The Primordial Boundary: Divine Restraint and the Scope of the Original Global Flood

The nature of the Genesis flood remains one of the most debated topics in biblical theology. However, a specific exegetical framework suggests that the key to understanding the scope of Noah’s Flood lies not in the Book of Genesis alone, but in the establishment of the earth’s foundations during the creation week. By examining the "boundaries" set by God at the beginning of time, a compelling argument emerges: while the original creation involved a truly global aqueous state, God established a permanent physical decree that the seas would never again cover the entire planet. This perspective necessitates that Noah’s Flood was "universal" in its impact on humanity, yet "local" or regional in its geographic extent.

The Foundation and the Primordial Global Flood

According to 2 Peter 3:5, the earth was originally "formed out of water and by water." This aligns with the initial state described in Genesis 1, where darkness was over the face of the deep and the Spirit of God moved over the waters. At this specific point in the "foundation of the earth," the flood was undeniably global; there was no dry land. The entire globe was submerged under what the Psalmist calls "the deep."

Psalm 104 provides a poetic but technically specific commentary on this creative act. It describes the waters standing "above the mountains" during the foundational stage. This was the first and only truly global flood—a planet-wide immersion that existed before the separation of land and sea.

The Decree of the Boundary

The pivot point in this theological framework occurs when God moves from the "deep" to the "dry land." In Job 38, God asks, "Who enclosed the sea with doors... and set a bolt and doors?" This imagery suggests a structural, ontological change in the earth's composition. During the creation week, God gathered the waters into "one place" (Genesis 1:9) and, more importantly, established a physical limit.

Psalm 104:9 contains the definitive decree: "You set a boundary that they may not pass over, so that they will not return to cover the earth." This is a perpetual promise tied to the very physics of the earth's foundation. The text implies that once the dry land was established and the waters were relegated to their "seas" and subterranean "foundations" (as hinted at in Psalm 24:2), the mechanism for a total global submersion was locked away by divine command.

The Conflict of Two Global Floods

If one interprets Noah’s Flood as a second global event where the water again covered every high mountain on the entire planet, a biblical contradiction arises. If Psalm 104:9 states that the waters shall "not return to cover the earth" after the initial creation, then a subsequent global flood in the time of Noah would represent a breaking of God’s foundational decree.

To maintain the integrity of the "boundary" mentioned in Proverbs 8 and Psalm 104, Noah’s Flood must be viewed through a different lens. If the boundary set at the foundation of the world was meant to be permanent ("so that it will not totter forever and ever"), then the flood described in Genesis 6-9 must have been a "universal" judgment on the known human world without violating the geological boundary that prevents the total submersion of the globe.

Noah’s Flood: Universal but Local

2 Peter 3:6

By these waters also the WORLD of THAT TIME was deluged and destroyed.

The term "universal" in this context refers to the scope of judgment—the total destruction of the antediluvian civilization. The term "local" (or perhaps more accurately, "regional") refers to the geographic extent. Under this view, the "fountains of the great deep" were released and the "windows of heaven" were opened to flood the specific region inhabited by man, which, given the genealogies of the time, may have been concentrated in the Mesopotamian basin or a similarly vast but contained geographic area.

From the perspective of Noah, standing on the deck of the Ark, the flood was "global" because his entire horizon and the entire world of human inhabitants were submerged. However, according to the foundational boundaries set in the beginning, the waters did not—and could not—violate the "bolt and doors" that kept the oceans from reclaiming the entire planetary sphere.

Conclusion: The Consistency of Divine Law

By distinguishing between the global aqueous state at the Foundation and the restricted nature of the Deluge, the biblical narrative gains a unique consistency. God is seen as a God of order who, having once established the "dry land" and set the "bounds of the sea," does not retreat into chaos. The rainbow in Genesis 9 becomes not a promise to never repeat a universal flood, but a confirmation of the boundary already set at creation: that the earth, once established on its foundations, is protected from total aqueous reclamation. Noah’s Flood was a catastrophic intervention within history, but the "global" flood belongs solely to the mystery of the earth’s beginning.