NOAH, FLOATING BOXES, AND HYPERBOLE

I inadvertently got into a "discussion" with a gentleman at Church today. We were discussing Noah and the ark. The discussion involved the challenges inherent in "getting the word out" about what Noah was doing (and Noah's message of repentance) without the use of the internet, news outlets, paper, etc. The question was, "How did Noah and his message get spread?" Various theories were voiced and I said, "Well, there were a number of caravans with merchants traveling through the area. They would carry the news that there was a huge float-able box type structure being constructed in the desert and the man doing it is a man of God and his message is thus and so..."

It seemed as good a theory as anything else. So the class went on...at the end of the class, a kind, white-haired gentleman who has always had very nice things to say to me sat down next to me very quickly and said, "Now you CANNOT tell me that simple caravans would carry that message intact to villages along the way!"

I think he was kind of upset. Then I remembered that I answered with MY theory immediately after he answered with his (something totally different from mine) and it may have sounded like I was somehow undermining his, or being oppositional, etc. Nothing could be further from the truth...just me in my Debbie-haze .... business as usual kind of thing...

Anyway, I said, "Brother, that's how news traveled in that culture. That's how Lehi came up with the names of Nephi and Sam; because he traveled caravan style as a successful merchant" (He was influenced by another culture further away from Jerusalem.) Anyway, he still wasn't convinced. He said, "Oh come on, you know there have been scientific studies that show how corrupted a message gets when it travels from one person to the next!" To which I replied, "Well, it would be pretty difficult to attach any hyperbole to an already huge box structure full of animals in your neighbor's desert". Alas, he stood up and let me pass.

I think next week I better flash him a smile and the peace sign...and hopefully some research to totally refute my theory and tell him he was correct the entire time...

:)