Talk:Noah/Archive001
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[edit] African Noah
There is considerable evidence to support the assertion that Noah was an historical figure. There is a time-honored tradition among the people who live around Lake Chad that the biblical Noah once ruled over this fertile region that bears his name: “Bor-nu” (Country of Noah). The flood of Noah likely occurred during the Guirian Wet Period from about 6000 to 2500 B.C. During this time the water table was high, the earth springy and there were many natural springs. (See the Genesis 2:6 description.) Rivers and lakes flooded surrounding areas. The flooding would have been significant as Lake Chad sits to the northeast and the southern section of Bornu is at the confluence of the Niger, Benue and Osimili Rivers.
The common people of that time used dugouts, but the rulers used reed boats sealed with pitch. In 1998 a fully preserved dugout was excavated from a site in this region of Nigeria. It was buried at a depth of 16 feet under clays and sands whose alternating sequence showed evidence of deposition in standing and flowing water. The dugout is 8000 years old. (Search Dufuna Boat.)
By all appearances, Noah was a wise and prosperous ruler. Genesis 9:20 says that he was “a tiller of the soil and the first to plant the grape vine.” At his birth an oracle was given that “This one shall bring us relief from our work and the toil of our hands.” (Gen. 5:29)
The reference in Genesis 8:4 to Noah’s ark coming to rest on a peak in Ararat reflects a different flood story whose hero was the Mesopotamian chief, Ziusudra. Behind the stories of Ziusudra and Noah stands a developed water mercantilism. It is known that farming developed along the Nile as early as 8000 B.C. and that the river provided a means of transportation of goods. Prehistoric rock paintings in the Sahara show Egyptian boats, and there are written records of journeys by ship to the southern end of the Red Sea in the time of Egypt’s Fourth Dynasty (2613 to 2494 B.C.)
Much as our nation’s commerce was developed initially on the great rivers, the waterways of Africa and the Asiatic Near East were used to market goods and agricultural products. The rulers of the Paleo-Dominion controlled both the means of production and the waterways.
As ruler of the Country of Bornu, Noah controlled the commerce on and around Lake Chad. His son, Ham, probably controlled trade on a section of the Niger River that connects to the Atlantic Ocean. Sheba, a descendent of Ham, established his palace city on the Atlantic coast of what is today Nigeria.
Terah, Abraham’s father, another descendent of Noah, maintained households in Ur to the south and Haran to the north. Both towns were situated on the Euphrates River. This suggests that Terah controlled the commerce on that part of the Euphrates.
Another of Noah’s descendents was Assur (Gen. 10:22) who controlled trade on the Tigris between Assur to the north and Lagash to the south. According to the Assyrian King List there were at least five rulers named Assur. The Assur who was a contemporary and cousin of Terah must have been one of the first to establish power in that region.
Abraham, another descendent of Noah, maintained a household in Hebron to the north and Beersheba to the south. His travels between the two households took him along the “way of Shur” or the river way, although the river was probably navigable only during the wet months. In this more arid region rulers fought to control well and oasis.
The ancient Nile civilization broke into two kingdoms around 3400 B.C. Heri-Hor ruled in Thebes in the Upper Nile and Ne-su-baner-Ded ruled in Tanis on the Nile delta. That the descendents of Noah are related to both dynasties is evident by the appearance of the names Hor, Ded, and Ram. One of Noah’s descendents is named Ded’an, two are named Na’Hor, and many are named Ram: A’Ram (Son of Shem), Zim’Ram (son of Abraham), Ram (Judah’s great grandson), and Am’Ram (Moses’ father). Clearly Noah’s descendents were well connected to the ruling houses of West Central Africa, Egypt and Mesopotamia. The Genesis material points to a vast Paleo-Dominion that extended from the Atlantic coast of modern Nigeria to the Indus River Valley in India. The rulers of this dominion controlled the means of production and the waterways and were related by marriage.
The rulers of the Paleo-Dominion spoke one language although there were different dialects. The Afroasiatic language group has the longest recorded history of any linguistic group. This language family, sometimes referred to as the “Hamito-Semitic” group, is one of 17 language groups in the world. All the languages and peoples mentioned in Genesis 9 -11 belong to this group.
Ancient African languages represent a stage of linguistic development predating the division of the languages of western Asia and Africa into semitic and hamitic branches around 12,000 B.C.
Languages in the Afroasiatic group include: Akkadian, Amharic, Arabic, Aramaic, Assyrian, Babylonian, Berber, Chadic, Ethiopic, Hahm/Jaba, Hausa, Hebrew, Phoenician, Sumerian and Ugaritic. These are called “cognate languages.” Cognate languages share a common ancestor language or origin. The words in these different languages therefore are derived from the same root. Because this is so, linguists are able to compare the languages and draw conclusions about the older “proto” Afroasiatic language spoken between 12,000 and 10,000 B.C. (Alice C. Linsley)
[edit] Untitled section about edits
Details of edits made:
"Historians, however, are agreed that there is no evidence that Noah was a historical figure." reverted/amended to the more accurate "Most modern historians...".
"...which reflects an oral legend tradition older than writing..." amended to "...which they believe reflects an oral legend tradition older than writing...". The very idea that there was a pre-writing age is unproven.
"...the story of Noah's ark closely parallels that of the much earlier Sumerian Utnapishtim, and scores of other ..." had the words "much earlier" removed. Extant copies of those records may predate extant copies of the Biblical records, but it doesn't follow that the stories originated earlier. In fact it was clearly not NPOV as it was, as the following sentence goes on to say (in effect) that some people see this as evidence that the stories all have a common origin, i.e. they all date to the same time.
I didn't change it, but I'm not happy with the term "Biblical fundamentalists" in the sentence "Biblical fundamentalists assert that the story of Noah is a true story...". Fundamentalism although described as being a return to original principles, is acknowledged as being a recent (early 20th Century) phenomenon, yet the belief the story of Noah is true applies to Christianity historically. Whether "Traditional Christians" or "Conservative Christians" are better terms, or something else entirely would be better, I'm not sure. Philip J. Rayment 14:20, 22 Aug 2004 (UTC)
[edit] Poor analysis?
The article reads:
"An interval of one hundred and twenty years elapsed while the ark was being built (6:3), during which Noah tried to convince the people to repent so they could avoid the wrath of God. (Christian interpretations, as seen from Rome in the 2nd century CE, are preserved in the First Epistle of Peter 3:18-20 and the Second Epistle of Peter 2:5)." Peter mentions Noah as "a preacher of righteousness".
and then:
"Later commentaries find two degrees of righteousness, which they demonstrate as a metaphor for a man who is cold: the fully righteous person would set up a fire - that is, help the others."
Did he try to keep the whole thing a secret? Here he was building a "133.5 m by 22.3 m by 13.4 m" something box for forty years and no one knew about it? And in contrast to the tradition he didn't tell anyone why? Because he didn't really care about any other persons moral standards? Or the “men of fame” whipping up violence? - Jerryseinfeld 17:07, 29 Oct 2004 (UTC)
- You're right, and I will try to fix the text. According to Rashi, God did intend for the humungous ark-building project to be noticed and questioned by all the people of the world. And the fact that it took 120 years to build would also give plenty of time for people to travel to Noah, ask him why he was doing it, and receive the answer that a flood was coming soon and they'd better repent of their evil ways. The fact that they didn't, on both counts, shows the depths of depravity to which they'd sunk. The comparison of Noah as a "man in a coat" refers not to the people's lack of interest but to his own. In comparison to Abraham, who, when he found out about the impending destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, actively argued with God to save the cities, even if only 50, 40, 30, 20, or 10 righteous people could be found there (see Genesis 18:23-33), we don't hear about Noah arguing with God. Instead, he goes about his own business for 120 years, building the ark that will save him and his family. Yes, he fulfilled God's will, but he didn't put himself out for others. Yoninah 08:02, 6 December 2005 (UTC)
[edit] The {} sign/s
One or more of the sign/s: {{NPOV}}{{expansion}}{{Cleanup}} placed on this page without any discussion, explanation or reasoning were removed by User:Sam Spade, hopefully pending further discussion. I even agree with Sam here! (The category Category:Bible stories is now up for a vote for deletion at Wikipedia:Categories for deletion#Category:Bible stories) Thank you. IZAK 08:17, 18 Nov 2004 (UTC)
[edit] Plato unclear?
It doesn't really seem clear to me what the "Christian Applications" have to do with Noah and/or why they are Christian applications. Maybe an explanation should be added? Davidfraser 10:21, 7 Feb 2005 (UTC)
- It seems like a preety big copyvio to me. The bellman 10:03, 2005 Mar 6 (UTC)
I removed the entire section, since the material about Plato was all that was there. I looked in the history to see if there was a better version to revert to, but there does not seem to be any that would not remove good material, so I started a new section about Christian interpretations of Noah, which needs to be expanded. Also, I think that Noah's Greek and Mesopotamian parallels should be mentioned in the article, but I'm not sure where. Academic Challenger 23:49, 11 Mar 2005 (UTC)
[edit] Israeli Hebrew
In Israeli Hebrew (what the article calls "Standard Hebrew", I suppose), there is no vav in the name. According to the spelling rules, perhaps there should be, but names are different, and spelling how they are traditionally spelled in the Bible.
[edit] Removing POV external links in body of text
I re-removed the two POV external links in the body of the text. Wikipedia discourages in-body external links, except for citations. In this case, the links are highly POV and come from one confessional standpoint: Fundamentalist Protestant Christianity.
Take the Gopher-wood link.
- The article is on a Fundamentalist, Creationist Protestant site. It is not a piece of reference, but of argument.
- The article puts forward an original idea on an obscure point—that "Gopher wood" was a pre-flood tree. This is the sort of point that ought to be argued in an article on Gopher-wood, so I made a link to one. If Agapetos Angel wants it, put it there.
- If we're going to link to things as reference (as opposed to citation), we should expect high-quality material. I was pretty amused, therefore, to note the article manages to comment on the Greek text without bothering to understand how the Greek alphabet works, giving the Greek word as kuparissov. Mistaking a nu for a v? I got over that after the first class.
If you'd like to revert, kindly post your explanation here. Anyway, it's getting better slowly, right?
Lectiodifficilior 18:42, 15 August 2005 (UTC)
[edit] link removed
I removed the link about the deluge, because this is about the life of Noah, not about the accuracy of the deluge or creationism. Following this link would not really give more information about Noah, so it doesn't belong here.
- OK, I delete it again. Uncommented deletions by anonymous users are generally suspicious, so they are in danger of being reverted without checking.--Ikar.us 19:49, 25 November 2005 (UTC)
For the same reason, I have removed the reference to Walter Brown entirely (and an "Answers in Genesis" link). The link to his book isn't there anymore, creationism is not relevant to this article, and the paragraph was inaccurate (Brown is an engineer, not a scientist, and certainly not a "leading scientist" in any relevant field: the actual "leading scientists" agree that there was no such event in recent history).
