiments are contradicted by other experiments, which seem to be as exact and certain as the former, Le Pelletier Differt. sur l’Arche de Noë, p. 36.and leave room to question at least the truth of this principle, viz. that the weight of the air is the cause of the water or quicksilver’s continuing suspended in the tubes wherein they have been placed, in an equilibrium with the air. Besides, it is demonstrated, that if it be true, as they say it is, who have carried their experiments of the air’s gravity to the greatest perfection, that five hundred fathoms of elevation sink the quicksilver included in tubes stopped at one end, seven and thirty lines and an half, and that the same quicksilver continues suspended at the height of eight and twenty inches and an half, in places which are upon a level with the sea; upon these suppositions, I say, it is demonstrable, that there cannot be more than two leagues and sixty fathoms of air in height, which could gravitate about the terrestrial globe, tho’ the philosophers will have it, that the earth is eighty five or eighty six thousand leagues distant from the moon, and consequently a like extent of air which should gravitate like that which is immediately about the earth.

Now supposing that it really does gravitate, and comes to be reduced to water, what quantities of it will it not produce⁴? And if it does not gravitate, there can be nothing concluded from its weight either for or against the universality of the Deluge. The truth is, that the weight of the air is, in my opinion, nothing else but the effort which the air makes to get away from the center of its motion, which is supposed to be circular about the earth; and that the weight of bodies in the air consists only in the pressure of the air, which by the same effort that we have been speaking of, repels them towards the earth, and acts upon them with more or less force, according as these bodies are more solid, dense, and earthy, or more subtile, porous, and airy. And all this is nothing to the question of the Universality of the Deluge, and whether there is in nature so much water as may suffice to cover the whole earth as high as we have mention’d, that is to say, to about twelve thousand feet in thickness quite round the terrestrial globe.

In the beginning of the creation the terrestrial Gen. i. 2, 3.globe was all hemmed in with water, the earth was a Chaos, the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters, and darkness covered the whole face of the deep, as Moses says. The Psalmist expresses himself in as particular a manner, Thou layest the foundations of the earth, that it never should be moved at any time, thou coveredst it with the deep as with a garment; the waters stood above the mountains. At thy rebuke they fled, at the voice of thy thunder they were afraid. They go up as high as the hills, and down to the valleys beneath, even unto the place which thou hast appointed for them. Thou hast set them their bounds which they shall not pass; neither turn again to cover the earth. Ps. civ. 5, 6, 7.

Here therefore is an universal Deluge clearly described in the beginning of the world; and what prevents its returning a second time? What but the commands of God, who has said to the waters of the sea, Job. xxxviii. 11.Hither shalt thou come, but no far Prov. viii. 27, 29.ther; and here shall thy proud waves be stayed. And Wisdom in the Proverbs, When he prepared the heavens, I was there: when he set a compass upon the face of the depth.

Gen. i. 6, 7, 8.But, it will be said, to reduce things to the first state wherein Moses describes them, God must not only have spread the waters of the sea, fountains, and rivers over the earth, which seems impossible without disordering the whole œconomy of the terrestrial globe; but likewise must have recalled the waters which he had rais’d above the firmament, and have brought them down upon the earth. And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament. The waters below the firmament are indubitably the waters of the sea and rivers; the waters above it are those which are rarified in the atmosphere itself: in short, in what place soever these waters may be, and whatsoever may become of them, it is certain that they are not annihilated; that it was altogether as easy for God to reduce them to their first state, and form them into waters at the time of the Deluge, as it was for him in the beginning of the world, to reduce them into air or vapours; however, this demonstrates that there is nothing in the universal Deluge contrary to the laws of nature, nor impossible to the power of God.

Moses, to shew us the change which happened at that time in nature, tells us, That Gen. vii. 11, 12.the fountains of the great deep were broke open, and the windows of heaven were opened, and the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights. As if he had said, that the earth was reduced to very near the same state wherein it was in the beginning, that it returned in some sort to a Chaos. The barriers and banks, which restrained the waters of the sea, were broken down; the cataracts of the firmament were opened, the lower and upper waters were again collected together, as in the beginning.

But supposing the Ark to have been rais’d fifteen cubits above the highest mountains, how could the men and beasts in it, live and breathe amidst the cold and extreme subtility of the air in the middle region, wherein some affirm that no animal whatsoever can live long? Two things may be said in reply to this: first, that the arguments and supposed experiments which are produced to prove, that there is no living on the highest mountains in the world, are by no means certain. It is indeed colder, and the air is finer and sharper on the tops of the highest mountains, but it is not true that people die there, as we know from many very certain relations.

Secondly, the middle region of the air ought not to be looked upon as a fixed point, and a limited region, which never either rises or falls; it is with respect to us more or less elevated, according to the greater or lesser heat of the Sun. During winter it is much nearer the Earth than in the warmth of summer; or to speak more properly, the cold which reigns in the middle region of the air during the summer, reigns likewise in the lower region during winter. Thus supposing the Deluge to be universal, it is evident, that the middle region of the air must have risen higher, and removed to a greater distance from the earth and waters; and on the contrary, the lower region must have approached nearer unto both, in proportion as the waters of the Deluge encreased or decreased. So that the Ark was all along in the lower region of the air, even when it was carried fifteen cubits above the highest mountains, and the men and beasts, which were enclosed in it, breathed the same air as they would have breathed on Earth, a thousand or twelve hundred paces lower, if the Deluge had not happened.

We do not however pretend by all these arguments to prove, that the universal Deluge was produced without a miracle; we acknowledge that it was a very extraordinary one, and particularly remarkable in the fall of the waters for forty days, and in their evaporation, or return into the Deep and Air, in what manner soever this may have been effected. We confess that this terrible event does involve almost inexplicable difficulties, as well according to the system which maintains it to be universal, as that which supposes it to be only particular; and since it is necessary to admit a chain of miracles in both systems, we had better, methinks, adhere to the common opinion of the Fathers, and Interpreters in all Ages and Communions, than hunt after new ways which engage us in perplexities equal to those which we endeavour to avoid. For if it is our design, by allowing the system of a particular Deluge, to stop the mouths of Libertines, and secure the authority of the Holy Scriptures; how should we succeed, while we offer violence to the text, and make it say that the Deluge covered but a part only of the Earth, while Moses and all the Sacred Authors, who have spoken of it, shew so distinctly the universality of it? Dr. Thomas Burnet, an English Author, in his book intitled, Telluris Theoria Sacra, Libri duo priores de Diluvio & Paradiso, printed in 4to at London 1681, has pretended to explain in a physical manner, how the Deluge was produced. He supposes the earth to have been in its beginning round, smooth and even throughout, without mountains or valleys; that in the center of the Earth there was a great abyss full of water; that the earth having sunk in many places, the consequence of different shocks and divers earthquakes, and risen in others, had opened a passage for the waters, which issued out with impetuosity from the center where they had been shut up, and spread over all the earth; that these shocks and earth-quakes, and lands confusedly heaped together, formed mountains and valleys; that in the beginning the axis of the Earth kept exactly parallel with the axis of the world, moving always directly under the Æquator, and producing a perpetual Æquinox; that indeed the torrid Zone was utterly uninhabitable, but in return there was a perpetual spring over all the earth besides; that in the first world there were neither seas, nor rain, nor rain-bow; that at last the Earth which we inhabit having passed through fire, will one day re-assume its pristine form, till at the last day of judgment it be changed into a fixed star.

We do not attempt here to confute this system, it is sufficient for us to have proposed it. It appears evidently enough from Moses, that before the Deluge, there were mountains, seas, and vicissitudes of seasons. Leidekker, and some other Protestant Authors have written against Burnet, and these the reader, if he pleases, may consult.

Another English Author, whose name is Woodward, in a Book intitled Naturalis Historia telluris illustrata, &c. printed at London in 1714, asserts, that the whole Mass of the Earth having been dissolved by the waters of the Deluge, a new Earth was afterwards formed, composed of different beds or lays of terrestrial Matter which was swimming in this fluid: That these lays were disposed one upon the other almost according to their different degrees of gravity; so that the Plants or Animals, particularly shell-fish, and other fishes, which as yet were not dissolved as well as the rest, remain’d confounded with mineral and fossile materials, which have preserved them whole, or at least have retained the different impressions of them either raised or hollow.

By this Hypothesis he explains the Shells we meet with in places very remote from the sea, the Elephant’s teeth and bones of Animals, the petrified Fishes, and an hundred other things which we find upon the tops of mountains, and in places at a great distance from the sea. He asserts, that these having been all buried in the earth at the time of the universal Deluge, the bituminous matter and salts that are in the earth, penetrated, and preserved them intire, and even sometimes petrified them. The Reader may consult the Author whom we have cited, in whose work he will find many very curious things relating to the Deluge. See likewise Ray’s Consequences of the Deluge, and Scheutzer’s Piscium querelæ, and Herbarium diluvianum, printed at Zurich, the first in 1708, the second in 1709. Nouvelles de la Rep. des Lettres, Mars 1704. Edm. Halley Dissert. in Actis Philosophicis, Londin. p. 104. The Dictionary of Trevoux, under the words Deluge, Coquillage, Fossiles.

The Mussulmen, Pagans, Chinese, and the very people of America, have preserved the tradition of the Deluge. They all relate it after their own particular manner. JosephusJoseph. l. 1. contra Appion. p. 1043, 1044. Apud Eu-seb. præpar. l. 9. c. 12. cites Berosus, who upon the testimony of some ancient monuments spoke of the Deluge much as Moses did. He said something of Noah and the Ark, and of the mountains where it rested. Abydenus relates, that one Sesistrus was informed by Saturn of a Deluge which was to drown all the earth; that Sesistrus having embarked in a covered vessel, sent forth birds to learn in what condition the earth was; and that these birds returned three times. Alexander Polyhistor told the same story with Abydenus, and added withal, that the four-footed beasts, the creeping things and birds of the air, were preserved in this vessel. Lucian in his Book concerning the goddess of Syria, says, that mankind having given themselves up to the utmost irregularities, the earth was drowned with a Deluge, so that none but Deucalion remained upon it, he having taken shelter in a vessel, together with his

Apollodor. Bibl. l. 1. c. 1. Ovid. Metam. l. 1. v. 270, &c.family and animals of all sorts. Apollodorus, Ovid, and many others have discoursed at large of Deucalion’s Deluge; but they have intermixed many circumstances in their recital, which agree only with that of Noah.

The Chinese maintain, that the Deluge did not overflow their country; that it did not reach so far as the Indies. This is what we see in the account given by two Mahometan Arabians, who travelled into this Renaudot Voyage de deux Arabes en Egypte au neuvieme Siecle, imprimé à Paris 1718.country in the ninth Century; but the Arabians made no difficulty of believing it.

We have spoken above, under the word Apamæa, of the tradition which asserted Noah’s Ark to have rested near this city, which for this reason was called Kibotos, that is to say, the Ark. Two Medals have been published, coined in the same city: one represents on one side the Emperor Philip’s Head with this legend in Greek, The Emperor Cæsar Julius Philippus Augustus, and Octav. Falconer Inscriptiones Atleticæ Rom. 1668. p. 163. Kircher de arcâ Noë, p. 138.on the reverse is an Ark, wherein Deucalion and Pyrrha, or Noah and his wife, are shut up: upon the top of the Ark are two pigeons, one whereof holds the branch of an olive-tree. On one side of the Ark we read the word Noe: and about the reverse, Under Marcus Aurelius Alexander second Pontiff of the Apamæans. The second Medal resembles the first with this difference, that it represents the Head of Lucius Septimius Severus Pertinax, and that on the reverse we read these Greek letters, NHTΩN upon the Ark; and about the reverse, Under him who presides over the combats of the Magnesians and Apamæans. F. Kircher believed these Greek letters NΩE, which signify Noah, to have been the last letters of the word AΠAMEΩN reversed. Others mention that these medals were forged. It would be necessary to see and examine them: This is certain, that the people of Apamæa in Asia, valued themselves upon having been first founded by Deucalion and Pyrrha, or Noah and his wife, when they came out of the Ark, after the Deluge.

Mahomet speaking of the Deluge, says, Alcoran. cap. Hond.That when the time which God had prescribed for the punishment of Mankind was come, and that the oven began to boil and run over, God said to Noah, take and carry two couple of Animals of all kinds into the Ark with you. An oven which begins to boil is in Arabic called Tannour, and the Mahometans tell us, that Eve made use of this oven in baking bread; and that it came by succession down to Noah: it is different from our common ovens, and has a very narrow mouth at the top of it. It is generally made of stone, of a sort of brown freestone. They heat it by throwing wood into it at the top, and the dough is placed without all round the oven, or within on little white flints, with which the hollow of it is half full.

Coloss. iv. 14.When therefore the oven began to boil, that is to say, the waters of the Deluge began to rise with impetuosity from the bottom of the earth, God commanded Noah to go into the Ark with his family, and those righteous persons whom he should appoint to enter into it: these were fourscore in number; but Canaan refused to go on board. After six months continuance of the Deluge, for they allow it to have been of no longer duration, God commanded the earth, and said, Earth swallow up thy waters; Heaven draw up those which thou hast poured out. The water hereupon began immediately to diminish, and the order of God was executed. The Ark settled on mount Gioudi, and a voice was heard from heaven, saying, Wo to the wicked. The Interpreters observe, that this verse is the most eloquent and sublime in the Alcoran, both for the sense and words of it.

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