Flood (6:5–9:17)

Make yourself an ark (6:14). Earliest boats were made of skin, reeds, or dugout logs. These were small rivercraft. A boat of the size of the ark would have to be made of planks throughout (rather than using a dugout foundation as the earliest planked boats did).207 Planks in the earliest ships were not joined by nails (much later technology). Rather, they often used wooden pegs to join planks, which were then sewn together with cords of some sort.208 The plank skin was built first, then the frame was built inside, and finally the decks were added.

The earliest evidence of even basic plank ships with decks is from Egypt in the middle of the third millennium. In Mesopotamia, larger planked ships appear in the latter half of the third millennium, but the largest known would have only had a capacity of 11 tons.209 The dimensions of the ark (figuring eighteen inches to a cubit) measured 450 feet by 75 feet by 45 feet. It would have had a displacement of approximately 43,000 tons and a capacity of about 15,000 tons. The largest ships known from the last half of the first millennium B.C. from Alexandria carried no more than 4,000 tons and were considered of remarkable size—wonders of the classical world and testimony to their technological advancement.

Solar boat showing technique of sewing planks together

Frederick J. Mabie

Among the Roman vessels of the first few centuries A.D., the most famous for its incredible size was the Isis. It sailed between Alexandria and Rome in the second century A.D. and was 180 feet by 45 feet by 44 feet—less than a quarter of the size of the ark.210 It is common to find assertions today on the internet that wooden boats cannot exceed 300 feet and remain seaworthy. Even with iron support strapping, boats of 300 feet require continual bailing. Others refute such statistics, and it is difficult to find unbiased experts to support one view or another. Needless to say, regardless of the date assigned to the flood, the construction of the ark required technologies millennia ahead of their time.

Seven of every kind of clean animal (7:2). This is the only hint that the category of “clean” animals existed prior to Sinai. Here it is not a designation pertaining to diet since eating of meat was ostensibly not permitted until after the flood. No distinction between clean and unclean animals is made anywhere else in the ancient Near East (particularly as it refers to diet). Nevertheless, the designation “clean” could refer to the acceptability of the animal for sacrifice (one could infer that this is how Noah used them). On this count, every temple and culture had its regulations about animals that could be offered and those that could not.

When we remember that in the rest of the ancient Near East sacrifices were considered meals for the nourishment of the gods, the decision about acceptable and unacceptable animals would have been based on what was considered edible or delectable. In Egypt, wild animals such as wild cattle, antelope, gazelle, and ibex were favored for sacrifice, with sheep and goats being largely avoided.211 Other cultures favored domesticated animals in their sacrificial practices, mostly ungulates such as sheep, goats, and cattle. Pigs and dogs were used by some in rituals of elimination, but rarely to be fed to gods. Among the equids, donkeys were used in some ritual contexts, but again, not for feeding to the gods. Finally, among the birds, doves and pigeons are the most widely attested sacrificial types. Many of these were recognized as appropriate in the broader ancient Near Eastern world if “clean” refers to being acceptable for sacrifice.212

In the Mesopotamian flood stories, the Gilgamesh Epic indicates that Utnapishtim put on board the “seed of all living creatures” (11.27), later detailed as “animals of the wild, creatures of the wild” (11.86).213 The pertinent section in the Atrahasis Epic is fragmentary, but Lambert and Millard’s edition identifies “clean [animals] … fat [animals] and winged [birds] of the heavens.” Then two broken lines refer to cattle and wild creatures.214 In the Sumerian Eridu Genesis, the section about building and loading the boat are not preserved.

Springs of the great deep … floodgates (7:11). These are terms from the contemporary understanding of cosmic geography (see sidebar on “Cosmic Geography in the Ancient World” in the introduction). The Hebrew word translated “deep” (tehôm) is the same one used in 1:2. It refers to the great cosmic ocean that not only surrounds the land, but is that on which the land floats (cf. Ps. 24:1–2). This is what 1:7 calls “the water under the expanse.” The “springs” were considered the entry points of these waters to the earth.

The “floodgates,” or the windows of heaven, were the comparable entry points for the waters above the earth that are held back by the sky. These allow rain to fall. In Genesis 1 the initial watery condition was remedied by separating these waters and then inserting the dry land between them. In the flood, the restraints on these cosmic waters are lifted and the cosmos is returned to its nonfunctional watery state.

The springs of the deep are well known in ancient cosmic geography. Akkadian uses tamtu (cognate to Hebrew tehôm) to refer to the large visible bodies of water and apsu to refer to the large body of water believed to flow under the earth.215 But there is no precedent for the “windows” (ʾ arubbōt) of heaven. When Sumerian speaks of the source of rain it refers to the “teat (UBUR) of heaven.”216 The Mesopotamian flood stories focus not on an onslaught of the cosmic waters but on the terror of the storm and the devastation it brings.

Forty days and forty nights (7:12). In Genesis the flood is much more protracted than in the Mesopotamian accounts. The actual rain lasts forty days and nights rather than seven, and when all of the numbers are added up, Noah and his family are in the ark for about a year. The number forty is often used in schematic ways in the biblical text, so it cannot easily be used for precise reckoning. As frequently as it occurs in the Bible, forty is not used as a schematic number in the ancient Near East.

Mountains of Ararat (8:4). The mountains of Ararat are located in the Lake Van region of eastern Turkey in the area of Armenia (known as Urartu in Assyrian inscriptions), with its highest peak reaching 17,000 feet. In contrast to a range of mountains, the Gilgamesh Epic describes the flood hero’s ark coming to rest on a specific mountaintop, Mount Nimush (formerly rendered Nisir) in southern Kurdistan. The only hint to its location is that it is said to be in the land of the Gutium, which is in the Zagros Mountains east of the Tigris and near the Diyala. The modern-day Pir Omar Gudrun is generally considered the strongest candidate.217 This would place it about four hundred miles south-southeast of Ararat.218

Location of Ararat

Sent out a dove (8:8). A number of incantations in recognition of Shamash as the judge of the heavens and the underworld feature the release of two doves (male to the east, female to the west) in an attempt to win the deity’s favor.219 In this sort of ritual context, the idea is that the evil that offends the deity is transferred to the birds, which carry it away (characteristic of namburbi rituals). The Babylonian Almanac also indicates that the release of a captive bird on certain days can bring favorable results.220

Despite these intriguing texts, the biblical text offers no suggestion that the birds carry away offenses or bring luck. In fact, the purpose of their release is stated in relation to drawing conclusions about the conditions outside the ark. In the Mesopotamian flood story, birds are also used for this same purpose. In Gilgamesh neither the dove nor the swallow is able to find a perch, but the raven does not return (11.148–56).221 Insufficient data concerning the use of birds in ancient Near Eastern maritime practices cautions against further explanation being offered in this direction.222

Olive leaf (8:11). Olive trees are difficult to kill, and they resprout easily. They do not mind rocky soil and grow best on hillsides, but not in high elevations.223 The olive leaf brought by the dove gives Noah an indication that the lower elevations have drained and that vegetation is once again sprouting.

Olive branch

Júlio Reis/Wikimedia Commons

Smelled the pleasing aroma (8:21). The contrast between the biblical and ancient Near Eastern accounts is more distinct on this point than on any other. In the Gilgamesh Epic the gods have apparently neglected to realize that with all humans destroyed, no one will be left to give them sacrifices. Without sacrifices they are deprived of their sustenance. Consequently, when the sacrifice is offered after the survivors disembark from the boat, “the gods smelled the sweet savour, the gods gathered like flies around the sacrificer.”224

Both Gilgamesh and Genesis refer to the aroma/savor of the sacrifice, but the portrayal offered of deity is far different. In Gilgamesh this represents the gods’ needs and exposes their shortsightedness. It functions to appease their anger. In Genesis it represents God’s pleasure in the creatures he has made and his resulting commitment not to destroy them.

Fear and dread (9:2). The divide between the animal world and the human world is seen differently in Mesopotamian literature. In the Gilgamesh Epic, when Enkidu, the uncivilized man of the steppe regions, lived in the wild, the animals were his friends. Once he becomes civilized, they run away from him (1.196–200). In Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta and in an Ur cosmology text, humanity is understood to be in fear and trembling from wild beasts.225

Everything … will be food for you (9:3). In Mesopotamia the motif of the wild man includes that he lives in the wild with the animals and eats grass.226 This is also part of the description of human existence in general before they become civilized.227 Here in Genesis the provision for eating meat is not connected with the development of civilization (Gen. 4) but with the restatement of the blessing. In general in the ancient world meat was a delicacy, eaten only on special occasions in connection with cultic activities. Meat was more regularly part of the palace fare, and Egyptian reliefs and paintings portray the butchering process.228

Painting from the tomb of Ity depicting the slaughtering of an ox

Werner Forman Archive/Egyptian Museum, Turin

Meat that has its lifeblood still in it (9:4). The draining of the blood was presumably a reflection of the belief that the blood contained the life force of the animal.229 Whether this was a way of ensuring that the animal was dead or symbolized the return of the life force to God cannot be ascertained. Ritual draining of blood is not attested in ancient Near Eastern literature.

By man shall his blood be shed (9:6). Exacting punishment for murder is not reserved for deity but is placed under the purview of human judicial systems here, whether they are located in courts or in clans. This verse may well mark the beginning of judicial responsibility that is eventually evidenced in the compilations of sample verdicts (such as those found on the Hammurabi Stele) throughout the ancient Near East. These compendia demonstrate that the kings and societies of the ancient world took their judicial responsibilities seriously. Many of these indicate that capital punishment was common in cases of homicide, though often lesser penalties were exacted depending on the social status of both the perpetrator and the victim.230

Rainbow (9:13). In the Gilgamesh Epic the goddess Ishtar identifies the lapis lazuli of her necklace as the basis of an oath by which she will never forget the days of the flood. The beads of the necklace are in the shape of flies and thus reminiscent of the way the gods swarmed like flies around the sacrifice offered by Utnapishtim.231 A. D. Kilmer suggests that a connection exists between Ishtar’s necklace and the rainbow is the iridescence of the flies’ wings.232 An eleventh-century Assyrian relief shows two hands reaching out of the clouds, one hand offering blessing, the other holding a bow.233 Since the word for “rainbow” (qešet) is the same word as that used for the weapon, this is an interesting image. This comparison and ones like it suggest the possibility that these two traditions diverged from a common core.

Egyptian necklace worn as an amulet features flies of gold.

HIP/Art Resource, NY, courtesy of the British Museum

Broken Obelisk of Ashur-bel-kala depicting two hands reaching from the sky and extending a bow

© The Trustees of the British Museum