Reading Notes: Noah Part A
Bibliography
The Story of Noah as told in Genesis of The King James Bible, Read it here
The Story of Noah, The Punishment of the Fallen Angels, and the Generation of the Deluge as told in The Legends of the Jews by Louis Ginzberg, Read it here
I chose to do this reading because like many people, I'm familiar with the story of Noah and grew up hearing about it. I also read the story of Noah in the Bible when I was growing up, so the first few sections of the reading were very familiar, although the language was new because I read the New International Version of the Bible which is a much more modern translation than the King James version. I think that the difference in language was really interesting, since the storytelling is much more brutal in a way. I think some good examples of how brutal the language can be are below:
"And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth."
"Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed."
"And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done unto him. And he said, "Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren."
Although some of the differences in translation are subtle, I think they have a big impact on the overall atmosphere of the story. The word 'flesh', especially, is so vivid and attention-grabbing. I also think the harshness of the story is characterized by how quickly the story is paced. In one sentence, a character will act sinfully and in the very next line he is being cursed by his father or God, and from then on every generation of that character is also cursed. Pretty intense!
This reading also had stories about Noah from Jewish culture. I think it was really interesting to first read the version of the story of Noah that I'm familiar with, and then read the same story from a different point of view.
I liked the story of Noah's birth, although it was a bit confusing reading through all the name changes and different characters. I think the Jewish version of the story is definitely a little bit more interesting, mostly because it talks about sorcery and destiny. It was surprising to me how much the Jewish version of the story emphasized how special Noah was as a person, even going so far as to say that the entire room lit up when he was born and the second he was born it was obvious that he had a special destiny determined by God. This is pretty much the opposite of the way I was taught about religion, where no individual is really that special, it is just their actions guided by God that are remarkable. I kind of like the Jewish version of Noah better, because he seems a little bit more impressive.
I also found the stories about the fallen angels and the generation of deluge interesting since the stories were very explicit about the existence of fallen angels, demons, and nephilim. Those are things that the Christian version of the bible really just skirts around, and you're not really sure if you're supposed to take the mention of these creatures as literal or more metaphorical.
The stories about Shemhazai and Azazel and their offspring of evil 'giants' or nephilim was probably my favorite part of this reading. I thought it was interesting that the angels wanted to live on earth and were unable to resist temptation, since my previous understanding of angels was that they didn't really have much agency and were only there to enact the will of God. Having angels with desires and personal motivations really makes these stories much more interesting!
That being said, I'm interested to keep reading these stories and look for more differences between the version of Noah that I grew up with and the version of Noah as told by Jewish stories!
The Story of Noah as told in Genesis of The King James Bible, Read it here
The Story of Noah, The Punishment of the Fallen Angels, and the Generation of the Deluge as told in The Legends of the Jews by Louis Ginzberg, Read it here
I chose to do this reading because like many people, I'm familiar with the story of Noah and grew up hearing about it. I also read the story of Noah in the Bible when I was growing up, so the first few sections of the reading were very familiar, although the language was new because I read the New International Version of the Bible which is a much more modern translation than the King James version. I think that the difference in language was really interesting, since the storytelling is much more brutal in a way. I think some good examples of how brutal the language can be are below:
"And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth."
"Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed."
"And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done unto him. And he said, "Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren."
Although some of the differences in translation are subtle, I think they have a big impact on the overall atmosphere of the story. The word 'flesh', especially, is so vivid and attention-grabbing. I also think the harshness of the story is characterized by how quickly the story is paced. In one sentence, a character will act sinfully and in the very next line he is being cursed by his father or God, and from then on every generation of that character is also cursed. Pretty intense!
This reading also had stories about Noah from Jewish culture. I think it was really interesting to first read the version of the story of Noah that I'm familiar with, and then read the same story from a different point of view.
I liked the story of Noah's birth, although it was a bit confusing reading through all the name changes and different characters. I think the Jewish version of the story is definitely a little bit more interesting, mostly because it talks about sorcery and destiny. It was surprising to me how much the Jewish version of the story emphasized how special Noah was as a person, even going so far as to say that the entire room lit up when he was born and the second he was born it was obvious that he had a special destiny determined by God. This is pretty much the opposite of the way I was taught about religion, where no individual is really that special, it is just their actions guided by God that are remarkable. I kind of like the Jewish version of Noah better, because he seems a little bit more impressive.
I also found the stories about the fallen angels and the generation of deluge interesting since the stories were very explicit about the existence of fallen angels, demons, and nephilim. Those are things that the Christian version of the bible really just skirts around, and you're not really sure if you're supposed to take the mention of these creatures as literal or more metaphorical.
The stories about Shemhazai and Azazel and their offspring of evil 'giants' or nephilim was probably my favorite part of this reading. I thought it was interesting that the angels wanted to live on earth and were unable to resist temptation, since my previous understanding of angels was that they didn't really have much agency and were only there to enact the will of God. Having angels with desires and personal motivations really makes these stories much more interesting!
That being said, I'm interested to keep reading these stories and look for more differences between the version of Noah that I grew up with and the version of Noah as told by Jewish stories!
Azazel was a popular character across cultures, as seen in this depiction by an Arabic artist.
(Image source: Wikimedia)
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