The Creation- part two
3- the 9 prophets before noah Noah [Hebrew Nôah, "rest"; Greek Noe; Latin Noe]. The ninth patriarch of the Seth line (Seth in Arabic means the will of God), grandson of Methuselah (in Arabic means the one who dies as a good man ) and son of Lames (in Arabic means the one who touched the truth), who with his family was saved from the Deluge and thus became the second father of the human race (Genesis 5:25-9:29). The name Noah was give to him because of his father's expectation regarding him. "This same", said Lames on naming him, "shall comfort us from the works and labors of our hands on [or more correctly "from", i.e. "which come from"] the earth, which the Lord hath cursed." Most commentators consider Lames's words as an expression of a hope, or as a prophecy, that the child would in some way be instrumental in removing the curse pronounced against Adam (Genesis 3:17 sqq.). Others rather fancifully see in them a reference to Noah's future discovery of wine, which cheers the heart of man; whilst others again, with greater probability, take them as expressing merely a natural hope on the part of Lames that his son would become the support and comfort of his parents, and enable them to enjoy rest and peace in their later years. But in my research i will consider the name is from an Arabic root which is WAHI, means the message of god , thus Noah means the one that receive the first message of god after Adam , and thus the message of god will be the same for all the prophets that came after Noah, i.e. by sending the Angel Gabriel (Gabriel means in Arabic the greatest angel, the Greatest Angel kabri-el) with a message. Three sons, Sam (which means man of the north ), Ham ( man of the south ), and Japheth ( man of the east ) , being these are the continents where man kind will live in the old times ) , were born to him (6:10). These had grown to manhood and had taken wives, when Noah was informed of God's intention to destroy men by a flood, and received directions to build an ark in which he and his wife, his sons and their wives, and representatives, male and female, of the various kinds of animals and birds, were to be saved (6:13-21). How long before the Deluge this revelation was imparted to him, it is impossible to say; it can hardly have been more than seventy-five years (cf. 7:11), and probably was considerably less. Noah had announced the impending judgment and had exhorted to repentance (II Peter 2:5), but no heed was given to his words (Matthew 24:37 sqq.; Luke 17:26, 27; I Peter 3:20), and, when the fatal time arrived, no one except Noah's immediate family found refuge in the ark. Seven days before the waters began to cover the earth, Noah was commanded to enter the ark with his wife, his three sons and their wives, and to take with him seven pairs of all clean, and two pairs of all unclean animals and birds (7:1-4). It has been objected that, even though the most liberal value is allowed for the cubit, the ark would have been too small to lodge at least two pairs of every species of animal and bird. But there can be no difficulty if, as is now generally admitted, the Deluge was not geographically universal (see DELUGE; ARK). (The story say that Noah's ark has landed on Ararat ,so it was really landed on one of the volcanic mountains in the middle of Arabia, these mountains are called (H)Ararat or the Hot Mountains, near the place of Bait-el, where after that this place is called then in the Bible Haran) ) After leaving the ark Noah built an altar, and taking of all clean animals and birds, offered holocausts upon it. God accepted the sacrifice, and made a covenant with Noah, and through him with all mankind, that He would not waste the earth or destroy man by another deluge. The rainbow would for all times be a sign and a reminder of this covenant. He further renewed the blessing which He had pronounced on Adam (Genesis 1:28), and confirmed the dominion over animals which He had granted to man. In virtue of this dominion man may use animals for food, but the flesh may not be eaten with the blood (8:20-9:17). Noah now gave himself to agriculture, and planted a vineyard. Being unacquainted with the effects of fermented grape-juice, he drank of it too freely and was made drunk. Ham found his father lying naked in his tent, and made a jest of his condition before his brothers; these reverently covered him with a mantle. On hearing of the occurrence Noah cursed Canaan, as Ham's heir, and blessed Sam and Japheth. He lived three hundred and fifty years after the Deluge, and died at the age of nine hundred and fifty years (9:20-29). In the later books of Scripture Noah is represented as the model of the just man (Eccliasticus 44:17; Ezechiel, 14:14, 20), and as an exemplar of faith (Hebrews 11:7). In the Fathers and tradition he is considered as the type and figure of the Savior, because through him the human race was saved from destruction and reconciled with God (Ecclus., 44:17,18). Moreover, as he built the ark, the only means of salvation from the Deluge, so Christ established the Church, the only means of salvation in the spiritual order. The Babylonian account of the Deluge in many points closely resembles that of the Bible. Four cuneiform recessions of it have been discovered, of which, however, three are only short fragments. The complete story is found in the Gilgamesh epic (Tablet 11) discovered by G. Smith among the ruins of the library of Assurbanipal in 1872. Another version is given by Berosus. In the Gilgamesh poem the hero of the story is Ut-napishtim ( in arabic Uta - napi - shtim means the gift of the prophet of rain ) or Sit-napishti ( in Arabic sit - napi - shtim means the lord the prophet of rain ), as some read it, surnamed Atra-hasis "the very clever"( in Arabic the most sensitive one ); in two of the fragments he is simply styled Atra-hasis , which name is also found in Berosus under the Greek form Xisuthros ( in Arabic hisus thros (the sensitive who can know by sense ) . The story in brief is as follows: A council of the gods(elements of nature,see the translation of the Epic of creation- by Rachid Zok) having decreed to destroy men by a flood, the god(element of life) Ea warns Ut-napishtim, and bids him build a ship in which to save himself and the seed of all kinds of life. Ut-napishtim builds the ship (of which, according to one version, Ea traces the plan on the ground), and places in it his family, his dependents, artisans, and domestic as well as wild animals, after which he shuts the door. The storm lasts six days; on the seventh the flood begins to subside. The ship steered by the helmsman Puzur-Bel lands on Mt. Nisir. After seven days Ut-napishtim sends forth a dove and a swallow, which, finding no resting-place for their feet return to the ark, and then a raven, which feeds on dead bodies and does not return. On leaving the ship, Ut-napishtim ( in arabic Uta - napi - shtim means the give of the prophet of the rain) - offers a sacrifice to the gods, who smell the godly odour and gather like flies over the sacrifice. He and his wife are then admitted among the gods. The story as given by Berosus comes somewhat nearer to the Biblical narrative. Because of the striking resemblances between the two many maintain that the Biblical account is derived from the Babylonian. But the differences are so many and so important that this view must be pronounced untenable. The Scriptural story is a parallel and independent form of a common tradition. back page