Editor's note: This column begins a new series, 'The Weekly HuffTorah Portion,' which will provide an overview of the Torah readings for that particular week and include links to additional resources for study and discussion. It also gives me a chance to re-read some endlessly fascinating tales.
In the Jewish year, each week corresponds to a specific section of Hebrew Bible, so that by year's end the entire Torah has been read. On Simchat Torah, the recent joyous celebration that ends the High Holiday cycle, Jews read the final sections of the Torah and immediately follow this by reading the first portion, Bereishit.
Those famous opening words of Bereishit -- "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth..." -- are actually a mistranslation. Another way to read the Hebrew is, "In a beginning..."
So we begin this new series from another beginning, the second weekly Torah portion, Noach, and hope to complete the circle by Simchat Torah 2012.
Now, let's see about that Noah.
Before the Flood
Noah, a righteous man who is "perfect in his generations," has three sons: Shem, Cham and Japeth.
God tells Noah there is corruption on earth, and because of this all flesh will be destroyed.
God commands Noah to build an ark of gopher wood that is to be 300 cubits long and 50 cubits wide. (A cubit is about the length of a forearm.) The ark should have compartments on three decks, a window and an entrance at its side.
God reiterates about destroying all breathing beings, says this will be done with a flood. Noah and his family, on the other hand, will be spared if he follows God's instructions. This is God's covenant with Noah.
God then tells Noah to get two of every species -- one male and one female -- and to gather food for himself and his family while they're on the ark.
Noah builds the ark.
God calls Noah to the ark and reminds him that he alone in the world is righteous. God tells Noah to take seven pairs of every clean animal (presumably, the kosher species) and bring them on the ark.
"In seven days, I will send rain upon the earth, 40 days and 40 nights, and I will blot out all existence," God says.
Again, Noah does what he is told.
Water Covers the Earth
Noah is 600 years old when the flood comes. He and his family go into the ark, and two-by-two the animals enter also. After seven days, the flood begins.
The text repeats a few things now. Noah's age, with added detail: He is 600 years, 2 months and 17 days old when the rain comes. It rains for 40 days and 40 nights. Noah enters the ark with his family and two of every animal, male and female, follow. God seals the ark shut after they are all inside.
Full text of Parshat Noach with interlinear Hebrew/English
The rain lasts for 40 days, and the flood lifts the ark above the earth. The water rises above the mountains, even. Fifteen cubits, above the mountains, it rose.
All flesh on earth expires, except that in the ark.
After the Flood
The text says that the water "strengthened" on earth for 150 days. Then, God remembers the ark and causes the waters to subside: "The fountains of the deep and the windows of the heavens were closed," and after 150 days of no rain, the water recedes. In that month, the ark came to rest upon Mt. Ararat. Ten months after the rain began, the mountains become visible once again. Forty days after that, Noah opens the window of the ark to see if it is possible to leave.
Noah sends a raven to see if it was dry or if there was land. The raven circles and circles above and returns with nothing. Then, Noah sends a dove, but it returns as there was no place to rest.
Noah waits seven days and sends the dove out again. In the evening on that day, the dove returns with an olive leaf in its beak. This is a good sign, Noah thinks, but waits seven more days to send the dove out again. When the dove does not return, this is an even better sign.
Read an interpolated translation of Parshat Noach
So in his 601st year, on the first day of the first month, the waters dried from atop the earth. Noah removes the covering of the ark, looks around and sees that the ground is dry. Nearly two months later, the earth is fully dry. Then, God tells Noah to leave the ark with his family and with all the animals aboard, and so every living, creeping, flying thing emerges from the ark.
On dry land, Noah builds an altar God and offers one of every "clean" animal to the Creator. God smells the burnt offering and says, in his heart, "I will not continue to curse the ground because of man ... nor will I again continue to smite every living being, as I have done." God's resolution concludes with the promise that day and night shall not cease.
God blesses Noah and his sons, telling them to "be fruitful and multiply" and spread throughout the land. God says that all living creatures will fear Noah and his family, adding that while all moving things will be food for them, they should not eat any blood as that is the soul of the flesh. God demands the blood that belongs to souls of humans and animals. In other words, the soul comes from God, and though man keeps the soul for a time, it ultimately belongs to God. Made in God's image, man cannot kill himself, and he may not kill another. The punishment for killing a man is to be killed by a man, God says, and commands Noah again to be fruitful and multiply, to "teem on the earth."
God reaffirms to Noah and his sons God's covenant with all living beings -- all that departed the ark, that is -- saying that there shall never again be such a cataclysmic, world-destroying flood. God sets a rainbow in the clouds as a sign of the covenant between God and earth. God says that the rainbow will serve as a reminder to God of the everlasting covenant.
Blessing the rainbow and other Parshat Noach resources (PDF)
Of Noah's sons who came out of the ark -- Shem, Cham and Japeth -- Cham is the father of Canaan. From these sons "the whole world was spread out."
Noah "debases" himself and plants a vineyard before planting anything else. He drinks the wine, becomes drunk and uncovers himself in his tent. Cham sees his father's nakedness and tells his brothers. Shem and Japeth walk backwards into the tent, so as not to see Noah's nakedness, and cover their father. Noah wakes, realizes what's happened and curses his grandson, Canaan the son of Shem, saying he shall be "a slave of slaves" to his brothers. Noah blesses God, Shem and Japheth, and repeats the curse of Canaan.
Noah lives 350 more years after the flood, reaching the age of 950, and dies.
The Descendants of Noah
The text lists the descendants of the sons of Noah and says that from these families the nations of earth were formed. Among the sons of Japeth and Cham, in no particular order: Ashkenaz, Nimrod, Kush, Sheba, Girgashite and Pelishtim. And the list goes on.
The Tower of Babel
At this point, there is one language and one purpose on earth. Some talk about making bricks and building "a tower with its top in the heavens" in order to make a name for themselves and protect against being dispersed across the earth.
God descends to look at the city with the tower and says, "Behold, they are one people with one language and this is what they do!" God, talking to his heavenly court, says, "Come, let us descend and confuse their language, so they won't understand each other." All the people are now dispersed across the earth and their tower-building ceases.
The Descendants of Shem
Shem, too, has descendants. Some notable names: Arpaschad, Mash, Hazarmaveth, Joktan and Peleg, and on from there son begets son until Terah begets Abram (who, of course, would later change his name to Abraham).
And these are the chronicles of Terah, who bore Abram, who married Sarai, who is barren. The whole brood goes with Terah to settle in Canaan, where Terah dies.
Questions for Reflection
What does it mean that Noah was "perfect in his generations"? Why does the text repeat itself so much? Does God really need to convince Noah that all he alone is righteous and that all flesh will indeed be destroyed? And what's so important about Noah's (staggering) age?
Why does it say that Noah debased himself by planting a vineyard? And what is so shameful about uncovering his nakedness in his own tent? How does Noah know that Shem did not cover him while his brothers did? And why does he curse his grandson to be a "slave of slaves"?
What is God's aim in confusing the language of the people of Babel? Is it more than just a cruel practical joke, as it seems?
Resources for further commentary, discussion and reflection
Follow Josh Fleet on Twitter: www.twitter.com/lyleismo
Noach - Parsha - Weekly Torah Portion
Not only was Noach an ish tzaddik, but he was a great engineer, construction contractor and vet.
If you are a believer, you will find it insightful if you pay attention to the points.
If you arent, at least you will be entertained
part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_BzWUuZN5w&feature=channel_video_title
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLr5vl-n0Bo
In Genesis 6 verse 4, God angrily said that He was going to reduce the lifespan of man and limit it to only 120 years.
Later, He further said that it would be only 70 years.
So, it appears to be pretty clear that that greatly reduced lifespan was directly related to the lack of sun protection from the water canopy; although it is life-giving in its greatly filtered rays, but the Ultra Violet light are deadly to humans when they are exposed to unfiltered sun light.
Of course, pretty much all of us today know just how that depleting Ozone layer has made getting a little too much sunlight is dangerous in the extremes these days.
my grandmother advice was right: "stay out of the sun, and you'll live longer!!"
You definitely have an ignominious god in the OT. It doesn't take much to tick him off.
As for the ozone layer and ultraviolet rays or gamma rays, they are not mentioned in the OT, so anything people come up with, in today's scientific knowledge, to explain a myth, is pure speculation and wishful thinking. I have even read the absurd idea that the Mustard Seed story represents the Big Bang; Please!. I'm sorry, but there is no way one can apply, in all good conscience, science to these myths and legends.
Or how much material would be required to build a boat that big at a time when the engineering for such didn't exist, nor the man power needed to build it.
What's interesting is when you read the Qurans version of the myth it's far more reasonable, the flood was localized, not global, it wasn't just Noahs family on the ark, but a larger group of people. It' wasn't just rain but a swell from the seas, and rising springs nearby.
As well it contains another part of the mythology I love, that afterward, many people in Mesopotamia possessed pieces of the ARK and used them as a charm, they would ground the pieces into water and use the mixture on the sick to cure their ailments.
At any rate the species that resulted would be very different from what went onto the ark, and would have very little genetic diversity. That fact would be very noticeable in modern animals.
The questions I feel that make more glaringly obvious that it's mythology is that...
Noahs family just engaged in incest to repopulate the world, or they just passed around each others wive's, impregnating them over and over, and then waited for their daughters to be old enough and started passing them around as well?
I will overlook the issue of building a boat large enough to fit basically the population of NYC. I will overlook all the animals not known to man at the time or existing in that region at the time.
Lets talk about the amount of food required to feed these animals.
Two lions average daily diet is 26 pounds of meat. They were on the Ark for 10 months (ave 30 days) 10x30 = 300 days, 300 days x 26lbs of meat for the lions alone = 7,800 POUNDS of meat just for the lions (also how'd they keep the meat fresh) Hippos average daily diet is 150lbs of grasses or plants. So two Hippos 300days x 300lbs of grasses = 90,000LBS! of grasses just for the Hippos alone (again how do they keep the grasses fresh.
So then do that for every animal. You'd need an entire *fleet* of ships just for the food, and not to mention the refrigeration technology to keep it fresh and not kill the animals with spoiled infected food.
"In the beginning (TIME), God created the Heavens (SPACE) and the earth (MATTER).
TIME, SPACE AND MATTER, was discovered to be the very basis underpinning the whole of existence only a little over a hundred years ago.
There is no mistranslation of the word "the" in the way in which the King James translators [properly] translated the original Hebrew.
rḕshı̂̂yt, the "head-part, beginning" of a thing, in point of time; no article is necessary.as "in beginning," is always used in reference to time. Here only is it taken absolutely.
The Hebrew word here for "generations" is to´led`aw, and it means: "pure in his SPERM".
The repeated assertions to the purity of Noah's sperm, was in reference to the Nephilim, who, as the offspring of the fallen angels and earthly women at that time, had thoroughly corrupted the human race, except for this single man and his family. As it is written "Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God."
Verse 12 of chapt 6 says: "And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupted; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth."
But the King James translators rendered verse 3 ambiguously, when it should read "My spirit shall not always strive with( This corrupted RACE OF NEPHILIM)., for that he is ALSO flesh (human)."
It would be interesting if you could explain how the earth was created first before the sun. How could the earth form when there wasn't a gravitational field for the earth or other planets to coalesce?
The self-authoritative bible gives an ancient nomadic high-overview that explains nothing. It's no coincidence that science discovers things first. What follows are fundamentalists who bend scriptures to validate their belief in biblical authority.
"In the beginning (TIME)," ,God created the Heavens (SPACE), and the earth (MATTER).
It's not HIDDEN, it's not THERE. There is no scientific statement within genesis.
As well Time and Space are the same thing, called SPACETIME.
But I do understand the religious will spin it however possible to fit within our modern understanding as to keep the mythology alive
Utnapishtim braved the universal flood before Noah got his piggies wet.
The Epic of Gilgamesh beats Genesis any day.
the anti_supernaturalist
Because it really makes not a bit so sense that anyone else could have been out there on the flood waters except THE EIGHT PEOPLE!!! Noah, his wife, her three sons, and their three wives.
There was nobody else on earth, THE ALL DROWNED! Americans, who think they know everything, may not believe there was a real flood, but just live here in Europe for a while. I can tell you this right now, you have never heard any person from Europe say there was no flood.
WhY?
BECAUSE OF ALL THE MONUMENTS and even coins with two faces, one old, and facing before the flood, and one young, face the opposite direction.
When you consider that the flood occurred in the most remotest antiquity, and that the ancestors of them, still retain apparent folk memories, even to this very day, that can tell you just how utterly castastrophic it was.
One would think that with Catrina, Americans too, would have at least some idea, that with God, nothing is impossible.
What does all this prove? For one- the similarities cannot possibly be coincidental. The combined evidence of these legends corroborates the testimony carefully preserved in the Hebrew Scriptures of the Bible. This would make sense, such an awesome catastrophe would not be completely forgotten. Unlike myths, though, the Bible includes names and dates as well as genealogical and geographical details in its historical accounts.
Why do people in our "modern" day still believe in the miracles of the Bible? For many reasons. People who believe in God realize that since the Creator of all things can do anything He wants to. To us, our being created rather than evolved makes much more sense, from a scientific perspective as well as any other perspective.
doesn't he? What outside the Bible can be construed as a miracle? The Virgin
Mary making appearances in grilled cheese sandwiches seems like such small
potatoes.
Notice that no fossil has ever been found in rock strata that did not belong there.
Simply put no human fossil has, or ever will be found, in rocks from the age of
dinosaurs. Evolution is a fact, and we don't need fossils to prove it. DNA and
molecular biology show that all life on this planet is related, and that life forms
develop from simple to complex.
And if there was a flood that inundated the entire planet in forty days and nights,
the volume of water falling at such a prodigious rate would have caused so much
friction between the drops that the temperature would have quickly reached the
boiling point and turned to steam. Noah and crew as well as animal passengers
would have been scalded to death.
In short these stories are myth, and as such have value. But history they are not.