Blotting Out: From Flood to Forgiveness - Episode 164
This week we’re back in the Flood narrative—but we zoom out to follow one biblical metaphor across the whole storyline: “blotting out.” This is a frame-semantics-heavy episode where we build what I’m calling the erasure frame and track how the meaning shifts depending on what is erased and where it’s erased from.
In this episode
- Why “blotting out” isn’t a single idea—the object + the medium control the meaning.
- The five frame elements I use to map each passage: agent, object, medium, resultant state, moral logic.
- “Blotting out” in the Flood: erasure as judgment (and possibly purification).
- A concrete “prototype” scene: Numbers 5 (curses written, washed off, and ingested)—erasure as judicial cleansing.
- Erasing a place (Jerusalem “wiped like a dish”) and what that could imply beyond simple demolition.
- Erasing a name (legacy/standing)—more than physical death: social memory and generational continuity.
- Erasing from a book/record (Exodus 32): what it might mean to be “blotted out,” and why that doesn’t automatically equal annihilation.
- The major turn: erasing sins instead of erasing sinners—blotting out as forgiveness and covenant restoration.
- The far horizon: wiping away tears—erasure as comfort, healing, and new-creation restoration.
- Contrast frame: remembering in Scripture isn’t “God recalling facts”—it’s covenant action (deliverance, preservation, inclusion).
Scripture and passages referenced
Genesis 6–8; Numbers 5; 2 Kings 21:13; Deuteronomy 29:20; Exodus 32:32–33; Isaiah 43:25; Isaiah 44:22; Isaiah 25:8; Jeremiah 31:34; Luke 23:42–43; Leviticus 2:2; Numbers 10:10; Joshua 4:6–7; Exodus 12.
Notes
- Don’t forget to check out the earlier discussion on "blotting out" in Episode 077
- Study guide notes: I’ll be building a companion resource to go with this “deep frame semantics” episode (check back later!)
On This Rock Biblical Theology Community: https://on-this-rock.com/
Website: genesismarksthespot.com
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/GenesisMarkstheSpot
Music credit: "Marble Machine" by Wintergatan
Link to Wintergatan’s website: https://wintergatan.net/
Link to the original Marble Machine video by Wintergatan: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvUU8joBb1Q&ab_channel=Wintergatan
00:00 - Frame semantics without worksheets
07:29 - “Blotting out” & “cut off”: not automatically a death sentence
11:19 - Introducing the Erasure Frame: object + medium control meaning
13:10 - 5 frame elements: agent, object, medium, result, moral logic
15:11 - Genesis 6: erasing life from the land
16:04 - Numbers 5 prototype: written curses blotted out
21:23 - 2 Kings 21: blotting out a place
24:55 - Deuteronomy 29: blotting out a name
28:12 - Exodus 32: blotting out from God’s scroll
33:44 - Substitution: the golden calf
36:14 - Isaiah 43/44: sins blotted out
40:14 - Wiping away tears: comfort, healing, restoration
48:23 - Contrast frame: “remembering” as covenant action
52:32 - Book of Life + resurrection?
54:19 - Memorial rituals: remembering as embodied in worship
