The penitent Cain took a wife who begat Enoch

      Whose son, Irad, cleansed his father’s sin and begat Mehujael

      Who cleansed his grandfather’s sin and begat Methushael

      Who cleansed the world of his great-grandfather’s sin and begat Lamech, the pure,

      Who begat three sons who expanded God’s Creation:

      Jabal bred horses and cattle;

      Jubal taught the world to play the harp and flute;

      And Tubal worked bronze and iron.

      From these three grew economics, art, and science.

      Noah, the Hero

      In ancient Greek lore the hero, either a human elevated to the status of the divine or a demoted divine, was revered as a demigod. Often he was perceived as a ghost to be appeased. In contrast the hero in Biblical literature was no demigod nor someone to be feared. Noah is the exemplar of the Biblical hero. He was a man righteous in his generation but fallible. To the ancient Hebrews, heroes were persons of valor. As humans they erred but as heroes they transcended the ordinary.

      From the very beginning the humans that God Created had cavorted with truancy. Adam and Eve were disobedient and Cain took his brother’s life. Generations to come developed the arts and technology but they also lived by stealth. Jealous of one another the farmers tried to vanquish shepherds. It is apparent that the species God Created could destroy itself. God, according to the Bible, Became so repulsed by humans that Creation was inundated by a flood.

      The Flood legend is found in many cultures ranging from the American Indian to the Icelandic and to the Chinese and Japanese. Closest to the Noah tale is the Sumerian. King Ziusudra is forewarned about the impending flood and builds a boat. There is a deluge after which Utu, the son god, appears. Ziusudra is saved and offers sacrifices to Utu. This tale made its way into the famed Epic of Gilgamesh. Although the Noah tale may have borrowed some of the essentials from the Sumerian, the Noah version has a different argument: Noah was spared so that a new and more moral civilization would take root. Noah made a sacrifice, too. God, however, Regretted having Flooded Creation and Decided never to repeat that error. However, even after the flood waters subsided the descendants of Noah did not cleanse their weaknesses to evil. Noah, righteous in his generation, got drunk and had sexual relations with his daughter-in-law. He, too, was fallible. Thus the ending of the Noah story confutes the beginning which says he was righteous in his generation.

      Noah Receives and Gives

      Noah’s father, Lamech, a direct descendant of Adam,

      Sat face to face with his son

      As they fished in iridescent waters

      That would later overflow in heavy rains

      And related to him the history of the world since Creation

      As his father, the agéd Methuselah, had related to him

      And as fathers before him related to their children for generations.

      Each age had added to the history:

      Their discoveries, inventions, tools, insights,

      New emerging species of plants and animals,

      Ongoing struggles, victories, defeats, hardships, triumphs, joys, grief,

      Songs, stories, designs, crafts, trades,

      And the trove of the family legends.

      Noah learned how his forebears scribed speech,

      Counted, added, found angle size, and measured time and space.

      The gentle ripples of the water reflected who they had been

      And who they would become.

      So it was with Noah who sat at the river bank with his son Shem

      After the flood.

      “Look carefully at the arcing rainbow in the sky,” Noah urged Shem.

      “The multihued bow is God’s Compact with us mortals.

      Witness its Sublime Splendor;

      Behold how the vaulting heavens fills with awe.

      Never again Will God Flood Creation.”

      What we must do, as God Taught Adam who taught his son, Seth,

      And he to mortals since for all generations,

      Is to revere with love the Creator and not worship false gods,

      To respect life and take no one’s life,

      To respect the sanctity of marriage and to shun incest,

      To respect the property of others and rob no one,

      To eat fruits, vegetables, cooked meat and fish but eat no flesh of a living creature,

      To be merciful and judge every human fairly.”

      And Shem taught these laws and human history to posterity.

      Abram, direct descendant of Adam learned them from Terah, his father,

      As they fished on the river banks watching the rippling, iridescent dappled droplets

      Primed in the vaulting Heaven.

      And he leaned them well.

      Noah’s Tale: Version