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Noah |
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Introduction |
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Noah is
the tenth and last of the antediluvian
Patriarchs.
The
story of Noah is the subject of much
elaboration and is immensely influential in
Western culture. While the Flood and Noah's
Ark are the best-known element of the story of
Noah, he is known through the Holy Bible as
the first to cultivate a vineyard, and with
that he is considered the inventor of wine. It
was through this later fame that the Curse of
Canaan came about.
This
is his story, straight from the pages of the
Old Testament, Genesis Chapters 5 through 9. |
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The Wickedness of Man
When men begin to multiply on earth,
daughters are born to them. When the sons of God
see how beautiful they are, the sons of God take
the daughters of man for their wives. And they
bear giants who are mighty men and great
renown.*
Then the LORD says: |
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"My spirit shall not remain in man forever,
since he is but flesh. His days shall comprise
one hundred and twenty years."
When the LORD sees how great man's wickedness on
earth is, he regrets that he had made man on the
earth, |
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and
his heart grieves. |
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So the
LORD says: |
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"I will wipe out from the earth the men whom I
have created, and not only the men, but also
the beasts and the creeping things and the
birds of the air, for I am sorry that I made
them."
But Noah finds favor with the LORD, for he is
a good man and blameless in that age and he
walks with God.
*The sons
of God... The descendants of Seth and Enos are
here called sons of God from their religion
and piety: whereas the ungodly race of Cain,
who by their carnal affections lay groveling
upon the earth, are called the children of
men. The unhappy consequence of the former
marrying with the latter, ought to be a
warning to Christians to be very circumspect
in their marriages; and not to suffer
themselves to be determined in their choice by
their carnal passion, to the prejudice of
virtue or religion.
Giants... It is likely the generality of men
before the flood were of a gigantic stature in
comparison with what men now are. But these
here spoken of are called giants, as being not
only tall in stature, but violent and savage
in their dispositions, and mere monsters of
cruelty and lust. – Bishop Richard Challoner |
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Building of the Ark |
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The LORD then says to Noah: |
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"I have decided to put an end to all
mortals on earth; the earth is full of
lawlessness because of them. So I will
destroy them and all life on earth. Make
yourself an ark of gopherwood, put various
compartments in it, and cover it inside
and out with pitch."
The LORD tells Noah to
build an ark three hundred cubits* long,
fifty cubits wide, and thirty cubits high.
He also instructs Noah to make an opening
for daylight in the ark, and finish the ark
a cubit above it. He should also put an
entrance in the side of the ark at the
bottom, second and third decks.
The LORD tells Noah
that He will bring the flood on the earth,
to destroy all creatures in which there is
the breath of life. He tells Noah that
everything on earth shall perish.
But the LORD also says that with Noah He will
establish His covenant; Noah and his sons
and their wives shall |
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Noah's Ark,
Französischer Meister |
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go
into the ark and they will be spared. The LORD
also instructs Noah to bring into the ark seven
pairs, male and its mate, of the clean beasts,
but only one pair, a male and its mate, of the
unclean beasts. Likewise, Noah is also to bring
into the ark of every clean bird of the air,
seven pairs, a male and a female, and of all the
unclean birds, one pair, a male and a female.
The LORD also tells Noah to bring food that is
to be eaten, and stored away, that it may serve
as provisions for them.
*One cubit
is about a foot and a half. |
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The LORD tells Noah
that seven days from that time He will bring
rain down on the earth for forty days and
forty nights that will wipe out from the
surface of the earth every moving creature
that He have made.
Noah does just as the
LORD had commanded him, and he takes into
the ark all the beasts and fowls as the LORD
commanded. On the precise day Noah and his
sons Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and Noah's
wife, and the three wives of Noah's sons
Noah go into the ark. |
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The Animals
Entering Noah´s Ark, by Jacob Savery II |
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As the LORD said, after
seven days, on the hundredth year of Noah's
life, in the second month, on the seventeenth
day of the month that all the fountains of the
great abyss burst forth, and the floodgates of
the sky opens. For forty days and forty nights
heavy rain pours down on the earth.
As
the waters rise and lift the ark above |
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The Deluge, by Michelangelo |
the earth. The waters rise further until |
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all the highest mountains everywhere are
submerged and the crest is fifteen cubits higher
than the submerged mountains.
All creatures on earth
perish. Everything on dry land with the faintest
breath of life die. Only Noah and those with him
in the ark are left. The waters maintain their
crest over the earth for one hundred and fifty
days. |
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The Promise |
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Then the LORD remembers Noah and all the animals that were with him in
the ark. So the LORD makes a wind sweep over the
earth, and the waters begin to subside. The
fountains of the abyss and the floodgates of the
sky close, and the downpour from the sky stop.
Gradually the waters recede from the earth. In
the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the
month, the ark comes to rest on the mountains of
Ararat. At the end of forty days Noah opens the
hatch he had made in the ark, and he sends out a
raven, to see if the waters had receded. It
flies back and forth until the waters dried off
from the earth.
Then he sends out a dove,
but the dove does not find a place to alight and
perch, and it returns to him in the ark. Putting
out his hand, he catches the dove and brings it back inside the
ark. |
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The
Dove Returns to Noah, by C.F. Vos |
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He
waits seven more days and again sends the dove out
from the ark. In the evening the dove comes back to
him, and there in its bill was a plucked-off olive
leaf!
He waits still another seven days and then releases
the dove once more; and this time it does not come
back. Noah removes the covering of the ark and sees
that the surface of the ground is drying up. In the
second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the
month, the earth is dry.
Then God says to Noah:
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"Go out of the ark, together with your wife and
your sons and your sons' wives. Bring out with you
every living thing that is with you--all bodily
creatures, be they birds or animals or creeping
things of the earth-and let them abound on the
earth, breeding and multiplying on it."
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After the
Flood, Brock |
So Noah comes out, together
with his wife and his sons and his sons' wives;
and all the animals, wild and tame, all the
birds, and all the creeping creatures of the
earth left the ark, one kind after another. Then
Noah builds an altar to the LORD, and choosing
from every clean animal and every clean bird, he
offers holocausts on the altar.
When the LORD smells the sweet odor, he says to
himself: |
"Never again will I doom the earth because of
man, since the desires of man's heart are evil
from the start; nor will I ever again strike
down all living beings, as I have done. As
long as the earth lasts, seedtime and harvest,
cold and heat, Summer and winter, and day and
night shall not cease."
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The
Covenant with Man |
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God
blesses Noah and his sons and says to them: |
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"Be
fertile and multiply and fill the earth. Dread
fear of you shall come upon all the animals of the
earth and all the birds of the air, upon all the
creatures that move about on the ground and all
the fishes of the sea; into your power they are
delivered.
Every creature that is alive shall be yours to eat;
I give them all to you as I did the green plants.
Only flesh with its lifeblood still in it you shall
not eat.
For your own lifeblood, too, I will demand an
accounting: from every animal I will demand it, and
from man in regard to his fellow man I will demand
an accounting for human life.
If anyone sheds the blood of man, by man shall his
blood be shed; For in the image of God has man been
made.
Be fertile, then, and multiply; abound on earth and
subdue it."
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God
says to Noah and to his sons with him:
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"See,
I am now establishing my covenant with you and
your descendants after you and with every living
creature that was with you: all the birds, and the
various tame and wild animals that were with you
and came out of the ark. I will establish my
covenant with you, that never again shall all
bodily creatures be destroyed by the waters of a
flood; there shall not be another flood to
devastate the earth."
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God adds: |
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"This is the sign that I am giving for all
ages to come, of the covenant between me and you and
every living creature with you:
I set my bow in the clouds to serve as a sign of the
covenant between me and the earth. When I bring
clouds over the earth, and the bow appears in the
clouds, I will recall the covenant I have made
between me and you and all living beings, so that
the waters shall never again become a flood to
destroy all mortal beings. As the bow appears in the
clouds, I will see it and recall the everlasting
covenant that I have established between God and all
living beings--all mortal creatures that are on
earth."
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God told Noah: |
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"This is the sign of the covenant I
have established between me and all mortal creatures
that are on earth."
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Noah and his sons Shem, Ham and Japheth, and their
wives, come out of the ark, and from them come the
people of the whole earth.
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The Curse of Canaan
Noah, a man of the soil, is the first to plant a
vineyard and from the grapes he makes the first
wine. When he drinks the wine, not knowing its
effect, he becomes drunk and lays naked inside
his tent.
Ham, the father of Canaan, sees his father's
nakedness, and he makes jokes about it in front
of his two brothers. Shem and Japheth, however,
take a robe, and holding it on their backs, they
walk backward and cover their father's
nakedness. They do not see their father's
nakedness.
When Noah wakes up from his drunkenness and
learns what his youngest son had done to him, he
says: "Cursed be Canaan! The lowest of slaves
shall he be to his brothers." |
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Noah Cursing Canaan, Gustave Doré |
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He
also says: "Blessed be the LORD, the God of Shem!
Let Canaan be his slave. May God expand Japheth, so
that he dwells among the tents of Shem; and let
Canaan be his slave."
Noah lived three hundred and fifty years after the
flood. The whole lifetime of Noah was nine hundred
and fifty years. |
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The Navarre Bible: Pentateuch (The Navarre Bible: Old Testament)
This volume helps you make the first five books of the Old Testament a vital
part of your spiritual reading and practical growth in the Christian life. It
contains the full English and Latin texts of these books, along with extensive
and faithfully Catholic commentaries. Like other volumes in the world-renowned
Navarre Bible series, these commentaries draw on Church |
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documents, the exegesis of Fathers and Doctors
of the Church, and the works of contemporary
spiritual writers — particularly St. Josemaría
Escrivá, who initiated the Navarre Bible
project. |
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Judges and Ruth (New Cambridge Bible Commentary)
by Victor H. Matthews Bringing to life the world portrayed in the stories in
Judges and Ruth, this commentary offers readers an "insider" perspective on the
narratives. After establishing a cultural and literary context, Victor Matthews
analyzes each episode separately and as a whole. |
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Samson and Delilah and Other Old Testament Stories (Discovering the Bible) (Hardcover)
by Victoria Parker (Author), Retold by Victoria Parker (Author)
This
book provides known Bible stories from Israel in the Promised land to the Story
of Ruth. It has the stories we grew up with but it adds historical and religious
facts to each story. It tells the stories gearing them toward elementary school
children. |
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Moses
Great Lives Series: Volume 4 ,
by Charles R. Swindoll. This book presents the Bible's real Moses-the
Moses who tried to decline his assignment from God; the Moses who dazzled Pharoh;
the Moses who received the Ten Commandments; the Moses who was disobedient and
weak; the Moses who was the greatest leader of God's people in all of history.
Through his faith and selfless dedication, Moses continually chose to follow
God's will through difficult and seemingly impossible situations. |
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Jacob and Esau
by Harriette Augusta Curtiss and F. Homer
Curtiss (Paperback - Dec 30, 2005) |
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The Prophecy of Isaiah: An Introduction & Commentary
by J. A. Motyer
Recipient of a Christianity Today 1994 Critics
Choice Award! Among Old Testament prophetic books no other equals Isaiah's
brilliance of style and metaphor, its arresting vision of the Holy One of Israel
and its kaleidoscopic vision of God's future restoration of Israel and the
world. Now, after over three decades of studying and teaching Isaiah, Alec
Motyer presents a wealth of commentary and perspective on this book. |
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Saint of the Day: Lives, Lessons, and Feasts
(Paperback)
by Leonard Foley (Editor), Pat McCloskey (Editor) |
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Lives of the
Saints You Should Know by Margaret R. Bunson,
Matthew E. Bunson It provides a brief, but
personal, summary of the lives of 21 famous and
not-so-famous saints. However, it appears to
have been written with a children to teenage
audience in mind, and so was a bit simplistic
for me, as an adult, in places. By the same
token, for me, as a non-Catholic, the book was
easy to understand and provided useful and
thought-provoking insights into |
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sainthood and
Catholic beliefs. I would recommend this book
mainly to an early-teen audience, but it can
also provide a good introduction to sainthood
and Catholic beliefs to people of all ages and
religious persuasions. |
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New Illustrated Book of Saints
Author: Catholic Book Publishing Company |
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One Hundred Saints: Their Lives and Likenesses
Drawn from Butler's
This is a coffee-table collection of 100
popular saints illustrated with art works taken
from international galleries. The saints are
listed alphabetically in a valuable table of
contents, with a larger list of patron saints
following the text. Inclusion is based on
popularity within the Christian world and the
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availability of
atypical art works. Entries are generally based
on the 1926-38 edition of Butler's Lives of the
Saints, with the length of each entry varying
from one-half page to several pages. Short
entries giving written insight into the lives of
pious individuals are combined with depictions
rendered by artists such as Raphael and El
Greco. An inexpensive tribute to art and faith
more appropriate for gift-giving than for
libraries. |
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