We all know the story of Noah, his ark, and the Great Flood... but some stories about the famous biblical figure are a little less known — like his penchant for getting absolutely wasted.
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00:00We all know the story of Noah, his ark, and the great flood, but some stories about the
00:04famous biblical figure are a little less known, like his penchant for getting absolutely wasted.
00:10Like so many prominent figures in the Bible, Noah only comes into his own story when he's
00:14a grown man. The first mention of him is in Genesis 5.28. He's 500 years old by the time
00:19he has children of his own, who are grown and married, when God commands Noah to build
00:23his ark. Besides the fact that he kept faith with God, there's nothing said about Noah's
00:28life or character. For those details, we have to go to the Book of Enoch, an ancient
00:33text that isn't part of the traditional Christian or Jewish canon.
00:36Chapter 106 paints Noah's birth in near-miraculous terms. He comes into the world with white
00:41hair, eyes that blaze like the sun, and a body that is snow-white and rose-red. What's
00:47more, the infant Noah immediately begins talking to God. The same story appears in Lewis Ginsberg's
00:52Legends of the Jews, a compilation of stories pulled from rabbinic literature. There, Noah's
00:57appearance frightens his father Lamech, who has to be reassured by his own father Methuselah.
01:02Methuselah becomes the only man to speak Noah's name as the boy grows up, for fear that sorcery
01:07might ensnare him if his true name were widely known.
01:10To the outside world, Noah is known as Menahem, or Comforter.
01:14To be born with an unusual appearance and an immediate rapport with God himself should
01:18be miraculous enough for anyone. The fact that Noah was also born circumcised seems
01:23pretty incidental. But that trait is given greater weight in Enoch, as it's a sign that
01:27Noah is the one to fulfill a prophecy dating back to the time of Adam.
01:31Before Adam and Eve fled the Garden of Eden, God told Adam,
01:34"'Cursed is the ground for thy sake."
01:37Per Legends of the Jews, when Adam asked how long the curse would endure, God replied,
01:40"'Until a man-child shall be born whose confirmation is such that the rites of circumcision need
01:45not be practiced upon him.'"
01:47The curse of Adam showed up before Noah's birth through the transfiguration of crops.
01:51Farmers who planted wheat would get oats for their trouble, and in the ancient world,
01:55oats were regarded as a lesser grain, used by livestock and peasants. Farmers worked
02:00their unreliable fields with their bare hands and contended with uncooperative livestock.
02:04But after Noah's birth, sown wheat grew true and livestock obeyed their master's commands.
02:10And when he became an adult, Noah reportedly invented all the basic tools of the farmer's
02:14trade — the scythe, the plow, and the hoe.
02:17In Genesis, God's decision to wipe the earth clean of life is made quickly and resolutely.
02:22Only Noah and his family find favor in God's eyes, and they alone are given any chance
02:26at salvation.
02:27Oh, and, uh, you might need this.
02:30The Jewish tradition and rabbinical literature expanded considerably on this decision, and
02:35the role Noah played in it. This tradition has God inclined toward mercy, with Noah as
02:39the messenger of God's choices for humanity. In this telling, Noah is given 120 years to
02:44proselytize the people, leading them to abandon their wickedness. All the while, however,
02:48Noah continues to build the Ark, guided by angels.
02:52The flood in this version of the story is a potential disaster, one that could be averted
02:55if the people listened to Noah. Alas, no one takes the warning seriously. They mock Noah's
03:00message and his work on the Ark. More than that, they claim they know how to protect
03:04themselves against any sort of flood God can send against them.
03:08Popular accounts of Noah and the flood focus on the big picture — the destruction of
03:12the Earth and the new covenant with God once the waters recede.
03:15Get on the Ark! Everyone, on the Ark now!
03:21But those accounts tend not to mention Genesis 9-20, the part of the story where Noah plants
03:25a vineyard, makes wine, and gets wasted. He gets so drunk, in fact, that he lies naked
03:30outside his tent and has to be covered by two of his sons. When he recovers, he curses
03:34his grandson Canaan.
03:35While the nature of Noah's curse is a lingering theological question, Noah's drunkenness became
03:40a surprisingly popular subject for artists. But it's triggered theological debates of
03:44its own. The drunkenness of Noah is a strange and brief episode in the aftermath of the
03:49Great Flood, and it seems to be at odds with the idea of Noah as the one righteous man
03:53left in the world.
03:55The Book of Enoch is named for Noah's great-grandfather, one of only three people supposed to have
03:59been taken up to heaven in both body and soul. Enoch loomed large in the early Jewish and
04:04Christian communities. He's a subject and the attributed author of numerous works. But
04:09his general fame and the notoriety of the Book of Enoch weren't enough to earn it a
04:12place in the canon of either Judaism or Christianity, with the exception of the Ethiopian and Eritrean
04:18Orthodox churches.
04:20But just as the Bible is thought of as a library rather than a book, the Book of Enoch is more
04:24a collection rather than a single volume. And contained within that collection are fragments
04:29of Enoch from the Book of Noah. This book was quoted in numerous non-canonical religious
04:33texts. It apparently held stories about Noah and his descendants learning the art of medicine
04:38from the angels, as well as instructions for conducting sacrifices. It's widely believed
04:43that sections of the Book of Enoch are directly taken from the Book of Noah. Unfortunately,
04:47such quotes and fragments are all we have of the Book of Noah.
04:51While there is good evidence that a book or books attributed to Noah existed, according
04:55to the Lost Apocrypha of the Old Testament, those source texts for the fragments quoted
04:59in Enoch and elsewhere have been lost.