(3.) The apparently universal language of the narrative may be readily explained as other similar language must be in the Scriptures, without assuming a range of meaning beyond the writer’s personal knowledge. The writer of this narrative (Gen. chaps. 6–9) speaks _as an eye-witness_, especially of the great rain; of the ark borne up upon the waters; of the surging back and forth of the billows, and of their covering “the high hills under the whole heaven,” _i. e._ as far as the eye could reach. The same style of universal language appears frequently in the Scriptures, yet subject to limitations from the known nature of the case; _e. g._ Deut. 2: 25: “This day will I begin to put the fear of thee” [Israel] “upon the nations _that are under the whole heaven_;” Acts 2: 5――“There were dwelling at Jerusalem, Jews, devout men, out _of every nation under heaven_.” Mat. 3: 5: “Then went out to him Jerusalem, and _all Judea_, and _all_ the region round about Jordan.”――――It is in point to notice also that the word “_the earth_,” so frequently used in this narrative, very often has the sense――_the land_. It should manifestly have a meaning as broad when used of the extent of the judgment as when used of the extent of the sin, and not necessarily any more broad. Of the sin it is said repeatedly――“The _earth_ was corrupt before God;” “the _earth_ was filled with violence.” Obviously this same “_earth_,” to the same geographical extent and not apparently any thing more, was destroyed by the flood. It may be noticed also that the word “ground” [Heb. adamah] is used (Gen. 7: 23) as a synonym for “earth”――“every living substance which was upon the face of the _ground_”――but this carries with it no sense of universality as to this globe. There is every reason to suppose that at this time both the righteous descendants of Seth and the wicked descendants of Cain were living in the great basin of the Euphrates and the Tigris――with great probability not reaching out beyond the area bounded by the Indian Ocean, the Persian Gulf, the Caspian, Black, Mediterranean and Red Seas. This, therefore, we may assume to have been the area submerged by this deluge, and we have no occasion to look for its traces beyond these limits. 2. Whether the deluge destroyed all living men from the face of the whole geographical earth except those in the ark, it is perhaps impossible to decide with absolute certainty. If any were not reached, they must have been such as had wandered early, far from their native home, suppose into China or Africa, where neither the corruption which became the moral cause of the deluge nor the deluge itself reached them. The question is one of probabilities only, for we have no certain knowledge on the subject and can not have. The probabilities are in my view quite against the supposition. _Traditions of a Great Deluge._