Historical-social interpretation of the two flood narratives of the Hebrew Bible

Abstract

The theme of this article is the two narratives of the Flood of the Hebrew Bible, which, despite having been sewn into a composition, can be relatively easily separated and recovered. The purpose of the article is therefore to recover the two flood narratives of the Hebrew Bible, to demonstrate its completeness and to propose historical-social interpretation for each one of them. The text of Gn 6,5-9,17 was translated, the editorial glosses were identified, each narrative was reconstituted and considered complete and ready for the hermeneutical procedure. It is concluded that, written at the end of the sixth century, the first narrative, here called “Elohist monarchical narrative of the flood”, had as its function the refoundation of the government of the golah, on his return from Babylon, while, written in the mid-fifth century, the second narrative, here called “Yahwist priestly narrative of the flood”, served to introduce the expiatory sacrifice in Jerusalem, then ruled by the priestly body.