Noah

Nationality/Culture

Judeo-Christian

Pronunciation

NOH-uh

Alternate Names

None

Appears In

The Book of Genesis

Lineage

Son of Lamech

Character Overview

In the book of Genesis in the Bible, Noah was the hero chosen by God to survive a great flood on earth. According to the monotheistic religions of the Middle East, Noah and his family survived the flood in an ark he had built by God's instruction. He also saved the earth's animals by bringing two of every kind with him onto the ark. The biblical story was probably based on similar accounts of a flood in myths from Mesopotamia (pronounced mess-uh-puh-TAY-mee-uh).

According to the story in Genesis, the human race had become so wicked that God was sorry he ever created it. He decided to wash away all the creatures of the earth in a great flood. However, God saw that Noah was a righteous man, so he decided to save him. God told Noah of his plans and instructed him to build a great ark in which he could ride out the storm with his wife and children. Then he commanded Noah to find male and female specimens of every type of animal on the earth and bring them into the ark, and also to gather plants and seeds. Noah followed God's instructions and entered the ark as the rain began to fall.

It rained for forty days and forty nights, until the waters covered even the tops of the highest mountains. After the rain ended, Noah released a raven and a dove to find out whether there was any dry land on earth. Both birds returned, indicating that water still covered the planet.

Seven days later, Noah sent the dove out again. This time it returned with an olive branch, which meant that dry land had finally appeared. According to later Jewish legend, the ark came to rest on the top of Mount Ararat (in what is now Turkey), and Noah and his family emerged with all the animals.

Noah built an altar and made a sacrifice to God. God then made a covenant, or agreement, with Noah, promising never again to destroy the earth with a flood. He placed a rainbow in the sky as a reminder of this covenant.

Noah in Context

Since all other humans were destroyed in the flood, biblical scholars took this to mean that all living people were descended from the sons of Noah. In this sense, the myth is a second creation myth for Christians. In medieval times, it was accepted that each of Noah's three sons populated one of the known continents: Japheth in Europe, Shem in Asia, and Ham in Africa. Ham, shortly after the flood, had been cursed by Noah for his disrespect, and his sons were doomed to act as servants for the others. Since Ham's sons were thought to be the ancestors of all Africans, some Europeans used this myth as a justification for the enslavement of African people. It was even believed by some that the darker skin of Africans must have resulted from Ham's wickedness, since Noah's descendants would all otherwise have had the same skin color.

Key Themes and Symbols

In Christian tradition, Noah is a symbol for virtue and righteousness. This explains why God warned him of the coming flood, and why God tasked him with saving all the species in the world. In later times, many viewed the Ark as a symbol of the body of Christ or the church; this corresponds to the fact that the Ark is the only protection against God's wrath. The olive branch that the dove brings back to Noah is a symbol of salvation and the restoration of peace, since it shows that the catastrophe is over. The rainbow represents harmony with nature as God's promise to never again bring a flood to destroy the earth.

Noah in Art, Literature, and Everyday Life

Noah is one of the best-known characters in the book of Genesis. He has appeared in paintings by Michelangelo, Jacopo Bassano, and Giovanni Bellini, among others. His tale is frequently offered on its own as an example of the benefits of living a virtuous life. In modern times, the Disney animated film Fantasia 2000 contains a sequence retelling the myth of Noah with Donald Duck filling the role, while the 2007 comedy Evan Almighty casts Steve Carell as a modern-day version of Noah.

Turkish Earthquakes and the Flood

There is geological evidence that in ancient times the Bosphorus (the strait by Istanbul, Turkey, that joins the Sea of Marmara with the Black Sea) was once blocked up. The Black Sea had a water level below that of the other nearby bodies of water—the Aegean Sea and the Sea of Marmara. Evidence suggests that at some point many thousands of years in the past, a violent earthquake shook loose the rock and earth blocking the Bosphorus, allowing the water from the Aegean and the Sea of Marmara to inundate the communities surrounding the coast of the Black Sea. Indeed, archaeologists have found the remains of sunken cities deep in the Black Sea along the Turkish coast. This cataclysm may be the source of the story of the “great flood.”

Read, Write, Think, Discuss

The trials of Noah are remarkably similar to those of Utnapishtim from the ancient epic Gilgamesh. Compare the two. What events are common to both stories? In what ways are they different? Do you think this suggests that both stories come from the same source? Why or why not?

SEE ALSO Floods; Gilgamesh; Semitic Mythology