Does the Bible say that there was once a Pangea / Pangaea?

Answer

Pangaea is the concept that all of the land masses of the Earth were once connected as one giant supercontinent. On a world map, some continents appear as if they could fit together like large puzzle pieces (for example, Africa and South America). Does the Bible mention Pangaea? Not explicitly, but potentially. Genesis 1:9 records, “And God said, ‘Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear.’ And it was so.” Presumably, if all the water was “gathered to one place,” the dry ground would also be “in one place.” Genesis 10:25 mentions, “…one was named Peleg, because in his time the Earth was divided…” Some point to Genesis 10:25 as evidence that the Earth was divided after Noah’s Flood.

While this view is plausible, it is not universally accepted by Christians. Some interpret Genesis 10:25 as referring to the “division” that occurred at the Tower of Babel, not the separation of continents through “continental drift.” Some also question the post-Noahic Pangaea separation due to the current rates of drift, suggesting that the continents could not have drifted so far apart in the time since Noah’s Flood. However, it cannot be proven that the continents have always drifted at the same rate. Additionally, God is capable of expediting the continental drift process to achieve His goal of separating humanity «So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the Earth: and they left off to build the city. », (Genesis 11:8). Nevertheless, the Bible does not explicitly mention Pangaea or definitively state when Pangaea was separated.

The post-Noahic Pangaea concept potentially explains how animals and humans were able to migrate to different continents. How did kangaroos reach Australia after the Flood?Good if the continents were already separated? Young-earth creationist alternatives to the standard continental drift theory include the Catastrophist Plate Tectonics Theory and the Hydroplate Theory, both of which place accelerated continental drift within the cataclysmic context of Noah’s Flood.

However, there is another explanation offered by Christian scientists that does not require a post-Noahic Pangea. According to this view, intercontinental migration most likely began while sea levels were still low during and immediately following the post-Flood Ice Age when much of the water was still trapped in ice at the poles. Lower sea levels would have left the continental shelves exposed, connecting all of the major land masses through land bridges.

There are (or at least were) shallow underwater land bridges connecting all of the major continents. North America, Southeast Asia, and Australia are all attached to continental Asia. Britain is attached to continental Europe. In some places, these intercontinental bridges are only a few hundred feet below our current sea level. The theory can be summarized as follows: (1) After the Flood, an Ice Age occurred. (2) The vast amount of water that was frozen resulted in the oceans being much lower than they are today. (3) The low level of the oceans resulted in land bridges connecting the various continents. (4) Human beings and animals migrated to the different continents over these land bridges. (5) The Ice Age ended, the ice melted, and the ocean levels rose, resulting in the land bridges being submerged.

So, while Pangea is not explicitly mentioned in the Bible, the Bible does present the possibility of a Pangea. Whatever the case, either view presented above provides a viable explanation for how humanity and animals were able to migrate to continents now separated by vast oceans.

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