20Something 2-1-06 Noah and the Flood

The Old Testament for Progressive Christians – Lesson 4- Genesis 6-9

Part 1. Exercise- Think of some stories about “starting over.” They can be personal stories or ones from history or literature. Be prepared to relate them to the class.

Part 2. The story of Noah and the great flood is based on several flood accounts of surrounding civilizations and is most similar to the Babylonian Epic of King Gilgamesh, who had set out on a journey in search of immortality. He came across a man named Utnapishtim, who had been granted immortality by the gods after his actions during The Great Flood. The language and events are extremely similar to the Genesis account.

(For more on Gilgamesh go to http://www.wsu.edu/~dee/MESO/GILG.HTM)

Some regional historical origins of the various oral-tradition Great Flood stories:

· The Tigris- Euphrates valley underwent a severe flood in about 3000 BCE.
· After the end of the Ice Age in about 10,000 BCE, the overflowing Mediterranean Sea breached the cliffs surrounding the valley that is now the Black Sea at a rate that increased the water level by about a concentric mile a day. The mountains of Ararat, where the ark is said to have rested are in eastern Turkey just south of the Black Sea.

Part 3. The Flood narrative is an interweaving of the J (Yahwist) and P (Priestly) traditions. Story-Stick Readings:

Read Genesis 6. 1-8

1. What are the conflicts in God’s attitude about Humankind?
2. What are some elements of these verses that may seem strange or unusual?
3. How does this compare with the Eden story concerning Humankind’s impact on all of Creation?

Read Genesis 6. 17-22

4. What do these verses tell us about God’s feelings toward animals?
5. What in the wording of these verses, tells us of our expected relationship to animals?

Note: The Hebrew word for “Ark” in this story is used only one other time in the Bible; as the description of the basket which held the baby Moses. He, too, had been placed there by his loving mother in order to save him from, this time, a human-ordered extermination.

In the story, God instructs Noah with detailed plans for the Ark:

made of cypress wood (Gopher wood)
sealed with tar inside and out.
four hundred fifty feet long (All measurements are approximate, depending on varied definitions of a cubit.)
seventy-five feet wide
forty-five feet high
roof on the ark elevated by a window space of about eighteen inches between the roof and the sides.
three stories high
a door on one side.

6. What are your earliest Sunday School memories of the physical appearance of the ark?

7. How is it actually described in the Bible?

Part 4. The Rest of the Story
(Read Genesis 7. 2-5)

1. Why were the animals in sets of seven important to God?

2. What are some clues in this passage that tell us it was written by a different tradition than Chapter 6?

(Read Genesis 7. 17-22.)

1. This is the first of many mentions of the number 40 in the Bible. What did the number mean?

2. Verses 21 and 23 say virtually the same thing. (edited together from two traditions) This is the only description of the disaster itself. What is the main emphasis of the whole flood narrative?

Part 5. After the Flood
(Read Genesis 8. 20-22) Consider God’s change of heart.
(Read Genesis 9. 1-2) Consider parallels to the story of Eden.

A careful reading of the rest of the story reveals why this is one of the best examples in the Bible of the editing together of different written traditions, with almost every important point rather awkwardly listed at least twice and with the obvious insertions of the legalism of the priests (dietary laws, crimes and their punishments, and the story in 20-27, the justification for the degradation and enslavement of the Canaanites.)

What are the lessons for Modern Christians in this story?