Editing Noah (section)

==Biblical narrative==
[[File:Noah mosaic.JPG|thumb|upright |12th-century Venetian [[mosaic]] depiction of Noah sending the [[dove]]]]

Tenth and final of the pre-Flood ([[antediluvian]]) Patriarchs, son to [[Lamech (father of Noah)|Lamech]] and a mother whose name is unmentioned,<ref>Fullom, S.W. (1855). [https://books.google.com/books?id=ELtYAAAAcAAJ&q=noah+mother ''The History of Woman, and Her Connexion with Religion, Civilization, & Domestic Manners, from the Earliest Period'']. p.10</ref> Noah is 500 years old before his sons [[Shem]], [[Ham, son of Noah|Ham]] and [[Japheth]] are born.<ref name=Bechtel>{{CE1913  |last=Bechtel |first=Florentine Stanislaus |title=Noe |volume=11}}</ref>

===Genesis flood narrative===
{{Main|Genesis flood narrative}}

The Genesis flood narrative is encompassed within chapters 6–9 in the [[Book of Genesis]], in the [[Bible]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Silverman|first=Jason|title=Opening Heaven's Floodgates: The Genesis Flood Narrative, Its Context, and Reception|year=2013|publisher=[[Gorgias Press]]}}</ref> The narrative indicates that [[Yahweh|God]] intended to return the [[Earth]] to its pre-Creation state of watery [[Chaos (cosmogony)|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 [[Genesis creation narrative|Creation]].<ref name="Bandstra2008">{{cite book|author=Barry L. Bandstra|title=Reading the Old Testament: Introduction to the Hebrew Bible|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vRY9mTUZKJcC&pg=PR19|date=2008|publisher=Cengage Learning|isbn=978-0-495-39105-0|page=61}}</ref> The narrative discusses the evil of mankind that moved God to destroy the world by 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.{{sfn|Cotter|2003|pp=49, 50}}

===After the flood===
{{Main|Covenant (biblical)#Noahic}}

After the flood, Noah offered burnt offerings to God. God accepted the sacrifice, and made a covenant with Noah, and through him with all mankind, that he would not waste the earth or destroy man by another deluge.<ref name=Bechtel/>

"And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth".<ref>{{bibleverse||Genesis|9:1|9}}</ref> As a pledge of this gracious covenant with man and beast the [[rainbow covenant|rainbow]] was set in the clouds (ib. viii. 15–22, ix. 8–17). Two injunctions were laid upon Noah: While the eating of animal food was permitted, abstinence from blood was strictly enjoined; and the shedding of the blood of man by man was made a crime punishable by death at the hands of man (ib. ix. 3–6).<ref name=JewishEnyc/>

Noah, as the last of the extremely long-lived [[Antediluvian]] patriarchs, died 350 years after the flood, at the age of 950, when [[Terah]] was 128.<ref name=Bechtel/> The maximum human lifespan, as depicted by the Bible, gradually diminishes thereafter, from almost 1,000 years to the 120 years of [[Moses]].<ref>{{bibleverse|Gen|6:3|9|Genesis 6:3}}</ref><ref>{{bibleverse|Deut|31:22|9|Deuteronomy 31:22}}, {{bibleverse|Deut|34:37|9|34:37}}</ref>

===Noah's drunkenness===
{{see also|Curse of Ham}}
[[File:Egerton Genesis Noahs Drunkeness.png|thumb|left|upright|Noah's drunkenness, Ham mocks Noah, Noah is covered, Canaan is cursed. Egerton Genesis.]]

After the flood, the Bible says that Noah became a [[farmer]] and he planted a [[vineyard]]. He drank [[wine]] made from this vineyard, and got [[Alcohol intoxication|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 [[Curse of Ham|Canaan being cursed]] by Noah.<ref name=JewishEnyc/>

As early as the [[Classical era]], commentators on Genesis 9:20–21<ref>{{Bibleverse||Genesis|9:20–21|HE}}</ref> have excused Noah's excessive drinking because he was considered to be the first wine drinker; the first person to discover the effects of wine.<ref>{{cite book | last=Rashkow | first=Ilona | chapter=Sexuality in the Hebrew Bible: Freud's Lens <!-- | pages=33-74 --> | editor-last=Ellens | editor-first=J. Harold | editor-last2=Rollins | editor-first2=Wayne G. | year=2004 | title=Psychology and the Bible: From Feud to Kohut | series=Psychology and the Bible: A New Way to Read the Scriptures <!--  Praeger Perspectives --> | volume=1 | publication-place=Westport, Connecticut | publisher=[[Praeger Publishers]] | isbn=978-0-275-98348-2 | page=52}}</ref> [[John Chrysostom]], [[Archbishop of Constantinople]], and a [[Church Father]], wrote in the 4th century that Noah's behavior is defensible: as the first human to taste wine, he would not know its effects: "Through ignorance and inexperience of the proper amount to drink, fell into a drunken stupor".{{sfn|Hamilton|1990|pp=202–203}} [[Philo]], a [[Hellenistic philosophy|Hellenistic]] Jewish philosopher, also excused Noah by noting that one can drink in two different manners: (1) to drink wine in excess, a peculiar sin to the vicious evil man or (2) to partake of wine as the wise man, Noah being the latter.<ref>''Philo'', 1971, p. 160.</ref> In [[Jewish tradition]] and [[Noah in rabbinic literature#His lapse|rabbinic literature on Noah]], rabbis blame [[Satan]] for the intoxicating properties of the wine.<ref>Gen. Rabbah 36:3.</ref><ref name=JewishEnyc>{{Cite web|url=http://jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/11571-noah|title=NOAH - JewishEncyclopedia.com|website=jewishencyclopedia.com}}</ref>

[[File:Noah-Curses-Ham.jpg|thumb|upright|''Noah curses Ham'' by [[Gustave Doré]]]]

In the context of Noah's drunkenness,<ref>{{Bibleverse||Genesis|9:18–27|HE}}.</ref> relates two facts: (1) Noah became drunken and "he was uncovered within his tent", and (2) [[Ham (son of Noah)|Ham]] "saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brethren without".{{sfn|Rashkow|2004|p=53}}<ref name="Bergsma/Hahn"/>

Because of its brevity and textual inconsistencies, it has been suggested that this narrative is a "splinter from a more substantial tale".{{sfn|Speiser|1964|p=62}}<ref>T. A. Bergren. ''Biblical Figures Outside the Bible'', 2002, ({{ISBN|1563384116}}, {{ISBN|978-1-56338-411-0}}), p. 136.</ref> A fuller account would explain what exactly Ham had done to his father, or why Noah directed a curse at [[Canaan (son of Ham)|Canaan]] for Ham's misdeed, or how Noah realised what had occurred. In the field of [[psychological biblical criticism]], [[J. Harold Ellens|J. H. Ellens]] and W. G. Rollins have analysed the unconventional behavior that occurs between Noah and Ham as revolving around sexuality and the exposure of genitalia as compared with other Hebrew Bible texts, such as Habakkuk 2:15<ref>{{Bibleverse|Habakkuk|2:15|HE}}</ref> and Lamentations 4:21.<ref>{{Bibleverse|Lamentations|4:21|HE}}</ref>{{sfn|Rashkow|2004|p=53}}

Other commentaries mention that "uncovering someone's nakedness" could mean having [[sexual intercourse]] with that person or that person's spouse, as quoted in Leviticus 18:7–8<ref>{{Bibleverse|Leviticus|18:7–8|HE}}</ref> and 20.<ref>{{Bibleverse|Leviticus|20:11|HE}}</ref> From this interpretation comes the speculation that Ham was guilty of engaging in incest and raping Noah{{sfn|Levenson|2004|p=26}} or his own mother. The latter interpretation would clarify why Canaan, as the product of this illicit union, was cursed by Noah.<ref name="Bergsma/Hahn">John Sietze Bergsma/Scott Walker Hahn. 2005. "Noah's Nakedness and the Curse on Canaan". ''Journal Biblical Literature'' 124/1 (2005), pp. 25–40.</ref> Alternatively, Canaan could be the perpetrator himself as the Bible describes the illicit deed being committed by Noah's "youngest son", with Ham being consistently described as the middle son in other verses.<ref name="Kugle_1998_223">{{harvnb|Kugel|1998|p=223}}.</ref>

===Table of nations===
{{See also|Generations of Noah}}
[[File:Noahsworld map.jpg|thumb|upright|The dispersion of the descendants of Shem, Ham, and Japheth (map from the 1854 ''Historical Textbook and Atlas of Biblical Geography'')]]

Genesis 10<ref>{{Bibleverse||Genesis|10|HE}}</ref> sets forth the descendants of Shem, Ham, and Japheth, from whom the nations branched out over the Earth after the flood. Among Japheth's descendants were the maritime nations (10:2–5). Ham's son [[Biblical Cush|Cush]] had a son named [[Nimrod]], who became the first man of might on earth, a hunter, king in [[Babylon]] and the land of [[Shinar]] (10:6–10). From there [[Ashur (Bible)|Ashur]] went and built [[Nineveh]]. (10:11–12) Canaan's descendants{{snd}} Sidon, [[Biblical Hittites|Heth]], the [[Jebusite]]s, the [[Amorite]]s, the Girgashites, the [[Hivites]], the Arkites, the Sinites, the Arvadites, the Zemarites, and the Hamathites{{snd}} spread out from [[Sidon]] as far as [[Gerar]], near [[Gaza City|Gaza]], and as far as [[Sodom and Gomorrah]] (10:15–19). Among Shem's descendants was [[Eber]] (10:21).

These genealogies differ structurally from those set out in Genesis 5 and 11. It has a segmented or treelike structure, going from one father to many offspring. It is strange that the table, which assumes that the population is distributed about the Earth, precedes the account of the [[Tower of Babel]], which says that all the population is in one place before it is dispersed.<ref>{{citation |last=Bandstra |first=B. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vRY9mTUZKJcC&q=%22table+of+nations%22+noah&pg=PA67 |title=Reading the Old Testament: Introduction to the Hebrew Bible |publisher= Cengage Learning |year=2008 |pages= 67–68|isbn=978-0495391050 }}</ref>

===Family tree===
Genesis 5:1–32 transmits a genealogy of the Sethites down to Noah, which is taken from the [[Priestly source|priestly]] tradition.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Genesis: A Commentary|last=von Rad|first=Gerhard|publisher=[[SCM Press]]|year=1961|location=London|pages=67–73}}</ref> A genealogy of the Canites from the [[Jahwist|Jahwistic]] tradition is found in Genesis 4:17–26.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Genesis: A Commentary|last=von Rad|first=Gerhard|publisher=[[SCM Press]]|year=1961|location=London|pages=109–113}}</ref> Biblical scholars see these as variants on one and the same list.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Genesis: A Commentary|last=von Rad|first=Gerhard|publisher=[[SCM Press]]|year=1961|location=London|page=71}}</ref> However, if we take the merged text of Genesis as a single account, we can construct the following family tree, which has come down in this form into the Jewish and Christian traditions.

{{AdamtoNoah}}

===Narrative analysis===
According to the [[documentary hypothesis]], the first [[Five Books Of Moses|five books of the Bible]] ([[Pentateuch]]/[[Torah]]), including Genesis, were collated during the 5th century BC from four main sources, which themselves date from no earlier than the 10th century BC. Two of these, the [[Jahwist]], composed in the 10th century BC, and the [[Priestly source]], from the late 7th century BC, make up the chapters of Genesis which concern Noah. The attempt by the 5th-century editor to accommodate two independent and sometimes conflicting sources accounts for the confusion over such matters as how many of each animal Noah took, and how long the flood lasted.<ref>{{cite book |title= Introduction to the Hebrew Bible|last= Collins|first= John J.|year= 2004|publisher= Fortress Press|location= Minneapolis|isbn= 0-8006-2991-4|pages= 56–57}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title= Who Wrote the Bible?|last= Friedman|first= Richard Elliotty|year= 1989|publisher= HarperCollins Publishers|location= New York|isbn= 0-06-063035-3|page= [https://archive.org/details/whowrotebible000frie/page/59 59]|url-access= registration|url= https://archive.org/details/whowrotebible000frie/page/59}}</ref>

''The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Books of the Bible'' notes that this story echoes parts of the [[Garden of Eden]] story: Noah is the first vintner, while Adam is the first farmer; both have problems with their produce; both stories involve nakedness; and both involve a division between brothers leading to a curse. However, after the flood, the stories differ. It is Noah, not God, who plants the vineyard and utters the curse, so "God is less involved".<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=SNFMAgAAQBAJ&q=noah+&pg=PA334 ''The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Books of the Bible''], Oxford University Press, 2011, p. 318.</ref>