FLOOD (General) is the tr. of a number of different expressions (פֶּרֶץ מַיִם, a burst of water; נַ֣חֲלֵי מַ֔יִם, rushing water; שִׁבֹּ֫לֶת֮, H8673, a flowing stream; שֶׁ֫צֶף, H9192, flood, overflow; מַבּוּל, H4429, deluge, used mainly of Genesis Flood; Gr. κατακλυσμος, deluge; πλεμμυρα, spring freshet; πόταμος, river. Floods have been part of the many vast cycles of nature throughout all of the years of earth’s geological history. These cycles may be seasonal annual rainfall or melting of winter snows, or sporadic and unpredictable, caused by great hurricanes and monsoon storms. There are also massive seacoast floods caused by high winds and tides. As man began to build his centers of living near the great river systems and ocean ports, and as the population increased, the incidence of landslides, tsunami waves, and cycles of flooding became disasters.

Flash floods are sudden violent bursts of water surging down narrow mountain valleys or desert gullies previously dry. They occur in mountainous areas where high slopes are relatively bare of vegetation, but do not generally last long. The illustration of Jesus concerning the men who built their houses on rock and sand, and who passed through a flood is prob. an allusion to this phenomenon (Matt 7:25, 28; Luke 6:48).

Tsunamis are low seismic sea waves, generated by earthquakes. The energy wave can travel across oceans, fastest in deepest water, up to 600 mph. One of the earliest such waves recorded wiped out cities of Crete, Greece, and other Aegean seaports after the eruption of Santorini volcano about 1500 or 1400 b.c.

The terms mabbul and kataklysmos are applied almost completely in the OT and NT respectively to the Genesis flood. The other terms are used to describe either the natural floods that occur from time to time, or else are used fig.

Bibliography J. Strong, The Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible (1890); W. G. Hoyt, and W. B. Langhein, Floods (1955); L. B. Leopold, M. G. Wolman and J. P. Miller, Fulvial Processes in Geomorphology (1964); A. N. Strahler, The Earth Sciences, 2nd Ed. (1971).