Noah

NOAH, or Noe, Son of Lamech, was born in the Year of the World 1056, before Christ 2944, before the vulgar Æra 2948. Amidst the general Corruption into which all Mankind was fallen at this Time, Noah found Favour in the Eyes of Gen. vi. 8. &c.the Lord. And God seeing that all Flesh had corrupted their Ways, said to Noah¹; “ The End of all Flesh is resolved upon “ before me; the Earth is filled with the “ Iniquities of Men, and I will destroy “ them from the Face of the Earth. Make “ an Ark of Wood hewed and smoothed; “ you shall divide it into little Chambers, “ and harden it within and without with “ Pitch and Bitumen. It shall be three “ Hundred Cubits long, fifty wide, and “ thirty high. It shall have three Floors “ of Chambers, and you shall make a “ Door in the Side². For I shall bring “ upon the Earth the Waters of a Deluge, “ and I shall destroy all the Animals which “ are under Heaven and upon the Face “ of the Earth. I will make a Covenant “ with you, and will preserve you from “ this general Devastation. You shall go “ into the Ark, you, your Wife, your “ three Sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and “ their three Wives with them. You shall “ take with you into the Ark a Couple of “ every kind of Animals, a Male and Female, of the Number of those Animals “ that are impure; and seven Couples of “ pure Animals, Male and Female; and “ you shall carry into the Ark what Provisions are necessary for your own Support, and for the Animals that shall be “ in the Ark with you.

Noah performed whatever the Lord had commanded him; and in the Year of the World 1656, before Christ 2344, before the vulgar Æra 2348, God caused all the Animals to come to Noah, that he might place them in the Ark; after which he ordered him to go in himself, with his Wife, his three Sons, and their Wives, and when they were all entered, he shut the Door on the outside; and presently the Waters of the Deluge began to fall upon the Earth. Noah was then six Hundred Years old. The nineteenth Day of the second Month of this same Year, the Fountains of the great Abyss of Waters were broke open, and the Cataracts of Heaven were opened, and the Rain fell upon the Earth for forty Days and forty Nights. The Waters increased in such a Manner, that they were raised fifteen Cubits above the Tops of the Mountains; and they continued upon the Earth for an hundred and fifty Days without either rising or falling; insomuch that whatever had Life upon the Earth, or in the Air, was destroyed, except such Animals as were with Noah in the Ark.

But the Lord remembring Noah³, sent a Wind upon the Earth, which caused the Waters to diminish; so that on the seventeenth Day of the seventh Month, the Ark rested upon the Mountains of Armenia, or Ararat, as it is in the Hebrew. ‘Tis believed that this is the Mountain Ararat near the City Erivan. The tenth Day of the tenth Month, the Tops of the Mountains began to appear; and after forty Days Noah let go the Raven, who went out of the Ark, and returned according to the Hebrew⁴, or returned not according to the Septuagint and the Vulgate; or he went out, and went and came, flying about the Ark, and alighting upon its Roof. Afterwards he sent forth the Dove, which not finding a Place to set his Foot, returned into the Ark again. Seven Days after he sent it out again, and it returned in the Evening, bringing in its Mouth a Branch of an Olive -tree, having green Leaves upon it, which the Tree had brought forth since the assuaging of the Waters. He stayed yet seven Days longer, and then he uncovered the Roof of the Ark; and observing the whole Surface of the Earth was dry, he received Orders from the Lord to go out of the Ark, with all the Animals that were therein. He therefore came out in the six Hundred and first Year of his Age, and the twenty seventh Day of the second Month.

Then he offered as a burnt Sacrifice to the Lord one of all the pure Animals that were in the Ark; and the Lord accepted of his Sacrifice, and said to him: “ I will “ no more pour out my Curse upon the “ whole Earth, and will no more destroy “ all the Animals as I have now done. I “ give you Power over all the brute Creation, and I Gen. ix. 1, 2, &c.deliver them to you to eat “ thereof, as you eat the Herbs and Fruits “ of the Earth. I except only the Blood, “ the Use of which I forbid you. Increase “ and multiply. I shall make a Covenant “ with you, and engage my self no more “ to send an universal Deluge upon the “ Earth; and as a Memorial of my Promise, I shall set my Bow in the Clouds, “ which shall be as a Pledge of the Covenant I make with you.

Noah being an Husbandman, began now to cultivate the Vine; and having made Wine and drank thereof, he unwarily made himself drunk, and fell asleep in his Tent, and happened to uncover himself in an indecent Posture. Ham the Father of Canaan having observed him in this Condition, made himself Sport with him, and acquainted his two Brothers with it, who were without. But they instead of making it a Matter of Sport, turned away from it, and going backwards they covered their Father’s Nakedness, by throwing a Mantle over him. Noah awaking and knowing what Ham had done, said, that Canaan the Son of Ham should be accursed, that he should be a Slave of Slaves in Respect of his Brethren. ‘Tis thought he had a Mind to spare the Person of his Son Ham, for Fear the Curse might light upon the other Children of Ham⁵, who had no Part in this Action. He cursed Canaan by a Spirit of Prophecy, because the Canaanites his Descendants were hereafter to be rooted out by the Israelites. Noah added, let the Lord the God of Shem be blessed, and let Canaan be the Servant of Shem. And he was so in Effect, in the Person of the Canaanites subdued by the Hebrews. Lastly Noah said, Let God extend the Possession of Japheth; let Japheth dwell in the Tents of Shem, and let Canaan be his Servant. This Prophecy had its Accomplishment, when the Grecians, and afterwards the Romans, being descended from Japheth, made a Conquest of Asia, which was the Portion of Shem.

But Noah lived yet after the Deluge three Hundred and fifty Years; and the whole Time of his Life having been nine Hundred and fifty Years, he died in the Year of the World 2006, before Christ 1994, and before the vulgar Æra 1998. He left three Sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, of which Mention will be made under their Articles; and according to the common Opinion, he divided the whole World amongst them, in Order to repeople it⁶. To Shem he gave Asia, to Ham, Africa, and Europe to Japheth. Some⁷ will have it, that besides these three Sons, he had several others. The spurious Berosus gives him thirty, called Titans, from the Name of their Mother Titæa. They pretend the Teutons or Germans are derived from a Son of Noah called Thuiscon. The false Methodius also makes Mention of Jonithus or Jonicus, a pretended Son of Noah. The Scholastick History of Peter Comestor may be seen, l. i. c. 37. and Tostat upon Genesis. We have spoken already under the Article NOACHIDÆ, of the Precepts that the Rabbins pretend were given by Noah to his Sons and their Descendants.

2 Peter ii. 5.St. Peter calls Noah a Preacher of Righteousness, because before the Deluge he was incessantly preaching and declaring to Men, not only by his Discourses, but by his unblamable Life, and by the building of the Ark, in which he was employed six Score Years, that the Wrath of God was ready to pour upon ‘em. But his Preaching had no Effect, since when the Deluge came, it found Mankind plunged in their old Enormities, and busied in nothing less Matth. xxiv. 37.than in appeasing the Vengeance of God. We find among the Verses of the pretended Sybils, a Piece intitled, A Description of Mankind before the Deluge, and Noah’s preaching to them. Theophilus of Antioch⁸ seems to believe, that the Name Deucalion, who is the same as Noah, comes from the Greek Deute, and Calein, come and call; because Noah speaking to Men before the Deluge, used the Words, Come, God calls you to Repentance.

1 Pet. iii. 18, 19, 20.The same St. Peter says, For Christ also hath once suffered for Sins, the just for the unjust, (that he might bring us to God) being put to Death in the Flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: By which also he went and preached unto the Spirits in Prison; which sometime were disobedient, when once the long Suffering of God waited in the Days of Noah, while the Ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is eight Souls, were saved by Water. Several of the antient Fathers⁹ have taken these Words literally; as if Jesus Christ after his Resurrection, had really preached to those Men, who before the Deluge were disobedient to the Preaching of Noah; that he had delivered some of those that were the least wicked, who believed in him, and were converted. Others¹⁰ by the Word Prison understand the Body, which is as it were the Prison of the Soul. Others will have it, that Jesus Christ by his Spirit, with which Noah was replenished, preached by the Mouth of this Patriarch to the Unbelievers before the Deluge, whose Souls were then in the Prison of the Body, but who at the Time that St. Peter wrote were in the Prison of Hell. The Commentators may be consulted for the other Interpretations that are given to this Passage.

The Eastern People¹¹ had a Notion, that Noah received Orders from God to take the Body of Adam, and put it in the Ark, to preserve it from the Waters of the Deluge; and that when he found himself near his Death, he called his Son Shem to him, trusted him with this Depositum, and bid him carry it to Melchisedech the Priest of the most High, that they two might bury it in such Place as the Angel of the Lord should shew them. Shem went therefore to Melchisedech, and they buried Adam upon Mount Calvary, which is the Middle of the Earth. This is a Prayer which, ‘tis said, Noah repeated every Day while he was in the Ark. “ O Lord, thou art truly great, and there is nothing so great “ as that it can be compared to thee. “ Look upon us with an Eye of Mercy, “ and deliver us from this Deluge of Waters. I intreat this of thee for the Love “ of Adam thy first Man, for the Blood “ of Abel thy Saint, for the Righteousness “ of Seth whom thou hast loved. Let us “ not be reckoned in the Number of those “ who have disobeyed thy Commandments, but still extend thy merciful Care “ to us, because thou hast hitherto been “ our Deliverer, and all thy Creatures shall “ declare thy Praise, Amen.

Gen. vi. 9.Several learned Men have observed, that the Pagans have confounded Saturn, Deucalion, Ogyges, the God Cœlus, or Uranus, Janus, Protheus, Prometheus, Vertumnus, Bacchus, Osiris, Vadimon, and Nisuthrus, with Noah. Concerning this the Reader may see M. Bochart, Geograph. Sacr. l. i. c. 1. M. Huet. de concord. Rat. & Fidei, l. ii. Grot. de verit. Relig. Christ. l. i. Natalis Comes. Mytholog. l. viii. c. 17. Octav. Falconer, Dissert. de Numo Apamens. Dikinson, Delphi Phœnicizantes. See also M. Fabricius Apochryph. V. T. p. 247, &c. Also several Writings have been ascribed to Noah. Some Hebrews have thought, that Moses quotes a Work composed by Noah, when he says, These are the Generations of Noah. And elsewhere, Now these are the Gen. x. 1.Generations of the Sons of Noah. The false Berosus ascribes also a Book to him, Of the Secrets of natural Things; and the Cabalists maintain, that this Book was stole from Noah by his Son Ham, and given to Mizraim. W. Postel speaks of it in the Title of his Book called, De originibus, seu de varia ac potissimum orbi Latino ad hanc diem incognita, aut inconsiderata historia, &c. Ex libris Noachi & Hanachi, &c. Lambecius in his Catalogue of the Emperor’s Library, speaks of a Book with this Title: The Method which was revealed to the Prophet Noah by the Angel of the Lord, to discover sixteen Figures, proper to foretel what shall come hereafter. But all these are justly ranged in the Class of Fables and Impostures. There is no Proof that Noah ever wrote any Thing, much less that any Thing of his is preserved to our Times.

The Wife of Noah is called Noriah by the Gnosticks¹¹; Barthenos or Bathenos by Epiphanes¹²; Noema or Tethiri, by some antient Rabbins¹³. But this has as little Certainty, as what we now mentioned of Noah’s Works.

We find in the Arabic Explication of Genesis, imputed to St. Hippolytus, and printed in the second Tome of his Works, p. 38. Edit. Fabricii, that the Wife of Shem was called Nahalath Mahnuk, that of Ham, Zetdkath-nabu, and that of Japheth, Arathkah. The Mussulmen give Noah the Title of Father, and of Chief of those that were sent by God, or of all the Prophets. They¹⁴ call him also Al-negi, he that was saved himself, and saved others. They add, that he was sent of God to preach Repentance to Men, and to teach the Unity of the Deity, and that he could only convert four Score Persons, who were saved with him in the Ark. That when he began to work upon this famous Vessel, all that saw him derided him, and said; You are building a Ship, if you can bring Water to it, you will be a Prophet as well as a Carpenter. But he made Answer to these Insults, You laugh at me now, but I shall have my Turn to laugh at you. You will learn at your own Cost, that there is a God in Heaven who punishes the wicked.

Ebn-abbas says, that Noah being perplexed about the Figure that he should make the Ark of, God revealed to him, that it must have the Shape of the Belly of a Bird, and that he must make Use of the Timber of a Tree called in Arabic, Sag, which is the Platanus of the Indies. He presently planted it, and in twenty Years it was big enough to furnish the Materials for this whole Vessel, great as it was. It was built in two Years Time, it had three Floors, the highest was for the Birds, the lowest for the wild and tame Beasts, and the Middlemost for Mankind.

When the Time of the Deluge was come, the Oven began to boil up, and to run over. For they affirm, that Noah had succeeded by Inheritance to that Oven, that Eve had made Use of to bake her Bread, and that at the Times of God’s Vengeance it begins to pour out great Floods of running Water. This Oven, called in Hebrew, Tannour, is different from our common Ovens; for it has its Opening at Top, and is generally of Stone or Clay. The Fourscore Believers entered with Noah into the Ark, and none but Canaan the Son of Ham refused to enter. Some of ‘em think that Noah went on Board at Confab, near the Mouth of the Tigris in the Persian Gulf; others at the Place where Babylon was afterwards built.

After the Ark had gone round the World, during the Space of six Months¹⁵, God gave his Commands to the Earth, saying, Earth swallow up the Waters; Heaven, drink up those that thou hast poured out. The Water then began immediately to diminish, the Orders of God were performed, the Ark stopped upon the Mountain of Girudi, and this Voice was heard from Heaven, Cursed are the Wicked.

They think that Noah came out of the Ark on the tenth Day of the first Month of the Arabian Year, called Meharram; and that this Patriarch instituted a Fast on that Day, which they still observe, in Commemoration of the Deliverance from the Waters of the Deluge. Then Noah was appointed of God as a new Adam, to re-people the whole World. All Nations derive their Original from his three Sons. Shem was the Father of the Hebrews, the Arabians, the Persians, the Syrians, and the Greeks, Japheth of the Scythians, the Moguls, the Getæ, the Tartars, the Chinese, the Turks, the Hyperboreans, of Gog and Magog. Ham is the Father of the Indians, the Africans, the Blacks, and all the People of the South.

Besides these three Sons of Noah, the Orientals have given him a fourth, called Maghestcn, unknown to the sacred Books of the Hebrews. They say moreover, that God sent Books to Noah, which signifies, according to their Way of speaking, that when he died he left ten Volumes behind him, in which he wrote down the Revelations, and all the Commands he had received from God. But these Books, if ever they were at all in Being, are now lost. ‘Tis said there is a Monastery in Mesopotamia, called Deir Abouna, the Monastery of our Father, near which there is a Castle, where a great Sepulchre is to be seen, which the People of the Country say belonged to the Patriarch Noah: And the Persian Geographer mentions a Place in Arabia, in the most eastern Province of this Country, which bears the Name of Ardh-nough, which falls in very well with the Opinion of those, who will have the Ark to have been built at Confab, of which we have now spoken.

The Fable of Deucalion and his Wife Pyrrha¹⁶, is manifestly invented from the History of Noah. Deucalion by the Advice of his Father built an Ark, or a Vessel of Wood, in which he put all Sorts of Provisions necessary for Life, and entered into it with his Wife Pyrrha. This was to secure them from a Deluge, that drowned almost all Greece. All the People almost of this Country were destroyed, none escaped but those that took Refuge upon the Tops of the highest Mountains. As soon as the Flood was over, Deucalion came out of his Ark, and found himself upon Mount Parnassus. There he offered Sacrifices to Jupiter, who sent Mercury to him, to know what he desired. He requested him that he might become the Restorer of Mankind, which Jupiter granted him. He and Pyrrha were ordered to cast Stones behind them, which were immediately changed into so many Men and Women.

The Pagans struck Medals to preserve the Memory of this famous Event¹⁷. On one may be seen the Head of the Emperor Philip, and on another that of Septimius Severus Pertinax, and upon the Reverse of both, an Ark, or oblong square Vessel, in which appeared Deucalion and Pyrrha, or if you please, Noah and his Wife. Without also are seen a Man and Woman, and above the Ark two Birds, one of which brings a small Branch of Olive in its Claws. These Medals were struck at Apamea of Phrygia, where it is thought that Noah’s Ark rested. See APAMEA before, and what is observed upon Noah’s Ark, and the Deluge.

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