📖 Biblical Definition
The deluge is the worldwide flood of Genesis 6-9 by which God judged the violent and corrupt antediluvian world for its "wickedness of man... great in the earth, and... every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually" (6:5). He spared only Noah, his three sons, their wives (eight souls in all), and the animals on the ark. The flood lasted forty days of rain plus the bursting up of "the fountains of the great deep", with the ark afloat for over a year before Noah disembarked on the mountains of Ararat. The rainbow became the covenant sign that God would never again destroy the world with water (9:13-15). Peter calls the deluge a type of judgment to come — by fire (2 Peter 3:5-7).
📜 Webster 1828 Definition
DEL'UGE, n.
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1. Any overflowing of water; an inundation. 2. Eminently, the great flood in the days of Noah, by which the human race, except Noah and his family, were destroyed.
📖 Key Scripture
Genesis 6:13 — "The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence."
Genesis 7:11 — "In the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened."
Matthew 24:37 — "But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be."
2 Peter 3:6 — "The world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished."
⚠️ Modern Corruption
Modern critics call the deluge mythology; Christ called it history and a pattern of His return.
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The deluge is one of the most-disputed events in Scripture. Modern academics generally treat it as ancient mythology adopted by Israel; modern Christians fall into two main camps (global flood vs. local flood) on its physical extent. What is not negotiable is what Christ Himself said about it. He treated it as historical (as the days of Noe were) and as a pattern (so shall also the coming of the Son of man be).
The pattern is sobering. People were eating, drinking, marrying, giving in marriage — ordinary, distracted, unconcerned — until the day Noah entered into the ark, and they knew not until the flood came, and took them all away. Christ's analogy is not flattering to ordinary unconcern. The Son of Man returns when the world is at its most ordinary. Be Noah. Build the ark. Preach the warning. The flood is real; the door is real; the warning is mercy.
🔗 Greek & Hebrew Roots
Latin diluvium; Hebrew mabbul (H3999); Greek kataklusmos (G2627).
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H3999 — mabbul — flood, deluge
G2627 — kataklusmos — cataclysm, deluge
Usage
"Christ called the deluge history and a pattern of His return; modern academics call it mythology."
"The Son of Man returns when the world is at its most ordinary; Noah was building when others were eating."
"The flood is real; the door is real; the warning is mercy."