Noah; Gen 3 to 9, but particularly Gen 9 20:25

[Friend of Bill W]

Hi all,

This evening I read about Noah for the first time; though I knew the story; but it doesn't make much sense to me. I can't believe its literal, but I also can't really see any allegoric meaning to it also. You maybe able to tell I know next to nothing about the Bible, so I'm hoping some of you could explain what the meaning of Noah's story is.

Also, I was intrigued to read about Noah getting drunk and naked (That's a British Royal Marine Naafi Bar trick), and then punishing his grandson because his grandson's father (Noah's son) saw him naked. Well, its obvious that its Noah's fault for being drunk, then hung-over and angry; but what's the point of putting this in the Bible? I mean I used to regularly wake up with a hang-over and be like a bear with a sore head and give my family a hard time (I'm tee-total now), but I wouldn't expect that to be in any scripture?

Please help.

Confused!

 

[Quagmire]

Hi Friend of Bill W.

I don't know if there's ever any one "right" allegorical interpretation of any of the storys in the Bible. For me, the idea that each of us is supposed find our own meaning in each is the most interesting approach.

That said, the way I interpret the last part of the story of Noah;

Noah (the father) represents God. Ham (the son) seeing his father naked equates to any of us "seeing" God "naked" ie., stripped of any dogmatic or doctrinal expectations or perspectives in regards to His character/nature.

Having done so Ham becomes "cursed" to become a servant to his brothers.

The message I get from this is; anyone who has a personal experience of "God", bereft of preconceived religious notions, will lose interest in selfish desires and go on to see how they can become useful to their "brothers (and sisters)"

In other words "Having had a spiritual awakening....we will lose interest in self and gain interest in others".

 

[Dunemeister]

FBW,

In general, it's helpful to remember that the bible was written by, for and to an ancient near eastern bronze-age culture, and its form and content presuppose this. As a result, there will be passages whose point eludes us (for instance, the passage you cite). The point eludes us because we are simply very far removed culturally and linguistically from the original author and audience. That's not to say we can't find out. That's the whole point of biblical studies. But don't be surprised to find that, sometimes, we simply have to shrug our shoulders and move on.

BTW, and FWIW, I don't subscribe to Quagmire's procedure of finding your own meaning in the text. The reason is fairly simple. The text had an author who intended to communicate a message to his intended audience. As readers, our job is to do our best to reconstruct that original message. Once that's done, we can see whether that message has any relevance to us in our circumstances. Quagmire recommends simply bypassing the original author and audience. One can do so, of course, but then one wonders why one should bother reading the text instead of simply making up your own stories and imputing meaning into those....

 

[Autodidact]

To me, the over-arching moral of the entire flood story is: Do what God says or he will smite the heck out of you.

 

[Charity]

:slap: You mean like, Ok God I get the point , no more disobedience from this chick anymore.......

 

[Naveed83]

Quagmire recommends simply bypassing the original author and audience. One can do so, of course, but then one wonders why one should bother reading the text instead of simply making up your own stories and imputing meaning into those....

But, how do you know what the original author intended on telling the audience? Is it not possible that the original author intended the story to have a symbolic/allegorical meaning in some parts? I'm quite sure the authors/speakers of the Biblical time period were quite capable of using symbolism and allegory. Just because they were written more then 2,000+ years ago does mean they were incapable of such a feat.

As for making up our own stories to get a meaning out of, I ask, why make up a new one when we already have a perfectly good one? Sometimes it's better to go with something proven and tested as opposed to making something new.

My point is that it is quite possible that the original author of the tale intended it to be interpreted the way Quaqmire interpreted it, then again it is quite possible the writer wanted it interpreted literally. Overall what I'm saying is that, when you're dealing with ancient literature, sometimes finding your own meaning is better then just assuming it was meant to be a factual tale and in the end one can never truly know what the author intended.

 

[Green Kepi]

Hi all,

This evening I read about Noah for the first time; though I knew the story; but it doesn't make much sense to me. I can't believe its literal, but I also can't really see any allegoric meaning to it also. You maybe able to tell I know next to nothing about the Bible, so I'm hoping some of you could explain what the meaning of Noah's story is.

Also, I was intrigued to read about Noah getting drunk and naked (That's a British Royal Marine Naafi Bar trick), and then punishing his grandson because his grandson's father (Noah's son) saw him naked. Well, its obvious that its Noah's fault for being drunk, then hung-over and angry; but what's the point of putting this in the Bible? I mean I used to regularly wake up with a hang-over and be like a bear with a sore head and give my family a hard time (I'm tee-total now), but I wouldn't expect that to be in any scripture?

Please help.

Confused!

What about this? Noah, the great hero of faith, got drunk...not much of an example. Perhaps this story is included to show that even godly people can sin ahd that their bad influence affects their families. It appears that Ham had a mocking attitude and revealed a severe lack of respect for his father and for God. Ham probably should have covered him and not told his brothers. They walked in backwards to cover him and covered their eyes so they could not see him thus respecting him. Respect in this manner was a big deal in those times....