- 10th Genesis Patriarch
- Biblical Prophet of the Great Flood
Noah in the Abrahamic religions was the tenth and last of the pre-Flood Patriarchs. The story of Noah's Ark is told in the Bible's Genesis flood narrative. The biblical account is followed by the story of the Curse of Ham.
Biography
The great flood came when Noah was 600 years old (1656 years after the birth "creation" of Adam). Noah died 350 years after the flood, at the age of 950, the last of the extremely long-lived antediluvian Patriarchs. The maximum human lifespan, as depicted by the Bible, diminishes thereafter, from almost 1,000 years to the 120 years of Moses.
In addition to the Book of Genesis, Noah is mentioned in the Old Testament in the First Book of Chronicles, and the books of Tobit, Wisdom, Sirach, Isaiah, Ezekiel, 2 Esdras, 4 Maccabees; in the New Testament, he is mentioned in the gospels of Matthew, and Luke, the Epistle to the Hebrews, 1st Peter and 2nd Peter. Noah was the subject of much elaboration in the literature of later Abrahamic religions, including the Quran (Surahs 71, 7, 1, and 21).
And Noah lived after the flood three hundred and fifty years. And all the days of Noah were nine hundred and fifty years: and he died. (Gen. 9:28-29)
The Great Flood
The Genesis flood narrative makes up chapters 6–9 in the Book of Genesis, in the Bible. The narrative, one of many flood myths found in human cultures, 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.[5] The narrative discusses the evil of mankind that moved God to destroy the world by the 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.
In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. 12 And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights. In the selfsame day entered Noah, and Shem, and Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah’s wife, and the three wives of his sons with them, into the ark; They, and every beast after his kind, and all the cattle after their kind, and every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind, and every fowl after his kind, every bird of every sort. (Gen. 7:11-14)
Post-Flood
After the flood, Noah offered burnt offerings to God, who said: "I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake; for the imagination of man's heart [is] evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done" (8:20–21).
Noah's Sacrifice by Daniel Maclise
"And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth" (9:1). They were also told that all fowls, land animals, and fishes would be afraid of them. Furthermore, as well as green plants, every moving thing would be their food with the exception that the blood was not to be eaten. Man's life blood would be required from the beasts and from man. "Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man" (9:6). A rainbow, called "my bow", was given as the sign of a covenant "between me and you and every living creature that [is] with you, for perpetual generations" (9:2–17), called the Noahic covenant or the rainbow covenant.
Curse of Ham
After the flood, the Bible says that Noah became a husbandman and he planted a vineyard. He drank wine made from this vinyard, 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.
Historical Map
Geographic identifications for the Sons of Noah (Flavius Josephus, c. 100 AD); Japheth's sons shown in red
Marriage and Family
His father was Lamech and his mother is unknown. When Noah was five hundred years old, he became the father of Shem, Ham and Japheth (Genesis 5:32).
Genesis Family Narrative
Mount Ararat today.
There were six human ouls on Noah's Ark - Noah, his three sons and each of their wives.
28 And Lamech lived an hundred eighty and two years, and begat a son:
29 And he called his name Noah, saying, This same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the Lord hath cursed.
30 And Lamech lived after he begat Noah five hundred ninety and five years, and begat sons and daughters:
31 And all the days of Lamech were seven hundred seventy and seven years: and he died.
32 And Noah was five hundred years old: and Noah begat Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
Genesis 5:28-32
18 And the sons of Noah, that went forth of the ark, were Shem, and Ham, and Japheth: and Ham is the father of Canaan.
19 These are the three sons of Noah: and of them was the whole earth overspread.
[Genesis 9:18-19
- Shem - The children of Shem were Elam, Asshur, Arphaxad, Lud and Aram, in addition to daughters. Abraham, the patriarch of the Hebrews and Arabs, was one of the descendants of Arphaxad.
- Ham - saw his father's drunkeness and his son Cainan is cursed. Purported to be father of African peoples.
- Japheth - in the Table of Nations he is the ancestor of the peoples of Europe and Anatolia. In medieval and early modern European tradition he was considered to be the progenitor of European and, later, East Asian peoples
Wives Aboard the Ark
In the Book of Jubilees (160–150 BC) (reference where?) the names of the wives of Noah, Shem, Ham and Japheth are as follows:
- Wife of Noah – Emzara, daughter of Rake'el, son of Methuselah
- Wife of Shem – Sedeqetelebab
- Wife of Ham – Ne'elatama'uk or Na'eltama'uk
- Wife of Japheth – 'Adataneses
It adds that the three sons each built a city named after their wife.
Children
| Name | Birth | Death | Joined with |
| Shem ben Noah | Mesopotamia | Mesopotamia | |
| Ham ben Noah | Mesopotamia | Mesopotamia | Egyptus, wife of Ham |
| Japheth ben Noah | Mesopotamia | Mesopotamia | |
Siblings
| Name | Birth | Death | Joined with |
| Noah ben Lamech | Mesopotamia | Mesopotamia | |
| other sons and daughters | |||
Scriptural Commentary
Latter-day Saints
- Noah, The Great Preacher of Righteousness - Joseph B Romney (Feb 1998 Ensign)
- The Flood and The Tower - Donald W Parry (Jan 1998 Ensign)
- Noah and The Ark - (Sept 1984 Liahona)
- The Gospel and the Scientific View How the Earth Came to Be - F Kent Nielsen (Sept 1980 Ensign)
- Make Thee an Ark - W Donald Ladd (Oct 1994 LDS General Conference)
- Was There a Flood? - FairMormon
External links
- wikipedia:en:Noah - Wikipedia
- Noah - Family tree on JewAge (another Semantic MediaWiki site)
- Book of Genesis
- Noah - LDS Bible Dictionary
Footnotes (including sources)
Mu Cow, AMK152, Robin Patterson, Afil, PhloxBot, MainTour
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