Covenant: Exodus

Chapter 33

As they trudged through the jungle following the giant black cat, Erich listened with slight amusement to the conversation now taking place between Rock and Graham. "So, what makes you so sure that the people we are looking for escaped from this great flood? I mean hell, the whole idea of a flood that covered the entire earth seems pretty crazy to me...," Rock said, breathing heavily from the exertion of carrying the large packs of equipment through the dense jungle.

"Well," Graham began saying as he continued to swing his machete, cutting a swath through a wall of vegetation, "Erich found Noah's bloody Ark, I would think that is proof enough, but since you don't seem convinced, I will see what I can do to change your mind. For starters, I find it hard to believe that all the myths of a global flood would exist if the basis of the story weren't rooted in some universal truth or memory."

Rock didn't seem impressed by this statement in the slightest, "Ya I know, there are quite a few stories about it, but stories don't mean it's true..."

"Quite a few does not begin to describe the number of Great Flood myths, or their striking similarities," Graham said in his clipped English tone. "There are over one thousand verified, and independent, myths involving a global flood from literally every continent on this planet, with the exception of Antarctica, which I believe you all know my feelings on. Can you tell me Rock, what you know of the Great Flood?"

Rock stopped walking for a moment and brought up a meaty fist holding a canteen. He gulped down a considerably large swig, replaced the cap and wiped a small runnel of water from his stubble covered chin. "Well, I suppose I know as much as the next guy...learned most of it in Sunday school as a kid. Ya know, God told Noah to build him an arky arky...," he sang as out of tune as a human being possibly could, eliciting a small laugh from those around him, "then he went and got two animals of every kind and put them on the boat and sailed around while the earth flooded, eventually they hit a mountain...then there's something about a dove, and he and his family repopulate the world...like I said, about as far-fetched a story as I ever heard. I mean, I seen the other boat, and it is freaking huge for a boat...but two of every animal?"

Graham smiled, and Erich could tell that he was enjoying this exchange. There was little that Graham enjoyed more than opening people's eyes to what he believed the real history of the world was. "Well, I will get to that matter shortly..." he said, his eyes sparkling, "but first to the story of the flood. You do have the basics correct, but did you know that the story of Noah is not the only, or even the oldest, story to follow this same plotline? For instance, the Epic of Gilgamesh, which predates the story of Genesis, states that God spoke to Utnapishtim, 'Tear down your house and build a boat, abandon all possessions and look for life, despise worldly goods and save your soul...Tear down your house, I say, and build a boat with her dimensions in proportion – her width and length in harmony. Put aboard the seed of all living things, into the boat.' Utnapishtim and his family ride out the storm in their boat and eventually come to rest on the mountains of Nisir at which time Utnapishtim releases a dove, who, finding no resting place, returns. He then releases a raven who does not return, signifying to him that it is safe to exit the boat. After exiting the boat, Utnapishtim, and his family make an offering to the gods and repopulate the earth. Pretty similar wouldn't you say old chap?" Graham said with a small smile as he continued to speak. "An almost identical story was told in the Valley of Mexico, far before the arrival of the Spanish, in an area isolated from Judeo-Christian influences. The Aztecs of this region told of a deluge, 'Destruction came in the form of torrential rain and floods. The mountains disappeared...' According to this legend, only two humans survived: a man, Coxcoxtli, and his wife, Xochiquetzal, who had been forewarned of the flood by a god. The god instructed them to build a boat, which they did, and then it came to ground on the peak of a mountain. The dove again appears in this myth and, as with Noah, two people repopulate the earth. The Mechoacanesecs also tell of a great flood. They tell the story of a man named Tezpi who was warned by the God Tezcatlipoca that the world was soon to be destroyed by a flood. Tezpi and his family embarked on a boat with a large number of animals, birds, seeds, and supplies and eventually came to rest on a mountaintop. After the waters had begun to recede, Tezpi sent out a vulture which fed on the carcasses on the land and did not return. He then sent out a number of other birds until the time that a hummingbird returned carrying a branch in his beak, just as the dove in the story of Noah and the Epic of Gilgamesh had, and Tezpi and his family left the vessel and began to repopulate the earth. Stories just like these exist in China, North America, Alaska, Australia, Africa.... Almost every civilization in history tells the story of a Great Flood, and many contain the elements of a select few being forewarned by a god, gathering animals and plants into a large boat, and landing on a mountain, followed by those select few repopulating a devastated planet and saving the human race."