Was Noah’s Flood Worldwide?
It Sounds Like it was Worldwide
When you read Genesis it definitely sounds like the flood was worldwide.
Animal Species Preserved: God had two of each animal board the ark so that those animals wouldn’t go extinct. It sounds like if they hadn’t boarded the boat, they would have gone extinct.
Mountains Underwater: Genesis 7:19 says that the waters so much that “every high mountain under the heavens was covered.”
Noah Repopulated: Genesis 9:19 says that after the flood Noah’s sons “populated the whole earth.”
God’s Promise: In Genesis 9:11 God promised that there wouldn’t be a flood that “destroys the earth” again. But there definitely have been floods that have destroyed regions. That makes it seem like Noah’s flood was bigger than a regional flood.
But Maybe it Wasn’t
“Earth” Could Mean Region: When describing the flood, Genesis uses phrases like “destroyed the earth.” That language makes it seem like the flood was worldwide, but the Hebrew word for “earth” can also mean “land” or “region.” So when Genesis says that Noah’s flood “destroyed the earth,” that might just mean that it “destroyed the entire Middle Eastern region.”
Conclusion
I could see it going either way. Maybe Noah’s flood really was the entire world, but maybe it was just the known world (the entire Middle East?).
Maybe life on earth originated in the Middle East and hadn’t spread to the other continents yet.
Whatever happened, Noah’s flood seems to have been the biggest flood that the world has ever seen, and it seems to have destroyed all known life at that time.