In recent (relative to the history of Judeo Christianity) years, there has been quite the debate on whether or not Noah was a real person who survived a real, global flood. Atheists, of course, would say no, but they are not alone in this assertion. Sadly, a great many Christians have joined them in their assertions. But Christians have an advantage atheists don't. We have the word of God. So, what does the word of God say about Noah and the flood?
Genesis 6-9
1 Chronicles 1:1-4
Ezekiel 14:12-20
Matthew 24:37-38
Luke 3:23-38
Luke 17:26-27
Hebrews 11:7
1 Peter 3:20
2 Peter 2:4-5
2 Peter 3:1-9
All of these extracts indisputably tell us that Noah was a real person, who built a real ark, having been forewarned by God that He was going to really judge the world with a real, global flood. There are a grand total of zero Bible verses that give us permission to deny any of this. Nothing in the Bible says Noah was a myth, or an allegory, or that he didn't really build an ark, or that there was only a local/metaphorical flood.
The main passage of scripture describing Noah's flood is Genesis 6-9. This passage spans a whole 97 verses, which really is too much to scrutinise in detail in just one article. Therefore, I will only single out a few verses, just to make the point that the flood was, in fact, global, and did kill 100% of all Nephesh life, including all humans on the earth, save those on the ark.
Genesis 6:7 - So the Lord said, “I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them.”
"The earth" is repeated throughout this account. It doesn't say "Turkey", or "Mesopotamia", or any locality within the earth. Just "the earth".
Genesis 6:12-13 - So God looked upon the earth, and indeed it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth. And God said to Noah, “The end of all flesh has come before Me, for the earth is filled with violence through them; and behold, I will destroy them with the earth.
Again we see "the earth", not "this specific land", but we further see that God speaks of "all flesh". Are we to believe that only the flesh in Noah's land was violent? If so, why go through the trouble of sparing any? Why not just do as He has in every other local judgement: Spare Noah by telling him to flee? If any flesh would be spared the judgement without the ark, why would he have needed Noah to build an ark and save at least one male and one female of each kind?
Genesis 7:19-20 - And the waters prevailed exceedingly on the earth, and all the high hills under the whole heaven were covered. The waters prevailed fifteen cubits upward, and the mountains were covered.
Here we see that not only is the earth being described, but everything under the whole heaven (i.e. the sky). Furthermore, the water covers all the high hills, and the mountains. You don't need to be a scientist to know that water seeks its own level. If you fill any container, be it a shot glass or a bathtub, the water is going over the edge. It's not going to keep rising and leave everything else around it untouched. Therefore, in order to cover a mountain, the flood also had to flow over the mountains.
Genesis 8:4-5 - Then the ark rested in the seventh month, the seventeenth day of the month, on the mountains of Ararat. And the waters decreased continually until the tenth month. In the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains were seen.
Again, we see that not only were the mountains covered, but they were so heavily covered that the ark was able to float near them, enough to land in them. Furthermore, it wasn't until the waters continued to decrease, 2 months later, that the tops of the other mountains were seen. Nothing was restraining this water to a locality.
Genesis 8:21 - And the Lord smelled a soothing aroma. Then the Lord said in His heart, “I will never again curse the ground for man’s sake, although the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; nor will I again destroy every living thing as I have done.
This promise negates all possibility that the flood could have been local, as there have been many local floods since. Thus, if we believe the flood was local, we not only need to believe that God is a terrible communicator, but that He also broke His promise.
Genesis 9:18-19 - Now the sons of Noah who went out of the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. And Ham was the father of Canaan. These three were the sons of Noah, and from these the whole earth was populated.
Again we see the earth being discussed, this time with the word "whole" being placed in front of it. In other words, we are all descendants of Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Why? Because everyone else had died.
1 Chronicles 1 is a genealogical record, effectively recapping the information provided in Genesis. It begins "Adam, Seth, Enosh, Cainan, Mahalalel, Jared, Enoch, Methuselah, Lamech, Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth." And it continues right through to people whose historicity is disputed by no Christian worth his salt. Namely, Abraham, Isaac, and Ishmael. There is a major discrepancy in the Theistic Evolutionist view that Adam and Noah were allegorical, because they have to justify the arbitrary line they draw between Noah and everyone who proceeds from him.
Ezekiel 14:14, 20 - "Even if these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they would deliver only themselves by their righteousness,” says the Lord God. (...) even though Noah, Daniel, and Job were in it, as I live,” says the Lord God, “they would deliver neither son nor daughter; they would deliver only themselves by their righteousness."
Noah is described among two other historically righteous people, whom God says would spare only themselves through their righteousness during His judgements against the persistently blasphemous Israel. Why would God express His fury by saying "this myth, and these two historical figures, would not be harmed, but everyone else would"? Obviously, Noah is not a myth. He is a historical person whose righteousness famously spared him from the judgement executed against unholy men.
Matthew 24:37-39 - But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.
Jesus speaks of the flood as a literal event, even saying when He comes back to judge the earth, it's going to be just like it was before the flood (i.e. all flesh will have corrupted its way). This would be meaningless if the flood never actually happened.
Luke 3:23-38 traces Jesus' genealogy through Joseph all the way back to God, of course including Shem, the son of Noah, all the way back to Adam, who we know was created by God. Theistic Evolutionists and the like have to explain why Joseph - Arphaxad (or wherever they want to draw the line) are real, historical figures, but Noah - Adam were not.
Luke 17:26-27 is basically the same account as Matthew 24:37-39. When Jesus comes back, it will be just like the days of Noah, they were evil and blissfully unaware, but then the flood got them.
Hebrews 11:7 - By faith Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his household, by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.
Noah makes it into the "Hebrews Hall of Faith", so called because Hebrews describes a number of examples of Biblical figures who displayed their faith in various ways. Noah, of course, displayed his faith by obeying God's command to build an ark to save himself and his household.
1 Peter 3:18-20 - For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit, by whom also He went and preached to the spirits in prison, who formerly were disobedient, when once the Divine longsuffering waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water.
Here we are told that the people of Noah's day (including, of course, the 8 souls on the ark) were as real as we are, and that God was very patient waiting for Noah to build the ark.
2 Peter 2:4-11 speaks of the doom of false preachers, specifically explaining that God did not spare angels, and bringing up several judgements. One of those judgements, according to verse 5, was that God "did not spare the ancient world, but saved Noah, one of eight people, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood on the world of the ungodly".
2 Peter 3:1-9, the final and probably most interesting verse I want to discuss, speaks about the return of Christ. Specifically, it speaks of how Christ will seem slow to return, and that this is because He perceives time differently. What we perceive as Him being slow, even to the point of asking "where is this coming He promised?", He perceives as being patient, not wanting a single person to perish. What's interesting about this is that while compromisers use verse 8 to say maybe Genesis isn't literal, verses 5 and 6 say people deliberately forget "that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of water and in the water, by which the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water."
And so we see that those who claim Noah was a myth, that he never built an ark, or that the flood of his day was just a local flood, are really just capitulating to the atheists. Everything the Bible says about Noah tells us that he was a real person, who was warned of a real, global flood, and so he built a real ark to preserve life, and afterwards, his real sons and their real wives really did produce the entire human race. To deny it is just outright heresy.