The genealogy in Genesis 5 ends with Noah: “When Lamech had lived 182 years, he had a son. He named him Noah and said, ‘He will comfort us in the labor and painful toil of our hands caused by the ground the Lord has cursed.’ … After Noah was 500 years old, he became the father of Shem, Ham and Japheth.”
In Genesis 6, the story transitions to the story of Noah and the ark:
When human beings began to increase in number on the earth and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of humans were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose. Then the Lord said, “My Spirit will not contend with humans forever, for they are mortal; their days will be a hundred and twenty years.”
The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God went to the daughters of humans and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown.
The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled. So the Lord said, “I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created—and with them the animals, the birds and the creatures that move along the ground—for I regret that I have made them.” But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.
Wait.. what? Some questions:
- Who were the sons of God? And Nephilim?
- The sons of God were attracted to the daughters of man, and took whichever ones they wanted, and became heroes and men of renown? They kinda sound like male chauvinists to me.
- What exactly were the sins that caused the humans to be cursed to a shorter life?
- Why did God decide to destroy all life, and not just humanity?
Chapter 6 continues:
This is the account of Noah and his family.
Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God. Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham and Japheth.
Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and was full of violence. God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways. So God said to Noah, “I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth.
The text starts to get awkwardly choppy and repetitive. Noah was already introduced as the father of Shem, Ham, and Japheth at the end of chapter 5, and the corruption of earth and God’s intention to destroy it has already been mentioned earlier in chapter 6. This repetition is something that will be mentioned further when I cover chapter 7 in the next post.
In the rest of the chapter, God tells Noah to build an ark, providing specific instructions for materials and dimensions, and tells Noah to take 2 of every living creature, one male and one female, and to bring food for Noah, his family, and the animals. And Noah does as he is told. You can read the full chapter here.
Some more questions:
1 man built the ark?
The ark was huge, but could it really be big enough to hold so many animals? And how did Noah build this? I suppose he could have had a lot of help, but if he had help, that would mean the evil men God was going to wipe out decided to help him. Whether paid or not, it seems pretty cruel and unusual to kill those who helped build the ark that saves you. I suppose if Noah was hundreds of years old, I guess he could have spent 100 years building it.. but if it took too long, wouldn’t it start to deteriorate before it was even used? I don’t know – but so far, it’s hard to take this story seriously.
2 of every animal, or 7 pairs?
Moving on to chapter 7, Noah is instructed to enter the ark with his family, and take 7 pairs of every clean animal, 1 pair of every unclean animal, and 7 pairs of birds.
Here is the end of chapter 6 and the beginning of chapter 7:
You are to bring into the ark two of all living creatures, male and female, to keep them alive with you. Two of every kind of bird, of every kind of animal and of every kind of creature that moves along the ground will come to you to be kept alive. You are to take every kind of food that is to be eaten and store it away as food for you and for them.”
Noah did everything just as God commanded him.
The Lord then said to Noah, “Go into the ark, you and your whole family, because I have found you righteous in this generation. Take with you seven pairs of every kind of clean animal, a male and its mate, and one pair of every kind of unclean animal, a male and its mate, and also seven pairs of every kind of bird, male and female, to keep their various kinds alive throughout the earth. Seven days from now I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and I will wipe from the face of the earth every living creature I have made.”
And Noah did all that the Lord commanded him.
This causes another mental double-take. Noah already built the ark and gathered 2 of every animal in chapter 6. Now, he is instructed to do it again, and with a different number of animals? Or did we back up in the story suddenly, only with different instructions this time?
All those animals…
Beside the issue of 2 vs 7 pairs of animals, the idea of Noah taking every type of creature into his ark seems pretty far-fetched. It’s quite a claim to say that Noah somehow was able to collect all of the animals. But even if I accept that somehow he made it happen – that some sort of animal instinct brought all of the animals to Noah, there are all kinds of questions raised:
- How did the animals all physically travel to the ark from islands and different continents?
- How could animals from all different climates survive in one location and one climate on the ark?
- How did they all fit?
- How did they prevent the animals from breeding and having rodent or other infestations?
- How were they all fed and cleaned up after every day?
- Once collected and placed on the ark, how would they be stopped from attacking each other?
- How did Noah and his family handle the dangerous, aggressive animals?
When pressed on issues like this, the response I often get is that at the end of the day, you have to have faith. I get responses such as “It might seem unbelievable that the story of Noah and the ark could have happened, but with God, anything is possible.”
It’s hard to articulate my frustration with this type of response. Basically, there are lots of far-fetched beliefs around the world that people have been raised in and have chosen to have faith in throughout history. Most of those who believe in Christianity would never give traditions from other cultures a second thought and find their teachings ridiculous. With some self-awareness and ability to step outside of one’s point of view, it shouldn’t be too hard to understand that someone from a non-christian perspective might think it sounds ridiculous to believe a story like this one.
More on Genesis 7 and the rest of the story of Noah in the next post.