It rains and it pours (Genesis 7)

God tells Noah to go into the ark.  The animals arrive and within a week, the rains begin.  The text provides three different sources of water.  In verses 11-12, they are:

* Rain for forty days and forty nights.
* Springs of the great deep burst forth.
* Floodgates of the heavens were opened.

I have heard theories from people who take the beginning of Genesis far more literal than I do, that the earth had a literal water sphere around it.  This water sphere had floodgates, which are opened at the this time, as the text states.  Later, as the water drains, it drains out of areas like a faucet drain, perhaps the same places as the "springs of the great deep".

I certainly cannot disprove such an idea, but I do not think we even need to go there for an interpretation that makes sense.  The "floodgates of the heavens were opened" feels like a metaphor to just mean a lot of rain, as we might say "it is raining cats and dogs".

Really, I think it is besides the point.  There is clearly a lot of supernatural activity as described in the text.  In fact, as modern readers, we are actually left with a lot of questions.

* What about insects?  Were they on the ark?  Bacteria, molds, fungi, and non-food plants?  Did Noah collect all of these, too?

* What about fresh water fish and seawater fish?  With all the waters mixing, this will destroy all freshwater environments.  Freshwater fish would be poisoned by the high salt content.

* Why did not people just get in boats and save themselves?


Regional or worldwide flood?
The text indicates that it was a worldwide.  Even if we allow that from Noah's perspective, it could have "worldwide" to him, there is something that is not quite right about that.  Mainly, the stated purpose of the flood was that it would need to be worldwide.

The biggest issue I have with a super-literal interpretation comes from plant growth records that extend by 10,000s years.  From there, we can a see a continual growth pattern with no evidence of a cataclysmic flood.

Really, I do not know.  Obviously, what happened requires a major supernatural event.  Could God have flooded the world, then removed all geological and paleobiological evidence to that effect?  Sure, I suppose.

I also am not impressed with the "universal flood myth" in many cultures as evidence of the great flood.  The main reason is that the details of the flood look very different in cultures far removed from mesopotamia.  There, we find floods that were regional, caused by rain, or caused by tsunamis or hurricanes.  What that shows to me is not that the "great flood" was universal, but rather that flooding is a universal problem.

Another theory is that this came from the end of the Ice Age when flooding became a major problem.  Ice melted and dry land filled in with water.  For instance, both the Persian Gulf and the Black Sea were largely dry basins not too long ago.

The clean and unclean animals always stand out to me.  The Robert Alter translation and commentary states that this referred to sacrificial animals, not dietary animals.  This would make more sense given that the ark environment would have to be vegetarian to some extent.