What does cataclysm mean?
The definitions of cataclysm and catastrophe have changed over time. For example The Glossary of Geology, Fourth Edition (1997) published by the American Geological Institute defines these terms:
Cataclysm – (a) Any geologic event that produces sudden and extensive changes in the Earth’s surface; e.g. an exceptionally violent earthquake. (b) Any violent, overwhelming flood that spreads over the land; a deluge.
Catastrophe – A sudden, violent disturbance of nature, ascribed to exceptional or supernatural causes, affecting the physical conditions and the inhabitants of the Earth’s surface; e.g. the Noachian flood, or an extinction of an entire fauna.
Notice how Noah’s flood is part of the definition under catastrophe – this was in 1997. However, in 1960 The Glossary of Geology…, Second Edition by the same publisher placed it under cataclysm:
Cataclysm –
- Any overwhelming flood of water; especially, the Noachian deluge.
- Any violent and extensive subversion of the ordinary phenomena of nature; an extensive stratigraphic catastrophe.
- Any violent flood or inundation that overspreads or sweeps over a country.
So which is right? Well, both of these terms have ancient connections to Scripture. Although Jesus and the Apostle Peter spoke Aramaic (an ancient Hebrew tongue), the New Testament handed down to us originated in Greek (as far as we know). This is important because the Greek New Testament words used to describe Noah’s Flood are kataklusmos and katakluzo. In English cataclysm is from kataklusmos:
They ate, they drank, they married wives, and gave in marriage unto the day that Noah went into the Ark: and the flood [Greek kataklusmos = cataclysm] came, and destroyed them all (Luke 17:27).
Kataklusmos (cataclysm) is also used in Matthew 24:38-39 and 2 Peter 2:5. Katakluzo is used in 2 Peter 2:6 describing “the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished.” When the writers of the New Testament referred to normal sea or river floods and torrents they used these Greek terms: plemmura (Luke 6:48); and potamos (Matthew 7:25, 27; Revelation 12:15-16). Cataclysm was best word to describe Noah’s flood. Even when the Hebrew Old Testament was translated into Greek two or three centuries before Christ, this was also the case.
Catastrophe and cataclysm are sometimes used synonymously. However, in the Bible a catastrophe is to describe sudden disasters on regional, rather than world-wide, scale. So that you can see that this is the case, Peter uses both words in the same sentence:
And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood (kataklusmos = cataclysm) upon the world of the ungodly; and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes condemned them with an overthrow (katastrophe = catastrophe), making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly …(2 Peter 2:5-6)
Onomatopoeia is the formation of words that have a sound imitating what they denote like hiss, break, clap and so forth. Which word sounds the worse: flood, catastrophe, or cataclysm?
The phraseology of the details concerning Noah’s Flood (Genesis 7:11-24) you find all sorts of geologic turmoil:
- the fountains of the great deep broke or burst
- huge amounts of rainfall
- waters that greatly prevailed upon the earth even covering the mountaintops in existence at the time to a depth more than 20 feet.
- no land-dwelling, air-breathing creature could survive: not even birds
This describes Noah’s flood as an immense global disaster caused by an upheaval of the earth’s crust. The prevailing waters (giant tsunami, waves), torrential rainfall, awful winds and noise made it so bad that even birds could not find any rest on debris floating in the waters or even on the ark itself. The only creatures that survived were those on the ark and some marine life.
Global Cataclysm(s) in Earth History
Future Cataclysm
