At the end of the classic science fiction movie, The Time Machine, Mr. Filby comments to Mrs. Watchett, the time traveler’s housekeeper, “But it isn’t like George to return empty handed. To try to rebuild a civilization without a plan. He must have taken something with him.”
“Nothing.” Mrs. Watchett looks about the lovely Victorian parlor and her view lands upon the bookcase. “Nothing except three books.”
“Which three books?” Filby asks.
Contemplating building a new civilization on the other side of the Flood, Noah would have had to make choices, too. But unlike our time-traveling character in the film, Noah had a huge ship which was not only capable of carrying all the land animals required, but much more than just three books: probably an immense library on all sorts of topics (farming, metallurgy, medicine, mathematics, philosophy, surveying, architecture, and a hundred other subjects).
About 4,400 years ago, human beings, as recent creations of God, would have been vastly intelligent; many of the wonders of the ancient world we marvel at today may have been able to have been built because of the knowledge found in books (or in other formats, like papyrus) brought through the Flood on the Ark. Some of those books might even have guided the builders of the Great Pyramid.
So, if Noah rescued a remarkable pre-Flood library, where are the writings now? To quote Mr. Filby again, “One cannot choose but wonder.” Books are fragile things. After years of use, they wear out, get lost … or are destroyed. What pre-Flood treasures might have been gathering dust upon the bookshelves of the library at Alexandria, Egypt before it burned to the ground?
One can only wonder. But we do know, based on God’s Word, that ancient man was more advanced than what is taught in almost all schools and science museums.
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I like John Reed's (fictional) narrative in his book Mabbul about this topic. Noah was intending on bringing many documents from the old world into the new, but an attack by the Nephil as they were loading the Ark thwarted that plan and all they could bring was the knowledge in the heads of his family.
Well, I'm patently convinced that he brought the written accounts of the first 5 chapters of Genesis with him.
Not sure about books but Noach took grape vine shoots so he could atone for sin of the tree of knowledge according to the view it was a grape vine.
King Hezekiah? who destroyed the copper snake of Moses because some were using it for idol worship, also got rid of the Book of Remedies, that could have gone back to Noach, because if no one sick, miss a good chance to introspect and repent, and many will ignore G-d who we turn to when ill.
pearlman cta
author the recent complex creation.
Then again, maybe Enoch or other descendants of Seth built the Great Pyramid before the Flood. Its unique architecture seems like the ideal time capsule to survive such a cataclysm.