Confused about rainbows, was there never refracted light before Noah's ark?

Genesis 9.13-15 I have set my bow in the clouds, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh.

Also why does He say He will remember the covenant between Him and every living creature when he sees the rainbow, would He forget?

Confused about rainbows, was there never refracted light before Noah's ark?

Genesis 9.13-15 I have set my bow in the clouds, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh.

Also why does He say He will remember the covenant between Him and every living creature when he sees the rainbow, would He forget?

I think it is more of a visible reminder to mankind than it is of God remembering. An assurance to mankind of God's promise and of the covenant made. Verse 17 "This is the token of the covenant..."

I understand the OP's question though. I have a hard time accepting that God changed the way light behaves just a few thousand years ago. I mean, that's pretty recent you know!

Bex

It's possible that it had never rained before the flood ... therefore a rainbow in the clouds after the flood may have been the first time, nothing to do with changing how light behaves.

Gen 2:5 And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for the LORD God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and [there was] not a man to till the ground.

Gen 2:6 But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground.

Blessings ...

No offense but arguing that God changed the way weather (rain) works a few thousand years ago raises even more questions than the whole thing about rainbows did.

Bex

No offense but arguing that God changed the way weather (rain) works a few thousand years ago raises even more questions than the whole thing about rainbows did.

Bex

How so ? .... the flood that destroyed all but 8 people could not be described as normal weather, especially when you add the fountains of the deep to the volume of rain.

Do you find it strange or disturbing that we serve a God who does things out of the ordinary and changes things from time to time ?

I obviously (being an OEC) believe there were rainbows before the flood. God, then, just gave it a new meaning. And God 'remembering' seems to be anthropomorphic languague.

Water existed before baptism ever started. Bread and wine existed before the Last Supper. Rainbows probably existed before the flood ended.

Water existed before baptism ever started. Bread and wine existed before the Last Supper. Rainbows probably existed before the flood ended.

Indeed ... But possibly not before the flood.

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No rain before the flood = no clouds before the flood.

Something cataclysmic happened that changed all that.

Even if it had never rained before the flood, did the ocean or lakes or any other body of water never refract light?

Well, we know that there was Sodom and Gomorrah, so there must have been rainbows...

No, wait...that was AFTER the flood.

No rain before the flood = no clouds before the flood.

Something cataclysmic happened that changed all that.

It must have been the laws of physics kicking in then because you can't get away with just not having a water cycle AND expect earth to be habitable without relying on the miraculous. So either god created a world that didn't work or there was evaporation, condensation, and precipitation before the flood account.

You don't have to have clouds to have a hydrologic cycle. Scripture is pretty clear that a mist rose up to water the earth pre-flood.

I have always understood that it hadn't rained before the flood...but that the humidity was ridiculous? :dunno:

You don't have to have clouds to have a hydrologic cycle. Scripture is pretty clear that a mist rose up to water the earth pre-flood....like a constant dew?

Morning dew all day long...nice.

You don't have to have clouds to have a hydrologic cycle. Scripture is pretty clear that a mist rose up to water the earth pre-flood.

We get all our freshwater from precipitation. . .I'm not at all sure you could generate enough precipitation from mist to supply rivers unless you have simply massive amounts of mist constantly in the air. . .which would make pre-flood rainbows more common than post flood rainbows. In any event you'd still need some magical interference to keep condensation from reaching the point at which rain drops form for no other reason than to sustain an unflinching literalist view.

...like a constant dew?

Morning dew all day long...nice.

So. . .evaporation wasn't happening? Was the earth constantly cold so that a lot of evaporation couldn't take place? What about animals who require warm, dry environments to survive?

So. . .evaporation wasn't happening? Was the earth constantly cold so that a lot of evaporation couldn't take place? What about animals who require warm, dry environments to survive?

:dunno: I think you're asking the wrong guy.;)

Even if it had never rained before the flood, did the ocean or lakes or any other body of water never refract light?

Most likely but God's word says rainbow in the 'clouds' as a covenant, that's more specific.

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So. . .evaporation wasn't happening? Was the earth constantly cold so that a lot of evaporation couldn't take place? What about animals who require warm, dry environments to survive?

The earth's weather patterns and climatic environment may have been quite different pre-flood and we know that animals 'adapt' quite well when needed.

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The earth's weather patterns and climatic environment may have been quite different pre-flood and we know that animals 'adapt' quite well when needed.

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So. . .the pre-flood earth was cold enough to prevent a lot of evaporation from taking place, rendering all moisture in the air to condense as icy mist. All animals and plants were adapted to this cold weather, spent a year on the ark, then adapted to drastically changed environments after the flood through adaptation? And this entire excercise is required simply to support an ultra-literal interpretation that is not actually needed to explain the text?

Well, we know that there was Sodom and Gomorrah, so there must have been rainbows...

No, wait...that was AFTER the flood.:rofl::rofl::rofl:

The earth's weather patterns and climatic environment may have been quite different pre-flood and we know that animals 'adapt' quite well when needed.

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What science or what scripture do you have to support this view?

How so ? .... the flood that destroyed all but 8 people could not be described as normal weather, especially when you add the fountains of the deep to the volume of rain.

Do you find it strange or disturbing that we serve a God who does things out of the ordinary and changes things from time to time ?

I find it strange and and odd that people would try to rationalize the way the world worked In Noah's Day with our intellect, rather than by faith.God found a fault in the old covenant(law) and established the new covenant(grace).If he made this big of a change ,what is it to Him to change something as insignificant to Him as the weather patterns?Let's quit worrying with our heads and use our faith in Him to believe the word.Jesus told Nicodemus to marvel not. Another passage says; what man by taking thought can add one cubit to his stature

Another passage says; what man by taking thought can add one cubit to his stature

Quite right. All this thinking - who knows where it might lead...

Quite right. All this thinking - who knows where it might lead...
LoL I like humor, my point was, really what does it matter about that rainbow other than what God said about it,thought is good but worrying too much about that which we can't change is burdensome.I think you will like this,My Brother was at church with 2 old guys and one said to the other"the Bible says it and I believe it and that's it,The other old guy said the Bible says it and that's it, whether you believe it or not".

So. . .the pre-flood earth was cold enough to prevent a lot of evaporation from taking place, rendering all moisture in the air to condense as icy mist. All animals and plants were adapted to this cold weather, spent a year on the ark, then adapted to drastically changed environments after the flood through adaptation? And this entire excercise is required simply to support an ultra-literal interpretation that is not actually needed to explain the text?


Why your insistence on a cold pre-flood earth and "icy mist"?

Evaporation is not just a matter of temperature-- it is also a matter of relative humidity. If the pre-flood earth had a very high relative humidity, there would be very little evaporation.

So... where in Scripture does it say there was no rain before the flood? Otherwise it's just a guess that there was no rain (and hence it's just a guess that no rainbows were seen).

Why your insistence on a cold pre-flood earth and "icy mist"?

Evaporation is not just a matter of temperature-- it is also a matter of relative humidity. If the pre-flood earth had a very high relative humidity, there would be very little evaporation.

Evaporation is very mcuh a matter of temperature - it occurs when the sun heats up ;liquid water. No heat = no evaporation. The only reason you have humidity in the first place is because evaporation has already taken place. I'm not seeing how having a high relative humidity is going to help you, are there any places on earth that have high relative humidity an no rainfall? I live in Florida where it's extremely humid in the summers, before that I lived in equatorial Africa for some time. In neither case did having high humidity preclude precipitation.