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Post by Mister Buch on Jan 29, 2014 0:11:37 GMT 1
I've been thinking about writing a story set during the great flood in the book of Genesis, about a second ark, or at least a boat with a family on it who attempt to survive the flood. Inevitably of course they die, but my vague idea is to have the actual story focus mostly on the relationship between a parent and maybe a teenage child, at sea in this survival situation -- and have (pretentious ou think? or, obvious?) parallels between their situation and the flood itself, with God as a father figure.
So that's the idea I'm kind of committed to and excited about, but it's all I've got. Many of yous are good writers and all of you seem to be very well-read and stuff, so I thought I'd give it a shot -- any ideas about stuff that could happen in this setting? Does the concept sound like it could work, for a 5000 word story? What would you do with it?
Anything is helpful! I'm just hitting a bit of a brick wall and would like to get a bunch of varied ideas about it, if at all possible, and if anyone is interested of course! Thanks.
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Post by Mister Buch on Jan 29, 2014 0:12:54 GMT 1
Also - Clint, if you read this in particular --
I was reading the passages in the Bible again this afternoon and I swear it said something about there being giants on the earth at that time?! Am I misunderstanding something here, or do I have to include giants!
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Post by salty on Jan 29, 2014 0:55:23 GMT 1
I wouldn't say I'm well read Buchy
Depends on the relationship between Adult and Teen you want, is the Teen in a relationship they shouldn't have been? Did they want the person on the boat? orswitch it was it the Adult?
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Post by Cali on Jan 29, 2014 0:56:16 GMT 1
Was it Nephilum that were the giants?
Been a while since I brushed up on my Biblical knowledge.
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Post by jklinders on Jan 29, 2014 1:17:18 GMT 1
It seems ambiguous what the Nephilim were.
Wikipedia and the translation of the Bible I snatched them from suggests either giants, or "sons of God" or "fallen" depending on context.
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Post by Warhammer Gorvar on Jan 29, 2014 1:42:26 GMT 1
My two cents?
Giants fighting Dinosaurs while the people at the Ark look on at such awesomeness happening at the end of time. A Prequel to Pacific Rim, Biblical Rim. And Noah is played by Russel Crowe.
Okay seriously, I think since this is Old Testament times it was very holier than thou. So you can add perhaps that the kid thinks God is a dick for destroying the world since he doesnt really do anything to come down and try to hep out except mass killing spree by water. After all, there are many good people who will still drown. Dont they also deserve to life? Also what gives God the right to deny the boy a life? Have friends, fall in love, have children on his own? And why, OH WHY, cant they eat pork?
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Post by Clint Johnston on Jan 29, 2014 6:28:39 GMT 1
As to the story, it sounds interesting.
As to the biblical thing - (This is my interpretation of what I've read, and like any biblical opinion, you can find a different one in any direction) You have to go back to the beginning. Satan was cast out of Heaven for the sin of pride, along with a third of the angels. One of the reasons suggested that He became prideful is that he witnessed God's creation of Adam and decided that he was better. Any way, he's out to ruin things in the Garden of Eden. Given Man's free will, Satan sets Adam and Eve up to make a choice and rather than referring to the creator of all things who's already told them it was forbidden, they dig in to the tree of the Knowledge of Good & Evil. God knew that this would happen, but he allowed Man to choose it for themselves. (To my mind, one of the most awesome things about God is that He knew we would screw it up and had both a temporary system of sacrifice and a final sanctification on Christ's cross set up).
Fast forward some generations, past the Cain & Abel thing, Cain's exile, etc. The Devil has a new idea for screwing up the Humans. He has his ex-angels go about impregnating human females. The product of these unions were the Nephilim. The bible says these men were mighty warriors. Now think about it. What purpose would the devil have to set about creating half angelic beings? Well, who do humans like to follow better than super-heroes? Rather than trust first person (Adam lived over 900 years) sources about what actually happened and how they were supposed to live, they allowed a bunch of demonic half breeds to lead them in war against each other. The only people to stay out of this was the direct line of Seth, Adam's 3rd son. Noah and his sons were the last of this line. It says that Noah walked in close fellowship with God, thus he and consequently his family were spared from the the purge of the flood. Noah got the instructions and spent the next one hundred years building the boat. Now, if my neighbor spent 100 years building something that big, I'd ask him why. Which means by any logical deduction, that the people around Noah knew what he was preparing for and ignored his warnings.
Gorvar, I'll have to cover Pork another time, but feel comforted that God lifted that restriction in the book of Acts. (That's a whole nother story)
P.S. The Nephilim in the Canaan area was a less direct method employed by Satan following God's promising of that area to Abraham. AKA "You're going to give him this land? Well now he'll have to fight Giants for it." Didn't work.
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Post by Mister Buch on Jan 29, 2014 15:38:49 GMT 1
Thanks everyone! Really helpful, really appreciate it.
Especially to Clint - so these Nephilim, these are the giants mentioned in Genesis?
And the Lord said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh : yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years. There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.
Ah, actually now that I've typed that out having read the posts above, I understand it way better. These are the lads you're talking about, mighty men of renown. Also interestingly there is no word 'Nephilim' in my copy - just the word 'giants'.
So Noah is descended from these half-fallen-angel men. Does that mean, then, that all of us now have a bit of demon in our genetics? That sounds like something that has huge implications.
And what's with the long life-spans of Noah and the ancestors I'm reading about here - is that because they're of this bloodline? Why do we not live so long now? Is that what God means by 'yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years' - like, after the flood and the covenant, 120 years is the limit?
Wait, was Noah a giant?? Like, a legit giant?
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Post by Clint Johnston on Jan 29, 2014 16:57:02 GMT 1
*Blink* Where'd you get that? Noah was the only one NOT related to / following these Nephilim in war. So that's why creating the Ark was designated to him. He and his sons were the only faithful ones, the direct line of Seth. (Not to forget his and his sons' wives, whom the bible mentions but does not go into detail about.)
As to the life-spans, the most interesting idea I've heard has to do with hyperbaric chambers. On earth we can use them and animals & plants grow bigger, or make ourselves breathe better. Now look back to Genesis one, where God creates the water (day 2, I think?). It says He puts it above and below. Below is obviously the oceans, but suppose the other layer wasn't just clouds but another water heavy layer of atmosphere? That would explain the long life spans as well as where all the rain came from for the flood. Without it, our life spans got gradually shorter, until by Abraham's time 120 was indeed the norm.
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Post by Mister Buch on Jan 29, 2014 16:59:47 GMT 1
the flood and the covenant, Heyyyyyyy, I just got that! Good reference, Bungie! I see what you did there... after about 10 years.
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Post by Mister Buch on Jan 29, 2014 17:02:15 GMT 1
So Noah is NOT descended from these lads, but from Seth instead. In my Bible it doesn't seem to say that explicitly, but for the purposes of this story it's really not important. Okay I'm getting it. Cheers.
But do they literally mean giants? Are we talking about men the size of Godzilla here?
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Post by Clint Johnston on Jan 29, 2014 17:08:11 GMT 1
Well there's not much detail in Genesis, but a pretty detailed description is given of Goliath of Gath in 1 Samuel 17. He was probably a few generations into the human side, so yeah, pretty big. Oh, and in Numbers 13 (I had to look this one up) the Israelites spot the Canaanites for the first time. They were not enthusiastic.
The bloodline is laid out in Chapter 5. Seth was the son of Adam, etc. Fun fact: Noah's grandfather, Methuselah, the oldest man recorded, either died in the flood or the year of it! The math lines up!
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Post by Mister Buch on Jan 29, 2014 17:09:45 GMT 1
Oh yeah, Goliath! Totes.
I swear I read this thing in high school! Apparently the giants somehow failed to hold my attention.
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Post by Clint Johnston on Jan 29, 2014 17:12:41 GMT 1
Didn't you get to the part about the spies and prostitutes?
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Post by Mister Buch on Jan 29, 2014 17:14:17 GMT 1
Which spies and prostitutes are these?
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