January 21

I think the identity of Noah is of absolute essence to the text. His characteristics show the morally good human: one that has always been aware of his mortality, simple, and virtuous. He represents the order and goodeness of the post-Eden humanity, which is why God chooses him to be the carrier of the new line of humans. Noah emphisizes the concept of death whereby we can see the results of the first sin (abolation of immortality) but we can realize the good that comes with death, namely the admiration of beauty and life. We can see that there is a certain contrast in the text between Noah and the other humans which is similar to the concepts in the first Genesis accounts. We observe that the other humans approach life with a sense of pride and desire to glory, with a desire to possess beauty instead of admiring it. This is similar to Eve’s perspective of the tree, where she decided to take the fruit even though the logical thing was to trust in their communion with God and basically admire the tree, instead of desiring to possess it (since the tree itself is good). On the other hand, we can see that Noah was simple and pure. He did not rage over his mortality which shows a sense of modesty and acceptence of his human condition while the other humans were in rage and resentment. Noah asks no questions when God asks him to build the ship and complete all of these tasks which shows the trust he has in his communion with God instead of wanting to ascend to the divine status. Finally, Noah relates to the first sin by showing the true God-like image in humans since he represented all that is good and trusted God with everything.