Noah's Message
1.
From my childhood on, whenever the story of Noah, the ancient patriarch who built the legendary Ark was recounted, Noah was
portrayed as a man who preached a message of repentance to a generation nearly
entirely unwilling to hear him.
2.
I puzzle now at how no such overt reference
exists in the transmitted Hebrew texts of Genesis. Here Noah is portrayed as a
man who, unlike those of his generation, received the grace of God. Noah spoke
with God, walked with God, obeyed God in all things, and was described by Moses
as being perfect in his generation. Noah was chosen by God to preserve the
ancient covenant. Yet no mention is made of Noah having preached to anyone, let
alone what he would have preached.
3.
For me the textual answer regarding whether Noah
preached and what the content of his preaching was came in the form of a
translation, or perhaps better stated, an expansion, produced by the man Joseph
Smith, the first prophet, seer and revelator of The Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints.
4.
Joseph Smith produced a translation of the King
James Version of the Bible from June, 1830, to July, 1833. Joseph Smith
translated, but not by referencing Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek manuscripts and
somehow selecting which ones might be deemed the most reliable. Joseph Smith
produced his translation, he asserted, from divine inspiration from God. Joseph accomplished this translation at times by inserting passages he maintained
had gotten lost over millennia of transmission. At other times Joseph simply
clarified the understanding readers would get as they read the King James English
text, usually by making relatively minor alterations. Needless to say, any
reader of the Joseph Smith Translation, in order to believe in this version of
the sacred texts, would already need to have reason to believe Joseph Smith to
be a divinely inspired prophet, otherwise the reader would simply be acquainting
himself with a curious religious production of nineteenth-century America.
5.
My objective here in the present posting is neither
to prove the Joseph Smith Translation, defend it or disseminate it. My
interest is entirely modest: I wish only to share one particular account Joseph
Smith inserted in Genesis, the matter of Noah’s preaching and the content of
his preaching. In doing so I wish to share parallels to two other important
monotheistic works, one great, and the other relatively obscure: The Holy
Qur’an and The Book of Jasher.
6.
First, I would like to refer the reader to
Genesis, chapters 5 and 6, to see for himself if indeed there is no overt
reference to Noah being a preacher and, hence, to what Noah might have preached.
7.
The Book of Jasher is, say many scholars, a book
of Jewish Midrash (retellings of Biblical stories but with gaps in the
narratives filled in, either by tradition or inference). The Book of Jasher
appeared in Venice in 1625, though since that time there have been some Jewish
scribes who asserted that this was indeed the Book of Jasher mentioned in the
Old Testament, but which is absent from all known Hebrew manuscripts that
comprise the Old Testament. The Book of Jasher made its debut in the English
speaking world via the first English translation in 1840.
8.
Irrespective of whether one views Jasher as
genuine scripture or at some stage beneath authentic, whoever produced Jasher
either had a fuller account to relay, or the writer(s) was aware of the absence
of a canonical account of Noah serving as a preacher, and thus compensated for the canonical omission.
I will quote from The Book of Jasher, chapter V:6-11, 23-24:
a.
(6) And after the lapse of many years, in the
four hundred and eightieth year of the life of Noah, when all those men, who
followed the Lord had died away from amongst the sons of men, and only
Methuselah was then left, God said unto Noah and Methuselah, saying,
b.
(7) Speak ye, and proclaim to the sons of men,
saying, thus saith the Lord, return from your evil ways and forsake your works,
and the Lord will repent of the evil that he declared to do to you, so that it
shall not come to pass.
c.
(8) For thus saith the Lord, behold I give you a
period of one hundred and twenty years; if you will turn to me and forsake your
evil ways, then will I also turn away from the evil which I told you, and it
shall not exist, saith the Lord.
d.
(9) And Noah and Methuselah spoke all the words
of the Lord to the sons of men, day after day, constantly speaking to them.
e.
(10) But the sons of men would not hearken to
them, nor incline their ears to their words, and they were stiffnecked.
f.
(11) And the Lord granted them a period of one
hundred and twenty years, saying, if they will return, then will God repent of
the evil, so as not to destroy the earth.
g.
(23) And Noah and Methuselah stood forth, and
said in the ears of the sons of men, all that God had spoken concerning them.
h.
(24) But the sons of men would not hearken,
neither would they incline their ears to all their declarations.
9.
The account in The Book of Jasher recounts Noah
receiving the call to preach from the Lord, and the message Noah was to deliver
was one of repentance and God’s willingness to forsake the destruction he had
pronounced upon the world, if the world would return to him.
10.
The Holy Qur’an (which preceded the Jasher
account by about a millennium) recounts Noah contending for the message he was
sent to preach. The Holy Qur’an became accessible to English readers first in a
1649 translation from Latin to English, then in a 1734 translation from French
to English. The first Arabic to English translation of the Qur’an debuted in
1861. The Qur’an contains references to the preaching of Noah in several
passages, though the fullest description is found in Surah 7:59-64:
a.
(59) We sent Noah to his people. He said: “O my
people! Worship God! Ye have no other god but Him. I fear for you the
punishment of a dreadful day!”
b.
(60) The leaders of his people said: “Ah! We see
thee in evident error.”
c.
(61) He said: “O my people! There is no error in me: on the
contrary I am a messenger from the Lord of the Worlds!”
d.
(62) “I but convey to you the message of my
Lord. Sincere is my advice to you, and I know from God something that ye know
not.”
e.
(63) “Do ye wonder that there hath come to you a
reminder from your Lord, through a man of your own people, to warn you, --so
that ye may fear God and haply receive His mercy?”
f.
(64) But they rejected him, and We delivered
him, and those with him, in the Ark: but We overwhelmed in the Flood those who
rejected Our signs, they were indeed a blind people!”
11.
The Holy Qur’an’s account of Noah’s preaching
focuses on monotheism and explicitly states the notable concept that God chose
to warn his people by sending them “a man from [their] own people”.
12.
The excerpt from the Joseph Smith Translation
that deals with Noah’s preaching is found in the Latter-day Saint book of
scripture known as The Pearl of Great Price, The Book of Moses, chapter
8:19-24:
a.
(19) And the Lord ordained Noah after his own
order, and commanded him that he should go forth and declare his Gospel unto
the children of men, even as it was given unto Enoch.
b.
(20) And it came to pass that Noah called upon
the children of men that they should repent; but they hearkened not unto his
words;
c.
(21) And also, after that they had heard him,
they came up before him, saying: Behold, we are the sons of God; have we not
taken unto ourselves the daughters of men? And are we not eating and drinking,
and marrying and giving in marriage? And our wives bear unto us children, and
the same are mighty men, which are like unto men of old, men of great renown.
And they hearkened not unto the words of Noah.
d.
(22) And God saw that the wickedness of men had
become great in the earth; and every man was lifted up in the imagination of
the thoughts of his heart, being only evil continually.
e.
(23) And it came to pass that Noah continued his
preaching unto the people, saying: Hearken, and give heed unto my words;
f.
(24) Believe and repent of your sins and be
baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, even as our fathers, and
ye shall receive the Holy Ghost, that ye may have all things made manifest; and
if ye do not this, the floods will come in upon you; nevertheless they
hearkened not.
13.
These three records--The Book of Jasher, The
Holy Qur’an and The Joseph Smith Translation--concur that Noah did indeed
receive a call to preach from God, that God delivered a call to repent or
return to his mercy, that the messages were explicitly or implicitly
monotheistic in nature, and that the messages were poorly received by their
target audience. The main difference is that The Joseph Smith Translation
asserts that Noah specifically mentioned baptism in the name of Jesus Christ,
the Son of God, as well as receiving the Holy Ghost, as the specific form of
returning to God that God desired.
14.
As I suggested at the outset of my post, any
reader would probably need to have reason to believe Joseph Smith to be a
genuine prophet of God in order to believe that his translation accurately
reflects what Noah preached. As I also stated, the account in Genesis makes no explicit mention of Noah being a preacher let alone of what he would have
preached. Some critics even affirm that attributing a message of baptism in the
name of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, in order to receive the Holy Spirit, is a
clear Christian interpolation (insertion). Everyone is certainly entitled to
their view, and the interpretations of skeptical readers present legitimate
concerns that merit sincere attention.
15.
Let me offer just a couple points, and then I
will retire this matter to the scrutiny of the reader, make of it what he or she will.
Regarding the issue of Joseph Smith possibly overlaying on Noah a reference to the Holy Ghost,
Noah’s names are of interest:
a.
Noah’s means “rest” in Hebrew.
b.
The Book of Jasher, chapter IV:14, states that
in addition to being called Noah, “rest”, upon birth, the lad was also named,
“Menachem”, or ‘Comforter’.
16.
Connecting the references of Noah’s names to the
preaching of Jesus Christ is certainly not a step the reader is obligated to
take, but the name "Rest" does recall Matthew 11:28, “Come unto me, all ye that are
heavy laden, and I shall give you rest,” and "Menachem" or 'Comforter' recalls John 15:26, “But when the
Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit
of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me.”
17.
Noah, while in the ark, rode out treacherous
waves, “So the Ark sailed with them on the waves like mountains…” (Surah 11:42)
after which Noah became the only prophet to handle and release a dove prior to
humanity emerging on the face of a cleansed earth. To this extent it is
interesting to note that the dove was representative of the Holy Ghost at least
by New Testament times: “And the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a
dove upon [Jesus]…” (Luke 3:22).
18.
What is noteworthy about the imagery of Noah
riding out the waves in an ark containing a dove, and then releasing the dove
prior to man’s advent (return) to the earth is how it parallels the Creation
account in which “…the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters”
(Genesis 1:2) immediately after which “…God said, Let there be light: and there
was light” (Genesis 1:3), a light which preceded the appearance of the sun,
moon and stars, as well as man’s appearance on earth. This event, the Spirit of God moving over the surface of the water just prior to a special light breaking forth over the matter soon-to-be fashioned into an earth, seems to be
what Jesus may have been making reference to when he declared “I am the light of the world”
(John 8:12).
19.
In Genesis chapter 5, verse 32, Noah’s age at
the time of his entering fatherhood was given as 500 years. Certainly Noah was
described as being extremely old when he became a father. However, the Hebrew
text contains a curious construction for Noah’s age. Therefore, if translated
more precisely, the Hebrew text reads thus: “And Noah was son of five-hundred
years…” The number 5 represented personal righteousness among the ancient Hebrews, and 10 represented the commandments of God. The number 500 might have suggested absolute perfection in obedience to God, insofar as 500 is the product of 5x10x10. Noah is called "son of 500 years".
20.
These details, Noah’s name meaning “Rest”, Noah
also having the name "Menachem" or 'Comforter' (per the Jasher account), Noah
releasing the dove, and Noah being “son of five-hundred years" (as well as
other details that one could enumerate from the narrative) are elements that were later
employed in the Gospel accounts of Jesus Christ’s life. These details certainly dress Noah in imagery that, at least by New Testament times, carried significance to Christians.
21.
One last point. In Genesis 9:12, after the flood
was completed and Noah’s family had disembarked, God affirmed to Noah that he,
God, would never again destroy the earth by flood:
a.
(12) And God said, This is the token of the
covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with
you, for perpetual generations:
22.
The Hebrew word for token that is used in
Genesis 9:12 is אות “ōt”. This term means “sign” or “token”.
Though any mention of God giving Noah a sign of the covenant is absent in The
Book of Jasher, as we saw earlier, the term "signs" is stated in The Holy Qur’an, Surah 7:64 with reference to Noah's preaching. Here the word that was used for “signs” is “aayaat”.
23.
The term אות “ōt” itself is
written in the later Hebrew script which was adopted from Babylon. In the older Hebrew
script, presumably the one Genesis was written in up to the Babylonian
Captivity, a script now known as Paleo-Hebrew, this term for “sign” “ōt” was twA. The Paleo-Hebrew script is
important because of the pictographic meanings the letters conveyed, “a strong leader nailed to a cross”: "A" 'a strong leader', "w" 'nailed', and means "t" 'cross'.
24.
It should be pointed out that the first mention
of a “sign” or “token” in the sense of the covenant of God in the Hebrew scriptures is the passage cited, Genesis
9:12. Does the fact that “token” which signified “a powerful leader nailed to a
cross” is the sign of God’s covenant not to destroy mankind by flood again,
that this sign was preceded by the dove, a dove which made its second advent
after a great cleansing of the world by water, suggest a place for the text
included by Joseph Smith in his translation? That is for the reader to decide
if he should find this matter interesting enough to merit his consideration.
However one looks at these details though, they are in the very least, actually
textual.
