Question:,How long would it take for an olive tree that was under water for more than a year to form leaves once the water receded? The scriptures seem to say in a 7-day period the tree went from being underwater (the dove had no place to set his feet) to leaf producing. When looking at the scripture on the flood, even if it was a universal flood, would we be required to assume mount Everest was covered to the top? From the ancient writer’s point of view couldn’t “all the high mountains” refer to those in his geographical area?,Answer:,Two things. First, the Bible does not say the tree bloomed seven days after the tree went from being covered with water. What we can assume, if we take the flood account literally is that this particular tree became uncovered some time during the 150 days (not more than a year as you imply, by the way) since the flood, but before the dove came to the tree. We know that a dove had flown around seven days earlier and not found dry ground, but that certainly does not mean that there was no dry ground anywhere. All it means is that the dove did not discover any. We do not know how long the olive tree the dove found was above water when it was found by the bird.,Second, there is no reason to believe that the olive tree needed to put out new leaves. I am no expert on olive trees. I am not convinced that olive trees immersed in water will lose their leaves. It seems entirely possible that trees immersed in water will retain their leaves for many weeks.,It is my opinion that Mt Everest was not covered during the flood. I believe the flood was worldwide, but the exact meaning of the statement that the mountains were covered by 20 feet of water is ambiguous, to say the least. Does that mean that there were 29,346 + 20 feet of water? I REALLY doubt this interpretation. How deep was the water? Was there about 20 feet of rain everywhere on the earth, making this a world wide effect, but not literally covering every single mountain to 20 feet? Very possibly. I do not see how this is an important distinction. The point of the story of the flood is not the details but the big picture, which is that, due to the overwhelming sinful state of mankind, God judged the world with a world-wide flood which killed many or likely most people on the earth, but from which Noah and his family were saved because of Noah’s faith in God.,John Oakes, PhD