Humankind's Wickedness: Genesis 6.1-6.8
All those humans with the task of populating the earth begin to have daughters. This is good for fulfilling the whole "be fruitful and multiply" (Gen. 1.28) blessing, except that the "sons of God" are equally as attracted to these young ladies as the human men. The "sons of God" are presumably member's of God's divine court/entourage/bureaucracy, and it's not good that they are taking wives for themselves when human women are reserved for human men. It's not kosher to mix mundane and divine, so God decides that humans will have a maximum life span of 120 years.
The offspring of humans and the "sons of God" are called Nepilim, "the heroes that were of old, warriors of renown" (Gen. 6.4). Does this sound Greek to anyone else?
People are becoming wicked. Some pseudepigraphic sources suggests this is because the "sons of God," (alternately called "the Watchers" in 1 Enoch) brought knowledge with them to Earth, in a sort of Promethean story. The Lord is so grieved at the sins of humanity that he decides to destroy all life on earth: people, animals, and birds. Well, actually, the sea creatures will still be alive. And Noah, who "found favor in the sight of the Lord" (Gen. 6.8).
Reconstructing the Noah Narratives: Genesis 6.9-9.29
Just as there are two accounts of creation, there are two accounts of the Noah narrative, a J source (Yahwist) and a P source (Priestly). Unlike the creation narrative, which provides two consecutive accounts of creation, the Noah narrative mixes the two stories. Here I will reconstruct the original narratives so that comparisons may easily be made between the two. Check out the passage on oremus Bible Browser by clicking on the passage above or link at the top of this post.
(Gen 6.9-10)
Just like his great grandfather, Enoch, Noah "walked with God." He is righteous and "blameless in his generation" (Gen. 6.9). He has three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
Priestly Narrative
(Gen. 6.11-22)
Seeing the earth is corrupt, God tells Noah that he is going to end all life except for Noah, his family, and some animals. God commands noah to make an ark of cypress, sealed with pitch. It is to measure 300 cubits long by 50 cubits wide by 30 cubits high (in feet about 450' by 75' by 45'). The ark will be covered by a roof and contain three decks, with a door on the side.
God will "bring a flood of waters on the earth" to destroy all life (Gen. 6.17). But with Noah he will establish a covenant. Noah, his sons, his wife, and his son's wives (listed in biblical order of importance) will be saved if they enter the ark. In addition, Noah is to bring two of every animal and bird onto the ark, as well as plenty of food.
(Gen. 7.6)
Noah was 600 years old when the flood occurred.
(Gen. 7.11)
"In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened." In this account God undoes his work on the second day of creation, when he separated the waters above from the waters below. It is a return to the primordial chaos.
(Gen. 7.13-16a)
Noah's party enters the ark, along with the animals, "two and two of all flesh in which there was the breath of life."
(Gen. 7.18-22)
The waters swell, covering mountains fifteen cubits deep. "Everything on dry land in whose nostrils was the breath of life died."
(Gen. 7.24-8.5)
In another echo of the Priestly account of creation, God makes a wind blow over the earth so that the waters subside. The fountains of the deep and windows of heaven are closed and the waters begin to recede. After one hundred fifty days the waters have abated, "and in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the ark came to rest on on the mountains of Ararat." (Located in modern day Turkish Kurdistan). On the first day of the tenth month, the tops of mountains appear.
(Gen. 8.13-19)
"In the six hundred first year, in the first month, on the first day of the month, the waters were dried up from the earth." Noah peeks outside, sees that the ground is drying, and waits until the earth is fully dry on the twenty-seventh day of the second month.
God tells Noah to exit the ark: "you and your wife, and your sons and your sons' wives with you." In doing so the established order of personages, with an emphasis on men and elders, is upset.
It has been a long time on the ark; the Priestly author has the animals exiting "by families."
(Gen. 9.1-17)
God blesses Noah and his sons, telling them to "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth." But things are different now. Animals will be afraid of humans, and represent a new food source. Anything is fair game, but an early form of kosher law is established: humans cannot eat flesh with blood in it. God justifies it thus:
For your own lifeblood I will surely require a reckoning: from every animal I will require it and from human beings, each one for the blood of another, I will require a reckoning for human life.
Whoever sheds the blood if a human, by a human shall that person's blood be shed;
for in his own image God made humankind.
And you, be fruitful and multiply, abound on the earth and multiply in it.
God then establishes the first covenant with all flesh upon the earth - Noah and his ancestors as well as all the animals. The terms of the covenant: never again will God destroy all life in a flood; never again will a flood destroy the earth. The sign of the covenant: a rainbow.
(Gen. 9.28-29)
Noah lives three hundred fifty years after the flood. He was nine hundred fifty years old at the time of his death.
Yahwist Narrative
(Gen. 7.1-5)
The Lord tells Noah to enter the ark with his household, for he alone is righteous in his generation. Noah is to take with him seven pairs of all clean animals, a pair of all animals that are not clean, and seven pairs of all birds.
God promises that in seven days he will send rains that will last forty days and forty nights.
(Gen. 7.7-10)
Noah and his sons and wife and son's wives enter the ark, along with clean and unclean animals, and birds. These creatures, "two and two, male and female, went into the ark with Noah." After seven days the flood begins.
(Gen. 7.12)
"The rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights." It is not an undoing of creation, but simply a very lengthy and lethal storm.
(Gen. 7.16b-17)
The Lord shuts Noah in. The flood continues for forty days. The waters increase, and the ark is born high above the earth.
(Gen. 7.23)
Every living thing is blotted out from the earth. Only the party within the ark is left.
(Gen. 8.6-12)
After forty days pass, Noah sends out a raven that flies about until the waters have dried up. Then he sends out a dove. The dove finds no place to land, and returns to the ark. After seven days Noah tries again with the dove. In the evening the dove returns with an olive leaf - indicating that the waters have subsided. After another seven days, Noah sends the dove out again. It does not return.
(Gen. 8.20-22)
Noah builds an altar to the Lord, and makes offering of every clean animal and bird. This is possibly because in the Yahwist narrative he brings seven of all the clean animals. Such action presumably would not be possible in the Priestly narrative.
The smell of the sacrifice pleases the Lord such that he says to himself:
I will never again curse the ground because of humankind, for the inclination of the human heart is evil form youth; nor will I ever again destroy every living creature as I have done.
As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat,
summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.
(Gen. 9.18-27)
Shem, Ham, and Japheth exit the ark.
Perhaps in celebration of surviving the worst storm in human history, Noah plants a vineyard, makes some wine, and gets drunk. He passes out naked in his tent and Ham (who the author is eager to indicate is the father of Canaan), sees his father naked and tells his brothers. Shem and Japheth, being very reasonable men, put a blanket on their shoulders, walk backwards into the tent, and cover their father without every seeing him naked or making a fuss about it.
When Noah wakes up he knows what Ham has done and curses not Ham, but Ham's son Canaan: "Cursed be Canaan; lowest of slaves shall he be to his brothers." He then blesses Shem and Japheth for their honorable actions.
Why curse Canaan? Because he is the forebear of the Canaanites, enemy of the Israelites and anyone else this story was being told to.
Genealogy of Noah: Genesis 10.1-10.32
You know what would make this a lot easier? A family tree. Thanks to the magic of FreeMind, such a representation is possible! Today's genealogy is denoted by burgundy text in a gray cloud.
Many of the names do not represent people so much as peoples. These are the ancestors who gave their names to the groups of people inhabiting the world.
Tomorrow: speaking in tongues and more genealogy.
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