(Read Genesis 7 here.)
In Chapter 6, God gave Noah a lot of work to do. He told Noah to build an ark, and to gather all the animals and food that he could. At the end of the chapter, it says Noah did all that God commanded him to do.
This brings us to Chapter 7. God tells Noah to get into the ark he has built. He is to take his entire household (his wife, his three sons, and their wives), and a host of animals: seven pairs of every "clean" animal, and one pair of the animals that are not clean.
- Which animals were considered clean? This is the first mention of such distinctions between animals.
Seven pairs of each type of bird were also to be brought onto the boat.
Then God says that in seven days, it's going to start raining, and it will rain for forty days and forty nights. So Noah has one week to get everything loaded into the ark.
It says that Noah was 600 years old when the flood came. Interestingly, Verse 11 gives a very specific date for the beginning of the flood: it was the 600th year of Noah's life, and the 17th day of the second month of the year.
- Why is such a specific date given?
On the very same day, all the humans and animals were in the ark, and it seems that God himself shut the door for them (Verse 16 says "the Lord shut him in").
Next we find out that as the waters rose, the ark floated up, and eventually the waters covered the mountains. Everything that was alive on the earth died.
- What about the fish that were in the seas? I assume they were OK.
The rain continued for 40 days and 40 nights, and when it stopped, the waters stayed high for another 150 days.
(Read Genesis 5 and 6 here.)
Chapter 5 is essentially genealogy. We find that Adam had lived for 130 years when he fathered his third child, Seth. He lived for 800 more years and had other sons and daughters. All of Adam's descendants lived for centuries, but it seems that they all were what we would consider old today when they had their first children (at least, according to this). It could be that they had other children, but the noteworthy ones came when they were 60 years old or older.
- The youngest fathers I can find in this chapter are Mahalalel and Enoch, who were each 65 when they fathered Jared and Methuselah, respectively.
Enoch only lived 365 years, though: it says God "took him." Apparently they had a very good relationship.
Eventually, Noah is born, and at the ripe old age of 500, he has three sons.
Chapter 6 has an interesting beginning: it says "the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive." This is the first mention of these "sons of God," and it seems that they are different from the man that God created. These sons of God took some of the daughters of men as their wives.
- Did God have children of his own? What kind of beings are/were they? Are they like the Immortals from "The Highlander" or something?
Next, God decides that mankind's days will be 120 years; I assume there won't be any more men living for 900 years like the descendants of Adam in Chapter 5.
- Did God decide this because his sons were taking wives from among the humans he created?
Something called Nephilim ("giants," according to the footnotes) were on the earth in those days. This is sort of a random statement. I'd like to know more about these giants.
The daughters of men bore the children of the sons of God, and apparently they were special: it says "these were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown." Interestingly, nothing more is said about these "men of renown." I would like to know more about them, too.
Now we find out about Noah. He is a righteous man, but the rest of the earth is corrupt and full of violence. God decides to "make an end of all flesh," and says he will "destroy them with the earth."
He tells Noah to make an ark of gopher wood.
- What sort of wood is gopher wood? I have never heard of a gopher tree. The footnotes say it is "an unknown kind of tree."
God gives Noah explicit directions on the size of the ark, and how he should build it. Then he tells Noah what he (God) plans to do: he will bring a flood that will kill everything on the earth. But Noah and his entire family (his wife, his sons, and their wives) will be safe and dry aboard this enormous ark. Noah is also instructed to bring one male and one female of every living thing onto the ark, to keep them alive. They are also to take every kind of food that is eaten, to feed the humans and the animals alike.
This is a pretty big task--it's nearly unbelievable. How is he supposed to find two of every living creature on the earth?! There's no way he could get all of them. Maybe animals were a lot more cooperative in those times.
