Genesis 6-9a
18 Dec 2025 - Theology
Noah and the Flood
Genesis 6:5 - “And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”
- signifies not only the whole imagination, but also all purposes and desires
- “continually” meaning always or all the time
Problems:
- How could Genesis 6:5 be true if Noah does not fall into that (Genesis 6:8-9)
- focus on the earth’s corruption
- story is very detailed
The Flood Stories
There were many flood narratives known at the time that are still preserved today. Cultural Memory - many cultures remember an event because it actually happened
Epic of Gilgamesh - Sumeria/Mesopotamia:
- gods have physical needs - sleep
- people are too loud and annoying
- measurement of boat is detailed - perfect cube, 200 ft. long on each side
- seed of 24 creatures taken into the boat
| Other Flood Stories | Biblical Flood Narrative |
|---|---|
| Polytheistic | Monotheistic |
| Reason for the flood is annoying humans | Reason for the flood is God is against evil |
| Flood seems out of the gods’ control | God is in control of the flood |
The Biblical God is quick to get humans back on the right track.
Two Tellings of the Flood Narrative
| J Source | P (Priestly) Source |
|---|---|
| Calls for 7 pairs of clean animals and one pair of unclean animals (7:2-3) | Calls for only 2 (one pair) of each animal (6:19-20, 7:9,15) |
| Flood lasted 40 days and 40 nights (7:4,12,17) | Flood lasted 150 days (7:24, 8:3) |
| Uses the name Lord (Adonai/YHVH) for God | Uses the name God (Elohim) |
| Adonai wanted to destroy the world because it was a mistake to create people with hearts that could lean toward evil (6:7) | Elohim wanted to destory the world because people were spoiling it with violence (6:11-13) |
J Stories - Adonai operates in our world:
- Adonai closes the ark for Noah (7:16)
- Adonai smells a pleasant aroma (8:21)
- Adonai speaks to His heart (8:21)
P Stories - Detailed
- Careful about time - exactly when the flood starts and ends
- Careful about measurements - ark details (6:14-16)
- Careful about places - which mountain the ark landed on
- Careful about families - Noah’s age, names of his sons
P stories tell us that God is interested in making covenants.
These two tellings of the flood narrative are put together here in Genesis as one:
Genesis 7:11 - “In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.”
Genesis 8:3-4 - “And the waters returned from off the earth continually: and after the end of the hundred and fifty days the waters were abated. And the ark rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, upon the mountains of Ararat.”
By reading these verses together we see that the flood began on the 17th day of the 2nd month, and the ark rested on the mountain on the 17th day of the 7th month. Using an ancient uniform calendar where months are calculated at 30 days each, exactly five consecutive months equals 150 days.
Chiasm
- seven - Genesis 7:4
- seven - Genesis 7:10
- forty - Genesis 7:17
- one hundred and fifty - Genesis 7:24
- one hundred and fifty - Genesis 8:3
- forty - Genesis 8:6
- seven - Genesis 8:10
- seven - Genesis 8:12
Middle:
Genesis 8:1 - “And God remembered Noah, and every living thing, and all the cattle that was with him in the ark: and God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters assuaged.”
wind = ruach - breath, the Spirit of God. The same word ruach is found in Genesis 1:2. The Flood story corresponds to the Creation story.
In Genesis 8:17 there is the same message given as in the first (P) story of creation (Genesis 1:28): “be fruitful, and multiply.”
Sabbath - Genesis 9:8-17
- “covenant” appears 7 times
- “earth” appears 7 times
- “clouds” appears 5 times
- “rainbows” or “bows” appears 3 times Odd numbers have a center value - Chiasm!
Chiasm:
Genesis 9:14-15 - “… I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud: And I will remember my covenant…”
This covenant is a Sabbath from destroying! The bow is pointed away from the earth and towards the heavens.
Genesis 8:1 and Genesis 9:15 - If it says that God “remembered”, then does that mean He had forgotten? No, the sign of the covenant (the rainbow) is in the sky so He can never forget, even if we humans do.
This is an example of a Suzerain - Vassal covenant.
Even though there is evil, God promises that He will never again send a flood to destroy the earth.
Moral of the Stories
J - Adonai discovers that people will always be both good and evil, but it is not good to destroy the world just because some people are evil.
P - Human violence is evil, and evil must always be punished. After the evil is punished, the world can go on and multiply and be fruitful again.
References
- The Hebrew - Greek Key Study Bible (KJV Version)
- The BEMA Podcast, Episode 4: His Bow in the Clouds
- The Torah Portion-by-Portion by Rabbi Seymour Rossel (2007)