Why not ? All of humanity was dead at the end , so how do you figure that happened then ? Jesus talked in parables . Is there any reason that some of the Genesis stories such as the creation story and the flood couldn ' t also be a parable ? I mean the general theme of Genesis 15 is the downfall of man and the creation of sin . Do I really believe snakesserpents speak and the earth was literally created in 6 days ? No . Do I believe that somewhere down the line , mankind ' s first sin was arrogance and refusal to accept God , or belief that mankind was smarter than God , brought knowledge of all sin into the world ? Yes . Then when you get into the great flood , which was basically a story of mankind ' s wickedness and God ' s wrath and promise to mankind . Do I believe the rainbow was literally created sometime around 5000 BC ? No , that wouldn ' t be possible . Do I believe that God viewed the entire world as wicked after the fall in Genesis ? Yes . Perhaps it ' s a parable to how much one single man meant to God a recurring theme in the OT . Maybe the word death is symbolic just like the story of Genesis 2 . As I said , parables are also a recurring theme so why can ' t Genesis 59 be representative of that ?