Gen 6: Do the Sources Explain the Flood Story?

Guest: Dr. Richard Elliott Friedman. In this episode, we begin our reading of Genesis 6 and the opening of the flood story—a key text in source-critical scholarship.

In the first half, we work through Richard Elliott Friedman’s well-know approach, which divides the narrative into distinct sources. We focus especially on his claim that these strands cohere internally, each reflecting a consistent theological perspective.

In the second half, we step back and considerdeeper methodological reflections. Source criticism often assumes that true literary unity looks like consistency, coherence, and the absence of tension—assumptions that reflect modern expectations about how texts should work. But did ancient writers and editors share those same expectations? Or might they have been comfortable preserving complexity, repetition, and even tension within a single, meaningful account?

Key Themes:

• Genesis 6 and the flood narrative
• Friedman’s source divisions and their coherence
• Modern assumptions about literary unity
• Ancient compositional practices and expectations
• The limits of source-critical method