Reading Notes: Noah and the Ark, Part B

Readings:

The Holy Book

The Inmates of the Ark

The Flood

Noah Leaves the Ark

The Curse of Drunkenness

Noah’s Descendants Spread Abroad

The Depravity of Mankind

Nimrod

The Tower of Babel

            When reading these common stories in the Bible, the reader (including myself) never really sits and thinks about all of the details of what actually happened in these situations- we just infer that what they are telling us is the complete explanation. Nothing can go that smoothly, and Ginzberg does an excellent job at opening the mind of the reader to the sinful nature of mankind, even beloved Biblical names such as Adam and Noah, sin and are not as they seem.

Sin is not always what it seems

The Holy Book: One thing that was strange to think about was the fact that the fish didn’t have to be accounted for during the flood- I never would have thought of that on my own. To continue, this story makes Adam out to be a murderer of a child, which was very tough to read about. When sitting in Sunday school, one never really sits and thinks about how Adam and Eve didn’t possess social cues or know right from wrong when they first experienced sin.

The Inmates of the Ark/The Flood: Thinking of Noah as a power hungry dictator is another perspective I never could have put into consideration. The selection process of which animals to take on board and which to leave behind is one that is rarely thought about, simply the basic principle (two of each) is. Once on board, simple things such as feeding the animals the correct things and at the right times are not items typically discussed, but over the forty days and forty nights, Noah certainly would have had to feed the animals the correct items in order to keep the peace.

Noah Leaves the Ark: This reader portrays God as a harsh, gruesome ruler, not gentle or forgiving whatsoever. The very last passage in this really rubs the message in, saying “God enjoined particularly the command against the shedding of human blood. Whoso would shed man's blood, his blood would be shed. Even if human judges let the guilty man go free, his punishment would overtake him. He would die an unnatural death, such as he had inflicted upon his fellow-man. Yea, even beasts that slew men, even of them would the life of men be required.” This sounds unsettling and does not align with Biblical reference, but makes for the story to be a bit more interesting.

The Curse of Drunkenness: The interaction between Noah and Satan here is rather entertaining, especially when Noah agrees to go in on a business partnership to sell a holy drink with the devil himself. The comparison of man to each of the various animals depending on how much of the liquid he or she drinks was also extremely humorous:

before drink- “innocent as a lamb”

drinks moderately- “strong as a lion”

drinks more than he should- “resembles the pig”

drinks until he is drunk/intoxicated- “then he behaves like a monkey, he dances around, sings, talks obscenely, and knows not what he is doing”

Noah’s Descendants Spread Abroad/Depravity of Mankind: Noah split the earth among his sons, giving them power. Over time, the populations began to grow feisty. This was a new look on the story of Father Abraham, and his peace; the author put Abraham in an almost Godlike form, which is not what the Bible did whatsoever.

Nimrod: First off, the name Nimrod is hilarious. His father being named “Cush” made it even more hysterical. God giving him “skins” that had “wonderful property” is funny. The skins gave “he who wore them [the ability to be] both invincible and irresistible]”. Basically, God was giving a corrupt man godlike power, something dangerous. Nimrod eventually ended up being represented as horrific and Satan-like, which is a parallel to Satan himself, since he was one of God’s angels who fell.

The Tower of Babel: During the building of the tower, the author put three different types of builders into the picture (below are direct quotes from the reading)

Builder 1: “let us ascend into the heavens and wage warfare with Him”

Builder 2: “let us ascend into the heavens, set up out idols, and pay worship unto them there”

Builder 3: “let us ascend into the heavens, and ruin them with our bows and arrows”

            The author later has a woman give birth while building, proving that is all they did day in and day out. Then, before the finish there was the conception of language, which just adds to the disarray even more than before.

Bib: The Legends of the Jews by Louis Ginzberg (1909)

Book 1, Chapter 4 

Reading Notes: Noah and the Ark, Part A

Readings:

The Ark

The Flood

After the Flood

Noah: Noah’s Sons

The Tower of Babel

The Birth of Noah

The Punishment of the Fallen Angels

The Generation of the Deluge

Noah's Ark

God was not satisfied with what He was seeing on his Earth, since “the wickedness of man was great”, and He decided that he wanted to wipe out the population and start over. Noah is the lucky man whom the Lord gave mercy and grace to, allowing him and his sons and all of their wives a special opportunity to survive the flood; all they had to do is obey the Lord, trust in him and do as he commanded. It started with building an ark.

Once the ark was finished, the Lord commanded Noah to find a male and female of all animals and bring them onto the ark. When Noah was 600 years old, the flood began. The earth was wiped out, but Noah, his sons, the wives, the animals and the animals’ mates survived. The waters flooded the earth for forty days and forty nights.

At the end of the forty days, a single dove with an olive leaf in her beak was the sign that they were safe and the vapid waters were coming to an end. Very importantly, 

“the LORD said in his heart, ‘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. While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.’”

Noah and Family

Noah’s family (and all of the saved animals) now had a large job in front of them, they now had to replenish the Earth’s population. The Lord gave Noah the abilities to grow and plant, and with that Noah planted a vineyard. He became drunk and laid in it, his sons covered him up, so “they saw not their father’s nakedness”. This is an allusion to the story of Adam and Eve and a reminder that though Noah was chosen by God for this task, he is still sinful.

The generations of Noah’s family grew larger and larger even after his death. At this point, everyone spoke the same language. The Lord decided to make it so they did not understand one another, and developed language variations. All in all, destruction needed to be ceased so that the world could continue.

Bib: The King James Bible, Genesis 5-6

Feedback Thoughts

Feedback, like all things that involves communication, is a two-way street. 

The great thing about feedback is, when used accordingly, it can make something that is already pretty good into something great. When giving it, you're not supposed to be making the other person feel good (even though you should tell them what you like from their writing), you are supposed to be giving them creative criticism so they can be the best they can be.
As someone who loves to write, I take feedback seriously. Of course, I love being told that someone enjoyed my writing, but it is much more difficult for a reader to tell you what they didn't enjoy than for them to tell you what they do enjoy. I really respect those who take the time to tell you not only the bits and pieces that were strong, but also the ones that need work.