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118-569: Eber (Hebrew: Ever) was a great-grandson of Noah 's son Shem and the father of Peleg , born when Eber was 34 years old, and of Joktan . He was the son of Shelah , a distant ancestor of Abraham . According to the Hebrew Bible , Eber died at the age of 464. In the Septuagint , the name is written as Heber/Eber ( ῞Εβερ/Ἔβερ ), and his father is called Sala ( Σαλά/Σάλα ). His son is called Phaleg/Phalek ( Φαλέγ/Φάλεκ ), born when Heber

236-469: A tzadik like Abraham , he would not be considered so righteous. They point out that Noah did not pray to God on behalf of those about to be destroyed, as Abraham prayed for the wicked of Sodom and Gomorrah . In fact, Noah is never seen to speak; he simply listens to God and acts on his orders. This led some commentators to offer the figure of Noah as "the righteous man in a fur coat," who ensured his own comfort while ignoring his neighbour. Others, such as

354-598: A Mesopotamian account." What is particularly noticeable is the way 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

472-611: A complete story-line, with introductions and conclusions, reasons for the flood, and theologies. Scholars believe that the flood myth originated in Mesopotamia during the Old Babylonian Period (c. 1880–1595 BCE) and reached Syro-Palestine in the latter half of the 2nd millennium BCE. Extant texts show three distinct versions, the Sumerian Epic of Ziusudra , (the oldest, found in very fragmentary form on

590-513: A heterogeneous group of writers from the early 19th century, most of whom lacked any background in geology and also lacked influence even in religious circles. The geologic views of these writers were ignored by the scientific community of their time. Flood geology was largely ignored in the 19th century, but was revived in the 20th century by the Seventh-day Adventist George McCready Price , who

708-544: A mere human messenger and not an angel ( 10:72-74 ). Moreover, the people mock Noah's words and call him a liar ( 7:62 ), and they even suggest that Noah is possessed by a devil when the prophet ceases to preach ( 54:9 ). Only the lowest of classes in the community join Noah in believing in God's message ( 11:29 ), and Noah's narrative further describes him preaching both in private and public. The Quran narrates that Noah received

826-599: A mere week to recede in order to provide Noah his stage for God's covenant. It is the Priestly source which adds more fantastic figures of a 150-day flood, which emerged by divine hand from the heavens and earth and took ten months to finally stop. That the Jahwist source's capricious and somewhat simplistic depiction of Yahweh is clearly distinguished from the Priestly source's characteristically majestic, transcendental, and austere virtuous Yahweh. The Priestly flood narrative

944-453: A more precise figure for the age of the Earth. Lux Mundi , an 1889 volume of theological essays which marks a stage in the acceptance of a more critical approach to scripture, took the stance that readers should rely on the gospels as completely historical, but should not take the earlier chapters of Genesis literally. By a variety of independent means, scientists have since determined that

1062-532: A new era of prosperity, when there was an easing (in Hebrew, naħah נחה) of the curse from Adam's time, when the Earth produced thorns and thistles even where men sowed wheat. It is said that Noah introduced the plow, symbolizing this relief. According to the Jewish Encyclopedia , "The Book of Genesis contains two accounts of Noah." In the first, Noah is the hero of the flood, and in the second, he

1180-446: A pigeon to find out about the situation of the world and the bird returns with an olive branch. Deucalion, in some versions of the myth, 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. Genesis flood narrative The Genesis flood narrative (chapters 6–9 of

1298-623: A pre-flood tradition. Chen provides evidence that the sections of the Sumerian King List that mention references to the flood were all later additions added during the Old Babylonian Period through later updates and edits. The Flood as a watershed in early history of the world was probably a new historiographical concept emerging in the Mesopotamian literary traditions during the Old Babylonian Period, as evident by

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1416-556: A revelation to build an Ark , after his people refused to believe in his message and hear the warning. The narrative goes on to describe that waters poured forth from both the earth and the Heavens, destroying all the sinners. Even one of his sons disbelieved him, stayed behind, and was drowned. After the Flood ended, the Ark rested atop Mount Judi (Quran 11:44 ). Also, Islamic beliefs deny

1534-510: A single tablet dating from about 1600 BCE, although the story itself is older), and as episodes in two Akkadian language epics, the Atrahasis and the Epic of Gilgamesh . The name of the hero, according to the version concerned, was Ziusudra, Atrahasis, or Utnapishtim , all of which are variations of each other, and it is just possible that an abbreviation of Utnapishtim/Utna'ishtim as "na'ish"

1652-462: A story noting that the patriarch Eber, the great-grandson of Shem , refused to help with the building of the Tower of Babel . As a result, his language was not confused when the tower was abandoned. He and his family alone retained the original Adamic language , which he identified as Hebrew , a language named after ʿEber. ʿEber is sometimes referred to in classical Islamic writings as the "father" of

1770-411: A unique version of the Mesopotamian flood story. Line 1 of the text says "At the start of the time of the disappearance of the moon, at the beginning of the month". This reference to the lunar date giving the specific date the protagonist released the bird is significant as it is the only variant of the flood story giving a specific date and the rest do not attribute specific dates or calendrical details to

1888-516: Is a pseudoscientific attempt to argue that such a global flood actually occurred. Some Christians have preferred to interpret the narrative as describing a local flood instead of a global event. Still others prefer to interpret the narrative as allegorical rather than historical. The story of the flood occurs in chapters 6–9 of the Book of Genesis, the first book of the Bible. Ten generations after

2006-413: Is a "splinter from a more substantial tale". A fuller account would explain what exactly Ham had done to his father, or why Noah directed a curse at Canaan for Ham's misdeed, or how Noah realised what had occurred. In the field of psychological biblical criticism , J. H. Ellens and W. G. Rollins have analysed the unconventional behavior that occurs between Noah and Ham as revolving around sexuality and

2124-576: Is also spoken of in the commentaries and in Islamic legends. Noah's narratives largely cover his preaching as well the story of the Deluge . Noah's narrative sets the prototype for many of the subsequent prophetic stories, which begin with the prophet warning his people and then the community rejecting the message and facing a punishment. Noah has several titles in Islam, based primarily on praise for him in

2242-494: 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. The earliest Sumerian Gilgamesh poems date from as early as the Third dynasty of Ur (2100–2000 BC). One of these poems mentions Gilgamesh’s journey to meet

2360-464: Is considered an important prophet of God among Druze, being among the seven prophets who appeared in different periods of history. Noah is a highly important figure in Islam and he is seen as one of the most significant of all prophets . The Quran contains 43 references to Noah, or Nuḥ , in 28 chapters, and the seventy-first chapter, Sūrah Nūḥ ( Arabic : سورة نوح ), is named after him. His life

2478-429: Is evidenced in the doublets (i.e., repetitions) contained within the final story. Many of these are contradictory, such as how long the flood lasted (40 days according to Genesis 7:17 , 150 according to 7:24 ), how many animals were to be taken aboard the ark (one pair of each in 6:19 , one pair of the unclean animals and seven pairs of the clean in 7:2 ), and whether Noah released a raven which "went to and fro until

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2596-482: Is less involved". In addition to the main story in Genesis, the Hebrew Bible (Christian Old Testament ) also refers to Noah in the First Book of Chronicles , Isaiah and Ezekiel . References in the deuterocanonical books include the books of Tobit , Wisdom , Sirach , 2 Esdras and 4 Maccabees . New Testament references include the gospels of Matthew and Luke , and some of the epistles ( Epistle to

2714-459: Is named as Nuraita ( Classical Mandaic : ࡍࡅࡓࡀࡉࡕࡀ ), while his son is named as Shum (i.e., Shem ; [ࡔࡅࡌ] Error: {{Langx}}: invalid parameter: |transl= ( help ) ). 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

2832-402: 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." The Druze regard Noah as the second spokesman ( natiq ) after Adam , who helped transmit the foundational teachings of monotheism ( tawhid ) intended for the larger audience. He

2950-560: Is referred to once as Heber/Eber ( Luke 3 :35, " Biblical Greek : Ἔβερ ] the son of Serug , the son of Reu , the son of Peleg, the son of Heber, the son of Selah ") but should not be confused with Ḥeber , the grandson of Asher , who is mentioned in Genesis 46 :17 and in Numbers 26 :45, as their names are distinct in Hebrew; Ḥeber is חבר with a heth while ʿEber has an ayin . The 13th-century Muslim historian Abu al-Fida relates

3068-485: Is that Genesis was composed around the 5th century BCE, but as the first eleven chapters show little relationship to the rest of the book, some scholars believe that this section (the so-called primeval history ) may have been composed as late as the 3rd century BCE. It is generally agreed that the history draws on two sources, one called the Priestly source , the other non-Priestly or Yahwist , and their interweaving

3186-428: Is the father of mankind and a husbandman who planted the first vineyard. "The disparity of character between these two narratives has caused some critics to insist that the subject of the latter account was not the same as the subject of the former." The Encyclopedia Judaica notes that Noah's drunkenness is not presented as reprehensible behavior. Rather, "It is clear that ... Noah’s venture into viticulture provides

3304-454: Is the only Priestly text that covers dates with much detail before the Exodus narrative . This is perhaps due to a version of the flood myth that was available at the time. There is a text discovered from Ugarit known as RS 94.2953, consisting of fourteen lines telling a first-person account of how Ea appeared to the story's protagonist and commanded him to use tools to make a window ( aptu ) at

3422-530: The Ahmadiyya understanding of the Quran, the period described in the Quran is the age of his dispensation , which extended until the time of Ibrahim (Abraham, 950 years). The first 50 years were the years of spiritual progress, which were followed by 900 years of spiritual deterioration of the people of Noah. Indian and Greek flood-myths also exist, although there is little evidence that they were derived from

3540-543: The Anglican rite of baptism, which asks God, "who of thy great mercy didst save Noah," to receive into the Church the infant about to be baptised. In medieval Christianity , Noah's three sons were generally considered as 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 –

3658-535: The Ark at God 's command, ultimately saving not only his own family, but mankind itself and all land animals, from extinction during the Flood . Afterwards, God makes a covenant with Noah and promises never again to destroy the earth with a flood. Noah is also portrayed as a "tiller of the soil" who is the first to cultivate the vine. After the flood, God commands Noah and his sons to "be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish

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3776-507: The Bible . 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 remake it using the microcosm of Noah's ark . Thus, the flood was no ordinary overflow but a reversal of Creation . The narrative discusses the evil of mankind that moved God to destroy the world by way of the flood,

3894-533: The Black Sea deluge hypothesis may elaborate on the historicity of the flood narrative. Localized catastrophic floodings have left traces in the geological record: the Channeled Scablands in the southeastern areas of the state of Washington have been demonstrated to have been formed by a series of catastrophic floods originating from the collapse of glacial dams of glacial lakes in the region,

4012-469: The Book of Genesis ) is a Hebrew flood myth . It tells of God's decision to return the universe to its pre- creation state of watery chaos and remake it through the microcosm of Noah's ark . The Book of Genesis was probably composed around the 5th century BCE, although some scholars believe that primeval history (chapters 1–11), including the flood narrative, may have been composed and added as late as

4130-441: The Epic of Gilgamesh , where at the end of rain "all of mankind had returned to clay," the substance of which they had been made.) The Ark itself is likewise a microcosm of Solomon's Temple . In Jewish folklore , the sins in the antediluvian world included blasphemy, occult practices and preventing new traders from making profit. Children also had the ability to talk and walk immediately after birth and battle with demons. When

4248-651: The Peshitta New Testament, such as Matthew 24 :38 and Luke 17 :27). The story of Noah and the Great Flood is related in the Qur'an in the surah Nūḥ . Academic scholars and researchers consider the story in its present form to be exaggerated and/or implausible. The story of the Deluge describes either a severe genetic bottleneck event or the origins of a founder effect among the descendants of

4366-903: 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". There are 20 or so fragments of the Dead Sea scrolls that appear to 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

4484-617: The biblical chronology , which placed the Creation and the flood no more than a few thousand years back in history. In 1823 the English theologian and natural scientist William Buckland interpreted geological phenomena as Reliquiæ Diluvianæ (relics of the flood) "Attesting the Action of an Universal Deluge". His views were supported by others at the time, including the influential geologist Adam Sedgwick , but by 1830 Sedgwick considered that

4602-445: The scientific consensus that they believe contradict their interpretation of religious texts was first established by the publication of the 1961 book, The Genesis Flood . Most scientific fields, particularly those contradicted by flood geology, rely on Charles Lyell 's established principle of uniformitarianism , which for much of their history was seen to contrast with the catastrophism inherent in flood geology. However, with

4720-653: The "prehistoric, original Arabs" (the ʿArab al-ʿĀriba ), who lived in the Arabian Peninsula after the Deluge . ʿEber was also identified with the Muslim prophet Hud by some of the early Muslim authorities, who has a surah named after him in the Quran . Other sources identify the prophet Hud as ʿEber's son. Noah Noah ( / ˈ n oʊ . ə / ; Hebrew : נחַ , romanized :  Nōaḥ , lit.   'rest' or 'consolation') appears as

4838-417: The "waters above" and the "waters below" the earth is removed, the dry land is flooded, most life is destroyed, and only Noah and those with him survive to obey God's command to "be fruitful and multiply." The flood is a reversal and renewal of God's creation of the world. In Genesis 1 God separates the "waters above the earth" from those below so that dry land can appear as a home for living things, but in

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4956-494: The 10th century BC. Two of these, the Jahwist , composed in the 10th century BC, and the Priestly source , from the late 7th century BC, make up the chapters of Genesis which 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

5074-462: The 17th day of the second month, Marcheshvan , when "the springs of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened", and after 40 days the ark floats (Genesis 7:11–12). The waters rise and then recede, and on the 17th day of the seventh month (or the 27th day in the Greek version) the ark rests on the mountains (Genesis 8:4). The waters continue to fall, the ark is uncovered on

5192-530: The 1st day of the 1st month of Noah's 601st year, and is opened on the 27th day of his 601st year (Genesis 8:13–14). The period from the beginning of the flood to the landing on the mountain is five months (the second month to the seventh, Genesis 7:11 and 8:4) and 150 days (8:3), making an impossible five months of 30 days each; the number is schematic, and is based on the Babylonian astronomical calendar of 360 days (12 months of 30 days each). This means that

5310-425: The 3rd century BCE. It draws on two sources, called the Priestly source and the non-Priestly or Yahwist , and although many of its details are contradictory, the story forms a unified whole. A global flood as described in this myth is inconsistent with the physical findings of geology , archeology , paleontology , and the global distribution of species . A branch of creationism known as flood geology

5428-428: 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

5546-598: The Archons, revealing to Norea that she is a divine child of the great spirit . A different view is found in the Secret Book of John ; instead of an ark, Noah hides in a bright cloud. Mandaeism teaches that the flood of Noah was the last of three events where the world's population was reduced to a single family. Thirty generations after Adam, most of the population was killed by pestilence and war, leaving only Ram and his wife Rud. Twenty-five generations later, most of

5664-409: The Ark and the Flood as symbolic. In Baháʼí belief, only Noah's followers were spiritually alive, preserved in the ark of his teachings, as others were spiritually dead. The Baháʼí 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. According to

5782-569: The Ark came to be compared to the Church : salvation was to be found only within Christ and his Lordship, as in Noah's time it had been found only within the Ark. St Augustine of Hippo (354–430), demonstrated in The City of God that the dimensions of the Ark corresponded to the dimensions of the human body, which corresponds to the body of Christ ; the equation of Ark and Church is still found in

5900-466: The Ark in his six hundredth year [of life], and on the 17th day of the second month of that year "the fountains of the Great Deep burst apart and the floodgates of heaven broke open" and rain fell for forty days and forty nights until the highest mountains were covered to a depth of 15 cubits , and all life perished except Noah and those with him in the Ark. After 150 days, "God remembered Noah ... and

6018-555: The Bible ). Jesus and the apostles additionally taught on the Genesis flood narrative in New Testament writing ( Matthew 24:37–39 , Luke 17:26–27 , 1 Peter 3:20 , 2 Peter 2:5 , 2 Peter 3:6 , Hebrews 11:7 ). Some Christian biblical scholars suggest that the flood is a picture of salvation in Christ —the Ark was planned by God and there is only one way of salvation through the door of the Ark, akin to one way of salvation through Christ. Additionally, some scholars commenting on

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6136-510: 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

6254-509: The Books of the Bible notes that this story echoes parts of the Garden of Eden story: Noah is the first vintner, while Adam is the first farmer; both have problems with their produce; both stories involve nakedness; and both involve a division between brothers leading to a curse. However, after the flood, the stories differ. It is Noah, not God, who plants the vineyard and utters the curse, so "God

6372-474: The Earth is approximately 4.54 billion years old . Flood geology (a pseudoscience which contradicts a number of principles and discoveries of fact in the fields of geology, stratigraphy, geophysics, physics, paleontology, biology, anthropology, and archaeology in an attempt to interpret and reconcile geological features on Earth in accordance with a literal understanding of the Genesis flood narrative) can be traced to " Scriptural geologists ,"

6490-424: The Greek hero Deucalion , who, like Noah, is warned of a flood, builds an ark, and sends a bird to check on the flood's aftermath. Tenth and final of the pre-Flood ( antediluvian ) Patriarchs, son to Lamech and a mother whose name is unmentioned, Noah is 500 years old before his sons Shem , Ham and Japheth are born. The Genesis flood narrative is encompassed within chapters 6–9 in the Book of Genesis , in

6608-596: The Hebrews , 1 Peter and 2 Peter ). Noah became the subject of much elaboration in the literature of later Abrahamic religions, including Islam ( Surahs 71 , 7 , 11 , 54 , and 21 of the Quran) and the Baháʼí Faith ( Kitáb-i-Íqán and Gems of Divine Mysteries ). 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

6726-601: The Mesopotamian flood-myth that underlies the biblical account. The Noah story of the Pentateuch is quite similar 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 mankind. Various correlations between the stories of Noah and Gilgamesh (the flood, the construction of

6844-531: 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

6962-417: The Quran, including "Trustworthy Messenger of God" ( 26:107 ) and "Grateful Servant of God" ( 17:3 ). The Quran focuses on several instances from Noah's life more than others, and one of the most significant events is the Flood. God makes a covenant with Noah just as he did with Abraham, Moses , Jesus and Muhammad later on ( 33:7 ). Noah is later reviled by his people and reproached by them for being

7080-533: The Zemarites, and the Hamathites ;– spread out from Sidon as far as Gerar , near Gaza , and as far as Sodom and Gomorrah (10:15–19). Among Shem's descendants was Eber (10:21). These genealogies differ structurally from those set out in Genesis 5 and 11. It has a segmented or treelike structure, going from one father to many offspring. It is strange that the table, which assumes that

7198-461: The ark, the salvation of animals, and the release of birds following the flood) have led to this story being seen as the source 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

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7316-458: 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 protagonist." 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

7434-409: The birth of Noah." Also, Noah's father is reported as worrying that his son was actually fathered by one of the Watchers . The righteousness of Noah is the subject of much discussion among rabbis. The description of Noah as "righteous in his generation" implied to some that his perfection was only relative: In his generation of wicked people, he could be considered righteous, but in the generation of

7552-765: The climate change phenomena associated with the Piora Oscillation , which triggered the collapse of the Uruk period , with the Biblical flood myth. The current understanding of the prehistoric cataclysmic flooding from the Altai Mountains is that several glacial lake outburst floods from the Altai Mountains caused massive flooding along the Katun River (in the present-day Altai Republic ) some time between 12000 BC and 9000 BC, as demonstrated by

7670-412: The creation of Adam , God saw that the earth was corrupt and filled with violence, and he decided to destroy what he had created. But God found one righteous man, Noah , and to him he confided his intention: "I am about to bring on the Flood ... to eliminate everywhere all flesh in which there is the breath of life ... ." So God instructed him to build an ark (in Hebrew, a chest or box), and Noah entered

7788-559: The days of the coming of the Son of Man . For 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." The First Epistle of Peter compares the power of baptism with the Ark saving those who were in it. In later Christian thought,

7906-416: The discovery of evidence for some catastrophic events, events similar to those on which the flood narrative may be based are accepted as possible within an overall uniformitarian framework. In relation to geological forces, uniformitarianism explains the formation of the Earth's features by means of mostly slow-acting forces seen in operation today. By the 17th century, believers in the Genesis account faced

8024-403: The earth". The story of Noah in the Pentateuch is similar to the flood narrative in the Mesopotamian Epic of Gilgamesh , composed around 1800 BC, where a hero builds an ark to survive a divinely sent flood. Scholars suggest that the biblical account was influenced by earlier Mesopotamian traditions, with notable parallels in plot elements and structure. Comparisons are also drawn between Noah and

8142-403: The earth". As a pledge of this gracious covenant with man and beast the rainbow was set in the clouds (ib. viii. 15–22, ix. 8–17). Two injunctions were laid upon Noah: While the eating of animal food was permitted, abstinence from blood was strictly enjoined; and the shedding of the blood of man by man was made a crime punishable by death at the hands of man (ib. ix. 3–6). Noah, as the last of

8260-489: The emergence of biogeography in the 18th century. Natural historians began to draw connections between climates and the animals and plants adapted to them. One influential theory held that the biblical Ararat was striped with varying climatic zones, and as climate changed, the associated animals moved as well, eventually spreading to repopulate the globe. There was also the problem of an ever-expanding number of known species : for Kircher and earlier natural historians, there

8378-410: The evidence suggested only local floods. Louis Agassiz subsequently explained such deposits as the results of glaciation . In 1862, William Thomson (later to become Lord Kelvin ) calculated the age of the Earth at between 24 million and 400 million years, and for the remainder of the 19th century, discussion focused not on the viability of this theory of deep time , but on the derivation of

8496-541: The exposure of genitalia as 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 comes the speculation that Ham was guilty of engaging in incest and raping Noah or his own mother. The latter interpretation would clarify why Canaan, as

8614-469: The extremely long-lived Antediluvian patriarchs, died 350 years after the flood, at the age of 950, when Terah was 128. The maximum human lifespan, as depicted by the Bible, gradually diminishes thereafter, from almost 1,000 years to the 120 years of Moses . 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,

8732-507: The fact that much of the gravel deposited along the Katun valley lacks a stratigraphic structure, instead showing characteristics of a deposition directly after suspension in a turbulent flow. In 2020, archaeologists discovered evidence of a tsunami that destroyed middle Pre-Pottery Neolithic B coastal settlements in Tel Dor , Israel as it traveled between 3.5 to 1.5 km inland. The tsunami

8850-628: The fact that the flood motif didn't show up in the Ur III copy and that the earliest chronographical sources related to the flood show up in the Old Babylonian Period. Chen concludes that the name of Ziusudra as a flood hero, as well as any hinted references of a flood, in the Old Babylonian Version of the Instructions of Shuruppak were later developments during the Old Babylonian Period, originating from updated information added to

8968-473: The father of Canaan, saw his father naked and told his brothers, which led to Ham's son Canaan being cursed by Noah. As early as the Classical era , commentators on Genesis 9:20–21 have excused Noah's excessive drinking because he was considered to be the first wine drinker; the first person to discover the effects of wine. John Chrysostom , Archbishop of Constantinople , and a Church Father , wrote in

9086-528: The flood commenced, God caused each raindrop to pass through Gehenna before it fell on earth for forty days so that it could scald the skin of sinners. It was a punishment that befitted their crime because like the rain, humanity's sensual desires made them hot and inflamed to immoral excesses. The Genesis flood narrative is included in the Old Testament of the Christian Bible (see Books of

9204-423: The flood hero, as well as a short version of the flood story, although Chen writes that his was included in texts written during the Old Babylonian Period. The earliest Akkadian versions of the unified epic are dated to c. 2000–1700 BC. Due to the fragmentary nature of these Old Babylonian versions, it is unclear whether they included an expanded account of the flood myth; although one fragment definitely includes

9322-403: The flood lasts 36 weeks according to the flood calendar, in which an extra day is added to every third month. The number of weeks is symbolically significant, representing the biblical cypher for destruction (the number 6, expressed as 6x6=36), while the number 7 (the number of days in a week) represents the persistence of creation during this time of destruction. Scholars have long puzzled over

9440-418: The flood story the "windows of heaven" and "fountains of the deep" are opened so that the world is returned to the watery chaos of the time before creation. Even the sequence of flood events mimics that of creation, the flood first covering the earth to the highest mountains, then destroying, in order, birds, cattle, beasts, "swarming creatures", and finally mankind. (This parallels the Babylonian flood story in

9558-414: The idea of Noah being the first person to drink wine and experience the aftereffects of doing so. Quran 29:14 states that Noah had been living among the people who he was sent to for 950 years when the flood started. Indeed, We sent Noah to his people, and he remained among them for a thousand years, less fifty. Then the Flood overtook them, while they persisted in wrongdoing. The Baháʼí Faith regards

9676-518: The issue of reconciling the exploration of the New World and increased awareness of the global distribution of species with the older scenario whereby all life had sprung from a single point of origin on the slopes of Mount Ararat . The obvious answer involved mankind spreading over the continents following the destruction of the Tower of Babel and taking animals along, yet some of the results seemed peculiar. In 1646 Sir Thomas Browne wondered why

9794-483: The last of the Antediluvian 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 , and extracanonically. The Genesis flood narrative is among the best-known stories of the Bible . In this account, God "regrets" making mankind because they filled the world with evil. Noah then labors faithfully to build

9912-635: The last of which has been estimated to have occurred between 18,200 and 14,000 years ago. Another geologic feature believed to have been formed by massive catastrophic flooding is the Tsangpo Gorge in Tibet . As with the Channeled Scablands of the state of Washington, breakthroughs of glacial ice dams are believed to have unleashed massive and sudden torrents of water to form the gorge some time between 600 and 900 AD. Some also relate

10030-850: The maritime nations (10:2–5). Ham's son Cush had a son named Nimrod , who became the first man of might on earth, a mighty hunter, king in Babylon and the land of Shinar (10:6–10). From there Ashur went and built Nineveh . (10:11–12) Canaan's descendants – Sidon, Heth , the Jebusites , the Amorites , the Girgashites, the Hivites , the Arkites, the Sinites, the Arvadites,

10148-560: The medieval commentator Rashi , held on the contrary that the building of the Ark was stretched over 120 years, deliberately in order to give sinners time to repent. Rashi interprets his father's statement of the naming of Noah (in Hebrew – Noaħ נֹחַ). "This one will comfort us (in Hebrew– yeNaĦamenu יְנַחֲמֵנו) in our work and in the toil of our hands, which come from the ground that the Lord had cursed" Some interpret this as meaning Noah heralded

10266-404: The natives of North America had taken rattlesnakes with them, but not horses: "How America abounded with Beasts of prey and noxious Animals, yet contained not in that necessary Creature, a Horse, is very strange". Browne, among the first to question the notion of spontaneous generation , was a medical doctor and amateur scientist making this observation in passing. However, biblical scholars of

10384-452: The notions of covenant, law, and forgiveness. The Genesis creation narrative (Genesis 1–2) deals with God's creation and God's repentance is the rationale behind the flood narrative, and in the Priestly source (which runs through all of Genesis and into the other four books of the Torah) these two verbs, "create" and "forgive", are reserved exclusively for divine actions. Intertextuality is

10502-590: The population is distributed about the Earth, precedes the account of the Tower of Babel , which says that all the population is in one place before it is dispersed. Genesis 5:1–32 transmits a genealogy of the Sethites down to Noah, which is taken from the priestly tradition. A genealogy of the Canites from the Jawhistic tradition is found in Genesis 4:17–26. Biblical scholars see these as variants on one and

10620-401: The population was killed by fire, leaving only Shurbai and his wife Sharhabeil . Fifteen generations later, most of the population was killed by flood, leaving only Noah and Shem, in addition to the latter's wife Nuraitha . Noah and his family are saved because they were able to build an ark or kawila (or kauila , a Mandaic term; it is cognate with Syriac kēʾwilā , which is attested in

10738-654: The portions of the Sumerian King List which mention the time before the flood are stylistically different from the King List Proper. Chen writes that Old Babylonian copies tend to show a separate pre-flood tradition which is apart from the King List. Further, the Ur III copy of the King List as well as similar documents indicate that the King List Proper once existed independent of a flood narrative or

10856-589: 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. After the flood, Noah offered burnt offerings to God. God accepted the sacrifice, and made a covenant with Noah, and through him with all mankind, that 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, and multiply, and replenish

10974-638: The prevailing view was the Hebrews ( Hebrew : עִבְרִיִּים , romanized :  ʿIḇriyyim , also derived from the letters ʿ-b-r ) had received their name from ʿEber, while others state the name "Hebrew" means "those who cross", a reference to those who crossed the Euphrates with Abram from Ur of the Chaldees to Harran and then Canaan . In some translations of the New Testament , he

11092-410: The priests (Shem), the warriors (Japheth), and the peasants (Ham). In medieval Christian thought, Ham was considered to be 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. Isaac Newton , in his religious works on the development of religion, wrote about Noah and his offspring. In Newton's view, while Noah

11210-434: 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. Genesis 10 sets forth the descendants of Shem, Ham, and Japheth, from whom the nations branched out over the Earth after the flood. Among Japheth's descendants were

11328-486: The same list. However, if we take the merged text of Genesis as a single account, we can construct the following family tree, which has come down in this form into the Jewish and Christian traditions. 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 main sources, which themselves date from no earlier than

11446-575: 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 Gilgamesh" and eventually was imported and standardized in the Epic of Gilgamesh probably in the Middle Babylonian Period. Gilgamesh 's historical reign

11564-456: The setting for the castigation of Israel’s Canaanite neighbors." It was Ham who committed an offense when he viewed his father's nakedness. Yet, "Noah’s curse, ... is strangely aimed at Canaan rather than the disrespectful Ham." In Mandaeism , Noah ([ࡍࡅ] Error: {{Langx}}: invalid parameter: |transl= ( help ) ) is mentioned in Book 18 of the Right Ginza . In the text, Noah's wife

11682-461: The significance of the flood lasting one year and eleven days (day 17 of year 600 to day 27 of year 601); one solution is that the basic calendar is a lunar one of 354 days, to which eleven days have been added to match a solar year of 365 days. The "original", Jahwist narrative of the Great Deluge was modest; a week of ostensibly non-celestial rain is followed by a forty-day flood which takes

11800-533: The story of Gilgamesh’s journey to meet Utnapishtim . The "standard" Akkadian version included a long version of the flood story and was edited by Sin-liqe-unninni sometime between 1300 and 1000 BC. Yi Samuel Chen, analyzing various texts from the Early Dynastic III Period to the Old Babylonian Period, argues that the flood narrative was only added in texts written during the latter Old Babylonian Period. Observations by experts indicate that

11918-399: The survivors, in that the survivors are related. There is no evidence of such a severe genetic bottleneck at that period of time (~7000 years before the present day) either among humans or other animal species; however, if the flood narrative is derived from a more localized event and describes a founder effect among one population of humans, certain explanations such as the events described by

12036-503: The teaching of the apostle Peter ( 1 Peter 3:18–22 ), connect the Ark with the resurrection of Christ; the waters burying the old world but raising Noah to a new life. Christian scholars also highlight that 1 Peter 3:18–22 demonstrates the Genesis flood as a type to Christian baptism . In the 3rd century Gnostic codex now referred to as the Hypostasis of the Archons , it is the corrupt rulers ( Archons ) who decide to flood

12154-462: The text from the burgeoning Antediluvian Tradition. Noah has often been compared to Deucalion , the son of Prometheus and Hesinoe 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, gives thanks and takes advice from the gods on how to repopulate the Earth. Deucalion also sends

12272-449: The theory assumes a redactor who combined the sources inconsistently (in some cases extensively editing together the text and in some cases faithfully preserving contradictory versions) for unclear reasons. Similarly, the complete Genesis flood story matches the parallel Gilgamesh flood story in a way which neither of the proposed biblical sources does. The following table compares the proposed Yahwist and Priestly sources. Each provides

12390-404: The time, such as Justus Lipsius (1547–1606) and Athanasius Kircher (c. 1601–1680), had also begun to subject the Ark story to rigorous scrutiny as they attempted to harmonize the biblical account with the growing body of natural historical knowledge. The resulting hypotheses provided an important impetus to the study of the geographical distribution of plants and animals, and indirectly spurred

12508-486: The top of the construction he was building, and how he implemented this directive and released a bird. Antoine Cavigneaux 's translation of this text made him propose that this fragment belongs to a Mesopotamian flood myth , perhaps Atrahasis or Tablet IX of Gilgamesh , which has a version found in Ugarit (RS 22.421) that contains a first person account of the flood. If this suggestion is correct, then RS 94.2953 represents

12626-456: The two sources was earlier and therefore influenced the other. Some scholars have even questioned whether the story is actually based on two different sources, noting that some of the doublets (such as the dove and raven) are not actually contradictory and in fact appear as linked motifs in other biblical and non-biblical sources, that the method of doublets is inconsistently applied in that the alleged sources themselves contain doublets, and that

12744-456: The various stages of the flood. Both RS 94.2953 and Genesis 8 are about the flood protagonist releasing a bird on a specific calendrical date in order to find land in the midst of the flood. The primeval history is first and foremost about the world God made, its origins, inhabitants, purposes, challenges, and failures. It asks why the world which God has made is so imperfect and of the meaning of human violence and evil, and its solutions involve

12862-415: The waters subsided" until the Ark rested on the mountains of Ararat, and on the 27th day of the second month of Noah's six hundred and first year the earth was dry. Then Noah built an altar and made a sacrifice, and God made a covenant with Noah that man would be allowed to eat every living thing but not its blood, and that God would never again destroy all life by a flood. The consensus of modern scholars

12980-424: The waters were dried up" or a dove which on the third occasion "did not return to him again," or possibly both. But despite this disagreement on details the story forms a unified whole (some scholars see in it a " chiasm ", a literary structure in which the first item matches the last, the second the second-last, and so on), and many efforts have been made to explain this unity, including attempts to identify which of

13098-407: The way biblical stories refer to and reflect one another. Such echoes are seldom coincidental—for instance, the word used for ark is the same used for the basket in which Moses is saved, implying a symmetry between the stories of two divinely chosen saviours in a world threatened by water and chaos. The most significant such echo is a reversal of the Genesis creation narrative ; the division between

13216-468: The wise man, Noah being the latter. In Jewish tradition and rabbinic literature on Noah , rabbis blame Satan for the intoxicating properties of the wine. 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

13334-423: The world in order to dispose of most of mankind. However, Noah is spared and told to build an ark. But when his wife Norea wants to board the ark, Noah attempts to not let her, thus she uses her divine power to blow on the ark, causing it to be consumed by fire. Noah later builds the ark a second time. When the Archons try to seize Norea, she calls out to God for help, then the angel Eleleth appears and scares away

13452-492: Was 34 years old, and he had other sons and daughters. Heber lived to an age of 464 years. The triliteral root ע־ב־ר , ʕ-b-r , is connected with crossing over and the beyond. Considering that other names for descendants of Shem also stand for places, Eber can also be considered the name of an area, perhaps near Assyria . Medieval scholars such as Michael the Syrian , Bar Hebraeus , and Agapius of Hierapolis noted that

13570-591: Was a monotheist, the gods of pagan antiquity are identified with Noah and his descendants. 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. Unlike the account of Genesis, not only are Noah's family saved, but many others also heed Noah's call. There

13688-428: Was approximately 16 m high. Recovery in the affected areas was slow but overall, it did not significantly affect the social development of the southern Levant. Whilst the tsunami is not identified with the Biblical flood, it is believed to contribute to the flood myths found in numerous cultures. The development of scientific geology had a profound impact on attitudes towards the biblical flood narrative by undermining

13806-604: Was inspired by the visions of Ellen G. White . As Price's career progressed, he gained attention outside of Seventh-day Adventist groups, and by 1929 he was a popular scientific author among Christian fundamentalists , though those who were not Seventh-day Adventists rejected his young Earth theories. Through the middle of the 20th century, despite debates between Protestant Christian scientists, Flood geology maintained traction amongst evangelical Christian circles. Historian Ronald Numbers argues that an ideological connection by evangelical Christians wanting to challenge aspects of

13924-473: Was pronounced "Noah" in Palestine. Numerous and often detailed parallels make clear that the Genesis flood narrative is dependent on the Mesopotamian epics, and particularly on Gilgamesh, which is thought to date from c. 1300–1000 BCE. Numbers in the Bible often have symbolic or idiomatic meaning, and the 40 days and nights for which rain fell on the Earth indicates a complete cycle. The flood begins on

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