Noah - Biblical history and years of life. Noah's son Ham: a biblical story about a generational curse Who can be saved

The Messenger of Allah Nuh (Noah) is one of the greatest Prophets. He was not the first Prophet, as there were others before him - Adam, Shiys, Idris, peace be upon them. Adam lived on earth for 870 years, and then His son Shiys was the Prophet.

Islamic scholars said that 1000 years passed between Adam and Idris, and then there was no religion other than Islam.

Time passed, and paganism spread among the people, which lasted 1000 years. It was after this that Allah sent a new Prophet - Nuh a, peace be upon him. When He became a Prophet, He was 480 years old. Being a Prophet before the flood, He lived for 950 years, and all these years called people to Islam, and after the flood, Nuh lived for another 350 years.

Prophet Nuh, peace be upon him, endured for a long time when he called on people to believe in Allah. He told the people: Accept Islam, be obedient to the One God and leave the idols that you worship". But most people did not believe the Prophet, in response they mocked, insulted and beat Him.

Allah gave revelation to Nuh u, peace be upon him, to build an ark. This ship was under the protection of the Almighty and during the flood became a salvation for all those few believers who followed the Prophet. There were about 83 of them. By the way, it was the first ship on earth, since no one had built anything like it before. It consisted of three floors: lower (for animals), middle (for people) and upper (for birds). Muslims and Prophet Nuh himself boarded the ship, and they also took a couple of animals and birds.

After the completion of the construction of the ark, water gushed from the ground, and rain poured down from the sky. It poured for forty days, heavenly and earthly waters united, and the water level rose several tens of cubits above the highest point on earth.

The ship sailed all over the earth, overcoming great distances. In those days, no mountains or valleys were visible under the water column. Then the ship sailed to the place where the sacred Ka'ba was located before the flood, and there, circling, it swam for a whole week.

When the rain stopped and the water began to subside, the ark landed on Mount Al-Judi in what is now Iraq. All who were in the ark landed on the day of Ashura (the 10th day of the first month lunar calendar- Muh Arrama).

After the flood, none of the people and animals remained on earth except those whom the Prophet Noah, peace be upon him, by the command of Allah, took with him to the ship. Among the relatives of the Prophet, peace be upon him, were his sons: Sam, Ham and Yafis, as well as their wives. From them, after the flood, all mankind went. To this day, all the inhabitants of the earth are the descendants of the sons of Nuh a.

Prophet Muh ammad (peace be upon him) narrated that Prophet Nuh (peace be upon him) said to his son before his death: I give you my will. I command you two things and forbid you two others. I order you to firmly follow “La ilaha illallah” (“There is no deity but Allah”). If you put seven heavens and seven earths on one scale, and the words “La ilaha illallah” on the other, then they would outweigh the words “La ilaha illallah”. I order you the second: “Subh anallahi wa bih amdihi” (Allah is free from any lack, all praise is to Allah). This is Du "and for everything. Thanks to these words, food is given to the created. I forbid you shirk (giving Allah an accomplice) and arrogance».

Prophet Noah, peace be upon him, lived 1780 years. When, before his death, he was asked about how he saw this life, the Prophet, peace be upon him, replied: “Like a house with two doors: it was as if he entered one door and went out the other.”

Doctor of Geological and Mineralogical Sciences M. VERBA (St. Petersburg).

A comparison of the information given in the Bible about the age of the Old Testament centenarians with the history of the formation of mathematical knowledge among the peoples of Mesopotamia leads to a curious thought. When the Greeks translated the Book of Genesis from ancient Aramaic into Greek in the 3rd century AD, the "interpreters" of ancient manuscripts could not take into account the specifics of the positional number system adopted by the Sumerians. If this assumption turns out to be correct, then, consequently, the age of the biblical characters was overestimated by about an order of magnitude. By applying modern knowledge about the number systems of ancient peoples, one can not only make the dates of many biblical information more reliable, but also clarify other numbers contained in the book. Old Testament.

Science and life // Illustrations

Science and life // Illustrations

Science and life // Illustrations

Science and life // Illustrations

Science and life // Illustrations

Science and life // Illustrations

Science and life // Illustrations

Science and life // Illustrations

Science and life // Illustrations

Science and life // Illustrations

Science and life // Illustrations

Science and life // Illustrations

The Bible says: "Noah was 500 years old, and Noah begat Shem, Ham and Japheth"[Being. 5, 32]. Thus, the answer to the question about the age of the captain of the ark, it would seem, is extremely clear. Nevertheless, this information is at odds with our understanding of human life expectancy in general. Moreover, the biblical texts suggest that the age of other characters is given in some kind of encrypted form.

Other digital data are also confusing, for example, those related to the Flood. First of all, it is known that before the Flood, Noah had to build an ark, the dimensions of which not only amaze the imagination, but also surprise with irrationality. The vessel was approximately 120 meters (300 cubits*) long, 20 meters (50 cubits) wide and 12 meters (30 cubits) high. It had a hold ( lower housing) and two decks, which housed second and third housing.

They knew how to build large ships in those days, which can be judged by archaeological excavations in India, which discovered, in particular, the remains of a shipyard, which would have accommodated Noah's ark. However, the last phrase of the biblical description is bewildering: it turns out that the height of each dwelling is at least 4 m, which is twice the normal need. Why make such high rooms on a cargo-passenger ship? There is a suspicion that the number of cubits - thirty - was distorted during the translation of the ancient text and corresponds to a smaller value.

The second reason to suspect errors in translation is based on discrepancies in the numerical data contained in different translations of the Bible. The Russian-language version of the Bible is a copy of the Greek text, compiled in the 3rd century BC by 70 "interpreters" who translated the books of the Old Testament from the Aramaic language. Along with this version of the Bible, called the Septuagint, there are other translations that give slightly different numbers (see table).

Look at the age of the biblical patriarchs in the table - it is quite eloquent. these numbers indicate, first of all, that the disagreements in the translations were of a systematic nature and were caused not by the fact that the original record was illegible or damaged, but by different interpretations of its meaning. The age of five biblical characters (of the fifteen given) exceeds 900 years.

It is unlikely that the life expectancy of biblical patriarchs would change so noticeably among different generations of translators of Scripture. It is more natural to assume that in the original source it remained the same, but the records about this were read differently.

And finally, all the noted discrepancies between various translations, as well as information about the incredible age of the centenarians, refer to that part of the biblical texts, which describes the Mesopotamian period of the life of the progenitors of the Israelites. After Terah and his descendants settled in Palestine, the numerical data ceased to cause controversy.

So, there is no doubt that the double interpretation of the numbers testifies to the difficulties that the translators of the ancient Sumerian manuscripts encountered. But in order to imagine the nature of these difficulties, one must mentally return to those times when the number systems were still being formed.

In the fairy tale "Humpbacked Horse", written by P. P. Ershov based on Russian folklore, there is a remarkable episode. The king, seeing the golden-maned horses and wishing to get them, enters into a bargain with Ivan:

"Well, I'm buying a couple!
Selling, are you?" - "No, I'm changing."
"What do you take good in exchange?" -
"two - five caps of silver."
"That is, it will ten".
The king immediately ordered to weigh ...

There is no need to say that the author of the tale knows the intricacies of the Russian language well: any word, each phrase is precisely weighed by him and used to the point. The same, of course, also applies to the form of denoting ten, which is unusual for a modern reader - "two - five". What is this expression, what are its roots?

It turns out that in these two words, used as if by the way, one can hear an echo of a big problem that the best minds of ancient civilizations have long solved back in biblical times - it is called "formation of the number system." The decimal number system that we use has become so familiar that it seems the only possible one. Although relatively recent, only a dozen centuries ago, it was far from generally accepted and competed with other methods of manipulating quantitative categories.

The very first such system, when fingers served as a counting "device", was a five-fold system. Some tribes on the Philippine Islands still use it today, and in civilized countries, its relic, according to experts, has survived only in the form of a school five-point rating scale. Ivan from Ershov's fairy tale, not being a great literate man, when he bargained with the tsar, also operated heel a, mi, and the monarch, more advanced in arithmetic, translated his primitive account into the decimal system familiar to him. So in a Russian fairy tale, we accidentally met with different number systems.

But this is only one side of the issue, the verbal one. And when deciphering ancient manuscripts, the researcher deals with numbers in graphic form. Imagine that Ivan would write down the appointed price for the horses in the same way as he said: "two five." Then a person who is not familiar with the five-digit number system could well read this number as twenty-five. (This tradition of pronouncing numbers without specifying digits, but implying them "by default", is often demonstrated by our English-speaking contemporaries, when instead of "one thousand nine hundred and ninety" they say "nineteen ninety." This feature of oral speech is very significant in situations where the characters do not stipulate which counting systems they use, leaving the interlocutor to guess on their own.)

In the episode from the fairy tale cited earlier, in order to avoid disagreements, the king explains aloud how he recalculates the price from one system to another. And this detail of the fairy tale narrative turns out to be not a decorative element of the plot, but a reflection of an obligatory component of correct business relations of that time. However, when communication takes place in a written form that excludes the possibility of explanations, misunderstandings and discrepancies are inevitable. Among such historical misunderstandings, in all likelihood, is the traditional reading of ancient texts in the part where numerals occur.

There is no doubt that the age of such biblical characters as Adam, Noah, or Methuselah, who fell into the proverb, is significantly exaggerated, but it is not easy to assess the extent of this exaggeration. Ancient manuscripts, before turning into the Old Testament lying in front of me on the table, went through a long way of translations, and each time inaccuracies could creep into them. This assumption develops into certainty if we take into account that the development of mathematical knowledge among different peoples occurred unevenly, and in some countries different number systems existed in parallel.

Following after the quinary or in parallel with it, in Egypt and Mesopotamia, the duodecimal number system arose, in which the first, basic digit was a dozen. This system successfully survived until the 20th century AD and had (for example, in Great Britain) during all this time priority over decimal in any calculations related to finance.

And in the Sumerian Mesopotamia at the time of Noah, there was a more complex system in use - the sexagesimal number system, which, according to researchers, is a synthesis of the aforementioned five and duodecimal systems. The indisputable advantage of this complex system, which ensured its longevity, was that the number 60 is divisible without a remainder by the first six numbers of the natural series and is the least common multiple of ten different fractions. In some respects, it turned out to be so convenient that we still use its individual elements to this day, for example, counting minutes and seconds or measuring angles.

Next important point: Numbers in the sexagesimal system were written in two ways. At first it was, as mathematicians now say, non-positional, in which the position of one or another character in the notation of a number has no informational value. Elements of this method, although in an incomplete form, are visible when using Roman numerals, the meanings of which do not depend on the place they occupy in the notation of the number. (With the exception of the numbers 4 and 9, but even these numbers, unlike their modern spelling, were previously depicted non-positionally - see "Details for the curious".) The convenience of such a system, in particular, is that it made it possible to do without a special sign denoting zero.

According to scientists, the ancient Sumerians were the first to introduce positional writing numbers, in which the order of characters in the record acquired fundamental importance. In the middle of the second millennium BC, they had the concept of bit depth: it became generally accepted to arrange signs in descending order of bits and write numbers from left to right. This was one of the revolutionary moments in the development of mathematics and, perhaps, the first experience of applying the "default" principle when writing a number, without which no modern computer program is conceivable.

Later, in the 6th-5th centuries BC, the Sumerians were also the first to use a special "inter-digit" sign to designate "empty" digits, and they used it in a very peculiar way. This sign, in particular, was never put at the end of the number, as a result of which the true meaning of what was written could only be understood from the context. In Europe, such a special sign for designating an empty discharge began to be used many centuries later, only at the turn of the first and second millennia of a new era, when the arithmetical work of Mohammed al-Khwarizmi was translated, which outlined the positional number system.

The listed details are of certain importance for understanding the problem under discussion, since they show that none of the 70 "interpreters" who translated the books of the Old Testament into Greek in the 3rd century AD, in all likelihood, had no idea how to interpret Sumerian numbers. In addition, it should be added that the transition to the positional system among the Babylonians did not have the character of a general reform, it was gradual, the notation of the number, which was carried out, like the rest of the text, in cuneiform, outwardly did not undergo significant changes, and the reader was usually given the opportunity to distinguish the positional entry from non-positional.

I will give an example showing what kind of confusion can arise if you do not notice the difference in the number systems used. Let's say that Ivan, setting a price for horses, would show it on his fingers - two fingers and five. It is easy to see that his gesture can be given different interpretations: Ivan meant ten, and today we would understand it as seven, although one could read both 25 and 52, depending on which direction we agree to read the numbers. The example shows how wide the range of errors that can occur when translating, if you do not delve into the essence of the rules used "by default".

The researchers note that in addition to the listed features of the Sumerian number system, it is necessary to add the fact that it was decimal inside the discharge, and double spelling of numerals was allowed. Moreover, the number 60, which was the base number in the Sumerian counting system, was indicated by the same vertical wedge ("gesh") as the one. As a result, the number 2, depicted by two identical strokes, could be read as 61, and as 120, and as 610. Mathematicians of that time, realizing the inferiority of such uncertainty, tried to overcome it, depicting this sign - "gash" - in the value of unity small stroke, and in the value of 60 - large.

The first translators of Sumerian manuscripts might not have guessed that one should pay attention to such a detail as the thickness of the stroke. Later, in the era of the Ur dynasty (2294-2187 BC), the wedge-shaped form of writing numbers began to be replaced by a semicircular one, a point was added to the unit sign, similar to the modern letter of the Arabic alphabet D, when it was necessary to write 60, as a result which made this sign look like another Arabic letter - D. Thanks to these techniques, the Sumerians in most cases successfully coped with arithmetic tasks, and in controversial cases they determined the meaning of the numbers according to the meaning of the situation.

We are doing exactly the same thing now. When, for example, we hear "two - five" in a school kiosk, we understand that, for example, a notebook costs two rubles five kopecks, and not two times five, as it would have been in those days when the heroes of Ershov's fairy tale were bargaining. In parentheses, we note that over the historical period of time, the relics of the non-positional system of designating numbers, which were preserved in the everyday life of the Russian people, were irreversibly replaced by the rules of the positional one. Such a transition, according to experts, began among the Sumerians around the middle of the third millennium BC, just at the time when Noah and his family were drifting on an ark across the boundless sea. In Europe, as already mentioned, this transition occurred much later.

Without delving into the details of Sumerian writing, we note that the translator of ancient manuscripts was required not only to master various number systems, but also to penetrate into the hidden meaning of what was provided "by default". And as a result of a misunderstanding that probably occurred when reading the Sumerian positional writing according to the rules of the Greek non-positional system, the age of Noah turned out to be greatly exaggerated (apparently, by an order of magnitude). Cyril and Methodius, who, when translating the Bible into Old Slavonic, used its Greek version, are unlikely to have introduced any additional errors in the spelling of numerals, since it is they who have the merit of creating not only the Cyrillic alphabet, but also the alphabetic numbering based on it, completely copying the Greek.

So, main reason The "encryption" of information about the age of the Old Testament elders is, apparently, the ignorance of the Greek "interpreters" of all the subtleties of the Sumerian writing. They, of course, knew about the existence of a non-positional system of writing numbers among the Sumerians, they also knew about the gradual replacement of its positional one, but, apparently, they could not always distinguish in which of them the most ancient manuscripts should be read. By the way, it can be assumed that small numbers, not exceeding the base - 60, the spelling of which corresponded to the decimal system adopted in Greece at that time, were translated without distortion, and problems arose only when the "gesh" sign appeared in the text, meaning one , and sixty, and six hundred.

As an assumption, which, of course, should be verified by connoisseurs of Sumerian numerals, one can express the opinion that all numbers greater than two base ones were multiplied by Greek translators by ten, as a result of which the result turned out to be as exaggerated as the age of Adam, who in in one place is determined at 130 years, and nearby - at 700 [Genesis. 5, 3 and Genesis. 5, 4].

This conclusion can be indirectly confirmed by the following observation. Firstly, it is very significant that the age of Ever (see table) in different editions differs just by the mentioned ill-fated "gesh". If, moreover, we recall that the Sumerians did not use the zero sign at that time, it becomes clear that the translators did not just translate, but also recalculated the numerals, but, having made mistakes, only encrypted the digital data. It is apparently quite possible to restore the true values, but we will leave this fascinating task to mathematicians.

What is the conclusion? With numerous translations of Old Testament manuscripts from one language to another and the accompanying recalculations of numerals from one number system to another, distortions of the true meaning of many numbers were made, especially in the first, most ancient part of the book of Genesis, which deals with the Mesopotamian period of the life of the ancestors of the Israelites. In later times, when Abraham and his family left the banks of the Euphrates, the positional decimal number system, which did not cause difficulties in translations, apparently already entered into the everyday life of this people. Therefore, the figures relating to this period do not cause much doubt. As for earlier information, it can be assumed that the numbers of the first digit, less than sixty, are translated basically correctly. And discrepancies in different translations and disagreements with common sense appeared only when the translators needed to interpret "by default" and "according to the context" the value of the base number 60.

But back to our hero. All of the above suggests that the age of 60 years (at the beginning of the voyage) is most likely for Noah. The Odyssey of the entire Noah family was apparently recorded from the words of one of his sons (there were no other men on the ship, and women hardly had the right to vote). Moreover, we can confidently assume that the eldest son, Sim, became this narrator. The younger son, like Ivanushka in the Russian fairy tale, was not, as you know, a great connoisseur of literature; the middle one, Ham, by definition, could not speak respectfully of relatives. Obviously, Sim turned out to be the only one who conveyed to the descendants the story of the ark, which eventually became a legend.

By the way, about the age of this heir. From the Greek version of the translation of the Old Testament, it follows that " Shem was a hundred years old and begat Arphaxad"[Genesis. 11, 10]. However, if we take into account everything that was discussed above, then the number read by the Greeks non-positionally how 100 was most likely recorded by the Sumerians positionally as 40+ "gesh", and "gesh" is thin, in the value of one. This means that the number should be read as 41 - this is more consistent with the age of a man whose first child is born.

From the same position, one can reread other numbers mentioned in the Book of Genesis and characterizing, for example, the size of Noah's ark or the age of Abraham. To do this, of course, one should refer to the original source, which, of course, contains neither inaccuracies, nor exaggerations, nor mysticism.

* Elbow - a measure of length from 40 to 64 cm. Today in Ethiopia it is 0.5 meters. In Russia of the 11th century, the cubit was 45.5-47.5 cm. In more ancient times, the cubit was, apparently, smaller and fluctuated within 35 cm. This can be judged from the description of Goliath: his height was six cubits and a span ( 1 Samuel 17:4). The span is the distance between the thumb and forefinger of the hand - 20-22 cm. The tallest person mentioned in the Guinness Book of Records had a height of 270 cm. Even if Goliath was not lower, then in this case the elbow did not exceed 42 cm. This value and is taken into account, although it is probably somewhat overestimated.

Details for the curious

AT non-positional system, the value of a number is determined by the summation> of all signs, regardless of which place (which position) sign occupies in the notation of a number. So, the number 6 can be depicted in two ways - VI or IV, and the number 9 - by a combination of signs V and I in any sequence; the number 11 can be represented as XI, but there will be no confusion if it is written as IX.

But in positional system, the place occupied by the sign is of fundamental importance. If a lesser sign stands before the larger one, then its value is minus from the next one, which does not happen in a non-positional system. Thus, it is very difficult to determine in which system a number is written - in positional or non-positional - by external signs, and if you do not know which system the author used, then you can fall into error. For example, the number XL in the positional system means 40, and in the non-positional system it means 60.

The appearance on the screens of Hollywood, with its interpretation of biblical events very far from the original, means the creation in modern popular culture a distorted image of the Old Testament patriarch, whom the Orthodox Church venerates as a saint. Therefore, I would like to recall what the real Noah was like, what is known about him from Holy Scripture and Holy Tradition. And I must say, a lot is known, and he was, of course, an outstanding figure.

Chapters 6 through 9 of Genesis are devoted to the life of Noah. His name is found in many other places in the Bible. Thus, in the book of the prophet Ezekiel, the Lord mentions Noah among the three greatest righteous men of ancient times, along with Job and Daniel (Ezek. 14:13–14, 20). In the book of the prophet Isaiah, God mentions His covenant with Noah as an example of an irrevocable promise (Isaiah 54:8–9).

In the book of the Wisdom of Jesus, the son of Sirach, the forefather is praised: “Noah turned out to be perfect, righteous; in times of anger he was a propitiation; therefore he became a remnant on the earth when the flood came” (Sir.44:16-17). In the third book of Ezra, he is called the one from whom "all the righteous came" (3 Ezra 3:11). And in the book of Tobit Noah is mentioned among the ancient saints who should be imitated (Tov. 4:12).

Noah is mentioned many times in the New Testament. The Lord Jesus Christ refers to his story as very real and uses it to explain what will happen before the end of our world (Matt. 24:37–39). The Apostle Paul cites Noah as an example of a true believer (Heb. 11:7). In turn, the Apostle Peter mentions the events associated with Noah and the flood as proof that God does not leave the sinner without recompense and the righteous does not remain without help and salvation (2 Peter 2:5,9).

According to Blessed Augustine, in the story of Noah “no one should think that all this was written for the purpose of deception; or that in the story one must seek only historical truth, without any allegorical meanings; or, on the contrary, that all this did not really exist, but that these are only verbal images.

So, let's consider what and why happened in the time of Noah and what spiritual meaning it has.

According to St. John, thanks to such a prophecy, “this child, growing little by little, served as a lesson for all who saw him ... this man, who lived before the eyes of everyone, reminded everyone of the wrath of God.”

From the Bible about the first five hundred years of Noah's life, it is only known that during this period he married, and three sons were born to him: Shem, Ham and Japheth (Gen. 5:32). St. Cyril of Alexandria writes that Noah "attracted general attention to himself, was very famous and famous."

During the life of Noah, there was “great corruption of men on earth, and all the thoughts and thoughts of their hearts were evil at all times” (Gen. 6:5), “because not only at times, but constantly and at every hour they sinned, not in the day not ceasing to fulfill his evil thoughts at night. However, the Old Testament patriarch differed from his contemporaries: “But Noah found grace in the sight of the Lord” (Genesis 6:8). Why? Because “Noah was a righteous man and blameless in his generations; Noah walked with God” (Gen. 6:9).

St. John Chrysostom notes the main feature of Noah's personality - unprecedented firmness and determination on the path of virtue: “how this righteous man was devoted to virtue, when among such a multitude of people, with great strength striving for wickedness, he alone went the opposite way, preferring virtue - and not unanimity , not such a great multitude of evil people stopped him on the path of good... Imagine the extraordinary wisdom of a righteous man when, in the midst of such like-mindedness of evil people, he could avoid infection and not suffer any harm from them, but retained firmness of spirit and evaded sinful like-mindedness with them » .

A truly unbending will was required in order to be alone against the whole world, especially considering that “for his determination to strive in virtue in spite of everyone, Noah endured great reproach and ridicule, since all the wicked usually always scoff at those who decided to move away from wickedness and cleave to virtue."

The holy forefather was not indifferent to the fate of his contemporaries: “during all this time he preached to all people and inspired them to leave behind impiety”, but no one responded and did not come to their senses, and in response to the sermon he received new ridicule.

And “Noah walked with God” (Gen. 6:9), that is, he conformed all his actions, aspirations and thoughts to His will, remembering that God sees and knows everything. So Noah “could neglect and rise above such a great multitude of those who mocked him, attacked, reviled, dishonored him ... He constantly looked at the unsleeping Eye of God and directed the gaze of his soul towards him; therefore, he no longer cared about all these reproaches, as if they did not exist.

When Noah was five hundred years old, he received a revelation from God: “The end of all flesh is come before me, for the earth is filled with violence because of them; and behold, I will destroy them from the earth. Make yourself an ark... And behold, I will bring a flood of water on the earth... everything that is on the earth will lose its life. But I will establish my covenant with you, and you will enter the ark, you, and your sons, and your wife, and your sons' wives with you” (Gen. 6:13-14, 17-18). The Lord also commanded Noah to bring into the ark a pair of all animals, birds and reptiles (and clean types of livestock and birds - seven each), and stock up on food for themselves and for them. “And Noah did everything: as God [the Lord] commanded him, so he did” (Genesis 6:22).

It took Noah a hundred years to build the ark. “Noah's work became known throughout the universe, and his words were transmitted everywhere that such and such a person was building a ship of extraordinary size and spoke of a flood that would cover the whole earth. Many from afar came to look at this ship being made and to listen to Noah's sermon. The man of God, inciting them to repentance, preached to them about the approaching flood revenge on sinners. That is why he was named by the holy Apostle Peter preacher of truth(2 Peter 2:5)" .

If Noah's contemporaries had repented and corrected their lives, they could have averted the punishment from themselves, as the Ninevites did, who believed the three-day sermon of Jonah. However, “the people did not repent, despite the fact that Noah, in his holiness, served as a model for his contemporaries, and with his righteousness for a whole hundred years he preached to them about the flood, they even laughed at Noah, who informed them that all generations of the living would come to him to seek salvation in the ark. creatures, and said, “How will the beasts and birds come, scattered over all the countries?”

And so, when Noah was six hundred years old, God said to him: “Enter you and all your family into the ark, for I saw you righteous before Me in this generation ... and take every clean livestock ... also from the birds of the air ... to preserve the offspring for all the earth, for in seven days I will rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights; and I will destroy every living thing that I have made from the face of the earth” (Gen. 7:1-4).

“And Noah entered, and his sons, and his wife, and the wives of his sons with him, into the ark…” (Genesis 7:7). According to St. John Chrysostom, the members of Noah's family "although far inferior to the righteous in virtue, they were also alien to the excessive wickedness of corrupt contemporaries." They were among the saved because they believed the preaching of Noah and showed him obedience, in contrast to the sons-in-law of Lot, who did not believe the same preaching of their relative and perished along with all Sodom: “And Lot went out and spoke with his sons-in-law, who took his daughters for himself, and said, Get up, get out of this place, for the Lord will destroy this city. But his sons-in-law thought he was joking” (Genesis 19:14). In addition, according to Chrysostom, the salvation of family members was a reward from God to Noah for his righteousness.

“On that very day, elephants began to come from the east, monkeys and peacocks from the south, other animals gathered from the west, others hurried to go from the north. The lions left their oak forests, the fierce beasts came out of their lairs, the animals that lived on the mountains gathered from there. Noah's contemporaries flocked to such a new spectacle - but not for repentance, but to enjoy, seeing how lions enter the ark before their eyes, oxen rush without fear, seeking refuge with them, wolves and sheep, hawks and doves enter together. .

St. Filaret of Moscow points out that "the longitude of the ark was more than 500, the latitude was more than 80 and the height was more than 50 feet", that is, the ark was about 152 meters long, 25 meters wide and 15 meters high - this size was quite enough to accommodate animals, birds and reptiles. “Proverers of nature find that all the kinds of animals that were supposed to be in Noah's ark extend only to three hundred or a little more. Of these, no more than six exceed the size of a horse; Few can match him."

After Noah, along with his family and animals, entered the ark, by the mercy of God, the time of the flood was postponed for another week: “God gave people a hundred years to repent while the ark was being built, but they did not come to their senses. He gathered the animals, hitherto unseen by them, - however, the people did not want to repent ... Even after Noah and all the animals entered the ark, God hesitated for another seven days, leaving the door of the ark open ... but Noah's contemporaries ... were not convinced to leave the wicked their deeds."

The Lord Jesus Christ testifies that Noah’s contemporaries continued their lives carelessly, with ordinary everyday activities: “In the days before the flood, they were eating, drinking, marrying and giving in marriage until the day Noah entered the ark, and did not think until the flood came and did not destroy them all” (Matt. 24:37-38).

And so “in seven days the waters of the flood came upon the earth… all the fountains of the great deep were broken up… and the rain fell on the earth for forty days and forty nights… and the water increased and greatly multiplied on the earth, and the ark floated on the surface of the waters. And the waters increased exceedingly on the earth, so that all the high mountains that are under the whole sky were covered ... And every creature that was on the surface of the earth lost its life; from man to livestock, and creeping things, and the birds of the air, everything was destroyed from the earth, only Noah remained and what was with him in the ark. And the waters were strong on the earth for a hundred and fifty days” (Gen. 7:10–12, 18–19, 23–24).

St. John Chrysostom draws attention to the fact that the water rose gradually for forty days before everyone died, and asks: “What is it for? Couldn't God, if He wanted to, bring all the rain in one day? What do I say - in one day? In an instant. But He does this with the intention ... In His great goodness, He wanted at least some of them to come to their senses and avoid eternal death, seeing before their eyes the death of their neighbors and the disaster that threatens them. St. Philaret also speaks of this: “The forty days of the beginning flood were the last gift of God’s long-suffering for some sinners, who, even at the sight of a well-deserved execution, could feel their guilt and appeal to God’s mercy.”

And this happened - many people of the former world, having seen with their own eyes how Noah's prediction came true, remembered his sermon, and only now, in last days their lives, repented to God and humbly accepted death from the flood as a well-deserved punishment for their sins. Thanks to this, albeit belated, conversion, Noah’s contemporaries were among those ancient dead, to whose souls the preaching of Christ was addressed, when He, with His human soul, descended into hell after death on the cross, as the Apostle Peter testifies to this: “Christ ... was mortified according to the flesh, but revived by the Spirit, by which He descended and preached to the spirits in prison, who had once been disobedient to the longsuffering of God that awaited them, in the days of Noah, during the building of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight souls, were saved from the water ”( 1 Peter 3:18-20).

Thus, the Flood was not only an act of punishment for sins, but in b about to a greater extent by the saving act of God, since the people who lived then brought themselves to such hardness of heart that only the contemplation of the death of the whole world and the realization of their imminent death could awaken their hearts and, through repentance, deliver them from eternal death. Those of them who sincerely repented during those forty days and nights and turned to God later found themselves among the souls of the Old Testament believers saved by Christ from hell.

This was a boon even for those who did not want to repent - this last resort managed to "tear away from sin incorrigible sinners, who daily inflict new wounds on themselves and make their ulcers incurable."

The flood also had a beneficial effect for subsequent mankind - “it was necessary to exterminate them and destroy their entire race, like worthless leaven, so that they would not become teachers of wickedness for subsequent generations.” The flood interrupted both the tribe of Cain and all the other generations that had strayed into evil. God made righteous Noah the ancestor of a new humanity. And if, despite the fact that all those living today have a great righteous man as their ancestor, so many have turned towards sin, then what would be the spread of evil on earth if the majority of humanity were the descendants of those generations rooted in vice?

However, not only people died in the flood, but also all creatures living on land. St. Ambrose of Milan writes: “What was the fault of the foolish creatures? They were created for the sake of man; and after the destruction of the man for whose sake they were created, it was necessary to destroy them too: after all, there would no longer be someone who would use them. And Chrysostom explains it this way: “Just as in the pious life of man and the creature participates in human well-being, according to the word of Paul (see: Rom. destruction, and with him the cattle, and the creeping things, and the birds, are subjected to a flood that will cover the whole world, ”because they share the fate of the one who is their head. And just as many animals shared the death with many sinful people, so few animals shared salvation in the ark with a few righteous people. In addition, if, during the death of almost all mankind, God would have preserved all animals without exception, then this would lead subsequent generations of people to the conviction that animals are more important and higher than humans, and the pagan deification of animals that arose in some peoples would have received even more and fastest spread.

St. John Chrysostom draws attention to the fact that the ark did not have a permanent open windows and besides, God Himself shut him up outside. This was done out of mercy to Noah, in order to save him from the painful and terrifying vision of the destruction of the world.

"The Beginning of the Flood" about it is false to believe in the last half of autumn, ”and it lasted a year. And “a year of this life, it seems to me, is worth a whole life: Noah had to endure so much sorrow there, being in such cramped conditions ... Imprisoned in the ark as in a dungeon, he rushed back and forth, could not see the sky there, nor fix his eyes to some other place - in a word, he did not see anything that could give him some consolation ... Noah lived for a whole year in this unusual and strange dungeon, not being able to breathe fresh air ... how could this righteous man, as well as sons and wives, endure being together with cattle, beasts and birds? How did he bear the stench? ... I wonder how he has not yet fallen under the burden of despondency, thinking about the death of the human race, and about his own loneliness, and about the difficult life in the ark. But the reason for all good things was for him faith in God, according to which he endured and endured everything complacently.

Therefore, it is not surprising that the apostle Paul praises Noah precisely for his faith: by it he condemned (the whole) world, and became heir of righteousness by faith” (Heb. 11:7). “Not that Noah himself condemned his contemporaries; no, the Lord condemned them by comparing them with Noah, because they, having everything the same as the righteous, did not follow the same path of virtue with him, ”explains St. John Chrysostom.

Here is what the Scripture says about what happened next: “The waters began to subside at the end of the hundred and fifty days. And the ark stopped in the seventh month… on the mountains of Ararat. The water continued to decrease until the tenth month; on the first day of the tenth month the tops of the mountains appeared. After forty days, Noah opened the window of the ark he had made and sent out a raven [to see if the water had subsided from the earth] which, flying out, flew off and flew back” (Gen. 8:3-8). A week later, Noah “released a dove from the ark. The dove returned to him in the evening, and behold, a fresh olive leaf was in his mouth, and Noah knew that the water had gone down from the earth” (Genesis 8:10-11). Even later, “the water on the earth dried up; And Noah opened the roof of the ark and looked, and, behold, the surface of the earth dried up ... And God said to Noah: Get out of the ark, you and your wife, and your sons, and your sons' wives with you; bring with you all the animals that are with you, of all flesh, birds, and cattle, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth: let them disperse on the earth, and let them be fruitful and multiply on the earth” (Gen. –17).

St. Philaret draws attention to the perfect obedience of the righteous to God: “Despite the fact that after opening the ark for about two months, Noah saw the state of the drying up earth, he did not dare to leave it before the command from God.” BUT Reverend John Damascene remarks: “When Noah was commanded to enter the ark… God separated the husbands from the wives so that they, keeping their chastity, would avoid the abyss… after the cessation of the flood, He says: come out of the ark you and your wife and your sons and your sons' wives with you because again marriage is allowed for the reproduction of the human race.

Noah fulfilled the commandment of God, but also did what the Lord did not prescribe to him, and what was dictated by the movement of his soul: “immediately after leaving the ark, he shows his gratitude, and gives thanks to his Lord, both for the past, so and for the future” - “And Noah built an altar to the Lord; And he took from every clean livestock and from every clean bird, and offered it as a burnt offering on the altar” (Genesis 8:20). Here, for the first time in the history of mankind, we see the creation of a place of special worship of God. If the sacrifice to God was already made by Abel and Cain, then Noah arranged a special altar to the Lord. However, St. Philaret says that in reality Noah was not the first to build an altar, because, knowing the humility of a righteous man, “one cannot think that Noah would dare to introduce anything new in the rituals of sacrifices adopted from pious ancestors.”

“And the Lord smelled a sweet savor, and the Lord [God] said in his heart, I will no longer curse the earth for man’s sake… and I will no longer strike every living thing” (Gen. 8:21). These words mean that God “accepted sacrifices. After all, God does not have an organ of smell, since the Deity is incorporeal. It is true that what is lifted up is fat and smoke from burning bodies, and there is nothing more fetid than this. But so that you know that God looks at the sacrifices and accepts or rejects them, Scripture calls this smoke a pleasant fragrance. So that " smelled the Lord not the smell of the meat of animals or the incense of firewood, but He looked down and saw the purity of heart in the one who, out of everything and for everything, offered sacrifice to Him.

Seeing the piety of the patriarch, “God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them: be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth; let all the beasts of the earth fear and tremble at you, and all the birds of the air, everything that moves on the earth, and all the fish of the sea: they are given into your hands; everything that moves, that lives, will be your food ... only flesh ... with its blood, do not eat; I will also demand your blood ... from every beast, I will also demand the soul of a man from the hand of a man, from the hand of his brother; whoever sheds human blood, that blood will be shed by the hand of man: for man is created in the image of God... And God said to Noah and to his sons with him: Behold, I establish my covenant with you and with your offspring after you... that all flesh shall no longer be destroyed by the waters of the flood, and there will be no more flood to destroy the earth... I put my rainbow in the cloud, so that it may be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth” (Gen. 9:1–6, 8–9, 11, 13).

First of all, we can see here, as Chrysostom remarks, that “Noah again receives the blessing that Adam received before the crime. Just as he, immediately after his creation, heard: “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it” (Gen. 1:28), so this one now: “Be fruitful and multiply on the earth,” because as Adam was the beginning and the root of all who lived before the flood, so this righteous man becomes, as it were, leaven, the beginning and root of all after the flood.

Then God gives permission to people to eat animals, birds, and fish. Blessed Theodoret explains the reasons for this in this way: “foreseeing that those who have fallen into extreme madness will deify everything, God, in order to stop impiety, allows animals to be eaten, because worshiping what is used for food is a matter of extreme thoughtlessness.”

After that, God establishes a ban on eating meat with the blood of animals, which is subsequently repeated both in the law of Moses (Deut. 12:23) and in the prescriptions of the apostolic council (Acts 15:29). This is explained by the fact that in the blood - the soul of animals. Promise " I will demand your blood too... from every beast" God "predicts the resurrection ... understanding that he will gather and resurrect the bodies devoured by beasts." Then God forbids homicide, warning of severe punishment for it, "says that every murderer must be put to death."

After that, "God says:" I establish my covenant”, i.e., I conclude an agreement. As in human affairs, when someone promises something, he concludes a contract and thereby delivers a proper certificate, so the good Lord speaks here. God raises the relationship with people to such a height. He not only prescribes and orders, as an almighty Sovereign, He enters into an agreement in which he voluntarily undertakes to never again destroy the human race by means of a flood.

It is no coincidence that it was the rainbow that was chosen as the sign of this covenant - since the Flood began with rain, it is the rainbow that appears through the rain that becomes a sign that no rain will be the beginning of the death of mankind. St. Philaret admits that “the rainbow could have been before the flood, just as water and washing were before baptism,” but after the flood it was chosen by God as a sign of His covenant with Noah.

It further says: " The sons of Noah that came out of the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth... and from them the whole earth was peopled» (Gen. 9:18-19). The truth of this confirms the universality of the tradition of the flood. In ancient tales different peoples it is reported about a righteous man who was able to survive the global flood in a specially constructed ark or ship. The Sumerian epic of Gilgamesh calls him Utnapishti, the ancient Greek writers called him Deucalion, and in the Indian text Shatapatha Brahmana he is called Manu. Legends of the Flood are found everywhere - in China, and in Australia, in Oceania, among the indigenous peoples of South, Central and North America, in Africa. All these peoples trace themselves to the descendants of the few survivors of the global flood. Traditions recorded in antiquity show significant similarities in major details with the Bible story, while those recorded more recently show more differences, which is not surprising, since narrators have added many interpretations and conjectures to the story over the past millennia. Nevertheless, the memory of the global flood is a truly universal phenomenon.

It is appropriate now to speak about the allegorical meaning of the events connected with Noah's sweat and salvation, which was indicated by the holy fathers.

According to Blessed Augustine, everything “that is said about the structure of this ark, denotes something related to the Church.” And in Noah himself, as in his sons, the image of the Church was revealed. They were saved from the flood on the saving tree ... foreshadowing that the life of all peoples would be established on the tree [of the cross]." Saint Cyril of Alexandria also speaks of this, pointing out that Christ is “the most true Noah, who, in the prototype of this ancient and glorious ark, organized the Church. Those who enter it escape the death that threatens the world... So Christ saves us by faith and, as it were, leads us into the ark into the Church, abiding in which we will be delivered from the fear of death and avoid condemnation together with the world.

Saint Bede the Venerable offers detailed interpretation: “The ark means the universal Church, the waters of the flood - baptism, clean and unclean animals [in the ark] - spiritual and bodily people who are in the Church, and the planed and tarred logs of the ark - teachers, strengthened by the grace of faith. The raven that flew out of the ark and did not return signifies those who, after baptism, become apostates; an olive branch brought into the ark by a dove - those who are baptized outside the Church, that is, heretics, but who have the fat of love and therefore are worthy to be reunited with universal Church. The dove that flew out of the ark and did not return is a symbol of those [saints] who have renounced bodily bonds and rushed to the light of the heavenly homeland, never to return to the labors of earthly wandering.

The last episode in the life of the patriarch, described in the Book of Genesis, concerns the period when he began to arrange the life of the family in the new world. At that time, the firstborn, Canaan, was already born to his son Ham:

The same saint writes: “Notice here, beloved, that the beginning of sin lies not in nature, but in the disposition of the soul and in free will. Now, after all, all the sons of Noah of the same nature and brothers among themselves, had one father, were born from the same mother, were brought up with the same care, and, in spite of that, they showed unequal dispositions - one deviated towards evil, while others showed their father due respect."

Ham's act "revealed pride in him, comforted by the fall of another, lack of modesty and disrespect for the parent." “Neglecting respect for the parent, he seeks to make others witnesses of this spectacle and, having made the elder like a theatrical stage, he convinces the brothers to laugh.” He, “having left the house, subjected his father to ridicule and reproach as much as he could, he wanted to make his brothers accomplices of his vile act; and then, as he should have, if he had already decided to announce to his brothers, to call them into the house and there tell them about his father's nakedness, he went out and announced his nakedness in such a way that if many other people had happened here, he would have made them would be witnesses to the shame of the father.

But the event that led to the fall of Ham served to the glory of Shem and Japheth: “Do you see the modesty of these sons? He divulged, but they do not even want to see, but they go with their faces turned back, so that, having come closer, to cover their father's nakedness. See also how, despite their great modesty, they were still meek. They do not reproach and do not amaze the brother, but, having heard his story, they only care about one thing, how to correct what happened as soon as possible and do what was required for the honor of the parent.

Upon learning of what happened, Noah, inspired by the Holy Spirit, utters one curse and two blessings. The holy fathers considered the question of why, if Ham sinned, then it was not he himself who was cursed, but his eldest son Canaan?

St. Ephraim writes that by “younger son” Ham, who was the middle son of Noah, cannot be meant, but his grandson is meant, since “this young Canaan laughed at the nakedness of the old man; Ham, with a laughing face, went out and announced to his brothers in the midst of the haystack. Therefore, it can be thought that although Canaan is not cursed in all justice, as he did it in childhood, nevertheless, he is not against justice, because he was not cursed for another. Moreover, Noah knew that if Canaan had not become worthy of a curse in his old age, then even in adolescence he would not have done a deed worthy of a curse ... Therefore, Canaan is cursed as one who laughs, and Ham is only deprived of blessing because he laughed along with the one who laughed. St. Philaret also writes about this: "Canaan ... was the first to see the nakedness of his grandfather and told his father about it." And Chrysostom says that "the son of Ham, who was cursed, suffered the punishment for his own sins."

In addition, the holy fathers explained that by placing a curse not on Ham, but on his first-born Canaan, Noah saves all the other sons of Ham from inheriting the curse, and also avoids imposing a curse on the one who, among the others who came out of the ark, was able to receive God's blessing. According to Blessed Theodoret, there is justice in this, that "since Ham himself, being a son, sinned against his father, he also receives punishment in the curse of his son." Ham is punished in that son or in that tribe to whom he leaves his sins as an inheritance.

As a punishment, the subordination of the descendants of Canaan to the offspring of Shem and Japheth is laid down. As St. Philaret says, “this was fulfilled on the Canaanites, who by the Israelites, the descendants of Shem, were partly destroyed, partly conquered from Joshua to Solomon.” Blessed Augustine draws attention to the fact that “in Scripture we do not meet a slave before the righteous Noah punished the sin of his son with this name. Thus, not nature, but sin deserved this name.

Finally, Noah pronounces a blessing to his youngest son: "May God expand Japheth, and may he dwell in the tents of Shem." And this prophecy was also fulfilled: “the descendants of Japheth occupied Europe, Asia Minor and the whole north, which then was a nest and a hotbed of nations ... Shem's tents signify the Church, preserved in the offspring of Shem, and, finally, taking under her roof and in participation her inheritance and the Gentiles, the descendants of Japheth.

“And Noah lived after the flood three hundred and fifty years” (Gen. 9:28). The Lord allowed Noah to live for a long time after the Flood, in order to preserve a longer living example of a righteous man for the first generations of a renewed humanity. By pointing out that all people descended from his three sons who were born before the flood (Gen. 9:18-19), Scripture reports that Noah himself, after the flood, did not give birth to more children, spending his life in abstinence.

“All the days of Noah were nine hundred and fifty years, and he died” (Gen. 9:29), and subsequently became one of the Old Testament righteous, whose souls Christ saved from hell, descending there between the Crucifixion and the Resurrection from the dead.

As St. John says, “this righteous man can teach our entire race and lead to virtue. In fact, when he, and living [before the flood] among such a multitude of evil people, and not being able to find a single person like him in morals, reached such high virtue then how shall we be justified, who, having no such obstacles, do not strive for good deeds?”

The name of the Old Testament righteous Noah is known to everyone since childhood, but not everyone knows who Noah is and why he became the forefather of mankind after the Flood.

Who is Noah from the Bible

Noah is one of the righteous of the Old Testament, whom Orthodox Church reveres as a saint. His life story can be found in the book of Genesis, but Noah's name appears in many biblical texts. He is always spoken of as a man of rare righteousness.

Noah lived in the era of the heyday of sin on earth and walked in the full sense against the current, firmly following the ways of the Lord. Noah's resolute and unwavering goodness helped him find "grace in the sight of the Lord" (Genesis 6:8).

Despite the fact that the time of his earthly life is distinguished by the general tendency of people to wickedness, this period is not far from the moment of the fall. According to the Bible, the first generations of people lived a very long time: Adam lived 930 years, his son Seth - 912 years. Noah is only ten generations distant from the first man, his father Lamech was born when Adam was still alive.

However, despite the fact that the memory of the expulsion of people from paradise was alive, as the witnesses of the formation of mankind on earth were alive, sin conquered the hearts of everyone in Noah's generation, except for himself. And, despite ridicule and reproach, the righteous man walked according to the will of God with all firmness.

Sons of Noah

By the age of five hundred, the righteous had three sons: Shem, Ham and Japheth. Tradition claims that Noah foresaw the punishment of mankind and did not want to have children for a long time. The Lord told him to marry, and therefore Noah's sons appeared much later than his ancestors did.

After the flood, when all those who did not enter the ark perished, the sons of Noah divided the earth and became the ancestors of all the peoples living today. Sim got the East, he became the progenitor of the peoples named after him by the Semites. Sim is also included in the genealogy of Jesus Christ.

Today, the Semitic peoples include: Jews, Arabs, Maltese, Assyrians and some peoples of Ethiopia. Mentioned in the Bible, but no longer existing today, the Amalekites, Moabites, Ammonites, and others also belong to the descendants of Shem.

Ham was the second son of Noah, his descendants settled the South after the flood. Egyptians, Libyans, Ethiopians, Somalis and the entire Negroid race descended from him are called Hamites. The Philistines, Phoenicians, Canaanites also descended from Ham.

Japheth - the youngest son of Noah - became the progenitor of modern Europeans, occupying lands in the North and West. Japhetites today are the most numerous among the peoples of the world. The legend says that these are all nations Western Europe, as well as Slavic and Finno-Ugric. The traditions of Armenia and Georgia also trace the Caucasian peoples to Japheth.

Noah's great-grandfather

There are many remarkable people among Noah's ancestors, but it is unlikely that you will be able to find another like Enoch. The seventh from Adam, according to various biblical texts, was the first to walk in the ways of the Lord after the death of Abel. Having pleased God, Enoch was removed from the place of his life without having to face death.

Often the story of Enoch's migration is considered to contradict the words of the Gospel of John that no one but our Lord Jesus Christ ascended to heaven. The reason for the confusion is probably the speculation about the resettlement of Enoch specifically to heaven, although there are no direct indications of this in the Bible.

Indeed, the Old Testament mentions the transference of Enoch twice:

• according to the book of Genesis "he was not, because God took him." It was not where he was, but it is not said where he moved;
• in the book of Jesus, the son of Sirach, it is mentioned that Enoch "was caught up from the earth", that is, his transfer took place above the earth.

The Apostle Paul in his epistle to the Hebrews says "he was gone, because God translated him." We are not talking about moving to heaven. To understand the story of Noah, it is important that the only righteous of the antediluvian world were saved by the Lord and received a reward from Him.

The Story of the Deluge and Noah's Ark

At the age of five hundred years, the prophet Noah received a revelation from the Lord about the flood - the forthcoming punishment of mankind for the sin that enslaved him. Then Noah learned that he had to save himself and his family from death by entering the ark along with many animals.

Noah built the ark for a hundred years. On unshakable faith in the word of the Lord, for a whole century, the construction of a giant ark, ridiculed by others, was kept. They did not want to listen to Noah's stories of the coming disaster, continuing to live unbridled lives.

Noah is called a preacher of truth in the Second Epistle of the Apostle Peter for firmness in faith and constancy in trying to return sinners to the path of Truth.

In a new revelation, the Lord told Noah and his family to enter the ark. Then it was said that water would pour from the sky for forty days, destroying all life. On the day of this revelation, animals and birds began to converge on Noah's ark from all sides of the earth. Noah's contemporaries, seeing how elephants, lions, monkeys enter the ark, only marveled at such a sight, continuing to persist and refusing to believe the preaching of the righteous.

For another week, the doors of the ark were opened in anticipation of the repentance of sinners. But no one else entered them. And the sky opened up. The flood filled the earth gradually, all forty days leaving, although melting, but chances for repentance. The Apostle Peter asserts that indeed there were among the perishing people who brought repentance to the Lord in these last days and accepted death with all humility.

For another five months, the water on the earth did not decrease, and then, on the first day of the tenth month from the beginning of the flood, the tops of the mountains became visible. The ark landed on the mountains of Ararat.

Raven and dove released from the ark

The first herald of the retreat of the water was the raven. Seeing that the earth was gradually being freed from water, Noah released a raven from the ark. But the raven is back. Then - again and again the raven flew into the ark until the earth was dried up.

Then Noah released a dove, but there was no place for it on earth, and he returned. Seven days later, re-released, it arrived with an olive leaf. And the third time, he did not return at all, which meant the final draining of the land. Then Noah, his family and the animals that had escaped with them went outside.

The story of Ham, son of Noah

The first thing Noah did when he left the ark was a thankful sacrifice to God. Then the Lord made a covenant with Noah, blessing the righteous man himself and his offspring.

The sign of the covenant was the rainbow, which also announced that people would no longer be destroyed by a flood from the earth.

However, not everyone in Noah's family was as righteous as he was. Such a conclusion allows us to draw a story about Ham. While cultivating the newly discovered lands, Noah drank wine from his vineyard and became drunk. Ham saw him lying naked in the tent and wanted to reveal it to the brothers Shem and Japheth.

They also showed respect to the father, covering him with clothes so as not to see what was not supposed to be seen.

Upon learning of the unworthy deed of Ham, Noah cursed his son, Canaan, promising him a slave share in the houses of his brothers. Why was Canaan cursed and not Ham? John Chrysostom says that Noah could not break with a curse the blessing given to him and his sons by the Lord.

At the same time, punishment was necessary for Ham, so the father was punished through his son, who himself, as the saint says, was a sinner and deserved punishment. Blessed Theodoret also sees in this a fair retribution to his son (Ham), who sinned against his father (Noah) and received punishment through the curse of his son (Canaan).

The punishment of Canaan was fulfilled in full, as the Canaanites were exterminated or subdued by the descendants of Shem. John Chrysostom explains the intoxication of Noah himself by ignorance, since the harm from drinking wine then was not as well known as it is now.

How many years did Noah live

After the flood, Noah chose the path of abstinence and had no more children except three sons.

Noah was six hundred years old when the flood began, he lived another three hundred and fifty years after that. Further, the book of Genesis testifies that after Noah people lived less and less: for example, Moses lived only 120 years.

Conclusion

• the prophet Ezekiel;
• the prophet Isaiah;
• Jesus, son of Sirach;
• the book of Ezra;
• the book of Tobit;
• Gospel of Matthew;
• The Epistle of the Apostle Paul to the Hebrews;
• 2 Epistle of the Apostle Peter, etc.

Today the Orthodox Church honors the righteous Noah as one of the Old Testament forefathers, who firmly kept God's law long before the commandments were given to Moses.

how old was Noah? and got the best answer

Answer from *@ Ekaterina @ *[guru]
The Bible says: "Noah was 500 years old, and Noah begat Shem, Ham and Japheth" [Genesis. 5, 32]. Thus, the answer to the question about the age of the captain of the ark, it would seem, is extremely clear. Nevertheless, this information is at odds with our understanding of human life expectancy in general. Moreover, the biblical texts suggest that the age of other characters is given in some kind of encrypted form.
Other digital data are also confusing, for example, those related to the Flood. First of all, it is known that before the Flood, Noah had to build an ark, the dimensions of which not only amaze the imagination, but also surprise with irrationality. The vessel was approximately 120 meters (300 cubits*) long, 20 meters (50 cubits) wide and 12 meters (30 cubits) high. It had a hold (lower housing) and two decks, which housed the second and third housing.
They knew how to build large ships in those days, which can be judged by archaeological excavations in India, which discovered, in particular, the remains of a shipyard, which would have accommodated Noah's ark. However, the last phrase of the biblical description is bewildering: it turns out that the height of each dwelling is at least 4 m, which is twice the normal need. Why make such high rooms on a cargo-passenger ship? There is a suspicion that the number of cubits - thirty - was distorted during the translation of the ancient text and corresponds to a smaller value.
The second reason to suspect errors in translation is based on discrepancies in the numerical data contained in different translations of the Bible. The Russian-language version of the Bible is a copy of the Greek text, compiled in the 3rd century BC by 70 "interpreters" who translated the books of the Old Testament from the Aramaic language. Along with this version of the Bible, called the Septuagint, there are other translations that give slightly different numbers (see table).
Look at the age of the biblical patriarchs in the table - it is quite eloquent. these numbers indicate, first of all, that the disagreements in the translations were of a systematic nature and were caused not by the fact that the original record was illegible or damaged, but by different interpretations of its meaning. The age of five biblical characters (of the fifteen given) exceeds 900 years.
It is unlikely that the life expectancy of biblical patriarchs would change so noticeably among different generations of translators of Scripture. It is more natural to assume that in the original source it remained the same, but the records about this were read differently.
And finally, all the noted discrepancies between various translations, as well as information about the incredible age of the centenarians, refer to that part of the biblical texts, which describes the Mesopotamian period of the life of the progenitors of the Israelites. After Terah and his descendants settled in Palestine, the numerical data ceased to cause controversy.
So, there is no doubt that the double interpretation of the numbers testifies to the difficulties that the translators of the ancient Sumerian manuscripts encountered. But in order to imagine the nature of these difficulties, one must mentally return to those times when the number systems were still being formed.
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All of the above suggests that the age of 60 years (at the beginning of the voyage) is most likely for Noah. The Odyssey of the entire Noah family was apparently recorded from the words of one of his sons (there were no other men on the ship, and women hardly had the right to vote). Moreover, we can confidently assume that the eldest son, Sim, became this narrator. The younger son, like Ivanushka in the Russian fairy tale, was not, as you know, a great connoisseur of literature; the middle one, Ham, by definition, could not speak respectfully of relatives. Obviously, Sim turned out to be the only one who conveyed to the descendants the story of the ark, which eventually became a legend.