Noah

In the Pentateuch

Before the Flood ( Genesis 6: 8-22 )

According to Genesis , Noah “found grace in the eyes of the Lord” ( Genesis 6: 8 ), because he was “a righteous and blameless man in his kind ” and “walked before God” ( Genesis 6: 9 ). For his righteousness, Noah and his family were chosen by God to restore the human race after the Flood , which was the divine punishment for the moral decline of mankind. God informed Noah in advance of his decision to exterminate all life on earth and gave precise instructions on how to build an Ark - a ship made of gopher wood (possibly cypress or cedar ^[6] ), capable of surviving the upcoming flood - and equipping it for a long voyage.

Flood ( Genesis 7: 1 - 8:17 )

When the preparations were finished, God ordered Noah to take a pair of animals and birds from each species to the ark, and “clean” (that is, suitable for sacrifice) seven pairs “to preserve the tribe for the whole earth” ( Gen. . 7: 3 ). Together with Noah, his family also entered the ark: a wife and three sons with wives.

On the 17th day of the second month, “all the springs of the great abyss were opened, and the windows of heaven opened” ( Genesis 7:11 ) and the waters fell upon the earth. The flood lasted 40 days and nights, after which the waters lifted the ark, and it swam ( Genesis 7: 17,18 ). The water stood so high that the ark floating on its surface was higher than the mountain peaks. All life on earth died in the waters of the flood, only Noah and his companions remained. Only after 150 days the water began to decrease, and soon, on the 17th day of the seventh month, the ark stopped, descending on the cliffs of the Ararat mountains (5000 meters above sea level). However, the peaks of other mountains appeared only on the first day of the tenth month, after which Noah waited another 40 days and released a raven. However, the raven, not finding land, each time returned back until the surface of the earth appeared.

After that, Noah threw a dove three times (with interruptions of seven days). The first time the pigeon also returned with nothing, the second - it brought a fresh oil leaf in its beak, indicating that "the water came down from the earth." The third time the pigeon did not return. The earth dried out by the first day of the first month, but the earth finally dried out only on the 27th day of the second month. Then Noah was finally able to leave the ship, and his descendants again populated the land.

Testament with God ( Genesis 8:18 - 9:17 )

Coming out of the ark by the mountains of Ararat ( Genesis 8: 4 ), Noah took "from all cattle clean and from all clean birds and offered him a burnt offering on the altar" ( Genesis 8:20 ) in gratitude for his deliverance. Here, for the first time in the Bible , animal sacrifice appears as a burnt offering . God promised to restore the old order of things to the world and never to devastate the earth again for people's guilt. After that, God blessed Noah, his descendants (that is, all the post-flood humanity) and all creation on earth ( Genesis 9: 1-17 ) and gave humanity a series of moral laws . In conclusion, the Lord promised Noah to no longer destroy the human race by the waters of the flood, and a rainbow shone as a sign of the divine Testament with people in heaven.

After the Flood ( Genesis 9: 18–29 )

According to the Bible, coming out of the ark, Noah set about cultivating the land, planted a vineyard, and invented the art of making wine ( Genesis 9:20 ). Once, when Noah got drunk and lay naked in his tent, his son Ham (probably with his son Canaan ) saw “his father’s nakedness,” and leaving his father naked, he hastened to tell his two brothers about this. “But Shem and Japheth took the garment, and laying it on their shoulders, went backwards and covered the nakedness of their father; their faces were turned back, and they did not see the nakedness of their father. ” ( Genesis 9:23 ) For their disrespect, Noah cursed the son of Ham, Canaan and his descendants, announcing that they would be slaves of Shem and Japheth . Noah blessed his two other sons: “May God spread Japheth, and may he dwell in the tents of Shem” ( Genesis 9:27 ).

After the flood, Noah lived another 350 years and died at the age of 950 years ( Genesis 9:29 ).

Noah's Children and Offspring ( Genesis 10 )

According to the biblical pedigree , Noah is the ancestor of all the peoples of the world, which are divided into three main groups:

• descendants of Shem ( Semites , now an obsolete term, see Afrasian family );
• descendants of Hama ( Hamites , now an obsolete term);
• descendants of Japheth (very roughly correlated with some groups of Indo-European peoples ).

Other Old Testament Texts

Noah is also mentioned in the Book of the Prophet Ezekiel ( 14: 14–20 ) as one of the three righteous people of antiquity, along with Daniel and Job .

In the Apocrypha of the Old Testament

In addition to the canonical books of the Bible , the story of the flood is also contained in the late Apocrypha . The most famous was the Book of Enoch . The story in the main lines coincides with that set out in Genesis . The reason for the flood, according to the Book of Enoch, was the confusion of angels with the daughters of men, resulting in giants (nephilim), which caused social inequality and oppression, wars, the spread of magic and witchcraft among people, the decline of morals.

Syrakid also mentions Noah ( Sir. 44: 16-18 ).

New Testament

The New Testament refers to the time of Noah in the story of the second coming of Christ , warning people from unbelief and carelessness:

The apostle Peter calls Noah a preacher of truth and in his salvation from the flood in the ark he sees an indication of the possibility of spiritual salvation through baptism ( 2 Peter 2: 5 ). The apostle Paul also cites Noah’s example as an example of faith: “he condemned (the whole) world by it, and became the heir of righteousness by faith” ( Heb. 11: 7 ).

In the apocrypha of the New Testament

Noah is mentioned in one of the apocrypha of the New Testament - “The Revelation of Paul ” ^[7] , as well as in the “ Books of Sibyl ”.

In the Quran

In the Qur'an, Noah is called Nuh and is revered in Islam as the first of the five major prophets of Allah , as well as one of the first so-called prophets of destruction ^[8] . Nuh was sent by God to fellow idolaters, so that they believed in one Allah and abandoned paganism . The fellow tribesmen drove Nuha out ( Quran 71:23) and he prayed: “ Lord! Do not leave a single unfaithful on earth! "(71:26). Through the prayer of Nuha, Allah sent a flood to the earth (54:11). Nuh along with believers in Allah and many animals was saved in the ark, nailed from planks with nails.

Noah, according to the Bible, was a descendant of Adam in the tenth generation.

According to the Masoretic (Jewish) text, Noah was born in 1056 (according to the Septuagint - in 1662) from the Creation of the world . Its age, like other antediluvian patriarchs, is hundreds of years old: by the time the Ark was built, Noah was 500 years old and Noah already had three sons, 600 by the beginning of the flood, and all the years of Noah's life were 950 years old.

According to Jewish tradition, all dates in the Bible correspond to the lunar months of the Jewish calendar . Thus, the flood lasted 11 days more than the lunar year, which corresponds to the whole solar year ^[9] .

Researchers believe that Noah, as a character of the flood legend, originated on the basis of more ancient written monuments in Mesopotamian culture, such as Ziusudra and Utnapishtim . For more information, see The Origin of the Biblical History of the Flood .

The history of Noah, described in the Holy Scriptures, was supplemented by various nations with numerous legends, which were borrowed by other nations and had a narrow local popularity.

In Jewish tradition

Although the Pentateuch emphasizes Noah's righteousness, it lacks details about his personality. Haggadah fills this gap with numerous stories about the righteous deeds of Noah before and during the flood.

Before the Flood

The late fatherhood of Noah is explained in legends by the fact that, foreseeing the death of mankind, he did not want to have children and married only at the behest of God ^[10] . Noah’s wife is usually identified with Noah (Naama), daughter of Lamech and sister of Tubal-Cain (Tuval-Cain) ^[11] . However, in the Book of Jubilees ^[12] she is called Emzarag , the daughter of Rakiel and sister of Noah ^[13] . According to tradition, Shem (Shem) was the first-born, Ham was born a year later, and Japheth - a year after Ham ^[14] .

According to the Midrash of Tanhum ^[15] , Noah appears as a cultural hero : he taught people to use a plow , sickle , ax and other implements. It is noted that his fingers were adapted for quick physical work, which helped him in carpentry work over the ark.

According to tradition, Noah’s love for people was also expressed in the fact that he called them to repentance and postponed the construction of the ark until the trees planted by him for the construction of the ark grew, in the hope that people in the meantime would go astray ^[16] .

Noah planted cedars, and said to him: "Why do you need these cedars?" And he answered: "Holy, blessed, He decided to bring a flood to the earth and ordered me to make an ark so that I and my house would be saved." And they laughed at him and scoffed at his speeches. And he watered those cedars, and they grew. And they asked him: "What are you doing?" And he answered them the same. And they scoffed. Towards the end of his days, he cut down trees and began to saw them. And they said to him: “What are you doing?” And he answered them, and warned them. But <...> they did not repent ...

- “ Midrash Tanhuma ”, section “Hoax” 5

Flood

According to the Midrash , Noah learned to build the ark from the book “ Sepher ha-razim ”, transmitted by the angel Raziel , which contained all human and divine knowledge. This book was made of sapphires , and Noah enclosed it in a golden casket. In the ark, she replaced Noah's watch to distinguish day from night, because while the flood lasted, the sun and moon were hidden by clouds ^[17] . Another midrash says that Noah had a gem in the ark that illuminated the entire inside of the ark.

One legendary creature, called “ Rey, ” turned out to be of such enormous size that there was no place for it in the ark, and therefore it was tied by Noah to the ark from the outside ^[17] .

In the legends about the flood, the legendary giant Og also acts - Tsar Bashansky , who also could not fit inside the ship and sat on the roof, thus escaping from the flood. Noah served Ogu food through a hole in the roof.

Haggadah ^{[17] [18]} relates that one strange couple, Lies and Misfortunes, also found refuge in the ark. At first, the Falsehood approached alone to the ark, but they did not let it in, on the grounds that entry was allowed only for couples. Then she left and, meeting with the misfortune, persuaded him to join her, after which they were let in both.

Noah's righteousness was fully manifested during the flood, when he had to take care of the animals in the ark. For a whole year, Noah knew no rest day or night, thereby proving that he was worthy to become the progenitor of a new humanity. Midrash describes this as follows:

All twelve months spent in the ark, Noah was not confined, neither he himself nor his sons, day or night. Because he constantly cared for the animals that were with him, and fed them, giving each beast and bird their food at their usual hours. There are animals who eat in the first hour of the day, there are those who [eat] in the second, there are those who [eat] in the last third of the night, and he gave everyone their food at the right time

- Talmud , Sanhedrin 108b; Midrash Tanhuma , published by S. Buber (1885), 58: 2

Tradition tells us that once, when Noah brought lunch to a lion not so soon, he struck the patriarch with such a force that he remained lame for life ^[17] .

On the tenth day of the month, Tammuz Noah released a raven to see if the flood had stopped. But the raven found a corpse floating in the water and began to devour it; Carried away by this occupation, he forgot to return to Noah with a report. A week later, Noah released a dove, which after the third flight finally returned, holding an olive leaf in its beak, which he plucked on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem , where there was no flood ^[17] .

The Book of Zohar tells us that Noah, coming out of the ark to dry land, cried at the sight of the general devastation caused by the flood, and exclaimed: “Creator, You are called merciful. You should have shown mercy to your Creation. ” “An unreasonable shepherd,” the Creator answered him. “Are you telling me this now?” <...> Why did you remain silent when I said that there would be a Flood and ordered you to build an ark? I put off the punishment for a long time, waiting for when you ask Me to show mercy to people. And you do it only now, when the world is already destroyed ... ” ^[19]

After the Flood

In the Talmud and Midrash, a parallel repeatedly arises between Noah’s wine drinking and the fall of Adam , since grapes in Jewish tradition are associated with the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil :

The Lord said to Noah: “Noah! Shouldn't you have learned from Adam, because the cause [of his fall] was nothing but the wine? ”It is said:“ the tree that Adam tasted of was grapes . ”

- Talmud , Sanhedrin 70a, b

According to Targum Pseudo-Jonathan ^[20] , the vine that Noah planted was brought by the river from the Garden of Eden .

Noah’s curse by the offspring of Canaan, the son of Ham , Midrash ^[21] motivates the fact that Ham did not limit himself to ridicule his father, but cursed Noah, depriving him of the opportunity to give birth to new sons (in addition to the three available), who would also take part in the division of the world . This explains the fact that Noah cursed the fourth son of Ham - Canaan. Since Noah assigned the slave inheritance to the descendants of Ham, he thus turns out to be the founder of the institution of slavery , which is disapproved by the post-biblical tradition ^[22] .

The legend also discusses the question of why Noah’s life span is 50 years before the millennium that he was worthy to live. According to the Midrash, Noah voluntarily sacrificed 50 years of his life to Moses , just as Adam did before, giving, according to this version, Moses 70 years of age ^[23] .

In Christian Legends and Traditions

Armenian legends about the grave of Noah

Long -standing legends about Noah are widespread among Armenians . A number of Armenian legends are associated with Ararat and the Ararat Valley, in addition to leaving the ark, there is also a story about Noah's planting a vineyard, his intoxication and the first sacrifice. The city of Nakhichevan (now the territory of Azerbaijan ), located in the valley, is traditionally considered to be founded by Noah, and folk etymology associates the name of the city with his name (cf. Heb. "Noach" ). Thus, Nakhchivan becomes the first city founded after the Flood. Nakhchivan is also considered the site of the last resting place of Noah. The fact that Noah was buried in Nakhichevan is one of the first to be mentioned by a chronicler of the 13th century. Vardan Areveltsi in the work "Ashkharatsuyts", dedicated to the geography of Armenia and neighboring countries. He places the tomb of Noah’s wife, whom Noemsar calls, in the nearby Marand .

Mention of the tomb of Noah, which was the site of a popular pilgrimage, is contained in the notes of many foreign, Russian and Armenian travelers and scholars of the XIX century.

The tomb of Noah with a dilapidated dome, octagonal inside, with a diameter of 10-12. One side lined with bricks has survived, as can be seen in the figure. Every day Christian, Jewish, and Muslim pilgrims come here with incense and candles, the cinders of which are scattered around, and it turned black from grease and smoke. Naive people believe that not only Noah, but also his sons are buried in Nakhichevan.

- Gevond Alishan , Sisakan, 1893

The tomb of Noah and the buildings associated with it were also described in detail by the Russian enlightener K. A. Nikitin in the 1880s and the researcher V. M. Sysoev , as having a division into underground and above-ground parts typical of Turkic tombs. During the years of Soviet rule, these historical monuments were destroyed. In 2010, the Mausoleum of Noah was restored.

However, modern science believes that the Ararat mountains may not be mountains, among which is Mount Ararat.

Syrian Apocrypha

In the Syrian apocryphal work “ Cave of Treasures ” ( 7th century ), it is said that Noah took the remains of the first man, Adam , to the ark to save them from the flood. Noah later instructed his son Sim to bury Adam's skull, which he did in Jerusalem , which was considered the center of the earth. Therefore, the Christian sacred Tradition believes that at the time of the crucifixion of Christ, his blood washed the skull of Adam, buried at Calvary .

From another story, you can draw some interesting information about the internal structure of the ark. Cattle and animals were placed separately in the hold; the middle deck was occupied by birds, and on the upper deck Noah and his family settled down. Men were strictly separated from women. The patriarch and his sons occupied the eastern part of the ark, and the wife of Noah and the wives of his sons occupied the western part; between the two in the form of a barrier lay the dead body of Adam, which thus avoided death in the water element. This story, which also reports on the exact dimensions of the ark at the elbows, as well as the exact day of the week and month when the survivors went ashore, was borrowed from an Arabic manuscript found in the library of St. Catherine’s Monastery on Mount Sinai . The author of the story was, apparently, an Arab Christian living in the era of the Muslim conquest, although the manuscript itself dates to a later time ^[17] .

In the Gnostic Apocrypha

According to the Apocrypha of John ^[24] , the archons decided to " create a flood and destroy all flesh, from man to animal ." The Archon of Silas reported these plans to Noah and advised him: “ Make yourself an ark from a rotting tree, and hide yourself in it with your children, with animals, with small and large birds of heaven, and set it on Mount Syr .” However, this ark was burned by Oreus (Norea), after which Noah made another ark. Noah also told the people about the flood, but most did not believe him. According to this version, Noah ultimately took refuge not in the ark, but in a "cloud of light" along with some people of the "immortal race" who followed him.

Ethiopian legends of the birth of Noah

Legendary material highlights several aspects of Noah's life. In particular, it tells about his birth: the body of a newborn baby illuminates the whole house with bright light, the baby immediately rises to his feet and begins to pray. After this, his grandfather Methuselah , amazed, goes to the ends of the earth to meet Enoch , from whom he learns about the future fate of the boy and gives him a name (according to the Ethiopian version of Enoch’s book) ^[25] .

Slavic Apocrypha

In ancient Russian literature, the tale of the flood was popular, combined with the tale of how the devil tried to stop Noah from building an ark, and then tricked into it. This story, called "About the Flood" , was placed in Paley and other collections and is known in manuscripts from the 15th century (Barsovskaya Paleya, a collection of the monk of the Cyril and Belozersky Monastery Efrosin, "The Word of the Holy Father Methodius of Patara about the Last Times").

According to this apocrypha , the devil forced Noah's wife to deceive her husband about the construction of the ark entrusted to him by God, and then tried to interfere with the construction. After the construction was completed, the devil hid under the hem of her dress and with it entered the ark, where, turning into a mouse, he tried to gnaw at the bottom of the ark. However, through Noah's prayer, God sent a cat and a cat to kill the mouse. The apocrypha ends with the blessing by God of Noah and his offspring. In a fairy tale that emerged from this apocrypha (see “The Pigeon Book ”), Noah’s wife is called Evga , and so that she can learn about the task given to her husband by God, the devil teaches her how to make vodka , which she gives her husband a drink, and he tells her about the ark. In another text, this is “kvass mixed with grass” ( “Conversation between father and son about female malice” ^[26] , XVII century).

In the Old Believers, the ascribed to St. Methodius Patarsky apocryphal "The word of the holy father Methodius Patarsky about the last times" ^[27] . In addition to the stories mentioned above about how Noah’s wife, in a devilish instigation, drank him with a stupefying herbal drink, and how the cat and cat, born from the nostrils of a fierce beast , saved the ark, the Word reports that Noah had a fourth son named Mount .

In Muslim Tradition

The later legends about the Prophet of Allah, Nuha and the ark built by him, are set forth differently. For example, Mount al-Judi (interpreters of the Koran, this mountain was either Mesopotamia, then identified with Ararat), on which, according to the Qur'an (11:46), when the “water came down”, the ark stopped, they began to place it outside of Nejd, in Arabia as in the old Arabic sources ^[28] , but on the “Cirda that separates Armenia from Kurdistan” ^{[29] [30]} . The tafsirs contain many stories about the flood, including the story of the giant Uge, who clung to the ark and escaped. Thanks to the tafsirs, the names of the sons of Nukh who escaped with him became known: Ark, Sam, Ham and Japheth. The wife of Nuh is represented in tafsirs as a sinner, who considered him crazy and belittled the mission of the prophet ^[8] .

According to legend, the whole family of Nuh gathered on the ark, except for the wife and one of the sons named Yam. He refused to swim with his father, hoping to escape on the mountain, and died. At the end of the flood, Nuh asked Allah to return his dead son, but Allah did not heed his prayers, since the unbelieving son no longer belonged to the Nuh family. This episode, which is not in the Bible, gives a special coloring to the messages of the Qur'an: punishment for unbelievers is inevitable ^[8] .

In Judaism

Flood Reasons

Jewish commentators ^[31] see in the expression “the earth was corrupted before God, and the earth was filled with atrocities” ( Gen. 6:11 ) an indication of the ultimate moral degradation of mankind: “corrupted” means sexual perversions , and “the earth was filled with atrocities” - social injustice ^[32] . At the same time, the Talmud ^[33] draws attention to the fact that in the speech of the Almighty, addressed to Noah, in which the Lord first pronounces his sentence on humanity, only the second sin is mentioned: “And the [Lord] God told Noah ... for the earth was filled with them atrocities; and behold, I will destroy them from the earth ” ( Genesis 6:13 ).

Look how great the [punishment for] robbery, for the generation that lived during the flood violated all [human commandments], but the verdict was signed only when they began to [intensely] rob: “ And God said ... for the earth was filled with robbery ... and I will destroy them from the earth. "

- Talmud , Sanhedrin 108a

Noah's Righteousness

The lawyers of the Talmud draw parallels between Noah and Abraham , emphasizing not only the similarities, but also the difference between the two righteous.

• Thus, interpreting the verse “Noah was a righteous man and an immaculate man in his own way” ( Genesis 6: 9 ), the Talmudic lawmakers disagree ^[33] . Some sages understand this expression as praise for Noah: even despite the complete depravity that prevailed throughout the world at that time, he managed to remain unsullied and unspoiled by the process of moral degradation of society. At the same time, others see here a hidden reproach to Noah, who belonged to a generation, in which the righteous man was called, preserving only elementary decency: “ In his generation (kind) he was righteous, but if he lived in the generation of Abraham, he would not deserve it even mentioning ” ^[33] Thus, it is emphasized that the spiritual level of a person is generally determined relative to the general atmosphere of life in which he was born, grew up and lives.
• Commentators ^[34] also indicate that it is said about Noah: “אֶת-הָאֱלֹהִים, הִתְהַלֶּךְ-נֹחַ” ( Genesis 6: 9 ) (literally “walked with God”), while the Lord says to Abraham, “walk before Me ” ( Genesis 17: 1 ). As an example, the following figurative description is given: the father takes a small child by the hand and leads him to teach him how to walk, but an older child who knows how to keep his feet well, he allows him to go in front of him. Thus, this indicates that Abraham was spiritually stronger than Noah.
• Jewish tradition ^[19] reproaches Noah for missing the chance to pray to God for the salvation of mankind - unlike Abraham, who prayed for the salvation of the inhabitants of Sodom , and Moses prayed for mercy on his people. The Prophet Isaiah (Yeshayahu) calls the Flood “the waters of Noah” ( Isa. 54: 9 ). The author of the Book of Zohar explains that this is a hidden condemnation of Noah, an indication that he was the cause of the Flood.

Flood

According to Jewish legend ^[35] , the construction of the ark took Noah 120 years (according to one version, the trees for the ark were also planted by Noah), although the Most High could save Noah with His One word or speed up his work miraculously. This is because the Lord wanted to give people the opportunity to repent of their sins and correct their behavior. Noah's contemporaries had the opportunity to observe his work. When asked what he was doing, Noah explained that God had pronounced the verdict on the destruction of mankind, and if people did not change their minds, after 120 years they would be destroyed in the waters of the flood. Nevertheless, everyone laughed at Noah, not giving his words any meaning ^[36] .

However, commentators emphasize that the decision of the Almighty to destroy all life on earth was not irrevocable. When the ark was completed, the Lord gave Noah’s contemporaries one last opportunity to come to their senses: “it poured rain on the earth” ( Genesis 7:12 ) and only after five verses: “And the flood continued on the earth” ( Genesis 7:17 ). Rashi explains: “When he sent them down (rains), he sent down first out of mercy [rain, coveted and gracious]. If they returned [to God, having abandoned their crimes, the flood would not have happened, and] the rains would have remained rains of blessing. When they did not repent, the rains turned into a flood ” ^[37] .

Testament with God

Jewish law teachers composed a special blessing that they utter when they see the rainbow , which after the Flood became a symbol of God's covenant with humanity: " Blessed are you, the Most High, Lord of the universe, not forgetting the union [with Noah] and faithful to your union and keeping your promises ."

The Seven Laws of Noah's Descendants

According to the ideas of Judaism ^[38] , the Seven laws of the descendants of Noah are considered a necessary minimum of the commandments that God assigned through Adam and Noah to all of humanity.

1. The Prohibition of Idolatry - Belief in One God
2. Ban Blasphemy - Honoring God
3. The prohibition of killing - respect for human life
4. Prohibition of adultery - respect for the family
5. Prohibition of theft - respect for the property of one's neighbor
6. Prohibition of eating flesh cut off from a living animal - respect for living things
7. Duty to create a fair judiciary

Maimonides believes that all the nations of the world are obliged to accept the laws of the descendants of Noah, and confirms that every non-Jew observing these laws will enter the kingdom of heaven ^[39] .

In Christianity

Saved from the flood, Noah serves in Christianity as a prototype of the new humanity and thereby portends Christ. His salvation in the flood anticipates the salvation of people by the waters of baptism : “... in the days of Noah, during the building of the ark, in which few, that is, eight souls, were saved from the water. So we are now baptized like this image ... ” ( 1 Peter 3: 20-21 ). John Damascene, in his essay " An Accurate Presentation of the Orthodox Faith, " calls the flood the first baptism and believes that " under Noah God washed the sin of the world, " and the flood itself calls the first of five biblical "baptisms" ^[40] .

In the Christian tradition, Noah is considered, first of all, as a type of a person saved in Christ. Accordingly, since the flood itself is regarded as a type of baptism, the ark becomes a type of the Church, floating through the stormy abysses of sin and saving thirsty for salvation. Filaret formulated this interpretation in his “ Extensive Christian Catechism ”: “ Everyone who escaped from the global flood was saved only in Noah’s ark: so everyone who receives eternal salvation finds it in a single Catholic Church ” ^[41] . " The Ark could accommodate everyone - as the Church can accommodate everyone - but nobody could drive out by force, and as a result no one was on board except Noah and his family, " said the interpreters, "the ark is a type of the Church of Christ by one by the fact that few were saved in it, saved by faith, but the majority did not want salvation and freely abandoned it for death in the abyss of sin . ” Anthony the Great cites the story of Noah and people who did not obey his warnings and drowned, despite attempts to break into the ark, as an example of laziness and rebellion ^[42] .

Interpretation of Origen

Origen in his writings saw in the history of Noah a symbolic image of the Christian outlook. Noah is a type of Jesus Christ , and the ark is filled with symbolism: floors - the structure of the church, as well as heaven and hell ; Origen perceives the logs of which the ark is made as a symbol of protection for those inside the church, and he understands the resin connecting the logs as internal and external holiness. Origen’s ark’s dimensions also have a symbolic meaning: 100 - “the number of all reasonable creature ”; 50 - absolution, freedom and forgiveness.

Interpretation of Augustine

In the treatise “On the City of God” (XV, 26), Blessed Augustine correlates the wound in the side of Jesus made by the spear of Longin with the door of Noah’s ark , made, according to divine instructions, “from his side” ( Gen. 6:16 ) - “ through this door is entered by all who come to Him, because the sacraments have flowed from it . ”

Interpretation of John Chrysostom

John Chrysostom in his conversations on the Book of Genesis devoted 8 conversations to the consideration of the history of Noah and the flood ^[43] . Chrysostom discusses the greatness of the virtues of Noah among other humanity and the reasons for God's mercy for Noah and his neighbors.

Interpreting the Book of Genesis in relation to the words of the Apostle Paul from the Epistle to the Hebrews , Chrysostom draws the following conclusion:

Not that Noah himself condemned [his contemporaries]; no, the Lord condemned them by comparing [them with Noah], because they, having everything the same as the righteous, did not follow the path of virtue with him. So, Noah, by the faith that he showed, condemned these people who showed perfect unbelief: they did not believe the prediction [of the flood].

- John Chrysostom. Conversation 25 on Genesis

In his Conversations on the Devil , Chrysostom also discusses the virtues of Noah. At the same time, the saint especially emphasizes the significance of the fact that Noah “ kept virtue among the tribe of the depraved and sinful, when there was no example of virtue before him, when everyone carried him to vice ” ^[44] .

Chrysostom also writes about Noah's intoxication, noting that the Bible “in one word gives him a complete apology ” ^[45] . He believes that the phrase “Noah began to cultivate the land” ( Genesis 9:20 ) indicates that Noah “ knew neither how much wine was to be drunk, nor how to drink - whole, or mixed with water, nor of when to drink, whether immediately after it is squeezed out, or after some time . " Here the saint discusses the ingratitude of Ham, who “ did not die together with others in confusion for the dignity of his father ” ^[45] , but at the same time inflicts an insult to his father.

Orthodoxy veneration

The Orthodox Church classifies Noah among the forefathers and commemorates him in the “ Forefathers ' Week ” on the second Sunday before Christmas . In the festive canon, the fifth song is dedicated to Noah, in which he is called a righteous man who has kept God's law unharmed and " in all the divine commandments we adorn ourselves, having pleased Christ ."

Images of Noah are placed in the highest - the patriotic rank of the iconostasis , representing the Old Testament church, which did not know the laws of Moses .

Catholic veneration

In Catholicism, Noah is revered among the ten antediluvian patriarchs. In the Catholic churches, Noah is depicted either together with other patriarchs, or in subjects dedicated to the flood. The figure of Noah did not receive a separate liturgical veneration.

About wife

Midrash says:

• Noem , Tuvaldain 's sister , became Noah's wife. ^[46]

The Book of Jubilees mentions:

• "on the twenty-fifth anniversary, Noah took a wife named Emzarag, the daughter of Rakiel, the daughter of his sister" ^[47] .

In the notes of the translator (Archpriest Alexander Smirnov) to the Book of Jubilees, with reference to the 1889 edition ^[48] and the book of Adam , Eutychius and Epiphanius:

• other names of Noah’s wife are also called: Gaikal, Bartek, Noah, Titea (or Tetiri or Titley), Wagel ^[49] .

The Book of Yasher ^[50] says:

• "and Noah went and took his wife, and he chose Naama, daughter of Hanok" ^[51]

Mkhitar Ayrivanksky mentions:

• Noah’s wife Noiemzar ^[52] .

About sons

The Bible (Genesis) says:

• "Noah begat three sons: Shem , Ham and Japheth. " ^[53]

In the Book of Yasher ^[54] :

• the sons of Noah are called as Yapet, Ham and Shem ^[55] .
• it is mentioned that "Noah took the three daughters of Eliakim, the son of Matushlah, as a wife for his sons" ^[56] .

The Book of Jubilees mentions:

• the name of Ham's wife is Neelatamek;
• the name of Japheth's wife is Adotanelek;
• Sim’s wife’s name is Sedukatelbab ^[57] .

The Arab source mentions the drowned son of Nuh - Yam, Kan'an (Kenan) ^[58] and his wife Rabia ^[59] .

In Fine Art

In Western European fine art, the image of Noah is used in the following iconographic scenes:

• The birth of Noah (rare story)
• Righteous Living Before the Flood (rare story)
• Ark construction and animal landing
• Flood and the destruction of the human race , Morning after the flood
• Noah releases a dove, Ark
• Sacrifice (with rainbow)
• Noah's intoxication
• Noah curses Ham (and Canaan the son of Ham)
• Death of Noah (rare story)
• Noah's offspring (rare plot).

Like most Old Testament stories, compared with the New Testament illustrations, Noah’s story was not very popular, and there aren’t so many works of art.

In early Christian art, however, this character enjoyed love, along with three young men , Daniel in a moat and other similar figures, which are an example of ideal trust in God in the midst of an insurmountable catastrophe.

Michelangelo’s frescoes on subjects from his life included in the cycle of murals of the Sistine Chapel became the most famous images of Noah. Michelangelo created three large-scale murals: “The Flood”, “The Sacrifice of Noah” and “The Intoxication of Noah” ^[60] . Before Michelangelo, Noah's theme in Italian art was addressed by such masters as Uccello and Benozzo Gozzoli (these murals are in poor preservation), Raphael in their stanzas, and in sculpture by Lorenzo Ghiberti and Andrea Pisano .

In Orthodox art, the figure of Noah, as a rule, is portrayed among other forefathers and is easily recognized by the model of the ark in his hands. In Russian art, the most memorable of this kind of Noah is the fresco of Theophanes the Greek in the Novgorod Church of the Savior on Ilyin , XIV century. The fresco of Dionysius was also preserved ^[61] . There are practically no narrative images of the history of Noah in Orthodox art. Of the preserved medieval monuments of Western Europe, mosaic cycles with the history of Noah created by local masters under the influence of the Byzantine school: the Monreale Cathedral ^[62] and the Palatine Chapel ^[63] (Sicily) and St. Mark's Basilica (Venice) provide an idea of ​​the possible images of this kind in Byzantium. ) There is a theme in Islamic miniatures.

In the literature

• In the Russian folk tradition there are so-called spiritual verses about the flood and Noah, for example, see “ Pigeon Book ”
• Jost van den Vondel . The tragedy "Noah, or the destruction of the first world" ^[64]
• Pedro Calderon de la Barca . Auto sacramental (spiritual drama) The Tower of Babel , depicting events after the Flood.
• Andre Obay , the play Noah . The idealist Noah is opposed by the cynic Ham.
• Gelett Burgess. "The Maxims of Noah"
• A.A. Milne . The story "Before the Flood" ^[65]
• Hugo Lecher . "Noah . " Noah is a businessman engaged in business in a global catastrophe.
• Julian Barnes . Chapters in the novel “History of the World in 10 ½ Chapters” contain a satirical description of the flood, as well as the history of the search for Noah's Ark in the 19th-20th centuries.
• Gerald Darrell . “New Noah”, “Overloaded Ark”, “Ark on the island” . The renowned naturalist uses the name of the patriarch and the theme of the ark for headlines on animal gathering books.
• A. Platonov . The play "Noah's Ark (Cain's Spawn)" (1950)
• The Jewish legend of the giant Oge was used by Rabelais in a story about the ancestors of Gargantua and Pantagruel : “ I will refer to the Masorets, the Jewish interpreters of the Holy Scripture: the Masorets positively assert that the aforementioned Khurtali was not in the Noah's Ark, because he could not enter there - he is too was great - he sat astride the ark and dangled legs like boys on wooden horses (...). Thanks to this, Khurtali turned out to be the second after God savior of the mentioned ark, for he prevented a shipwreck: with the help of his legs he set the ark in motion and turned it in any direction, so that his legs served as the rudder. Those in the ark passed him enough edible through the pipe . ”

Cinema

• " Noah " / 2014 (USA; director) Darren Aronofsky , in the role of Noah Dakota Goyo (as a child), Russell Crowe (in adulthood).

• Deucalion
• Ogig
• Dardan
• Sons of God (Genesis)

• Piotrovsky M. B. Nukh // Islam: Encyclopedic Dictionary / Otv. ed. S. M. Prozorov . - M .: Science ,GDVL , 1991 . - S. 194-195. - ISBN 5-02-016941-2 .

• Noah - an article from the Electronic Jewish Encyclopedia
• The Noah article in the Catholic Encyclopedia
• Flood and "affirmation on the stone." The path of the righteous and the path of the wicked , Dmitry Shchedrovitsky
• Noah's Image Gallery
• The patriotic icon of Noah in the Rublev Museum
• Thumbnail in the Bedsford Watch