THE STORY DECONSTRUCTED
CONTEXT: Parallels between the
stories of Noach and the Babylonian Utnapishtim point to intertextuality but
the differences in detail and character far outweigh the similarities. A world
destroying flood featured in third millennium BCE writings of Sumer, in the
delta of the Tigris and Euphrates. The Akkadian (Babylonian) version goes back
to early in the second millennium, with the best preserved tablets from the
eighth or seventh century BCE.
The biblical Flood Story, with its
distinctive themes, issues, and theology, exists in two versions that were
knitted together by P, the priestly post exilic author and editor in the early
fifth century BCE. The J (Jahwist) version is likely from the tenth century.
The versions were similar enough that the writer was able to incorporate the
earlier version into his own version. Redundancy or occasional contradiction
seems to have concerned him less than including the J elements.
Deconstructing the writing,
following style and sequence, yields two self consistent narratives. I present
them side by side. Gaps in one side or the other indicate elements that that
version lacks.
Glosses,
editorial insertions, are enclosed in parentheses. In verses 7:8-9 and in
7:17a, a copyist attempts to harmonize the two stories. Forty is the number of
rainy days in the J story. Verse 17a makes forty the days of the flood, though
in 7:24 there is a stronger statement:150 days. I have set these faulty lines
in smaller font, acknowledging that they are there but suggesting the reader
consider them minor distraction.
I am struck by the following
parallel between our story and the earlier Akkadian account. In 8:21 Yahh
sniffs the smoke of Noach’s offering and decides never again to curse the
earth. In the Babylonian account Utnapishtim too, after letting out the
animals, offers a sacrifice. “The gods smelled the savor, / The gods smelled
the sweet savor. / The gods crowded like flies around the sacrificer.
(Gilgamesh, Tablet 11, lines 158-61, trans. Speiser, ANET, p.95) This leads to
Ea, one of the lower gods, arguing for punishing only the guilty, rather than
destroying creation. Ea had informed Utnapishtim that Enlil was about to flood
the world. The monotheistic and the polytheistic versions both involve divine
promise of never again.
Beginning with Noach, humanity
receives permission to eat meat–ctr vegetarian diet specified in “The First
Week” (Gen 1:29) and in “The Garden.” (2:16) No wonder the animals and birds
are terrified of people. (9:2) The priestly author does not mention pure and
impure animals, that Sinai restriction applying to Yisrael.(Leviticus 11) The universal
proviso for meat eating is avoiding consuming the animal’s blood, its
“life.(9:4) Compare: “Only the blood you shall not eat. Pour it like water on
the land.(Deuteronomy 12:16)
GLOSSARY: "Woman," isha, אִשָּׁה, (pl.
nashim, נָשִִׂים) can be interpreted as
"wife," as in this story, eg 6:2. I use the word as it shows up in
Hebrew and let the reader/hearer do the interpreting. The J story, 7:2, uses
the language “man and his woman” for mates among animals.
N'filim (6:4) reappear in the report
of the 12 men sent to scout the promised land. "We saw there the
N'filim, giants. . . and in our own eyes we were like grasshoppers. .
."(Numbers `13:33)
“Pure,”(7:2) designates the species
of which seven pairs of each enter the ark. The Hebrew is tahor, טהור, which is not
used in the familiar list of kosher and nonkosher animals in Leviticus 11. Tahor does appear once in Deut 14:11, in
reference to kosher birds.
"Ark,"(6:14) the word for
the floating vessel in this story, comes from the Latin Vulgate: arca, "chest," related to
"safeguard." This is a direct translation of tevah, תֵּבָה, which appears again only as the
floating basket in which the infant Moses was saved. (Exodus 2:3) It is also
common usage, based on the Vulgate (and Septuagint) to speak of the "Holy
Ark," featured in the Exodus story, though there the Hebrew reads aron, אֲרוֹן, which
also denotes a container for money and in the case of Yosef, a coffin. (Exodus
25:10, 2 Kings 12:10, Genesis 50:26)
Among the specifics of the ark
construction is a צֹהַר, tsohar.
(6:16) Classic Jewish translations render it as “window,” the word for which
occurs in the J version. (8:6) Some modern translations call it “roof.” None of
the authoritative lexicons offers convincing etymological evidence for either
translation. The context would allow either. In my imagination I picture a
skylight, but the rest of the description and the later narrative supply no
clue. So I leave the word in Hebrew as a bit of mystery.
Brit,(9:9) בְּרִית, is one of
those Hebrew words whose conventional translations are inadequate or
misleading. The word came to mean “covenant,” but in the present context it
designates “relationship,” specifically, the narrator’s projection of special
treatment by God for Noach (later, the patriarchs and all Yisrael). I think
this meaning is clear from the context.
J
6 1It
happened as humanity began to multiply over the face of the earth and
daughters were born to them 2that the sons of god saw the human
daughters as good and they took themselves women of all they chose. (3And
Yahh said, my spirit shall not judge humanity forever for he is but flesh
(and his days shall be a hundred and twenty years.)) 4The N'filim
were in the land in those days (and also afterwards) what with the sons of god
coming to the daughters of humans who bore them children. They were the
mighty ones, always men of renown.
5And
Yahh saw that human wickedness was great in the land, and that every
inclination of his thought was only evil, all day long. 6And Yahh
regretted that he had made man in the land. He was sad at heart.
7And
Yahh said: “I shall wipe the human that I created, from the face of the
earth; from human to beast to moving thing to fowl of the sky, for I have
come to regret that I made them.”
8However,
Noach found grace in the eyes of Yahh.
7 1So Yahh said
to Noach: “Come, you and all your house into the ark. You, in this
generation, I have seen to be just before Me.
2Of every pure
animal you shall take yourself seven and seven, man and his woman; and of every
animal that is not pure, two, man and his woman. 3Also of birds of
the sky seven and seven, male and female. This is to keep seed alive over all
the face of the land, 4for after seven more days I shall rain
upon the land forty days and forty nights. I shall wipe from the face of the
earth all existence I have made."
5And
Noach did as all Yahh commanded him.
7Noach entered
the ark because of the floodwater, with his sons and his woman and his sons’
women.
(8Of pure
and impure animals, and of the fowl, and of everything that moves on land, 9there
came two by two to Noach, to the ark, male and female, as God had commanded
Noach.)
16bAnd Yahh
closed him in.
10Then it
happened: at the seven days the floodwater was over the land–12the
rain was over the land forty days and forty nights. 17bThe water massed and lifted the ark so
that it rose above the land. 19The water prevailed very very much over
the land and all the high hills under the entire sky were covered.
22All in whose
nostrils was the breath of life–of all that was on dry land–died. 23He
wiped all existence from the face of the earth. From human to cattle to moving
thing to fowl of the sky–wiped off the land. There remained only Noach and those with him
in the ark.
8 2bThe rain was
shut off from the sky. 3aThe water receded from over the earth
gradually.
6It happened
at the end of forty days that Noach opened the window he had made for the
ark. 7He released the raven. It left, going out and back till the
drying of the water off the earth.
8Then
he released the dove from himself, to see if the water was lessened from off
the face of the land. 9But the dove found no resting place for its
foot since water covered the face of the whole land, so it returned to him in
the ark. He put out his hand and took it and brought it to himself in the
ark.
10He
endured another seven days and again released the dove from the ark. 11The
dove came back to him at evening and, there was a plucked olive leaf in her
mouth. Thus Noach knew that the water was diminished from off the land.
12He
endured another seven days and released the dove. It did not again return to
him at all.
13bThen Noach
turned back the covering of the ark and saw: a sight! the face of the earth
had dried.
20And Noach
built an altar to Yahh and took of every pure animal and of every pure fowl,
and sent up burnt offerings on the altar. 21And Yahh smelled the
soothing sweet aroma and said to himself: “I will not again curse the earth on account
of the human, for inclination in the human heart is evil from its youth. And
I will not again strike all life as I have done.
22All the rest
of the days of the land:
Seeding and harvest, cold and heat,
Summer and winter, day and night,
Shall not cease.”
9 18Noach’s sons
who left the ark were Shem, Cham, and Yafet. (Cham was the ancestor of
K'na'an.) 19These three were the sons of Noach and from them
dispersed, the whole land.
20And
Noach began to be a man of the earth and planted a vineyard. 21He drank
of the wine and got drunk, and uncovered himself in his tent. 22Cham,
ancestor of K'na'an, saw his father’s pudenda and told his two brothers
outside. 23So Shem and Yafet took the covering and draped it
between the two of them them, each on his shoulder. Walking backwards they
covered their father’s pudenda. (Their faces turned backwards, they did not
see their father’s pudenda.) 24When Noach woke from his wine he
knew what his small son had done to him. And he said:
25“Cursed be
K'na'an!
Slave of slaves
shall he be to his brothers.
26Blessed be
Yahh, god of Shem.
K'na'an be
slave to him.
27May God
expand Yafet
that he dwell
in tents of Shem.
K'na'an be
slave to him.
|
P
6 11The land was ruined
before God–filled with violence. 12And God saw the land as ruined for
all flesh had ruined its way upon the land.
9These are the
generations of Noach: Noach was a just man, with integrity in his
generations. Noach walked with God. And he fathered three sons: Shem, Cham,
and Yafet.
13And God said
to Noach: “An end to all flesh has come before me, for the earth filled with
violence because of them. Behold me ruining them, with the earth.
14“Make
yourself an ark of gofer boards.
You’ll make the ark with berths. Caulk it with bitumen inside and out. 15And
this is how you shall make it: three hundred cubits its length, fifty cubits
its breadth, thirty cubits its height. 16You shall make a tsohar for the ark, about a cubit you
shall finish it from above. The ark opening you shall set in its side. You
shall make it with second and third lower decks.
17“And
I, behold me bringing the flood–water over the land–to ruin from under the
sky all flesh in which is the breath of life. All on earth shall perish. 18But
with you I establish my b’rit: you
shall enter the ark, you and your sons and your woman and your sons’ women
with you.
19“And
from all that lives–from all flesh– two of each shall you bring into the ark
to keep alive with you: they shall be male and female. 20Of fowl
by its species, and of cattle by its species, of each moving thing of the
earth by its species, two of each shall come to you to keep alive. 21And
take yourself of every edible that will be eaten. You shall gather it to
yourself and it will be for eating, for you and for them.”
22And
Noach did it. As God had commanded him, he did it all.
7 6Noach was six
hundred years old when the flood happened, water over the land. 13On this very
day Noach entered the ark, along with his sons Shem, Cham, and Yafet, his woman
and his sons’ three women. 14They and every animal by species: all
the cattle by species, every moving thing that moves over the land by
species, all fowl by species–every bird, every wing. 15They came
to Noach, to the ark, two by two of all flesh in which is the breath of life.
16aAnd the arrivals, male and female of all flesh, came just as
God had commanded him.
11In the six
hundredth year of Noach’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of
the month, on this day were all the springs of the great deep split open. And
the vents of heaven were opened.
(17aAnd the flood was
forty days over the land.) 18The water prevailed and massed greatly
over the land so that the ark went over the face of the water. 20Fifteen
cubits high the water prevailed! The hills were covered.
21Then perished
all flesh that moves over the land: of fowl, cattle, animals, of swarming
things that swarm over the land, and every human. 24And the water
prevailed over the land a hundred and fifty days.
8 1Then God
remembered Noach, and every animal, all the cattle with him in the ark. So
God passed a wind over the earth, and the water subsided. 2aPlugged
were the springs of the deep and the vents of the sky.
3bAt the end of
a hundred and fifty days the water diminished. 4The ark had rested
on the seventeenth day of the seventh month, on the Ararat mountains. 5Till
the tenth month the water gradually diminished. On the first day of the
tenth month the mountain tops could be seen.
13a It happened
in his six hundred and first year, the first day of the first month, the
water dried from the land. 14In the second month, on the twenty-seventh
day, the land stood dry.
15God
spoke to Noach: 16“Leave the ark, you, and your woman, and your
sons and your sons’ women with you. 17And take out with you every
animal that is with you of all flesh, of fowl, of cattle, and of every moving
thing that moves on the land. They will swarm in the land and be fruitful,
and multiply over the land.”
18And
Noach emerged, his sons and his woman and his sons’ women with him. 19Every
animal, every moving thing, every fowl, everything that moves upon the earth,
by their families they left the ark.
9 1And God
blessed Noach and his sons, and said to them: “Be fruitful and multiply, and
fill the earth. 2Fear of you and terror be in every animal of the
land, in every fowl of the sky, among all things with which the earth moves,
and all the fish of the sea. They are given into your hand.
3“Every
moving thing that lives shall be yours for food. Like with green herbage, I have
given you all.
4But flesh
with its life–its blood–you shall not eat.
5And indeed
for your blood, for your lives, will I exact payment. From every animal
will I exact it. From a human being, from a man–his brother, will I exact a
human life.
6Who sheds
human blood,
By a human
shall his blood be shed,
For in the
Image, God made humanity.
7And you, be
fruitful, and multiply,
Swarm in the
land, and multiply in it.”
8And
God spoke to Noach and to his sons with him: 9“And I, I hereby
establish my b'rit with you and
your seed after you; 10and, along with you, every living thing: with
fowl, with cattle and with every animal of the land–from all that leave the
ark. 11I will establish my b'rit
with you that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the floodwater. There
shall not be another flood to destroy the land.
12And God said,
"This is
the sign of the b'rit I set
Between me
and you
And with you
all that lives
Through
infinite generations:
13My bow, I
have set in the cloud.
It will be
sign of b'rit
Between me
and the land.
14And it shall
be, in my beclouding
Cloud over
the land,
The bow shall
appear in the cloud
15And I shall
remember my b'rit
Which is
between me and you
And every
living thing, all flesh.
And never
again shall the water
Be flood to ruin
all flesh.
16The bow shall
be in the cloud.
I’ll see it
to remember eternal b'rit
Between God
and every living thing,
All flesh on
the land.”
17And
God said to Noach, “This is the sign of the b’rit I have established between me and all flesh that is on the
land.”
28Noach
lived after the flood three hundred and fifty years. All Noach’s days were
nine hundred and fifty years. And he died.
|
© Rabbi
David L.
Kline
http://good-to-be-a-jew.blogspot.com/
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