I have in previous posts alluded to Genesis being compiled from different sources. Theories about a multi-source origin go back as least as far as 1711. Some scholars subscribe to the idea that the Torah is made up from four different sources. To illustrate the point examine the following account from Genesis. It is not my work but is taken the book Who Wrote the Bible? by Richard Elliot Friedman. If the text is familiar it is because I have rewritten his work (Pages 54-59) and substituted passages from the NWT. See if this account tells a story and makes sense. (Another post will follow)
6 Consequently, Jehovah saw that the badness of man was abundant in the earth and every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only bad all the time. And Jehovah felt regrets that he had made men in the earth, and he felt hurt at his heart. So Jehovah said: “I am going to wipe men whom I have created off the surface of the ground, from man to domestic animal, to moving animal and to flying creature of the heavens, because I do regret that I have made them.” But Noah found favor in the eyes of Jehovah.7 After that Jehovah said to Noah: “Go, you and all your household, into the ark, because you are the one I have seen to be righteous before me among this generation. Of every clean beast you must take to yourself by sevens, the sire and its mate; and of every beast that is not clean just two, the sire and its mate; also of the flying creatures of the heavens by sevens, male and female, to preserve offspring alive on the surface of the entire earth. For in just seven days more I am making it rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights; and I will wipe every existing thing that I have made off the surface of the ground.” And Noah proceeded to do according to all that Jehovah had commanded him. So Noah went in, and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives with him, into the ark ahead of the waters of the deluge. After that Jehovah shut the door behind him. And seven days later it turned out that the waters of the deluge came upon the earth. And the downpour upon the earth went on for forty days and forty nights. And the deluge went on for forty days upon the earth, and the waters kept increasing and began carrying the ark and it was floating high above the earth. And the waters became overwhelming and kept increasing greatly upon the earth, but the ark kept going on the surface of the waters. And the waters overwhelmed the earth so greatly that all the tall mountains that were under the whole heavens came to be covered. Up to fifteen cubits the waters overwhelmed them and the mountains became covered. Everything in which the breath of the force of life was active in its nostrils, namely, all that were on the dry ground, died. Thus he wiped out every existing thing that was on the surface of the ground, from man to beast, to moving animal and to flying creature of the heavens, and they were wiped off the earth; and only Noah and those who were with him in the ark kept on surviving.
8 So it occurred that at the end of forty days Noah proceeded to open the window of the ark that he had made. Later he sent out from him a dove to see whether the waters had abated from the surface of the ground. And the dove did not find any resting-place for the sole of its foot, and so it returned to him into the ark because the waters were yet upon the surface of the whole earth. At that he put his hand out and took it and brought it to himself inside the ark. And he went on waiting still another seven days, and once again he sent out the dove from the ark. Later on the dove came to him about the time of evening and, look! there was an olive leaf freshly plucked in its bill, and so Noah got to know that the waters had abated from the earth. And he went on waiting still another seven days. Then he sent out the dove, but it did not come back again to him anymore. And Noah proceeded to remove the covering of the ark and to look, and here the surface of the ground had drained dry. And Noah began to build an altar to Jehovah and to take some of all the clean beasts and of all the clean flying creatures and to offer burnt offerings upon the altar. And Jehovah began to smell a restful odor, and so Jehovah said in his heart: “Never again shall I call down evil upon the ground on man’s account, because the inclination of the heart of man is bad from his youth up; and never again shall I deal every living thing a blow just as I have done. For all the days the earth continues, seed sowing and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night, will never cease.”