Rainbow?

Nancy · Joined: 22 Jun 2006 Posts: 1095 Location: Illinois, U.S.A.

Every time it rains here I always look for a rainbow afterwards. I think of the "story" of the rainbow + how God used it as a symbol that He would never again destroy life on earrth with a flood.

Is this really true or is it something man has added to scripture?
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You O Lord are the potter, I am the clay,the work of Your hands.

watcher · Joined: 19 Jan 2007 Posts: 60

More a sign than a symbol, a sign of God's grace and a convenient reminder whenever seen after rain, or a storm, that God's pledges are irrevocable.

Interestingly, a rainbow appears in Ezekiel's vision of God (1:28) where it reflects God's glory and again in Revelation (4:3) where, once again, it is an element of the dazzling radiance of God in heaven. Perhaps we could say that just as the rainbow in all its beauty followed God's judgement on the pre-Flood world, so the beauty of God in all his glory will be seen by those who by his merciful grace and provision escape the final judgement of all through faith in Jesus Christ, who describes himself by another great sign of hope from the skies in Revelation 22:16, 'the bright morning star'.

As to the origin of the imagery in Genesis 9, presumably the author of Genesis was inspired by God to write what he did rather than its being some kind of imaginative addition to the account.
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"For with Thee is the fountain of life;
In Thy light we see light."
- Psalm 36:9

Nancy · Joined: 22 Jun 2006 Posts: 1095 Location: Illinois, U.S.A.

Thanks Watcher.
I wonder if the entire earth was flooded or just he area where Noah was. At any rate, it must have been an awful event to go thru.
I'm just thinking that as Adam disappointed God by sinning + sin continued to abound,maybe it was God's way of eradicating so much sin+trying to get man to start over?
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You O Lord are the potter, I am the clay,the work of Your hands.

Covenanter · Joined: 28 Aug 2006 Posts: 1446

The account of Noah & the flood is attested in the New Testament. There is no reason to doubt it as a factual record.

The authors of Genesis declare their names & records.

The NIV shows the translation of the Hebrew "toledot" as account indicating that Genesis is a compilation of the records left by the patriarchs. The first is God's revelation of creation to Adam.

Gen 2:4 This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created. When the Lord God made the earth and the heavens--
Gen 5:1 This is the written account of Adam's line. When God created man, he made him in the likeness of God.
Gen 6:9 This is the account of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God.
Gen 10:1 This is the account of Shem, Ham and Japheth, Noah's sons, who themselves had sons after the flood. The Japhethites
Gen 11:10 This is the account of Shem. Two years after the flood, when Shem was 100 years old, he became the father* of Arphaxad.
Gen 11:27 This is the account of Terah. Terah became the father of Abram, Nahor and Haran. And Haran became the father of Lot.
Gen 25:12 This is the account of Abraham's son Ishmael, whom Sarah's maidservant, Hagar the Egyptian, bore to Abraham.
Gen 25:19 This is the account of Abraham's son Isaac. Abraham became the father of Isaac,
Gen 36:1 This is the account of Esau (that is, Edom).
Gen 36:9 This is the account of Esau the father of the Edomites in the hill country of Seir.
Gen 37:2 This is the account of Jacob. Joseph, a young man of seventeen, was tending the flocks with his brothers, the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father's wives, and he brought their father a bad report about them.

The rainbow was specifically given as a covenant sign - an overarching sign of God's providential care for his creation, to continue while the earth remains.

The fact that it is a covenant sign does not mean that the record is "mythical" but that God gives a natural phenomenon a spiritual significance.
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Bev · Posted: Fri May 18, 2007 5:19 pm Post subject:

The rainbow is an image so full of hope. :D

Sisyphus · Posted: Fri May 18, 2007 5:54 pm Post subject:

I have an excellent book, which I can't just lay my hands on called The Rainbow Covenant.

Explores the original covenant between Noah and God after the flood. This is of course, pre the 10 commandments and all that but the book goes through the seven commandments God gave Noah as part of the Noahidic Covenant..... Must try and find it for another read.
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".... love thy neighbour as thyself." is the hardest thing I have ever done....

watcher · Joined: 19 Jan 2007 Posts: 60

On the question of authorship in Genesis and specifically responding to Cov's post, in his commentary on the book Derek Kidner employs the translation 'generations' rather than 'account' and explains (at 2:4):

"The refrain These are the generations divides Genesis into sections at 2:4; 5:1; 6:9; 10:1; 11:10,27; 25:12,19; 36:1,9; 37:2. The word generations (tôledôt) properly means offspring and here it corresponds to 'all the host of them' (2:1). But it can have the wider sense of (family-) history, facing either the past (as in the family registrations of 1 Chronicles 7:4,9, etc.) or the future (as in, eg., Ruth 4:18) according to context.
The view taken here is that this phrase in Genesis always looks forward, introducing a new stage of the book."

This would seem more likely to me, especially given the overall textual consistency of Genesis (though this could be due to later editing, of course) as well as the anonymity of the earlier portions and the sheer unlikelihood of Esau being the author of the section in ch. 36 (not to mention the unlikelihood of the named individuals all leaving disparate written accounts, which, furthermore, survived the extensive spans of time involved). Also, the list in 36:1ff. is simply that; ie. a list rather than any sort of account in the narrative sense. Kidner's assertion that these verses simply serve as introductions to the sections of the book concerning the named individuals and their descendants would seem to be much more probable, then, in my view.

As to the actual authorship of Genesis, it has traditionally been ascribed to Moses, of course, though much of it must have been based on stories passed down in the oral tradition. However, this is a thorny question and perhaps beyond the scope of this thread.
_________________
"For with Thee is the fountain of life;
In Thy light we see light."
- Psalm 36:9

Isthmian · Joined: 12 May 2007 Posts: 142

Nancy,

Mathew Henry has it thus:

Eddie c · Joined: 16 Sep 2006 Posts: 685 Location: Manchester

Paul · Joined: 26 Jun 2006 Posts: 50

Ken Ham has written an article about the Rainbow in the latest edition of our magazine, Answers. Subscriptions can be obtained from http://www.answersingenesis.org.

The Flood could not have been just in a local area, because it covered the high hills. Also, for the rainbow to have any meaning, it must have been the first rainbow ever - in other words there was no rain before the Flood. If you believe that the Flood was just in a local area, then God clearly doesn't keep His promises. He promised not to send another Flood, but there have been lots of local floods. However, there has not been another global Flood. That is because God does indeed keep His promises.

jtheb · Joined: 21 Jun 2006 Posts: 1448 Location: second childhood

Good points Paul.

But why is there no geological evidence of the flood?
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bobbyc · Joined: 23 Sep 2006 Posts: 1324

I wasn't aware that a rainbow was an inevitable reaction to rainfall. Isn't there a difference though between a promise that the (entire) earth will not be flooded and localised floods? The distinction between Flood and flood so to speak.

Paul · Joined: 26 Jun 2006 Posts: 50

Sisyphus · Posted: Mon May 21, 2007 8:36 pm Post subject:

jtheb · Joined: 21 Jun 2006 Posts: 1448 Location: second childhood