Dellge (Fr. Deluge From Lat. Diluvium), a great flood of water covering the land; but the words "the deluge" usually designate the Noachian flood of the Scriptures. The history of this event, of its causes and immediate consequences, is contained in Genesis vi.-ix. According to the chronology of the authorized English version of the Scriptures, it occurred in the year 2349 B. C, or in the year 1656 after the creation. Traditions agreeing in a greater or less degree with the Scriptural narrative have been found among almost every known people of the earth. Among the most remarkable are the tradition of the Chaldeans, recorded by Berosus and quoted by Josephus and other writers. It agrees with the Mosaic account in representing a race of giants as inhabiting the earth before the flood, which was sent as a punishment for their wickedness. Abydenus, a later historian than Berosus, using him as authority, recounts the same tradition. He mentions the sending out of birds from the ark and their return with mud upon their feet. Both writers state that the ark still existed in the mountains of Armenia, and Abydenus says the people converted pieces of it into bracelets and amulets.

The Hindoo tradition represents the god Vishnu as warning the prince Satyavarata, and furnishing him with a large vessel in which he and seven Mshis and their wives were saved. The sacred books of the Persians also record a universal deluge sent upon mankind for the corruption introduced by Ahriman, the evil spirit. The Greeks had a similar tradition of a universal deluge, the only survivors of which were Deucalion and his wife Pyrrha. (See Deucalion.) The Chinese, the Mexicans, the Peruvians, and even the Feejee islanders have a similar tradition. But each of these traditions makes the country where it exists the scene of the deluge, and the details are always accommodated to the thoughts and habits of the people and to the physical characteristics of the country. These traditions were formerly regarded as strongly corroborating the Scriptural account, but of late years the tendency has been to consider them of minor importance. The interest in the subject has, however, been recently renewed by the discovery, by Mr. George Smith of the British museum, of several mutilated clay tablets on which is inscribed in cuneiform characters an ancient Chaldean tradition of the deluge. (See Cuneiform Inscriptions.) These tablets are unfortunately much mutilated in precisely those places where curiosity is most excited.

For example, they describe the building of a ship, but the numbers which originally stated its dimensions are wanting. The tablets were made in the time of Asshur-bani-pal, about 660 B. C., but they profess to be copies of a much older document, which Mr. Smith refers to a period not later than the 17th century B. C, and it may be of a still earlier date. The agreement between this tradition and the Scriptural history is, however, very slight. It is the tradition of a polytheistic people, and many gods are mentioned by name. The principal man in the tradition, corresponding to the Noah of Scripture, is called Sisit, the son of Ubaratutu. One of the gods warned him of the coming destruction, commanding him to build a ship and "to cause to go in the seed of life, all of it." Sisit obeyed, and took into the ship his silver, his gold, and "all he possessed of the seed of life, all his male and female servants, the beasts of the field, and the sons of the army." The flood came and increased until the seventh day, when it began to abate, and the ship rested on the side of a mountain called Nigir. After seven days more Sisit sent out a dove, which returned; then a swallow, which also returned; and lastly a raven, which fed upon the corpses floating on the water, wandered off, and did not return.

Sisit now came out of his ship, released the animals, built an altar on the peak of a mountain, and sacrificed to the gods, who collected around the sacrifice. From this point the narrative consists of a strange mythological medley, bearing no resemblance to the Scripture history. Mr. Smith says: "In spite of a striking similarity in style, which shows itself in several places, the two narratives belong to totally distinct peoples." But the interest in this tradition, which is that of a people whose history was intimately connected with that of the Hebrews, is increased by the fact that the material document itself can be seen and read, and its antiquity far surpasses that of any known record relating to the subject, the oldest manuscripts of the Scriptures being comparatively recent. - The interpretation of the Scriptural account of the deluge has been during the last and the present century a subject of much discussion by theological writers. The principal question involved, and the one which virtually includes all the others, is, Was the deluge universal? Our limits will not permit even a summary of the various arguments advanced by the numerous writers who have endeavored to answer this question.

The Bible says that "all the high hills which were under the whole heaven were covered." But the facts of astronomy, geology, and natural history are irreconcilable with the supposition of a universal deluge, unless it be accompanied with the supposition of a series of the most stupendous miracles. Accordingly, the opinion which appears to be entertained by the majority of Biblical critics is that the human race at the time of the deluge occupied but a small portion of the earth's surface, lying mostly in the basin of the Euphrates and Tigris, that the deluge was confined to that region, and that the Scriptural expression above quoted is to be taken in a limited signification. Such is the opinion of Nagelsbach in Herzog's Real-En-cyMopadie, of Dr. Edward Hitchcock in the "Biblical Repository," of Prof. Tayler Lewis in an excursus in the English translation of Lange's "Commentary on Genesis," of Mr. J. J. S. Perowne in Smith's "Dictionary of the Bible," of Dr. James Strong in the "Cyclopaedia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature," and many others.

According to Swedenborg, the narrative of a deluge in Genesis refers entirely to a deluge of evils and falsities which overwhelmed the church in ancient times, the account of which by the ancient writers was purely symbolical, and not intended to be understood literally as a deluge of water.