Noah's flood story is based on historical evidence

Historical criteria: I will use indirect witnesses to support my position. Indirect witnesses are allowed to be used in History so long as they fit the following: "(1) On whose primary testimony does the secondary witness base his statements? (2) Did the secondary witness accurately report the primary testimony as a whole? (3) If not, in what details did he accurately report the primary testimony?" (1) Satisfactory answers may allow for other sources to be credible. The more sources there are to confirm an account, the more credible it is. Mythology: Myths are a collection of stories used to explain nature, history, customs, practices, and rituals. Myths typically contain personification, truthful or exaggerated descriptions, etc. (2). Comparative mythology seeks to find common elements, themes, characteristics, etc. and a common source from which it derived from (3). I will start with Genesis 5 Gen. 5 has a list of Adam's family line with very long periods of life. The Septuagint version of Genesis 5 has even longer periods of prolonged life (4). The Sumerian king's list also has a pattern of people with pro-longed life. Before the flood, Sumerian kings lived much longer and after the flood, they lived much shorter (5). Thus, there is an extra-biblical source confirming the historical accuracy of long life in Genesis 5 (6) Exegesis: Genesis 6 The Bible never describes a global flood, but a local one. The word used in Gen. 6:6 in relation to the flood is eretz which is typically used of a local area (7). " As 1st Samuel 30:16 shows sometimes "the whole earth" or "all the earth" can refer to a country or land area. The word translated land or earth in 1st Samuel 30:16 is the main one of the two words used in Genesis when talking about the extent of Noah's flood. Either Hebrew word "erets" or "adamah" can refer to a country, land, etc." (The Flood and Joshua's Long Day) Historical reliability: Many accounts confirm the narrative The ancient historian Berossus (275 B.C) writes "...grounded in Armenia some part still remains in the mountains of the Gordyaeans in Armenia, and some get pitch from the ship by scraping off, and use it for amulets." Josephus (50 A.D) mentions the Ark of Noah 3 times in "The Antiquates of the Jews". 1 was when a group was afraid to come from the mount to Mesopotamia because of another flood. He writes about the time when Noah left the Ark: ".. after he had staid seven more days, he sent the living creatures out of the ark; and both he and his family went out, when he also sacrificed to God, and feasted with his companions. However, the Armenians call this place, The Place of Descent; for the ark being saved in that place, its remains are shown there by the inhabitants to this day.." (Antiquities 3:5) When writing about other authors, He writes: "The Armenians call that spot the Landing-Place, for it was there that the Ark came safe to land, and they show the relics of it to this day. This flood and the Ark are mentioned by all who have written histories of the barbarians. Among these is Berosus the Chaldean, who in his description of the events of the flood writes somewhere as follows: 'It is said, moreover, that a portion of the vessel still survives in Armenia on the mountains of the Gordyaens, and that persons carry off pieces of bitumen, which they use as talismans.' These matters are also mentioned by Hieronymus the Egyptian, author of the ancient history of Phoenicia, by Mnaseas and by many others. Nicholas of Damascus in his ninety-sixth book relates the story as follows: 'There is above the country of the Minyas in Armenia a great mountain called Baris, where, as the story goes, many refugees found safety at the time of the flood, and one man, transported upon an ark, grounded upon the summit: and relics of the timber were for long preserved.' (Antiquities 3.6 1.93-95) "... the country called Carrae: it was a soil that bare amomum in great plenty: there are also in it the remains of that ark, wherein it is related that Noah escaped the deluge, and where they are still shown to such as are desirous to see them" (Antiquities 20.1.2 (20.24-25) Nicholas of Damscus writes: " "There is a great mountain in Armenia, over Minyas, called Baris, upon which it is reported that many who fled at the time of the Deluge were saved; and that one who was carried in an ark came on shore upon the top of it; and that the remains of the timber were a great while preserved. This might be the man about whom Moses the legislator of the Jews wrote." Theopilus of Antioch in early christian writings of his letter to Autolycus, he writes: "And of the Ark, the remains are to this day to be seen in the Arabian mountains" (Book 3 Chap. XIX) Epiphanius of Salamis writes: "Do you seriously suppose that we are unable to prove our point, when even to this day the remains of Noah's Ark are shown in the country of the Kurds? Why, were one to search diligently, doubtless one would also find at the foot of the mountain the remnants of the altar where Noah, on leaving the Ark, tarried to offer clean and fatly animals as a sacrifice to the Lord God" He mentions the location of Noah's Ark in other writings and in "The Panarion of Epiphanius of Salamis book 1 2:1, he writes " After the flood, since Noah"s ark had come to rest in the highlands of Ararat between Armenia and Cardyaei on the mountain called Lubar,1 the first human settlement following the flood was made there. And there the prophet Noah planted a vineyard and became the original settler of the site." C John Chrysostom writes in "Homilies of Thessolonians, 8 "Do not the mountains of Armenia testify to it, where the Ark rested? And are not the remains of the Ark preserved there to this very day for our admonition" Isidore of Seville writes in "Chronicon": " Ararat is a mountain in Armenia, where the historians testify that the Ark came to rest after the Flood. So even to this day wood remains of it are to be seen there" Jehan Haithon writes: "Upon the snows of Ararat a black speck is visible at all times: this is Noah's Ark" Adam Olearius in "Voyages and travels of the Ambassadors" writes: "The Armenians, and the Persians themselves, are of opinion that there are still upon the said mountain some remainders of the Ark, but that Time hath so hardened them, that they seem absolutely petrify'd. At Schamachy in Media Persia, we were shown a Crosse of a black and hard Wood, which the Inhabitants affirmed to have been made of the Wood of the Ark" According to an account of the Byzantine emperor Heraclius, he climbed Jabal Judi in order to see Noah's Ark. This is taken from Historia Saracenica 1:1 "Heraclius then came to the village of Thamanin (where Noah, of pious memory, built his Ark and afterward came out from it), and in order for him to see the place of the Ark, he ascended the mountain of Al-Judi, which rises above all these lands, for it is very high. (my trans.)" Benjamin of Tudela, a 12th century historian writes in his work "the travels of Benjamin Tudela": "I traveled two days to Jezireh BenOmar (modern Cizre), an island in the Tigris, at the foot of Mt. Ararat...on which the Ark of Noah rested. Omar Ben al-Khatab removed the Ark from the summit of the two mountains and made a mosque of it." (Pg. 402) Marco Polo wrote in his work "The travels": "In the heart of Greater Armenia is a very high mountain , shaped like a cube (or cup), on which Noah's ark is said to have rested, whence it is called the Mountain of Noah's Ark. It [the mountain] is so broad and long that it takes more than two days to go around it. On the summit the snow lies so deep all the year round that no one can ever climb it; this snow never entirely melts, but new snow is for ever falling on the old, so that the level rises." Dr. Friedrich Parrot wrote in his work "Journey to Ararat" (pg. 162) "all the Armenians are firmly persuaded that Noah's ark remains to this very day on the top of Ararat, and that, in order to preservation, no human being is allowed to approach it" Scholars have verified the account in comparative mythology and it's basis is likely to be on an actual event (8). Conclusion: Noah's flood narrative is historically reliable. Sources: 1. http://en.wikipedia.org... 2. http://en.wikipedia.org... 3. http://en.wikipedia.org... 4. http://en.wikipedia.org... 5. http://www.theepochtimes.com... 6. https://answersingenesis.org... 7. Gleason Archer, Survey of OT Introduction (Chicago, IL: Moody Press, 1964), 194. 8. "Among many theorists, George Smith in 1872 [33] famously linked the great Biblical Flood of the book Genesis to an historical event, probably of the 3rd millennium BC, which deposited a 50-cm- sediment-layer in the Mesopotamian lowland.", Haigh & K"5;eček, "Environmental Reconstruction in Headwater Areas", p. 14 (2000).