Noah
Most people probably thought Noah was crazy. Why would anyone build a great ship in the desert? And How about all those animals. What does he plan to do with them?
Noah and His Family
Venerated in Judaism
Christianity
Islam
Mandaeism
Druze faith
Bahá'í faith
Noah is the tenth and last of the pre-Flood patriarchs in the traditions of Abrahamic religions. His story appears in the Hebrew Bible (Book of Genesis, chapters 5–9), the Quran, and Baha'i writings. Noah is referenced in various other books of the Bible, including the New Testament, and in associated deuterocanonical books.
The Genesis flood narrative is among the best-known stories in the Bible. In this account, Noah labored faithfully to build the Ark at God's command, ultimately saving his own family and humanity itself, and all land animals from extinction during the Flood. Afterward, God made a covenant with Noah and promised never again to destroy all the Earth's creatures with a flood. Noah is also portrayed as a "tiller of the soil" and a drinker of wine.
Noah is the tenth and final pre-Flood (antediluvian - of or belonging to the time before the biblical Flood) Patriarch, son of Lamech and an unnamed mother, Noah is 500 years old before his sons Shem, Ham, and Japheth are born.
Genesis flood narrative
The Genesis flood narrative is encompassed within chapters 6–9 in the Book of Genesis in the Bible. The narrative discusses the evil of humanity that moved God to destroy the world by way of the Flood, the preparation of the Ark for certain animals, Noah, and his family, and God's guarantee (the Noahic Covenant) for the continued existence of life under the promise that he would never send another flood. The narrative indicates that God intended to return the Earth to its pre-creation state of watery chaos by flooding the Earth because of humanity's misdeeds and then remaking it using the microcosm of Noah's Ark. Thus, the Flood was no normal overflow but a reversal of Creation.
After the Flood
A 12th-Century Depiction Of Noah Sending The Dove
After the Flood, Noah offered burnt offerings to God. God accepted the sacrifice and made a covenant with Noah, and through him with all humankind, he would not waste the Earth or destroy man by another deluge.
"And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, multiply, and replenish the Earth. "As a pledge of this gracious covenant with man and the beast, the rainbow was set in the clouds (viii. 15-22, 8-17). Noah laid two injunctions: While the eating of animal food was permitted, abstinence from blood was strictly admonished; and the shedding of the blood of man by man was made a crime punishable by death at man's hands.
Noah died 350 years after the Flood, at the age of 950, the last of the extremely long-lived Antediluvianiii patriarchs. As depicted by the Bible, the maximum human lifespan gradually diminishes from almost 1,000 years to the 120 years of Moses.
Noah's drunkenness
After the Flood, the Bible says that Noah became a farmer and he planted a vineyard. He drank wine made from this vineyard and got drunk and lay "uncovered" within his tent. Noah's son Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father naked and told his brothers, which led to Ham's son Canaan being cursed by Noah.
In Jewish tradition and rabbinic literature on Noah, rabbis blame Satan for the intoxicating properties of the wine. As early as the Classical era, commentators on Genesis 9:20–21 have excused Noah's excessive drinking because he was considered the first wine drinker, the first person to discover the effects of wine. John Chrysostom, Archbishop of Constantinople, and a Church Father, wrote in the 4th century that Noah's behavior is defensible: as the first human to taste wine, he would not know its effects: "Through ignorance and inexperience of the proper amount to drink, fell into a drunken stupor." Philo, a Hellenistic Jewish philosopher, also excused Noah by noting that one can drink in two different manners: (1) to drink wine in excess, a peculiar sin to the vicious evil man, or (2) to partake of wine as the wise man, Noah being the latter.
Noah curses Ham
In the context of Noah's drunkenness, relates two facts: (1) Noah became drunken and "he was uncovered within his tent," and (2) Ham "saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brethren without."
Because of its brevity and textual inconsistencies, it has been suggested that this narrative is a "splinter from a more substantial tale." A fuller account would explain what Ham had done to his father, why Noah directed a curse at Canaan for Ham's misdeed, or how Noah knew what occurred. In biblical psychological criticism, J. H. Ellens and W. G. Rollins have analyzed the unconventional behavior between Noah and Ham as revolving around sexuality and the exposure of genitalia compared with other Hebrew Bible texts, such as Habakkuk 2:15 and Lamentations 4:21.
Other commentaries mention that "uncovering someone's nakedness" could mean having sexual intercourse with that person or that person's spouse, as quoted in Leviticus 18:7-8 and 20. From this interpretation, it can be deduced that Ham was guilty of engaging in incest and raping Noah or his mother. The latter interpretation would clarify why Canaan, as the product of this illicit union, was cursed by Noah. Alternatively, Canaan could be the perpetrator himself, as the Bible describes the illicit deed being committed by Noah's "youngest son," with Ham being consistently described as the middle son in other verses.
Family tree
Adam
Eve
Cain
Abel
Seth
Enoch
Enos
Irad
Kenan
Mehujael
Mahalalel
Methushael
Jared
Adah
Lamech
Zillah
Enoch
Jabal
Jubal
Tubal-Cain
Naamah
Methuselah
Lamech
Noah
Shem
Ham
Japheth
Narrative analysis
According to the documentary hypothesis, the first five books of the Bible (Pentateuch/Torah), including Genesis, were collated during the 5th century BC from four primary sources, dating from no earlier than the 10th century BC. The Jahwist, composed in the 10th century BC, and the Priestly source, from the late 7th century BC, make up the chapters of Genesis that concern Noah. The attempt by the 5th-century editor to accommodate two independent and sometimes conflicting sources accounts for the confusion over such matters as how many of each animal Noah took and how long the Flood lasted.
The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Books of the Bible notes that this story echoes parts of the Garden of Eden story: Noah is the first vintner (vinedresser), while Adam is the first farmer; both have problems with their products; both stories involve nakedness, and both involve a division between brothers leading to a curse. However, after the Flood, the stories differ. Noah plants the vineyard and utters the curse, not God, so "God is less involved."
Pseudepigrapha
The Book of Jubilees refers to Noah and says that he was taught the arts of healing by an angel so that his children could overcome "the offspring of the Watchers."
In 10:1–3 of the Book of Enoch (which is part of the Orthodox Tewahedo biblical canon) and canonical for Beta Israel, Uriel was dispatched by "the Most High" to inform Noah of the approaching "deluge."
Dead Sea scrolls
Genesis Apocryphon, a portion of the Dead Sea Scrolls that features Noah
There are 20 or so fragments of the Dead Sea scrolls that refer to Noah. Lawrence Schiffman writes, "Among the Dead Sea Scrolls, at least three different versions of this legend are preserved." In particular, "The Genesis Apocryphon devotes considerable space to Noah." However, "The material seems to have little in common with Genesis 5, which reports the birth of Noah." Also, Noah's father is reported as worrying that his son was fathered by one of the Watchers.
Indian and Greek flood myths also exist, although there is little evidence that they were derived from the Mesopotamian flood myth that underlies the biblical account.
Mesopotamian
The Noah story of the Pentateuch is almost identical to a flood story contained in the Mesopotamian Epic of Gilgamesh, composed c. 1800 BCE. In the Gilgamesh version, the Mesopotamian gods decide to send a great flood to destroy humanity. Various correlations between the stories of Noah and Gilgamesh (the Flood, the construction of the Ark, the salvation of animals, and the release of birds following the Flood) have led to this story being seen as the inspiration for the story of Noah. The few variations include the number of days of the Deluge, the order of the birds, and the name of the mountain on which the Ark rests. The flood story in Genesis 6–8 matches the Gilgamesh flood myth so closely that "few doubt that [it] derives from a Mesopotamian account." What is particularly noticeable is how the Genesis flood story follows the Gilgamesh flood tale "point by point and in the same order," even when the story permits other alternatives. The earliest written flood myth is found in the Mesopotamian Epic of Atrahasis and Epic of Gilgamesh texts. The Encyclopædia Britannica says, "These mythologies are the source of such features of the biblical Flood story as the building and provisioning of the ark, its flotation, and the subsidence of the waters, as well as the part played by the human character." The Encyclopedia Judaica adds that there is a strong suggestion that "an intermediate agent was active. The people most likely to have fulfilled this role are the Hurrians, whose territory included the city of Harran, where the Patriarch Abraham had his roots. The Hurrians inherited the Flood story from Babylonia".The encyclopedia mentions another similarity between the stories: Noah is the tenth patriarch and Berossus notes that "the hero of the great flood was Babylonia's tenth antediluvian king." However, there is a discrepancy in the ages of the heroes. For the Mesopotamian antecedents, "the reigns of the antediluvian kings range from 18,600 to nearly 65,000 years." In the Bible, the lifespans "fall far short of the briefest reign mentioned in the related Mesopotamian texts." Also, the name of the hero differs between the traditions: "The earliest Mesopotamian flood account, written in the Sumerian language, calls the deluge hero Ziusudra."
However, Yi Samuel Chen writes that the oldest versions of the Epic of Gilgamesh never mentioned the Flood, just mentioning that he went to talk to Utnapishtim to find the secret of immortality. Starting with the Old Babylonian Period, there were attempts to syncretize Utnapishtim with Ziusudra, even though they were previously seen as different figures. Gilgamesh meeting the flood hero was first alluded to in the Old Babylonian Period in "The Death of Bilgamesh" and eventually was imported and standardized in the Epic of Gilgamesh probably in the Middle Babylonian Period.[45]
Gilgamesh's historical reign is believed to have been approximately 2700 BC, shortly before the earliest known written stories. The discovery of artifacts associated with Aga and Enmebaragesi of Kish, two other kings named in the stories, has lent credibility to the historical existence of Gilgamesh.
Ancient Greek
Noah has often been compared to Deucalion, the son of Prometheus and Pronoia in Greek mythology. Like Noah, Deucalion is warned of the Flood (by Zeus and Poseidon); he builds an ark and staffs it with creatures – and when he completes his voyage, he gives thanks and takes advice from the gods on how to repopulate the Earth. Deucalion also sends a pigeon to find out about the world's situation, and the bird returns with an olive branch. In some versions of the myth, Deucalion also becomes the inventor of wine, like Noah. Philo and Justin equate Deucalion with Noah, and Josephus used the story of Deucalion as evidence that the Flood actually occurred and that, therefore, Noah existed. In Bahá'í's belief, only Noah's followers were spiritually alive, preserved in the Ark of his teachings, as others were spiritually dead.
RELIGIOUS VIEWS
Bahá'í Faith
The Bahá'í Faith regards the Ark and the Flood as symbolic. The Bahá'í scripture Kitáb-i-Íqán endorses the Islamic belief that Noah had a large number of companions, either 40 or 72, besides his family on the Ark and that he taught for 950 (symbolic) years before the Flood.
Christianity
2 Peter 2:5 refers to Noah as a "preacher of righteousness." In the Gospel of Matthew and the Gospel of Luke, Jesus compares Noah's Flood with the coming Day of Judgement: "Just as it was in the days of Noah, so too it will be in the days of the coming of the Son of Man. In the days before the Flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying, and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the Ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the Flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man."
In medieval Christianity, Noah's three sons were generally considered the founders of the populations of the three known continents, Japheth/Europe, Shem/Asia, and Ham/Africa, although a rarer variation held that they represented the three classes of medieval society – the priests (Shem), the warriors (Japheth), and the peasants (Ham). In medieval Christian thought, Ham was the ancestor of the people of black Africa. So, in racialist arguments, the curse of Ham became a justification for the slavery of the black races.
Gnosticism
Unlike the account of Genesis, not only are Noah's family saved, but many others also heed Noah's call. An important Gnostic text, the Apocryphon of John, reports that the chief archon caused the Flood because he desired to destroy the world he had made, but the First Thought informed Noah of the chief archon's plans, and Noah informed the remainder of humanity. There is no ark in this account. According to Elaine Pagels, "Rather, they hid in a particular place, not only Noah but also many other people from the unshakable race. They entered that place and hid in a bright cloud."
Islam
Noah is a significant figure in Islam, and he is seen as one of the most significant of all prophets. The Quran contains 43 references to Noah in 28 chapters, and the seventy-first chapter is named after him. His life is also spoken of in the commentaries and Islamic legends.
Noah's narratives primarily cover his preaching and the story of the Deluge. Noah's narrative sets the stage for many of the subsequent prophetic stories, which begin with the prophet warning his people and then the community rejecting the message and facing punishment.
Noah has several titles in Islam, based primarily on praise for him in the Quran, including "True Messenger of God" and "Grateful Servant of God."
An Islamic depiction of Noah
i the transmission of customs or beliefs from generation to generation, or the fact of being passed on.
ii one of a group or collection that shows what the whole is like. //this is just one instance of his repeated failure to do what he promised
Note -- pictures did not print in this copy
