4.1.2 Gen. 6, 5-8: The Prologue Before the Flood

Numerous non-Jewish peoples know the flood story with partly astonishing correspondences with the biblical story across the  continents of the world. Delitzsch uses this frequent occurrence  emphatically as proof of the historicity of the Flood story against an  interpretation as myth. 

Verses 5 – 8 are generally understood as the first coherent text of the  editorial-historical composition of J. Quite possibly. They state a steady  increase of sin from Adam and Eve to the generation of Noah. With 6, 9  the ʺחולדוחʺ (toledoth: genealogy) of Noah are announced in a separate  heading.