Paniym Eretz, The Face of The Earth.

Paniym Eretz is a Hebrew phrase translated in the KJV as either "The Face of The Earth", "The Face of The Whole Earth", or "The Face of all The Earth".  Greek translations of the phrase are used in Luke 21:35 and Acts 17:26.

I've read some material on a website I don't want to link to that argued Noah's Flood was just local.  And insists they are taking The Bible perfectly literally in doing so.

Now I agree entirely that the word Eretz is also translated land and is often used of more specific locations, a fact I like to point out when addressing Flat Earthers.  It's used of the Land of Israel, and the Land of Mizraim and so on.

However Genesis 1 definitely uses it of all dry land when saying God separated the land from the waters.

The Flood is described as covering the Face of The Earth in Genesis 6:7 and 7:3-4 and 8:9.  It is this expression I feel must mean the entire surface of the Earth.  And I feel I can back that up from passages I will cite later.

But this Website says the Face of The Earth must mean something more specific since Genesis 4:14 says Cain was banished from the Face of the Earth, and yet is also a fugitive and a vagabond in the Earth.  However this website contradicts it's own logic by saying the Flood can be considered "Universal" because it covered all the lands that descendants of Adam (of Genesis 2) lived in up to that time.  They specifically apply it to Mesopotamia.

Paul used it in Greece in a context where he clearly meant it to be understood that where he was counted as part of it.

Isaiah 23:17 says "And it shall come to pass after the end of seventy years, that Yahuah will visit Tyre, and she shall turn to her hire, and shall commit fornication with all the kingdoms of the world upon the face of the earth.".

Other Prophets say Israel was scattered across the Face of the Earth.

Genesis 41:56 and numerous uses of the phrase in Exodus through Deuteronomy clearly use it in a way that includes Mizraim (where ever that was) and the lands Israel wondered in for 40 years.

Genesis 11:4-8&9 utterly contradicts limiting it to Mesopotamia.

I'm kind of starting to wonder if maybe Paniym Eretz is a Hebrew equivalent of phrases like Midgard in Norse Mythology from which comes the term Middle Earth (Tolkien didn't invent it), and Ashihara no Nakatsukuni (The middle country of reed beds) in Japanese Mythology.  A term that can be viewed as technically more specific then the entirety of what "Earth" means, and yet still effectively the entire world as we know it.

This could be an expression where the context is key to the point being made.  Cain was banished from the world he knew up to that time.  But that doesn't change that the obvious intent of the Flood narrative is still that the Flood covered everything.

However there is one possible idea I can't help but flirt with.  And that is that maybe Cain was banished from the Face of our Earth, but the Land of Nod ("Land" in that phrase is also Eretz) is another planet?  It's described as "east" of Eden, but is a specific fairly rare form of the word for east, qidmah.  Remember the Sun, Moon and Stars rise in the East and set in the West.  And the Hebrew words for East are also sometimes translated things like before and ancient.

That's a bit of a stretch I admit.  But I've already argued for other cases of The Bible possibly alluding to humans traveling to outer Space.