Old Testament Week 6: Noah (Moses 8; Genesis 611)

1) [SLIDE 2] The story in this weeks lesson is one of the most famous in the Bible. a) Ancient legends of a catastrophic deluge are widespread:
Stories of a great flood sent in primeval times to destroy mankind are so common to many peoples in different parts of the world between whom no kind of historical contact seems possible that the theme seems almost to be a universal feature of the human imagination.1

i) [SLIDE 3] In the Mesopotamian world the flood myth appears in Sumerian and Akkadian legends, and the Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh (c. 2000 B.C.), all of which predate the Genesis account.2 (1) In these accounts the gods destroy the entire world with a flood, and everyone dies except for one man, his family, and the animals they brought aboard a ship which they made.3 (2) The similarities are so close in some details, that it has been alleged that the biblical story is based on the Mesopotamian legends. (3) [SLIDE 4] However, the Genesis account differs from the others in one important aspect: Its view of God and man. (a) In the Mesopotamian legends, the gods are capricious and selfish, and destroy man because he is too numerous and poses a threat to their authority. The man who builds the boat is treated as a hero who single-handedly saves humanity from extinction with his courage and skill.4 (b) In the Biblical account, God encourages mankind to multiply, but is appalled by human sin. He commands Noah to build the ark, sparing him and his righteous family. Obedience to God, not human courage, is what Genesis celebrates. 2) [SLIDE 5] Our story is a continuation of the one from lessons 4 and 5: The world was totally given over to wickedness, with the exception of a handful of righteous people. a) As we discussed in week 4, Cains posterity was wicked, and practiced secret combinations (Moses 5:51; cf. 7:22).5 b) Seths posterity (except for the people of Enoch) were also wicked, so the Lord promised Enoch he would destroy them with a flood (Moses 7:3334). i) This raises a moral issue: Is God angry enough at man that hes willing to commit genocide?

1 R. N. Whybray, Genesis, in The Oxford Bible Commentary, John Barton and John Muddiman, eds. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001), 46. 2 The oldest known copy of the Akkadian epic of Atrahasis is dated to the reign of Ammi-Saduqa (16461626 B.C.). 3 For a comparison of six Ancient Near East flood myths, see http://www.noahs-ark-flood.com/parallels.htm 4, In the 18th century B.C. Akkadian epic, the protagonists name, Atra-Hasis, means exceedingly wise. 5 As noted in the handout from week 4 (http://bit.ly/ldsarcot04h), the comment in Moses 7:22 that the seed of Cain were black doesnt necessary apply to skin color. Rather, it seems to emphasize the comment in 5:51 that their works were in the dark.

2013, Mike Parker

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Hurricane Utah Adult Religion Class

Old Testament: Noah

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(1) [SLIDE 6] Hugh Nibley answered that question with a close reading of the scriptures:
In giving us a much fuller account than the Bible of how the Flood came about, the book of Enoch [i.e., the Enoch material in the Book of Moses] settles the moral issue with several telling parts: 1. Gods reluctance to send the Flood and his great sorrow at the event. 2. The peculiar brand of wickedness that made the Flood mandatory. 3. The frank challenge of the wicked to have God do his worst. 4. The happy and beneficial side of the eventit did have a happy outcome.6

(2) [SLIDE 7] The Joseph Smith Translation portrays God, and even nature itself, as mourning and weeping at the great sinfulness of mankind (Moses 7:28, 37, 40, 45). (3) The depiction of the scene is so grim that Enoch himself begins to weep, but the Lord tells him, Lift up your heart, and be glad; and look, after which Enoch sees a vision of the earth repopulated from his righteous descendant, Noah (Moses 7:4445). (4) Enoch pleaded with the Lord, and the Lord delayed the Flood to give humanity another chance (Moses 7:5052). (5) In the JST, God didnt unleash nature; he held it back as long as he could. c) Noah was born four years after Enoch, his great-grandfather, was translated.7 3) [SLIDE 8] Noah the prophet. a) Noahs name (Hebrew: / nh) means comfort8 and rest.9 b) Noah received the priesthood and preached repentance (Moses 8:1920). i) This account is not in Genesis. There is no evidence from Genesis alone that Noah attempted to persuade others to repent and save themselves from destruction. c) Like his great-grandfather, he walked with God (Genesis 6:9), as did his sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth (Moses 8:27).10

6 Nibley, Enoch the Prophet (Salt Lake City: FARMS and Deseret Book, 1988), 45 (http://maxwellinstitute.byu.edu/publications/books/?bookid=53&chapid=480). 7 Methuselah was born was Enoch was 65 years old (Genesis 5:21; Genesis 5:21). Lamech was born when Methuselah was 187 (Genesis 5:25; Moses 8:5); Enoch was 252 (65+187). Noah was born when Lamech was 182 (Genesis 5:28; Moses 8:8); Enoch would have been 434 (65+187+182), but he was translated at age 430 (Moses 8:1). 8 The Hebrew folk etymology attributed to his father, Lamech (Genesis 5:29; Moses 8:9), is ( nhm), to provide comfort. This alludes to Gods permission in the Garden of Eden to eat of the trees (Genesis 2:16) and the subsequent curse upon Adam that he would eat only in sorrow and by toil (Genesis 3:1719), the implication being that man was to only eat things grown from the ground. However, after the Flood, God gave Noah permission to use animals as food (Genesis 9:3), which brought respite (or comfort) from the curse. Joseph E. Jensen, Noah, in Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible, David Noel Freedman, ed. (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2000), 968. 9 Hebrew ( nwh), to cause to rest, is reflected in several passages in the Flood story: the ark rested (Genesis 8:4), the dove found no rest (8:9), the LORD smelled a sweet savour [restful aroma] (8:21). 10 The order of Noahs sons is given as Shem, Ham, and Japheth in all Old Testament passages (Genesis 5:32; 6:10; 7:13; 9:18; 10:1; 1 Chronicles 1:4) as well as in Moses 8:27. However, Moses 8:12 indicates that their birth order was Japheth, Shem, and Ham.

2013, Mike Parker

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For personal use only. Not a Church publication.

Hurricane Utah Adult Religion Class

Old Testament: Noah

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4) The final straw. a) [SLIDE 9] Sons of God and daughters of men (Genesis 6:14). i) This ancient storywhich is explained in greater detail in 1 Enoch 67concerns fallen angels and mortal women.11 (1) According to Jewish legend, these divine beings came to earth and took mortal wives, and their resulting offspring were the Nephilim (Hebrew: ), or fallen ones, who were giants.12 ii) Moses 8:1318 takes a different approach, identifying the sons of God as the righteous sons of Noah, whose daughters married the unrighteous sons of men. (1) And yet the Nephilim (giants) also appear in the Joseph Smith Translation (Moses 7:15; 8:18), only without explanation of their origins. iii) It may be that the Genesis account is corrupted, and the JST is a restoration of the original account. However, considering the important extrabiblical sources that discuss this episode, it seems more likely that Genesis 6 and Moses 8 are two separate accounts from separate sources. iv) Whatever the situation was, it was the final straw: Mankind was totally given over to wickedness, and the Flood was now inevitable. The Lord gave humans 120 more years before promising to destroy them (Genesis 6:3).13 b) It repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth (Genesis 6:57). i) Repented does not mean God sought forgiveness for sinning; it means he was sorry.14 He regretted that that he had made men, because it brought him so much pain.15 ii) The JST softens the impact of the verse by transferring the sense of sorrow and regret to Noah (Moses 8:25).

11 The Hebrew phrase translated sons of Godor, literally, sons of the gods (bene ha-elohim) occurs only here (Genesis 6:2, 4) and in Job 1:6; 2:1; 38:7. In each occurrence, the reference is to heavenly beings, part of the divine council. 1 Enoch 6:2 calls them angels, the sons of the heavens (http://archive.org/stream/thebookofenoch00unknuoft#page/62). 1 Enoch 6:7 even names the ringleaders. The sons of God in Genesis 6:2 are distinct from humankind (KJV men) in 6:1. For background on 1 Enoch, see notes to week 5, pages 13 (http://bit.ly/ldsarcot05n). 12 1 Enoch 7:2 says the Nephilim were 3,000 cubits (approximately 2,000 feet) high. The Nephilim only appear in one other Old Testament passage: In Numbers 13:3233 the spies sent into Canaan returned with a report that the land contained giants [nephilim], the sons of Anak, which come of the giants [nephilim]: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers. The Nephilim also appear in several apocryphal books, including the Wisdom of Solomon 14:6; Sirach 16:7; Baruch 3:26; 3 Maccabees 2:4; and Jubilees 5:2. 13 The phrase yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years (Genesis 6:3) could be interpreted to mean that human life expectancy would be 120 from this point on, but (with the exception of Moses) the scriptural narrative following this passage does not support that interpretation. 14 The Hebrew (naw-kham') means God was grieved, or was sorry. In certain contexts it can mean relented or repented, but that is not the best application in Genesis 6:57. See R. B. Chisholm, Does God Change His Mind? Bibliotheca Sacra 152 (OctDec 1995), 38799 (https://sites.google.com/site/hwsarc/home/ot/week06/BSac152_Chisholm_GodChangeMind.pdf ). 15 The Old Testament presents God as willing to change his mind about his course of action, depending on human reaction to his commands. A few examples include: The Lord intended to destroy Israel because of its wickedness, but Moses convinced him not to do it (Exodus 32:914).The Lord promised to destroy Israel like a swarm of locusts or a shower of fire, but Amos pleaded with him, and the Lord rescinded the destruction (Amos 7:16). The Lord told Jonah that he was going to destroy Nineveh, but after the Ninevites repented, he changed his mind (Jonah 3:110). I discuss the idea that Gods foreknowledge is limited in my notes to Doctrine and Covenants lesson 19, pages 710 (http://bit.ly/ldsarcdc19).

2013, Mike Parker

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For personal use only. Not a Church publication.

Hurricane Utah Adult Religion Class

Old Testament: Noah

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5) The scope and scale of the Flood. a) Part of the difficulty in visualizing the great Flood comes from differences in the way we view the world and the way the ancients viewed it. i) Ancient people understood the world on a much smaller scale than we do today. For them, the world consisted of the lands and nations they were aware of in their immediate area. ii) As we discussed back in lesson three, ancient people didnt understand the earth as an enormous sphere; rather, they visualized it as a comparatively small, flat disk.16 iii) [SLIDE 10] This view of the world appears throughout the Bible: (1) In Exodus 10:15 we read that the Lord sent a swarm of locusts that covered the face of the whole earth. Obviously, this couldnt mean that locusts covered all the land on the entire planet earth!17 To the author of Exodus, the whole earth meant all the land we can see. (2) Similarly, according to Genesis 41:56, in the days of Joseph there was a famine that was over all the face of the earth. This is passage is not suggesting there was a global famine, but a famine that affected Egypt, Palestine, and all the other lands in the Near East. (3) And also in Luke 2:1 we read that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed. Naturally, all the world refers to the limits of the Roman Empire, and doesnt Scandinavia, southern Africa, east Asia, or the American continent. iv) So when the Genesis account tells us that the waters were on the face of the whole earth (Genesis 8:9) and all flesh died that moved upon the earth (7:21), we do not need to imagine that the entire planet earth was covered with enough water to submerge every continent to the peak of its highest mountain.18
See notes to week 3, pages 46 (http://bit.ly/ldsarcot03n). Compare this with Numbers 22:5, 11, where messengers tell Balaam that the Israelites have come out of Egypt and cover the face of the earth. Also Cains complaint that the Lord had driven [him] out this day from the face of the earth (Genesis 4:14)Cain didnt leave the planet Earth; he left the region where he had formerly lived. (See also Isaiah 23:17.) 18 The shift in understanding of the context of the great Flood from a small, flat earth (as understood in Old Testament times) to a large, spherical planet earth (as determined much later) has caused considerable difficulty among theologians who have tried to explain the Flood on a global scale. There are overwhelming scientific problems with the notion of a worldwide flood, including finding the source of enough water to accomplish the task, getting animals with sensitive climatic requirements (like extreme cold) or who live only in remote places (like koalas in Australia) to the ark and back to their native habitats, the risk of disease or natural death killing off one of an animal pair on the ark and thereby causing the extinction of the species, the changes in salinity harming freshwater or seawater marine life, the fact that a wooden vessel the size of the ark cannot put to sea without stresses on the hull tearing it apartthe list of scientific and rational difficulties goes on and on. In short, a global flood, as described in Genesis 68, is simply impossible, unless one asserts that God overcame all the physical challenges simply by miracle. Despite these difficulties, many fundamentalist Christians (most of them believers in creation science) continue to assert that the Flood covered every land surface on the planet earth, including all mountains. This belief is also widespread within the LDS Church, although there has not been much critical examination of the issue. The most recent LDS assertion of a global flood can be found in Donald W. Parry, The Flood and the Tower of Babel, Ensign, January 1998, 3541 (http://www.lds.org/ensign/1998/01/the-flood-and-the-tower-of-babel). Other Christians, including some Latter-day Saints, see the great Flood as being a local event that destroyed everything in the region in which Noah lived, but did not affect life in other parts of the world (see http://en.fairmormon.org/Mormonism_and_science/Global_or_local_Flood). For additional reading on this I recommend Clayton M. White and Mark D. Thomas, On Balancing Faith in Mormonism with Traditional Biblical Stories: The Noachian Flood Story, Dialogue 40/3 (2007), 85110 (https://dialoguejournal.com/wpcontent/uploads/sbi/articles/Dialogue_V40N03_95.pdf); and Duane E. Jeffery, Noahs Flood: Modern Scholarship and Mormon Traditions, Sunstone 134 (October 2004), 2739 & 4245 (http://bit.ly/Sunstone134JeffreyNoah).
16 17

2013, Mike Parker

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Hurricane Utah Adult Religion Class

Old Testament: Noah

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(1) As far as Noah was concerned, the face of the whole earth was covered with waterhorizon to horizonbut that was just the portion of the earth that he could see. b) [SLIDE 11] For the source of the floodwaters, we need to look back at the Hebrew cosmological model we examined in week three: i) If you recall, in the beginning there was nothing but watery chaos. God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear (Genesis 1:9). The chaotic waters were divided from the land. ii) The primeval ocean still surrounds and underlies the earth. God began the great Flood by breaking up the fountains of the great deep below and opening the windows of heaven above (Genesis 7:11). The waters rushed in and returned the world to its chaotic stateessentially, God pressed the reset button on creation. c) God remembered Noah (Genesis 8:1). i) Remembered here carries the sense of acting in accordance with what is remembered. God made covenant promises, and he remembered and fulfilled them. ii) [SLIDE 12] This passage is also the turning point of the entire story, and the focus of its chronology, which is used as a literary device:19 7 days 7 days 40 days 150 days GOD REMEMBERED NOAH 150 days 40 days 7 days 7 days Genesis 7:4 Genesis 7:10 Genesis 7:14 Genesis 7:24 Genesis 8:1 Genesis 8:3 Genesis 8:6 Genesis 8:10 Genesis 8:12

iii) The story is structured as one of de-creation and then re-creation. The original creation is undone and everything is destroyed except for Noah. God then remembers Noah and the covenant he made with Enoch (Moses 7:5152), and so he causes the waters to recede, the dry land to appear, the animals and humans to come off the ark, where they are again commanded to be fruitful and multiply (Genesis 8:17). iv) In this sense, the Flood was a baptismthe earth was cleansed and remade into a new creation. (1) [SLIDE 13] Elder Orson Pratt:
The waters were assuaged; the earth came forth clothed with innocence, like the new-born child, having been baptized or born again from the ocean flood; and thus the old earth was buried with all its deeds, and arose to newness of life, its sins being washed away, even as man has to be immersed in water to wash away his own personal sins.20

19 This chart is from Gordon J. Wenham, Genesis, in Eerdmans Commentary on the Bible, James D. G. Dunn and John W. Rogerson, eds. (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2003), 44. 20 Orson Pratt, 25 July 1852; Journal of Discourses 1:292 (http://en.fairmormon.org/Journal_of_Discourses/1/41#292). This concept has been taught by a number of Church leaders; Orson Pratts 1852 statement is the earliest example I can find.

2013, Mike Parker

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Hurricane Utah Adult Religion Class

Old Testament: Noah

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6) [SLIDE 14] Message of Noahs story: a) And Noah did according unto all that the LORD commanded him (Genesis 7:5; 6:22). b) The Lords mercy, love, and protection (in the face of cataclysm). c) The Lord prepares a way (cf. 1 Nephi 3:7; 17:3). d) President Ezra Taft Benson: The living prophet is more important to us than a dead prophet.
The living prophet has the power of TNT. By that I mean Todays News Today. Gods revelations to Adam did not instruct Noah how to build the ark. Noah needed his own revelation. Therefore, the most important prophet, so far as you and I are concerned, is the one living in our day and age to whom the Lord is currently revealing His will for us.21

e) The Flood shows that without Gods constant intervention and mercy, chaos, death, and destruction would overwhelm us. i) King Benjamin declared that God is preserving you from day to day, by lending you breath, that ye may live and move and do according to your own will, and even supporting you from one moment to another (Mosiah 2:21). 7) Epilogue: The days after Noah. a) Genesis 111 is the Israelite creation story. These chapters provide the back-story for the next section, which explains the origins of Gods covenant people, beginning with Abraham. b) [SLIDE 15] Following the great Flood, there are three specific accounts that have raised many questions about their meaning. They dont have any spiritual message that we can apply today, but Id like to address them simply because we dont usually talk about them. c) The first is the incident between Ham and Noah, and the cursing of Hams son Canaan (Genesis 9:2027). i) Just as the Flood story is a reboot of the creation, the Ham/Canaan story is similar to Cain in that its about a first sin. ii) There has been some speculation that Hams offense was something of a sexual nature, either against his father or his mother.22 (1) However, considering the context and situation, it seems more likely that Hams offense is exactly what the account describes: He saw his father naked and, rather than cover him up to protect his modesty, he went and told his brothers, possibly because he thought the situation was amusing. (a) In the Old Testament, nakedness was synonymous with weakness and vulnerability, and it was strictly forbidden in the context of holiness.23

21 Ezra Taft Benson, Fourteen Fundamentals in Following the Prophet, devotional address given at Brigham Young University, 26 February 1980 (http://speeches.byu.edu/?act=viewitem&id=88). 22 Leviticus 18 and 20 use uncover the nakedness as a euphemism for sexual relations. However, Ham is not described as uncovering his fathers nakedness, merely seeing him naked. 23 See Genesis 42:9, 12 where nakedness is used as a metaphor for weakness or vulnerability. In Exodus 20:26 and 28:42, the temple and the priests clothing is specifically designed to prevent accidental exposure of private parts.

2013, Mike Parker

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Hurricane Utah Adult Religion Class

Old Testament: Noah

Week 6, Page 7

(2) Noah then gave a prophecy that Hams descendants would be characterized by his same moral abandonment, and therefore they were cursed. The Canaanites (descendants of Canaan, son of Ham) were notorious for their use of sexuality in their religious rites.24 d) The second account is a single, passing reference to man called Peleg, who received his name because in his days was the earth divided (Genesis 10:25). (The Hebrew verb [palag] means separate or divide.) i) [SLIDE 16] Some Latter-day Saints have interpreted this passage with extreme literalness, believing that the earths tectonic plates, which were once a single land mass, all separated into the continents we know today during the life of a single mortal, instead of over hundreds of millions of years as scientists have theorized. 25 ii) But the scripture doesnt require such an extraordinary conclusion. Its more likely that Pelegs name anticipates the division of languages at Babel in the following chapter.26 e) [SLIDE 17] The last is the account of the division of languages at Babel (Genesis 11:19). i) This story is another example of the ancient cosmological understanding: Heaven is within reach; all we have to do is build a tower high enough to get to it. ii) It was common in Babylonian mythology that temples had their roots in the underworld and their tops reached up to heaven. But Genesis 11:5 mocks this idea: The tower seems large, but God has to come down to see it! iii) In the Babylonian literature the name bab-ili meant the gate of God, but in Hebrew it sounds like the word for confusion ( / balal), and the author of Genesis 11 took advantage of the sound play (paronomasia) to describe the real origins of the Babylonians. iv) In the Book of Mormon, the Jaredite record begins at the tower of Babel (Ether 1:3343), so the story probably has some basis in fact. v) But as for the incident at Babel being the origin of the diversity of the worlds languages, that again is almost certainly an interpretive overreach. As with Noahs flood, the incident at Babel is more likely a local event. 8) [SLIDE 18] Next week: a) Well discuss the Book of Abraham in the Pearl of Great Price: How did Joseph Smith obtain the Egyptian records? What was on them? What happened to them? What is the meaning of the facsimiles printed in our scriptures? b) Theres no specific reading for next week, but you might want to take some time to review the Book of Abraham, be familiar with its content and structure, and look over the three facsimiles that accompany it.
24 In response to the claim that people of African ancestry are the descendants of Ham, see lesson 4, pages 9 12 (http://bit.ly/ldsarcot04n). 25 This is another claim that doesnt stand up to legitimate scientific scrutiny. In the December 2004 India n Ocean earthquake, 1,000 miles of fault line slipped 50 feet, resulting in a 9.3-magnitude earthquake that created seismic sea waves up to 100 feet high. These tsunamis caused the deaths of nearly 230,000 people. The amount of force required to move the major continents thousands of miles apart in the lifetime of a single individual would cause much worse devastation, a global catastrophe on an unimaginable scale. 26 Note that palag appears in Psalm 55:9 to refer to a division of languages.

2013, Mike Parker

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For personal use only. Not a Church publication.