The whole notion of Noah’s flood came from the period of Babylonian captivity, where, as a moral building measure, the Jewish scholars of the time re-wrote, basically, their entire history. They had, as historical facts (though greatly distorted) the life of David, the life of Abraham, the onetime life of Adam, and even further back the hazy traditions of Daliamatia (spelling?) which lingered even to those times, mainly thru the Sumerians. After failing to be able to place the lineage of David into direct correlation with Adam, one of these scholars decided that it would be easier to create a onetime flood, which would allow the world to drown in its own wickedness, and thus to create a direct line for David through one of Noah’s sons. And the other scholars agreed to this.
What is interesting is that the Jewish people of that day saw these things for what they were, a moral building exercise for an enslaved race. It fell to later day generations to assemble these and other texts into the “inerrant word of God”.
But Noah really lived!
He was a Sumerian winemaker in Erich (spelling?), and he was greatly interested in the current (back then) rising of the local rivers, caused by geological shifts in the world climate. Every year he would warn his neighbors about the rising rivers, and eventually counseled that the families should build homes in the form of a houseboat, herding their animals on board each night for protection. Eventually there came a year where the sudden rise of the river washed away all his neighbors. Only Noah and his family were saved, along with their animals, in their houseboat.
So, you see, there is a grain of truth in every myth!
Al