Deconstructing Noah and the flood : Part Two

In case you’re new here, a quick reminder that this is part two of Deconstructing Noah and the flood. If you missed part one, we encourage you to begin there first.  Before we pick things back up again in Genesis 8:15, let’s take a moment for a quick recap.

In part one, we read from the ancient text that Noah was a man to be right and complete in a dysfunctional world that was falling into decay more and more with each passing day.  God chose to save Noah and his wife, along with his 3 sons and their wives and pairs of all creatures from the flood which God used to destroy everyone and everything else.  No one and no thing ate one another while they were in the ark because they were all herbivores at that time.  And that through this event, mankind would some how have rest from the cursed ground that had taken place back in chapter 3.  We haven’t discussed that fully just yet but we’ll get there soon. Now we find ourselves in the part of the story where Noah is told that it is time to leave the ark.  Here is our root word translation starting in Genesis 8:15.  We encourage everyone to follow along with their preferred translations and please take note of the differences.

15To arrange God, God Noah, to say 16to go out to apportion ark you, woman, sons, woman sons 17all to live which all to be fresh, to fly, beast all to glide swiftly, to glide swiftly upon the earth.  To go out to wriggle the earth, to bear fruit to increase upon the earth. 18To go out Noah, sons, woman, woman sons, 19all to live all to glide swiftly all to fly all to glide swiftly upon the earth to abrade to go out to apportion the ark.

It’s not too difficult to picture what’s going on here.  God has told them that it is time to go out of the ark and to divide and allocate upon the earth.  To bear and to increase.  Makes sense.  Next

20to build Noah to slaughter animals to exist, to take all beast clean all to fly clean. to ascend, to ascend to slaughter animals 21to breathe to exist to breathe to rest.  ***

Before we finish verse 21 we want to point out some of the big differences as we begin to find them here.  Just like when they all got on the ark and God told Noah to take more pairs of the clean animals than the others, we now see yet again a distinction.  But wait, I thought the law wasn’t given yet, why would we need clean and therefore unclean animals… hmm, but what if mankind had a law from the beginning?  Why would he need more of the clean animals?  I think it’s possible that the reason is two fold.  Yes, it could be because they were to be a gift to God.  But also these are the animals that will now be approved to eat and so they would need more of them so that they could increase quicker and be more plentiful, that way they didn’t go extinct after Noah’s first meal.

I also want to highlight that in our root word translation in verse 21, we see the same root as Noah or rest. The modern translations read “sweet” or “pleasant” here as if it’s describing a smell or aroma.   But when you strip everything down, it’s hard to see the same thing.  In fact because the root word for rest is found here, I would beg to argue that this section must have some serious significance, one that would be very problematic if it was lost in translation.  Remember back in chapter 5, we were given a future clue, describing that Noah or rest would come from the toiling to eat of the ground.  A few months ago when I was studying the modern translation it was easy to see that the rest that came was the giving of animals for them to eat.  Before this time, I don’t believe it was permissible, everything was an herbivore and it was a lot of work for man to live this way.   We are told that Abel gave God a firstling from his flock but nothing is said there that would imply that they were omnivores, eating both herb and meat.  After the flood, God gives man animals for food.  Now I don’t know about you but my husband and I have tried our hands at both, gardening and animal husbandry and we have been far more successful with the animals than we have the veggies.  Yes, we have experienced challenges with both and unfortunately we have experienced losses in both too, but for the most part, without trying to oversimplify, the animals do seem to be more of a set it and forget it.  Make sure they have food and water and they pretty much do the rest.  The garden on the other hand, is way more physically demanding, prepping the ground, planting the seed, weeding the beds, harvesting, preserving, etc and it seems that at a moments notice, due to weather, drought, bugs, you name it, everything can be completely wiped out in very little time resulting in a complete and total loss.  But we have never had that happen with our animals. Again not to say it couldn’t.  I’m sure there are diseases that could take out an entire flock very quickly but typically the losses we have experienced there, have been only one at a time and usually it is one of the young.  But regardless, why would the modern translation gloss over the first mention of rest found here after the flood?  These are questions we should be asking. Continuing in verse 21,

to say to exist God heart not to add to make light to repeat ground to pass over Adam, that to be straightened heart Adam, dysfunction (evil) to shake off.   Not to add to repeat to strike all to live which to do.  22To repeat all days earth to sow, to cut off,  to chill, to be hot, to clip off, to pull off day to fold back not to cease

This section is talking about how God will not add to make light the ground again, this goes back to the consequences for Adam’s disobedience.  God changed something with man’s relationship with the ground that made everything more work.  Now He is saying that He will not repeat that.  A huge difference is seen next.  Modern translations read, for the imaginations of man’s heart is evil from his youth and I will no longer smite all living things as I have done.  This just doesn’t make sense to me.. if God is acknowledging that the plots of man’s heart are evil from his youth than wouldn’t the earth just fall into complete dysfunction again just like before the flood?  Then what would God do about that?  But what if the meaning of the ancient text was what we have translated, that to be straightened heart Adam, dysfunction to shake off.  This makes it sound like it is possible to straighten our hearts and that it is possible to shake off dysfunction or evil.  To choose to do better.  To choose what is balanced and functional and right.  Which leads us to Chapter 9:

1To kneel to God, Noah and sons, to say to bear fruit, to increase to fill the earth, 2to fear to prostrate to exist upon all to live the earth, upon all to fly to be lofty, all which the ground, all to move rapidly to roar hand given.  3all to glide swiftly which it to live to exist to eat to spit to glisten to give all

Now in the modern translation, the idea is of the fear of man being upon the animals but is that really what is going on here? What if the fear and prostrating was to be man’s position before God, kneeling.  This is also the section where the animals were given to man as food. It is hard to see for certain here with the root word translation but with the wording found in verses 20 and 21 and now here as well, I think it is ok to say that they were given the animals for food.

And finally let’s see if we can make some sense out of this last section for today.  This is where modern translations say not to eat flesh with blood and where an account for blood shed will be demanded both from beasts and man.  Hmm… honestly I’m struggling here with both of these concepts.  I don’t think it aligns with reality that God demands an account from a beast who kills a man.  How would that be possible?  Now it is plausible that He could demand it when a man kills another man but we also don’t have any proof of this currently in existence without using the afterlife or the next life as proof of God’s judgement.  It would appear that there are people who “get away with murder” all the time.  So what else might this be telling us?

4to set up to be fresh to breathe to be still, not to eat 5to set up, To be still to breathe, to seek hand all to live to seek hand Adam.  Hand man brother to seek to breathe Adam.  6To spill forth to be still Adam, Adam to be still to spill forth.  That to shadow God to make Adam. 7 you to bear fruit to increase to wriggle in the earth to increase.

Is it possible that the continuing theme is of rest? To breathe to be still, sounds like rest to me.  Is it possible that when it says not to eat to set up or you could even say erect up, could this be pointing to a potential negative outcome if man becomes unbalanced with this new gift.  That some dysfunction could happen if they eat to set themselves up?  We know from history that we have the tendency to push the limits too far to the point of extinction when it comes to the many benefits or byproducts from animals.  The whole point of giving them the animals for food was for rest.  Let me say that again, I believe the whole point in God giving mankind animals for food was so they would have rest.  Then we see this whole hand portion.. God gave everything into Adam’s hand, to protect, to guide, to rule over.  It was Adam’s responsibility whether to be a good steward or a bad one.  That they were to increase in a way that was restful and in balance because they were made in the image or shadow of God.

So let’s try and sum a few things up.  When they left the ark, everything was to bear fruit and increase.  They were to slaughter the clean animals to exist, to breathe and to rest.  They were to straighten their hearts and shake off dysfunction.  They were to kneel before God, prostrated and with fear or reverent respect.  And they were to do so all in a way that was balanced and  functional for all of life in a restful way.  Simply put yet again, I think you could say fear God and obey all that He commands.