Help defend free speech and free scientific inquiry in the U.S. Sign the Academic Freedom Petition.

Noah

From CreationWiki, the encyclopedia of creation science

Noah by Französischer Meister.

Noah (Hebrew: נח, Nóaḥ; Arabic: نوح, Nūḥ; "rest") (1056 AM 3102 BC
659 H
1057 AM-fl. 1536 AM 2623 BC
1139 H
1537 AM-2006 AM 2152 BC
1609 H
2007 AM), according to the accounts in Genesis, Qur'an, and Book of Jubilees was the builder of the ark by which eight people, seven pairs of each clean animal and two pairs of each unclean animal were saved from the waters of the Great flood. He was born in 1056 A.M.,^[1] and his name means "Relief" or "Comfort."^[2] Following the flood, he is said to have received the Noahide laws by which, according to the Jewish Talmud, all people today are bound.

1 Lineage of Noah
2 Life of Noah
3 Genealogical Placement
4 References
5 Related Links
6 See Also

Lineage of Noah

Noah was the son of Lamech and the grandson of Methuselah. He and his wife had three sons: Japheth, Sem or Shem, and Ham. The order can be deduced from the Genesis record: Noah was 500 years old when the first son, Japheth, was born^[3]^[4] and 600 when the Flood came. Shem had his son, Arphaxad, 2 years after the Flood, when he was 100 years old,^[5] making him 2 years younger than Japheth. Ham is stated to be the youngest.^[6] (See Sons of Noah for further discussion).

Noah's wife is not named in the western canon of the Bible. According to the Book of Jubilees (canonical in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church) her name was Emzara. Still other ancient Hebrew sources assert that Noah married Naamah, daughter of Lamech the Murderer. But the Bible does not so attest.

Because all other human life perished in the Flood, genetic evidence should suggest that there was a population bottleneck, and that we all trace ancestry back to Noah's family. According to mathematical models plotting genetic tracks, the most recent common ancester can indeed be traced back around 3,000 years -- not quite to estimated dates of the flood, but still far closer than evolutionary assertions of common ancestors.^[7]

Life of Noah

Righteous Preacher

Noah's sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth, by James Tissot.

According to the book of Genesis 6:9 ,"Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God".^[8] However, Noah lived at a time when men became more and more corrupt, and God determined to rid the Earth of its wicked population.^[9] Because of Noah's righteousness, God entered into a covenant with him, with a promise of deliverance from the impending Deluge.^[10] He was accordingly commanded to build an ark^[11] to save himself and his family. Prior to the flood, Noah preached righteousness and tried to convince the people to repent so they could avoid the wrath of God.^[12]

The Global Flood

Main Article: Global flood

When the ark of gopher-wood (a Biblical hapax legomenon) was finally completed, the living creatures that were to be preserved entered into it. Noah was commanded to save two of each unclean (non-kosher) bird, animal and creeping thing (a male and a female) and seven of each clean (kosher) bird or animal (the additional clean creatures were used as food and sacrifices after the Deluge). Noah also stocked up on enough food to feed all the humans and animals in the Ark for a year, plus seeds to replant trees, vegetables and the like after the Deluge. After the animals were in place, Noah, his wife, his three sons, and his three daughters-in-law entered it, and then the "Lord shut him in."^[13] The judgment of God then fell on the guilty world:

Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. And the Lord said, "I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, from man to animals to creeping things and to birds of the sky; for I am sorry that I have made them. Genesis 6:5-7

Now the earth was corrupt in the sight of God, and the earth was filled with violence. And God looked on the earth, and behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth. Then God said to Noah, 'The end of all flesh has come before Me; for the earth is filled with violence because of them; and behold, I am about to destroy them with the earth.' Genesis 6:11-13

Noah's sacrifice by James Tissot.

The waters rained down from above and burst out of terrestrial fissures below, flooding the earth for 150 days. All life was blotted out from the earth (the fish, though, survived in the water) and when the waters diminished, the ark came to rest on Mount Ararat (in modern-day Turkey).^[14] To test whether the waters had indeed receded, Noah first sent out a raven and then a dove to see if these birds would find something to eat. The dove returned to him the second time with an olive leaf; the third time she did not return at all, as she found a place to build her nest.

After a year of occupancy in the ark,^[15] Noah was given permission to leave it.^[16] His first act on dry land was to erect an altar (the first altar mentioned in the Bible) and offer sacrifices of thanks and praise to God. God entered into a covenant with Noah—the first covenant between God and man—granting him possession of the earth by a new and special charter, which remains in force to the present time.^[17]^[18] As a sign and witness of this covenant, the rainbow was adopted and set apart by God as a sure pledge that the earth would never again be destroyed by a flood.

Aftermath

Genesis 9:20-27 relates that Noah planted a grapevine and, in the first mention of alcohol in the Bible, we are told that Noah drank of the wine, became drunk and uncovered himself inside his tent.^[19] Ham "saw his father's nakedness" (opinions differ on just what this means) and told his brothers about it. Ham's older brothers, Japheth and Shem, covered Noah's body with a garment, respectfully walking backwards and turning their faces.^[20] When he awoke, Noah cursed Canaan, the young son of Ham, and all his descendants.

Later life

Noah had other sons and daughters following the Flood. He lived to be 950 years11,749.854 mon
346,980.089 da old (including 350 years after the Flood) and then died.

Genealogical Placement

Logically, in this account, Noah followed Adam as the ancestor of all human beings. The New Testament's gospels trace Jesus's ancestry, though they are not fully consistent with each other or with the Old Testament; Luke follows the genealogy back to Noah^[21]

“

... the [son] of Arphaxad, the [son] of Shem, the [son] of Noah, the [son] of Lamech"

”