Before the Flood

Many biblical scholars believe that the Old Testament God is so alternately violent and then kind and generous because of older polytheistic traditions. The title of this episode, Before the Flood, comes from a poem by the English writer Andrew Marvell in 1681. There is no sense in the poem that the reader might be unfamiliar with the flood in question. It's difficult to argue that the tale of Noah did not spring from the earlier Akkadian narrative.