by Isaac Asimov
7 And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.198
198. Since Earth and all its life forms were made only for the use of humanity, they became useless without humanity and might all be destroyed. God apparently planned to return everything to Chaos and wash out the whole experiment of Cosmos as a blunder.
8 But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.199
199. That the scheme of a return to Chaos was not carried out totally was owing to the fact that one man, Noah, found grace (“favor”) in the eyes of God. The experiment was apparently not a total failure, so God decided to wipe out only part of it and then start again.
9 These are the generations of Noah: 200 Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God.201
200. Here we have a new introduction, which might better be translated, “Following is the story of Noah.”
The reason for the introduction is that we now switch to the P-document, which carries on the tale from the end of Chapter 5.
In fact, the story of the Flood, which follows, is to be found both in the P-document and the J-document, each telling it characteristically. The P-document is full of numbers and details, while the J-document concentrates on drama.
The Biblical editors, finding the tale in both documents, included both, interweaving the P-document and the J-document in an attempt to tell a single story. Actually, they managed to introduce repetitions and self-contradictions.
201. The same phrase used in the case of Enoch in the previous chapter is used here in connection with Noah.
10 And Noah begat three sons. Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
11 The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.
12 And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.
13 And God said unto Noah. The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; 202 and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.203
202. In three verses, the P-document says three times that the Earth was corrupt and twice that it was filled with violence, but it gives no details. The P-document knows nothing of the miscegenation of the Sons of God and of the Nephilim.
It was perhaps in order to supply some definite excuse for God’s destruction of Earth that the Biblical editors scoured the J-document for appropriate verses to place before this section of the Bible. They came up with the Sons of God and with the Nephilim, which were inappropriate and mystifying but which were, perhaps, the best they could do.
203. It is God’s intention, as is soon to be described, to destroy life on Earth by means of a flood. It requires no great effort of imagination to conceive of a flood as a means of destruction.
Sumeria was a flat land between two large rivers. As is true of any large river (we have only to think of our own Missouri and Mississippi), unusual rises will bring about flooding conditions. In a land as flat as Sumeria, it would not take much of a flood to cover large portions of the entire region.
A particularly bad flood would live on in the memory of later generations, and particularly bad floods undoubtedly occurred. In 1929, the English archaeologist Sir Charles Leonard Woolley reported finding water-deposited layers as much as ten feet thick in excavations near the Euphrates, and Sumerian records speak of events as happening “before the Flood” and “since the Flood.”
Naturally, a particularly bad flood would destroy records, especially in a primitive situation where writing had, at best, barely come into use. For that reason, events “before the Flood” would quickly take on a legendary and, very likely, highly exaggerated nature. The Sumerians listed kings who reigned for tens of thousands of years before the Flood; they made no such reports of kings who reigned after the Flood. And, of course, this reflected itself in the ages given of the antediluvian patriarchs in the Bible.
The dramatic tale of the Sumerian Flood was included in the epic of Gilgamesh, which must have been popular all over the ancient world and which couldn’t help but influence the myths of other nations.
In the Gilgamesh legend, Gilgamesh, searching for immortality, is directed to seek out Ut-Napishtim, who attained immortality and who also survived the Flood. Gilgamesh finds Ut-Napishtim, and the latter tells a tale very much like the tale in the Bible. Thus, Ut-Napishtim is sometimes called the Sumerian Noah. It might be more accurate to call Noah the Biblical Ut-Napishtim.
River floods, like any other natural disaster, do not usually come about through human agency, and in ancient times, their causes were not understood. The Sumerians assigned the event to the whim of the gods. The Biblical writers, adapting the Sumerian tale, could not allow such whimsicality to stand and searched (not entirely successfully) for a way of showing that humanity had brought the disaster on itself.
14 Make thee an ark 204 of gopher wood; 205rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch.
204. The Hebrew word translated here as “ark” is tevah, and means a chest or box. The word “ark” is from a Latin term meaning “to enclose.”
We might well suppose that the earliest vessels designed to travel on water were rafts or open boats that could be rowed or moved by poles or even outfitted with sails. At first, they were all open to the air. The concept of a ship closed on all sides (to keep out a torrential rain that would swamp an open boat) would be that of a giant box. In modern terms, then, the verse would have begun, “Make thee an enclosed ship.…”
205. Gopher is an untranslated Hebrew word. We have no idea what kind of wood is meant by it.
15 And this is the fashion which thou shalt make it of: The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits.206
206. As usual, the P-document revels in numbers. A cubit is about eighteen inches long, so the dimensions of the ark as described are 450 feet by seventy-five feet by forty-five feet, for a total volume of a little over 1,500,000 cubic feet. Ut-Napishtim’s ark, built at the direction of the Sumerian god, Ea, was a cube 180 feet on each side, with a total volume of a little over 5,800,000 cubic feet.
Noah’s ark was only a little over a quarter as voluminous as Ut-Napishtim’s, but Noah’s more nearly resembled the proportions of a ship.
16 A window 207 shalt thou make to the ark, and in a cubit shalt thou finish it above: and the door of the ark shall thou set in the side thereof: with lower, second, and third stories shalt thou make it.208
207. A single window in a large vessel designed, as we shall see, to hold many animals seems absurdly insufficient, but both the Revised Standard Version and the New English Bible substitute the word “roof” for window, emphasizing the enclosed nature of the vessel.
The Hebrew word translated as “window” actually means “light,” so the Anchor Bible translates it as “skylight,” and Rabbinic legend has it that a precious jewel was used which filled the ark with light.
There is no point in being too meticulous about the detail of the ark. Neither the Sumerians nor the Israelites had experience with large ships or oceanic travel, and the design of the ark is the imaginary description of a group of writers who were, essentially, landlubbers.
208. Ut-Napishtim’s vessel was more elaborate and had seven decks.
17 And, behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life, from under heaven; and everything that is in the earth shall die.
18 But with thee will 1 establish my covenant: 209 and thou shalt come into the ark, thou, and thy sons, and thy wife, and thy sons’ wives with thee.
209. A covenant is a solemn contract.
19 And of every living thing of all flesh, two of every sort 210 shalt thou bring into the ark, to keep them alive with thee; they shall be male and female.211
Yet we now know that there are some fifteen thousand species of mammals alone. Naturally, only a fraction of these are to be found in Biblical lands, and if the Flood were a local phenomenon of the Tigris-Euphrates region (as it undoubtedly was), those would be all that mattered.
God speaks of destroying all flesh, however, and in addition to the mammals there are fifteen thousand species of other land vertebrates and an enormous number of species of other land animals. There are at least a million species of insects, with more being discovered every day. There are five hundred different known species of fleas alone.
It would seem that if God’s instructions are taken literally, the ark must have contained anywhere from two to four million animals, some four-fifths of them insects.
211. Having one male and one female of each species is no guarantee of survival. The chances of death of animals is so great that, unless there is a strong system of parental care and a great deal of luck, a single set of parents will not suffice to keep a species alive. The chances are better, of course, if there is no predation and if all animals are vegetarians, as they are supposed to be at this epoch of Biblical history.
20 Of fowls after their kind, and of cattle after their kind, of every creeping thing of the earth after his kind, two of every sort shall come unto thee, to keep them alive.212
212. No mention is made of any of the sea animals. Presumably they will not be harmed by the Flood. Microscopic creatures were, of course, unknown.
21 And take thou unto thee of all food that is eaten, 213 and thou shalt gather it to thee; and it shall be for food for thee, and for them.
213. The animal world is still presumably vegetarian, in line with the instructions in Genesis 1:29-30. This means that Noah must collect ample quantities of all plants that are eaten by any of the animals, which, if the verses are accepted literally, would mean all land plants, of which there are at least a quarter of a million species.
22 Thus did Noah: according to all that God commanded him, so did he.
Chapter 7
1 And the Lord 214 said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark; 215 for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation.
214. The last verse of the sixth chapter speaks of “God”; the first verse of the seventh chapter speaks of “Lord,” This is a clear indication that we are back in the J-document, now.
215. The J-document continues from where it left off in Genesis 6:8. Noah has found grace in the eyes of the Lord, who therefore invites him and his house into the ark. The J-document doesn’t bother with the dimensions of the ark or its facilities. It is simply there.
2 Of every clean beast 216 thou shalt take to thee by sevens, 217 the male and his female: 218 and of beasts that are not clean 219 by two, 220 the male and his female.
216. In this verse there is the sudden mention of “clean beasts,” without definition. A clean beast is one that can be used in sacrifice, such as cattle, sheep, or goats, but the criteria for distinguishing clean beasts from other kinds are not given until the Book of Leviticus later on in the Bible. The J-document apparently assumes the distinction was always known.
217. Although in the P-document Noah is directed to take a single pair of each kind of living creature without distinction, the J-document has him ordered to take seven pairs of each of the clean beasts. This, it would seem, is not intended to ensure their survival with extra care, but is intended to make sure there is an excess so that some could be sacrificed at the conclusion of the Flood.
218. There is an automatic, taken-for-granted male chauvinism in the Bible and, indeed, in the English language. The P-document refers, when it must, to “male and female,” with the male always first. The J-document refers to “the male and his female,” reducing the female to the status of property. (Would not the phrase “the female and her male” seem unthinkable?)
219. “Beasts that are not clean” are those that cannot be sacrificed, such as swine, horses, camels, and so on. Again, the distinction is made in Leviticus.
220. The phrase “by two” does not mean two pairs, for then it would be translated in the King James as “by twos” in analogy to the earlier “by sevens.” It is always taken to mean a single pair, and in the Revised Standard Version, this portion of the verse is translated “and a pair of the animals that are not clean, the male and his mate.”
3 Of fowls also of the air by sevens, 221 the male and the female; to keep seed alive upon the face of all the earth.
221. The fowls generally must be supplied in seven pairs each, and there is no mention of unclean fowls. It may be that the J-document speaks only of domesticated animals, for all domesticated birds were clean, but some domesticated mammals were unclean. This makes for a much smaller and more realistic task for the ark than the P-document’s version of the ark’s having to carry two of every single animal in existence.
4 For yet seven days and I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights; 222 and every living substance that I have made will I destroy from off the face of the earth.
222. The J-document is not concerned with exact numbers, but forty has certain ritualistic value as a good round number. Moses was on Mount Sinai for forty days, and he lived for three times forty years; Elijah was fed by ravens for forty days; Jesus fasted for forty days; and so on.
5 And Noah did according unto all that the Lord commanded him.
6 And Noah was six hundred years old 223 when the flood of waters was upon the earth.
223. This verse is from the P-document and follows Genesis 5:22. It is typical of the P-document’s concern for ages. Besides, it is not till Noah is six hundred years old that Methuselah dies, if one works out the figures given in the fifth chapter of Genesis. If it is not clear that Methuselah was dead, one might wonder why Noah was so callous as to leave his aged grandfather behind.
If one uses the figures in the fifth chapter, by the way, it turns out that Noah was born 1,056 years after the Creation and that the Flood took place, therefore, 1,656 years after the Creation. Accepting Archbishop Ussher’s estimate that the Creation took place in 4004 B.C., the Flood took place in 2348 B.C.
This would be off only by a few centuries. From the Sumerian records, it would seem that the Flood they speak of may have taken place in 2800 B.C. or thereabouts.
7 And Noah went in, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons’ wives with him, into the ark, because of the waters of the flood.
8 Of clean beasts, and of beasts that are not clean, and of fowls, and of everything that creepeth upon the earth.
9 There went in two and two 224 unto Noah into the ark, the male and the female, as God had commanded Noah.
224. It is uncertain whether this means a single pair of each, or in some cases seven pairs, one pair at a time. The ambiguity may be the result of a Biblical editor trying to reconcile the two versions.
10 And it came to pass after seven days, that the waters of the flood were upon the earth.
11 In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, 225 the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.226
225. Verses 7 through 10 are a portion of the J-document describing the entry into the ark (though it may have been revised by the editor, using God instead of Lord and obscuring the actual numbers of each species).
With verse 11, however, we return to the P-document, and the entry into the ark will be described all over again. The P-document gives not only the year of the entry, but the exact month and day, which is typical of its concern for numbers.
226. There is at least a partial breakdown of the cosmic order as the divisions betw
een land and sea, and between the waters below and above the firmament, are broken down.
If we consider the actual Flood in Sumerian history, does the mention of the “fountains of the great deep” mean that it was more than a river flood? Did the waters of the ocean also invade the land? Were heavy rains accompanied by a great tsunami (or tidal wave) as well?
What might have caused the tsunami? There is a crustal-plate boundary that runs down the northeastern shore of the Persian Gulf, and it is possible that an earthquake may have taken place in such a way as to shake the sea and send a wave of water careening up the Gulf.
More dramatically still, we might speculate that perhaps a sizable meteor made an unlucky strike on the waters of the Gulf and created a huge splash. There is no evidence for either of these speculations, but neither is flatly impossible.
12 And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights.227
227. Here is the insertion of a J-document verse in the midst of a P-document passage, referring once again to the forty-day rain of the fourth verse of this chapter.
13 In the selfsame day entered Noah, and Shem. and Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah’s wife, and the three wives of his sons with them, into the ark;
14 They, and every beast after his kind, and all the cattle after their kind, and every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind and every fowl after his kind, every bird of every sort.
15 And they went in unto Noah into the ark, two and two of all flesh, wherein is the breath of life.
16 And they that went in, went in male and female of all flesh, as God had commanded him: 228 and the Lord shut him in.229
228. This is the P-document description of the entry into the ark, very much a repetition of the J-document description.
229. The final phrase of this verse is a return to the J-document. It should have come at the end of the J-document description of the entry at the end of verse 9, but its note of finality would have made it a little more difficult to go on with the P-document description of the entry, so it was placed here.
