Genesis 7 · a question people ask
Did the flood cover the whole globe?
Protestants who hold that the flood really happened disagree on how far it reached. All agree the text describes God's judgment on human violence and his rescue of Noah's family.
How Christians read it
Where Christians differ, Favor sets out the main views side by side and doesn't pick one.
A global flood
"All the high mountains that were under the whole sky were covered" (7:19), and "every living thing was destroyed" (7:23). Peter says "the world that existed then, being overflowed with water, perished" (2 Peter 3:6). On this view the whole planet was flooded.
Genesis 7:19-23 · 2 Peter 3:6
A regional flood
The Hebrew erets, earth, can also mean a land or country, and "all" can mean everything in view. In 41:57 "all countries came into Egypt" because "the famine was severe in all the earth", which those who hold this view read as the lands around Egypt. On this view the flood covered the whole world of the people in the story and destroyed all of them, without covering the planet.
Genesis 41:57 · Genesis 7:19-20
The verses
“God said to Noah, “I will bring an end to all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence through them. Behold, I will destroy them and the earth.”