Footnote 1 – What the Babylonian Flood Stories Can and Cannot Teach Us About the Genesis Flood

While this passage from Genesis 8:21 suggests that man’s nature is basically evil, other Biblical passages do not take such a negative view of man, e.g. Psalm 8:4–5 “what is man, that thou art mindful of him? And the son of man that thou visitest him? For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour”. Even Genesis 1:8 has been interpreted to mean that the evil inclination does not come to a man until he becomes a youth (ten years old). according to the rabbinic commentary, Midrash Tanhuma Bereshit 1.7, it is man who raises himself to be evil. This, according to the Midrash, is the plain meaning of the statement in Genesis 8:21 that “the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth.” Obviously, the controversy about man’s basic nature is an old one. Genesis 1:8 clearly comes down on the darker side of this controversy. Whether from birth or from the age of ten, man’s nature is inherently evil; he is naturally prone to violent and unrighteous acts. This view of man logically entails a recognition that man cannot be allowed to live by his instincts alone, that he must be directed and controlled by laws, that in fact, laws are the sine qua non of human existence. It is for this reason that God’s first act after the flood is to give man law.