Echoes Within the Two Old

Echoes Within the Two Old Testament Accounts of the Great Flood of Genesis

The account of the Great Flood in Genesis is repetitious in nature, as it constantly stresses the sinfulness of humanity and the goodness of the one human being who was saved: Noah (and his nearest of kin). Much like the Biblical account of the Garden of Eden, humanity is portrayed as inherently sinful. God decides he must punish humanity for its crimes. This incident is told and retold in Genesis 6. The account has an intensely mythical quality, as the first Flood account states that it takes place in an era where there were giants on the earth, and God decreed the human lifespan to be 120 years. God sees Noah's perfection, and after an account of his parentage, the author depicts God giving Noah specific instructions on how to build the ark out of a particular kind of wood, and what and in what manner Noah should take the animals of the earth with him onto the ark. Noah is told to take two of every kind of animal that flies or creeps that has a spirit.

In Genesis 7, these instructions are again echoed. However, rather than portray life on earth or give a detailed account of Noah's personal history, God's instructions to Noah regarding the 'cleanliness' of the animals is stressed. Noah is told to bring each animal with its mate again -- this time, clean and unclean animals, implying in this narrative that there is already a distinction between such animals, even at the beginning of the world. In contrast to Genesis, which says that 120 is the average age of all humanity, Noah is portrayed as being even older -- 600 years in age, although this also suggests a kind of mythic sense of time. The poetic repetition in the different accounts of the number of days it took for the water to recede (8: 1-6 and 8: 6:13) likewise suggests the divine, rather than natural origin of the phenomenon.

In Genesis 6, God tells Noah that he will make a covenant with Noah, Noah's wife, and Noah's sons and their wives. This covenant pre-dates the covenant that God will eventually make with Abraham and his children, and suggests a mutual obligation that now exists between God and humanity that did not exist before -- thus Noah's covenant with God will 'echo' with other Biblical narratives of later date, much as the stress upon the disobedience of humankind in the Flood epic recalls the disobedience of humanity in the Garden of Eden. At the end of the narrative, God says that he will never destroy humanity again, despite its inherent tendency to act in a wicked fashion.

In both Genesis 6 and Genesis 7, the repetitive language used to describe the animals under Noah's care -- their duality, the fact that some creep and some fly -- underlines man's mastery of the natural world. Humanity may be commanded by God and must submit, but it is humanity that saves the rest of the natural world. The choosing of two mates, so that the earth can be replenished and the totality of the project of humanity's saving of the animal kingdom (clean and unclean, as noted in Genesis 7) suggests the unique importance of humanity upon the earth.