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| The Flood: An Epic among Epics
The story of Noah and his ark is one of the best-known stories of the Bible. It is also one that gives pause to contemporary readers. What could be more mythic than p 23 a story about a flood and an ark crammed full of animals? But, as with the creation story, we must be careful to read this narrative on its own terms. Indeed, what is striking about the flood narrative is just how much it seeks to subvert the many other flood stories that were floating around ancient Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq). Belief in a massive deluge that threatened the existence of humanity was widespread in the Ancient Near East. The Babylonian tale known as the Atrahasis Epic, for example, describes two classes of gods and how the minor gods worked to create canals and grow food for the major gods. When the minor gods refused to continue under their heavy workload, the major gods created humans to work and relieve the burden on the minor gods. All seems to be going well until the major gods in the Atrahasis Epic encounter a new problem. The humans are multiplying, burdening the earth with their swelling population and disturbing the sleep of the gods with the increasing noise. Enlil, the chief of the gods, employs drastic measures for the sake of population control, sending down plague, drought, and famine, and when these measures fail, the now sleepless gods agree to wipe out humanity with a flood. The biblical account of the flood challenges and subverts such pagan stories and views. To begin with, God does not create humanity to have a labor pool. In the Hebrew story of creation, humans are not an accident or afterthought, but rather the high point of creation. The human person is not created to be used, but rather is loved by God and willed for his or her own sake ( Catechism No. 356). The flood does not come because God feels threatened by humanity or because he cannot sleep, but rather because there is a deep moral problem. God wants to wash away the violence and bloodshed common among mankind. In the ancient Mesopotamian flood accounts, the gods tremble in fear at the ferocious waters they have unleashed and are unable to master. The biblical flood story depicts the one true God, who is in complete control of the mighty waters and all of creation. Noah, a Righteous Man In contrast to the rest of humanity that grieved God’s heart, Noah “found favor in the eyes of the L ORD ” (Gn 6:8). Whereas Adam was given just one command, and failed to be faithful, “Noah did all that the L ORD had commanded him” (Gn 7:5). Noah will be a “new Adam” and an ancestor to all subsequent humanity. p 24 The flood starts “after seven days” (Gn 7:10), a repetition that recalls the seven days of creation. Sin and wickedness lead to the unmaking of all that God had labored at in the creation week. Where the waters once parted to make room for the land, now the land is swallowed up by watery chaos. While the choppy repetition of the flood narrative allows us to feel the chaotic floodwaters, it also reveals a literary symmetry and underlying order to the narrative representative of God’s control and order in the midst of the wild waters. This order and symmetry can be seen in the following diagram: A Noah (ch. 6:10a) B Shem, Ham, and Japheth (10b) C Ark to be built (14–16) D Flood announced (17) E Covenant with Noah (18–20) F Food in the ark (21) G Command to enter ark (ch 7:1– 3) H 7 days waiting for flood (4–5) I 7 days waiting for flood (7– 10) J Entry to ark (11–15) K Yahweh shuts Noah in (16) L 40 days flood (17a) M Waters increase (17b–18) N Mountains covered (19–20) O 150 days waters prevail (21–24) P GOD REMEMBE RS NOAH (ch 8:1) O 150 days waters abate (3) N Mountain tops visible (4–5) M Waters abate (5) L 40 days (end of) (6a) K Noah opens window of ark (6b) J Raven and dove leave ark (7–9) I 7 days waiting for waters to subside (10–11) H 7 days waiting for waters to subside (12–13) G Command to leave ark (15–17 [22]) F Food outside ark (ch 9:1–4) E Covenant with all flesh (8–10) D No flood in future (11–17) C Ark (18a) B Shem, Ham, and Japheth (18b) A Noah (19) 6 p 25 At the center of this symmetrical structure is the declaration that in the midst of the flood “God remembered Noah” (Gn 8:1). To “remember” ( zakar in Hebrew) someone is an ancient idiom for being faithful to one’s covenant obligations. Before the deluge, God promised to “establish [his] covenant” with Noah (Gn 6:18). God “remembers” Noah and the covenant promise made to him, saving Noah from the flood. The flood and its recession is a story of re-creation, echoing back to the opening chapters of Genesis. Just like in the first creation, a wind blows and dry land and plants soon appear. Noah builds an altar and offers burnt offerings to God in thanksgiving for his family’s salvation. God then blesses Noah and his sons and commands them, as he did Adam and Eve, to “be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth” (Gn 9:1). God reiterates the dignity of humanity, despite its poor history, reminding Noah and his family that “God made man in his own image” (Gn 9:6). God then establishes a covenant with Noah and his descendants, the sign of which is the rainbow. Everything that happens after the water abates is reminiscent of the first creation: blessing, image and likeness, the command to be fruitful and multiply, and, finally, covenant. 6 Gordon J. Wenham, “The Coherence of the Flood Narrative,” VT 28 (1977):336–48. God not only wants to save humanity but also desires to bring humanity into an interpersonal relationship with himself, and he does this via a covenant. The covenant with Noah is the second of six major covenants in salvation history, the first being the covenant on day seven of creation. The first covenant with Adam, involving a married couple, expands with Noah, to include not merely a couple but an entire family (Noah and his wife, and their three sons and wives). Through Noah and his family, humanity gets a second chance. The question is: what will Noah’s family do with this fresh start? tải về 6.33 Mb. Chia sẻ với bạn bè của bạn:
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