Today I will summarise some of the arguments that have been put forward for a local flood.
1) Psalm 104:9 seems to imply that having separated the waters to form dry land God set a permanent boundary for them "not to again cover the earth".
2) The English phrases "whole land" or "whole earth" translate the Hebrew "kol erets" which doesn't necessarily mean whole world (see Gen 2:11-13 "entire land of Cush"). "Whole earth" can mean "all people" (Gen 18:25 "the judge of the whole earth", also Josh 23:14, Chron 16:23, Psalm 66:4, 1 Kings 10:24) and in fact usually refers to a local geography (Gen 13:9 Abram to Lot "is not the whole land before you", also Gen 41:56-57, Lev 25:9, 2 Sam 24:8, 1 Kings 10:24, ). In Gen 8:9 "water was on the surface of all the earth" but "the tops of mountains" where visible so "all the earth" refers to the local region.
3) The Hebrew word literally meaning "whole earth" "tebel" (Strong's H8398) could have been used but isn't.
4) The Greek world "kosmos" that is used to translate the Hebrew in LXX can also mean the known world rather than the entire planet.
4) Peter talks about "the world at that time" (2 Peter 3:5-7) or "the world that then existed" which could refer to the known world.
5) The biblical context is local. Gen 1-9 only mentions place names from Mesopotamia. From 10 onwards we get references to much of the eastern hemisphere.
6) The Hebrew word "kasah" which is often translated "covered" can mean "residing upon", "running over", or "falling upon". So there could have been 20 feet of flood waters above the mountains, or 20 feet of flood waters could have poured over the mountains, or have rained on the mountains.
Gen 7:19-20 And the waters prevailed so mightily on the earth that all the high mountains under the whole heaven were covered. The waters prevailed above the mountains, covering them fifteen cubits deep (20 feet) . (ESV)
7) The phrase "all the high maintains" in Gen 7:19 translates the Hebrew "kol heharim hugebohim" where "Har" (Strong's 2022) can be a massive mountain or a humble hill and "gaboah" can be high and exalted or merely elevated and lifted up.
8) What's the point of a wind blowing the water if it has nowhere to go. In a local flood the wind could help encourage the water in a particular direction.
9) The ark came to rest on the "mountains of Ararat" not necessarily the mountain of Ararat which is 16,946 feet above sea level. The ark could therefore have come to rest anywhere in this region which includes foot hills.
10) Gen 7:11-12 says "all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened. And rain fell upon the earth forty days and forty nights" (ESV). So the water came from the earth and the heavens and when it "subsided" or "abated" the meaning seems to be that it returned to its original place or condition (Gen 8:1-3). To cover Mount Everest which is 29,029 feet above sea level, you would need 4.5 times the amount of the water we have today. Of course God could speak that into being but that would require another massive creation proclamation of the form "let there be four times more water than before".
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