But to accept this as scientific proof of the Genesis flood story is a big leap that most biblical scholars and theologians are not willing to make. We can only speculate. The best this recent discovery can do is to suggest that the biblical narrative is referring to the Black Sea flood, said Joseph Coleson, Old Testament professor at Nazarene Theological Seminary. Speculation on Noah's flood One theory suggested by Ballard's Black Sea discovery is that the flood was so traumatic, it was etched in the minds of survivors who fled the area. The story was then retold through the centuries, reappearing in Genesis, in the Babylonian Gilgamesh Epic and in countless flood stories of other cultures.
Many historians believe the biblical account was borrowed from earlier flood stories.
Modern critical scholars do not accept it as historical truth, saying it is a legend. The Hebrew story is obviously influenced by an earlier flood story from Mesapotamia. But it wasn't made up, somebody experienced a flood, and maybe they thought it was a universal flood. In his book The Origins Solution , Dick Fischer dismisses the notion that the Genesis flood was derived from pagan mythology. The ultimate source of all the accounts is the event itself, a massive flood, that impacted the entire region so heavily it remained a stable both of folklore and of Genesis.