Noah and the Flood
9 These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God. 10 And Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
11 Now the earth was corrupt in God's sight, and the earth was filled with violence. 12 And God saw the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth. 13 And God said to Noah, “I have determined to make an end of all flesh,[a] for the earth is filled with violence through them. Behold, I will destroy them with the earth. 14 Make yourself an ark of gopher wood.[b] Make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and out with pitch. 15 This is how you are to make it: the length of the ark 300 cubits,[c] its breadth 50 cubits, and its height 30 cubits. 16 Make a roof[d] for the ark, and finish it to a cubit above, and set the door of the ark in its side. Make it with lower, second, and third decks. 17 For behold, I will bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life under heaven. Everything that is on the earth shall die. 18 But I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall come into the ark, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons' wives with you. 19 And of every living thing of all flesh, you shall bring two of every sort into the ark to keep them alive with you. They shall be male and female. 20 Of the birds according to their kinds, and of the animals according to their kinds, of every creeping thing of the ground, according to its kind, two of every sort shall come in to you to keep them alive. 21 Also take with you every sort of food that is eaten, and store it up. It shall serve as food for you and for them.” 22 Noah did this; he did all that God commanded him.
7 Then the Lord said to Noah, “Go into the ark, you and all your household, for I have seen that you are righteous before me in this generation. 2 Take with you seven pairs of all clean animals,[e] the male and his mate, and a pair of the animals that are not clean, the male and his mate, 3 and seven pairs[f] of the birds of the heavens also, male and female, to keep their offspring alive on the face of all the earth. 4 For in seven days I will send rain on the earth forty days and forty nights, and every living thing[g] that I have made I will blot out from the face of the ground.” 5 And Noah did all that the Lord had commanded him.
6 Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters came upon the earth. 7 And Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons' wives with him went into the ark to escape the waters of the flood. 8 Of clean animals, and of animals that are not clean, and of birds, and of everything that creeps on the ground, 9 two and two, male and female, went into the ark with Noah, as God had commanded Noah. 10 And after seven days the waters of the flood came upon the earth.
11 In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened. 12 And rain fell upon the earth forty days and forty nights. 13 On the very same day Noah and his sons, Shem and Ham and Japheth, and Noah's wife and the three wives of his sons with them entered the ark, 14 they and every beast, according to its kind, and all the livestock according to their kinds, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, according to its kind, and every bird, according to its kind, every winged creature. 15 They went into the ark with Noah, two and two of all flesh in which there was the breath of life. 16 And those that entered, male and female of all flesh, went in as God had commanded him. And the Lord shut him in.
17 The flood continued forty days on the earth. The waters increased and bore up the ark, and it rose high above the earth. 18 The waters prevailed and increased greatly on the earth, and the ark floated on the face of the waters. 19 And the waters prevailed so mightily on the earth that all the high mountains under the whole heaven were covered. 20 The waters prevailed above the mountains, covering them fifteen cubits[h] deep. 21 And all flesh died that moved on the earth, birds, livestock, beasts, all swarming creatures that swarm on the earth, and all mankind. 22 Everything on the dry land in whose nostrils was the breath of life died. 23 He blotted out every living thing that was on the face of the ground, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens. They were blotted out from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those who were with him in the ark. 24 And the waters prevailed on the earth 150 days.
The Flood Subsides
8 But God remembered Noah and all the beasts and all the livestock that were with him in the ark. And God made a wind blow over the earth, and the waters subsided. 2 The fountains of the deep and the windows of the heavens were closed, the rain from the heavens was restrained, 3 and the waters receded from the earth continually. At the end of 150 days the waters had abated, 4 and in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. 5 And the waters continued to abate until the tenth month; in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains were seen.
6 At the end of forty days Noah opened the window of the ark that he had made 7 and sent forth a raven. It went to and fro until the waters were dried up from the earth. 8 Then he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters had subsided from the face of the ground. 9 But the dove found no place to set her foot, and she returned to him to the ark, for the waters were still on the face of the whole earth. So he put out his hand and took her and brought her into the ark with him. 10 He waited another seven days, and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark. 11 And the dove came back to him in the evening, and behold, in her mouth was a freshly plucked olive leaf. So Noah knew that the waters had subsided from the earth. 12 Then he waited another seven days and sent forth the dove, and she did not return to him anymore.
13 In the six hundred and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried from off the earth. And Noah removed the covering of the ark and looked, and behold, the face of the ground was dry. 14 In the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth had dried out. 15 Then God said to Noah, 16 “Go out from the ark, you and your wife, and your sons and your sons' wives with you. 17 Bring out with you every living thing that is with you of all flesh—birds and animals and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth—that they may swarm on the earth, and be fruitful and multiply on the earth.” 18 So Noah went out, and his sons and his wife and his sons' wives with him. 19 Every beast, every creeping thing, and every bird, everything that moves on the earth, went out by families from the ark.
God's Covenant with Noah
20 Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and took some of every clean animal and some of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar. 21 And when the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma, the Lord said in his heart, “I will never again curse[i] the ground because of man, for the intention of man's heart is evil from his youth. Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done. 22 While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.”
9 And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. 2 The fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth and upon every bird of the heavens, upon everything that creeps on the ground and all the fish of the sea. Into your hand they are delivered. 3 Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. And as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything. 4 But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. 5 And for your lifeblood I will require a reckoning: from every beast I will require it and from man. From his fellow man I will require a reckoning for the life of man.
6 “Whoever sheds the blood of man,
by man shall his blood be shed,
for God made man in his own image.
7 And you,[j] be fruitful and multiply, increase greatly on the earth and multiply in it.”
8 Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, 9 “Behold, I establish my covenant with you and your offspring after you, 10 and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the livestock, and every beast of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark; it is for every beast of the earth. 11 I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.” 12 And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: 13 I have set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. 14 When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, 15 I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh. And the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. 16 When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.” 17 God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth.”
Noah's Descendants
18 The sons of Noah who went forth from the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. (Ham was the father of Canaan.) 19 These three were the sons of Noah, and from these the people of the whole earth were dispersed.[k]
20 Noah began to be a man of the soil, and he planted a vineyard.[l] 21 He drank of the wine and became drunk and lay uncovered in his tent. 22 And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father and told his two brothers outside. 23 Then Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid it on both their shoulders, and walked backward and covered the nakedness of their father. Their faces were turned backward, and they did not see their father's nakedness. 24 When Noah awoke from his wine and knew what his youngest son had done to him, 25 he said,
“Cursed be Canaan;
a servant of servants shall he be to his brothers.”
26 He also said,
“Blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem;
and let Canaan be his servant.
27 May God enlarge Japheth,[m]
and let him dwell in the tents of Shem,
and let Canaan be his servant.”
28 After the flood Noah lived 350 years. 29 All the days of Noah were 950 years, and he died.
Nations Descended from Noah
10 These are the generations of the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Sons were born to them after the flood.
2 The sons of Japheth: Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech, and Tiras. 3 The sons of Gomer: Ashkenaz, Riphath, and Togarmah. 4 The sons of Javan: Elishah, Tarshish, Kittim, and Dodanim. 5 From these the coastland peoples spread in their lands, each with his own language, by their clans, in their nations.
6 The sons of Ham: Cush, Egypt, Put, and Canaan. 7 The sons of Cush: Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah, and Sabteca. The sons of Raamah: Sheba and Dedan. 8 Cush fathered Nimrod; he was the first on earth to be a mighty man.[n] 9 He was a mighty hunter before the Lord. Therefore it is said, “Like Nimrod a mighty hunter before the Lord.” 10 The beginning of his kingdom was Babel, Erech, Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar. 11 From that land he went into Assyria and built Nineveh, Rehoboth-Ir, Calah, and 12 Resen between Nineveh and Calah; that is the great city. 13 Egypt fathered Ludim, Anamim, Lehabim, Naphtuhim, 14 Pathrusim, Casluhim (from whom[o] the Philistines came), and Caphtorim.
15 Canaan fathered Sidon his firstborn and Heth, 16 and the Jebusites, the Amorites, the Girgashites, 17 the Hivites, the Arkites, the Sinites, 18 the Arvadites, the Zemarites, and the Hamathites. Afterward the clans of the Canaanites dispersed. 19 And the territory of the Canaanites extended from Sidon in the direction of Gerar as far as Gaza, and in the direction of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim, as far as Lasha. 20 These are the sons of Ham, by their clans, their languages, their lands, and their nations.
21 To Shem also, the father of all the children of Eber, the elder brother of Japheth, children were born. 22 The sons of Shem: Elam, Asshur, Arpachshad, Lud, and Aram. 23 The sons of Aram: Uz, Hul, Gether, and Mash. 24 Arpachshad fathered Shelah; and Shelah fathered Eber. 25 To Eber were born two sons: the name of the one was Peleg,[p] for in his days the earth was divided, and his brother's name was Joktan. 26 Joktan fathered Almodad, Sheleph, Hazarmaveth, Jerah, 27 Hadoram, Uzal, Diklah, 28 Obal, Abimael, Sheba, 29 Ophir, Havilah, and Jobab; all these were the sons of Joktan. 30 The territory in which they lived extended from Mesha in the direction of Sephar to the hill country of the east. 31 These are the sons of Shem, by their clans, their languages, their lands, and their nations.
32 These are the clans of the sons of Noah, according to their genealogies, in their nations, and from these the nations spread abroad on the earth after the flood.
The Tower of Babel
11 Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. 2 And as people migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. 3 And they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.” And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar. 4 Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.” 5 And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of man had built. 6 And the Lord said, “Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. 7 Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another's speech.” 8 So the Lord dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. 9 Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the Lord confused[q] the language of all the earth. And from there the Lord dispersed them over the face of all the earth.
Shem's Descendants
10 These are the generations of Shem. When Shem was 100 years old, he fathered Arpachshad two years after the flood. 11 And Shem lived after he fathered Arpachshad 500 years and had other sons and daughters.
12 When Arpachshad had lived 35 years, he fathered Shelah. 13 And Arpachshad lived after he fathered Shelah 403 years and had other sons and daughters.
14 When Shelah had lived 30 years, he fathered Eber. 15 And Shelah lived after he fathered Eber 403 years and had other sons and daughters.
16 When Eber had lived 34 years, he fathered Peleg. 17 And Eber lived after he fathered Peleg 430 years and had other sons and daughters.
18 When Peleg had lived 30 years, he fathered Reu. 19 And Peleg lived after he fathered Reu 209 years and had other sons and daughters.
20 When Reu had lived 32 years, he fathered Serug. 21 And Reu lived after he fathered Serug 207 years and had other sons and daughters.
22 When Serug had lived 30 years, he fathered Nahor. 23 And Serug lived after he fathered Nahor 200 years and had other sons and daughters.
24 When Nahor had lived 29 years, he fathered Terah. 25 And Nahor lived after he fathered Terah 119 years and had other sons and daughters.
26 When Terah had lived 70 years, he fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran.
Terah's Descendants
27 Now these are the generations of Terah. Terah fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran fathered Lot. 28 Haran died in the presence of his father Terah in the land of his kindred, in Ur of the Chaldeans. 29 And Abram and Nahor took wives. The name of Abram's wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor's wife, Milcah, the daughter of Haran the father of Milcah and Iscah. 30 Now Sarai was barren; she had no child.
31 Terah took Abram his son and Lot the son of Haran, his grandson, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram's wife, and they went forth together from Ur of the Chaldeans to go into the land of Canaan, but when they came to Haran, they settled there. 32 The days of Terah were 205 years, and Terah died in Haran.
Footnotes
- Genesis 6:13 Hebrew The end of all flesh has come before me
- Genesis 6:14 An unknown kind of tree; transliterated from Hebrew
- Genesis 6:15 A cubit was about 18 inches or 45 centimeters
- Genesis 6:16 Or skylight
- Genesis 7:2 Or seven of each kind of clean animal
- Genesis 7:3 Or seven of each kind
- Genesis 7:4 Hebrew all existence; also verse 23
- Genesis 7:20 A cubit was about 18 inches or 45 centimeters
- Genesis 8:21 Or dishonor
- Genesis 9:7 In Hebrew you is plural
- Genesis 9:19 Or from these the whole earth was populated
- Genesis 9:20 Or Noah, a man of the soil, was the first to plant a vineyard
- Genesis 9:27 Japheth sounds like the Hebrew for enlarge
- Genesis 10:8 Or he began to be a mighty man on the earth
- Genesis 10:14 Or from where
- Genesis 10:25 Peleg means division
- Genesis 11:9 Babel sounds like the Hebrew for confused
What an inspiring exploration of consciousness. This helps me to understand this physical plane a bit more. Also, I love the new “How Does The Knowledge Help You?”
Thanks for commenting, Suzy!
Have you looked into Freemasonry? I’m sure you’d love it and find that a lot of what you believe in is very similar in understanding.
Can you send this Freemasonry link here pls
Thanks Josh for sharing your insights! I really like your personal shares as well. We, all of us down here, struggle, even Jesus himself struggled. But it’s what has us keep going forward!
Christine,
Growth, especially spiritual growth, is always in the struggle. Thanks for commenting.
The fact that God created polarity and duality becomes clear already in the first word of Genesis, it starts namely with a very big bet, the number two. When characters are written larger, or smaller, or even upside down (which I have never seen however) it always means something and this large bet points the creation of duality and polarity.
Anny,
Thanks for sharing this. I also think its important for people to understand that creation is inherit within the concept we call “God” just as creation in polarity. Thus God and polarity are linked.
Referring back to the first part of Genesis, it has not been discussed that God “said” – ‘Let there be light’. In John, we read also that ‘In the beginning was the Word…’
So that, before there was Light, there was the Word – the sound vibration – and in order (in our Universe at least) for Light to be known, there must be matter – the primordial ‘world’, without form and void – ie/ a thought form of the One. Into this thought form, God spoke, or vibrated forth the Word – and THEN there was Light. I would be interested in your thoughts on this…
IVM,
Thanks for your comment. The Word IS the divine life in all, creating all. Light represents the union of spirit and matter which is a potential to take place after the Word, or creation.
can i buy a book with all of this information combined together. This is a good work and i want to know more, what can i do. kenfrye40@yahoo.com
Thanks Ken, but I don’t think you’ll find this all in one book. This is a conglomeration of a bunch of different knowledge from a wide variety of reading, as well as some of my own and the other writers on this site. Check out Gaskell’s Dictionary of Scripture and Myth if you want a good place to start.
While I agree with you about the inherent symbolism of the Bible, I however disagree about “Light” representing “consciousness”. Too much of this is thrown around by New Age-influenced philosophy that seeks to exalt “intelligence” to a quasi-deified status in the world and within religions where such concepts cannot be found anywhere until the 19th century interest in occultism and spirituality. All this masquerades as is a renaissance of religion but confuses many of the meanings of ancient texts with Jungian psychological terms, or seeks to apply psychology to religious texts and scriptures in the hopes of changing their meaning(s).
People need to be a bit more realistic about the Genesis creation story and stop trying to equate it with any scientific meaning or significance at all. The Bible is not meant to be a vividly philosophical or ‘logical’ scripture and any attempts to make it as such distorts its original meaning. The seven days of Creation are the basis for the seven days of the week of the Hebrew/Abraham and the holy day of rest, the Sabbath. The separation of “light” and “darkness” probably does signify some sense of polarities or of duality, but more in the sense that ancient people saw “light” and “darkness” as two physical warring substances which could not coexist or cohabit with each other, such as oil and water, and that “Day” and “Night” were actual two physical ‘beings’ or ‘essences’ – not essentially as something to do with the rotation of the Earth, the stars, etc. Ancient nomadic tribes saw everything as heaving dense and physical matter – there was no sense of unseen matter or energy. The blue of the sky was the ‘waters above’ that was separated from the ‘waters below’. Even in our much more technologically advanced era you can see how the sky and the ocean can be seen as two separate ‘waters’, and the sky a physical dome or orb encapsulating the Earth.
The first part of the Genesis creation does not fit in well with the second part of the story and they are likely the same story from different ages or eras in the history of the Hebrew race. The first we commonly know and understand so famously “Let there be light, and there was light,” is more generalized and broader in terms of detail. When the story of the Creation of Adam and Eve and the Garden of Eden has been introduced, it does not smoothly fit in with the narrative of the prior story and thus, cannot have been written at the same time despite the fact they are put side by side together. Once Genesis 2:4 is read in comparison with Genesis 1, the overall context and language does not fit in with the first story despite the fact they speak seemingly of the same thing.
Most of the original books of the “Old Testament” were oral and spoken through the various tribes and peoples of the pre-Israel race. I’d say that most of the Genesis story – save for a few people here and there – are ‘figures’ representing the forefathers of the Hebrew people. It is part of the greater narrative of the Hebrew culture.
I do not doubt the divinity of the Bible or of the world, but in truth I do doubt human interpretation and understanding.
You yourself is putting your own interpretation and understanding. You stated the earth rotates; how did you come by this information? Even your thoughts are not your own. The the scriptures says the earth is fixed and is flat.
I would also like to add that the story of Adam, Eve, the serpent, and the “Garden” all have similarities with the birth and resurrection of the Christ Messiah, whom we call Jesus, son of Mary, David, etc.
Christ is sometimes seen as the last Adam, second Adam, or the new Adam. Many people, trying to fit this in with reincarnation theories, have attempted to malign the birth of the Christ as being a ‘reincarnation’ of the ‘cosmic soul’. Unfortunately, it does not work this way, as Christ spoke of no cyclic nature but instead, of a changing or resurrection of the human soul/body.
First Man, single man origins are not uncommon in prehistory. However, the intricacies of the Adam/Eden story have been desecrated by the literal viewpoint of the modern “Christian” who attempts to fit the Genesis story within a logical time-frame of history. This is impossible, but people get so upset by the mere thought of people treating the story as a symbol for a ‘fall’ or expulsion that it becomes impossible for them to understand the depth of meaning of the story.
It is impossible to know at this time in human existence if there was an “Adam” who existed physically on this Earth, and any attempts to do so are just cause for confusion. Instead, we should see, hopefully, the story of Adam and Eve, the Garden of Eden, and the eating of the Tree of Knowledge as apart of a piece of an essential truth. The Garden of Eden was a place of perfect spiritual perfection, without fault or sin. This is reflected in the Kingdom of Heaven, the Second Coming of Christ, the Messiah, etc. Possibly the story of Adam was the prehistoric man trying to understand how humanity – so distinct from the rest of Creation – came about. Even with our best modern theories of evolution, there is no other animal on this Earth who possesses the intimate capabilities of the human soul and spirit, such as the development of culture, civilization, abstract, complex thought, moral, so on and so forth. No other creature on this planet exhibits the depth of knowledge of language as we do. There are so many mysterious things about our creation and existence the story of Adam is apart of this mystery. And possibly even, within the depths of the human soul, the early people developed a need and desire to find an original place of origin. The Garden of Eden was an answer to man’s attempt at understanding his unique existence in this world. Separated from the ‘gods’ or God, yet being somehow of their essence or being (image).
Man has always attempted to regain his divinity or at least, to instill the divine nature within the natural world. Again, as in my prior post, I do honestly believe in the Divine. I do believer there is a greater, higher, unseen aspect of this world, this earth, and our lives which manifests itself delicately in the physical realm. I am sure there is an afterlife, that God can incarnate Himself in the form of a man (to become the Christ), and that miracles and strange things happen. I believe our lives are just mirrors or reflections to something greater than ourselves, and that the Bible – and the stories within – reveal this need within us to express what cannot always be expressed.
Every creation of God follows cyclic law of God (sun, moon, stars, galaxies, universe, etc, even seeds). Also Bible itself starts with first book Genesis (creation of Heaven & Earth) and ends with last book Revelation (destruction old and creation of new Heaven & Earth). This shows cyclic law is true, only if Christians accept cyclic law and also every person as spiritual being in physical body, Bible becomes so clear and easy to understand. My openion
Jesus Christ did mention reincarnation when he spoke of Elijah and john the baptist when he said Elijah must come first but they didn’t recognise him as john the baptist …or did you miss that part of the bible Emmanuelle
As I started reading this post, I had an epiphany which ends the argument of which day of the week is the Sabbath, i.e. Saturday or Sunday. On the seventh day God rested and when we open the seventh chakra we find rest. So, perhaps the days also represent our chakras and the opening of each. I’ll have to meditate on it…. Thanks for this website, you have confirmed some things for me that I had already “seen”.
Mary…
You make a valid observation here. According to Jewish tradition, the sabbath is not Sunday. In the Christian tradition, Sunday became a holy day because it correlates to the pagan idea of the SUN-GOD. In reality, the entire Bible should be considered pagan according to mainstream Christian doctrine, because the entire idea of Christianity is pagan in itself (think Easter), and even ancient Jewish beliefs stem from much older spiritual concepts that came from the Egyptians and others. Pagan is not the issue. It is the correct interpretation of all ancient scriptures, which are never literal, but are all metaphor and allegory explaining the human psyche and physiology.
After many years…I’m now in my sixties….of searching for a deeper truth to the Bible I recently came across your website. Thank you so much for your insights. I can finally reconcile my eclectic faith that encompasses Pagan & Taoism with Christianity. In years gone both I have felt an aversion to mainstream religions which appear divisive and elitist but always felt there must be a common spiritual unifying truth at their foundation. Once again, thank you for your time and effort in helping people like myself to find the deeper spiritual meaning
Thank you Skye, for your comment. Many blessings.
This is the mystic Revelation of the word. I understand better now. And I’m humbling myself to the point where you explained it clear that the world was created by the consciousness