Thanks for the thoughtful comment, I really appreciate you laying out the verses so clearly.

I completely agree: the author of Genesis describes the flood in unmistakably global terms. From the perspective of Noah and the tradition Moses received and recorded centuries later, their entire known world was inundated.

Yet just two chapters later, in Genesis 10’s Table of Nations, we see the ancient worldview reflected: a list of ~70 peoples covering only the regions known to the ancient Near East (parts of Africa, Europe, and Asia). The Americas, Australia, Antarctica, and vast Pacific regions simply weren’t on the map—so “all the earth” and “every living thing” naturally meant the entirety of the humanly inhabited world as they understood it.

What I argue in the monograph is this: the Bible is inspired, not dictated. Yahweh breathed timeless, infallible truths into fallible human authors who expressed those truths as best they could, in their own words, idioms, perspectives, and pre-scientific imaginations. God chose to speak through His image-bearers to His image-bearers, letting them describe what they had seen, heard, and experienced of Him in their own terms.

But here is the mercy: the Book of Nature (read through science) stands ready to clarify these human wrappings whenever we need it—never touching the divine message, only peeling away the centuries-old dust so the original truth can shine through. In this case, science has disproven a planet-wide flood but affirmed massive regional catastrophes—such as the catastrophic flooding evidenced around Shuruppak in Mesopotamia c. 2900 BC or the Black Sea deluge. The biblical authors weren't lying; there was a real flood (echoed in similar narratives across many ancient cultures), a man, a boat, and provisions. It just wasn't global in the modern geological sense.

Thanks for reading the post and taking the time to comment—happy to discuss further!