"Does the flood story make sense as it stands?"

Professor Dr. Georg Fischer is ​2023/2024 Nirit and Michael Shaoul Fellow of the Mortimer and Raymond Sackler Institute of Advanced Studies.

Abstract

Since the end of the 19th century, ‘critical’ scholars tried to understand Genesis texts as being composed of various strata, creating among themselves repetitions and even contradictions. In recent years, this approach has become questioned by the method of narrative analysis as well as by hermeneutical considerations. As a result, biblical texts appear as intricate, multi-faceted literary masterpieces. We will take Gen 6–9 as an example to show that.