by Isaac Asimov
And Noah was five hundred years old: and Noah begat Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God. And Noah begat three sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth.
The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.
And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me: for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.
Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch. And this is the fashion which thou shalt make it of: The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits. A window shalt thou make to the ark, and in a cubit shalt thou finish it above; and the door of the ark shalt thou set in the side thereof; with lower, second, and third stories shalt thou make it.
And behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life, from under heaven; and every thing that is in the earth shall die. But with thee will I establish my covenant; and thou shalt come into the ark, thou, and thy sons, and thy wife, and thy sons’ wives with thee.
And of every living thing of all flesh, two of every sort shalt thou bring into the ark, to keep them alive with thee; they shall be male and female. Of fowls after their kind, and of cattle after their kind, of every creeping thing of the earth after his kind, two of every sort shall come unto thee, to keep them alive. And take thou unto thee of all food that is eaten, and thou shalt gather it to thee; and it shall be for food for thee, and for them.
Thus did Noah; according to all that God commanded him, so did he. And Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters was upon the earth.
In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.
In the selfsame day entered Noah, and Shem, and Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah’s wife, and the three wives of his sons with them, into the ark; they, and every beast after his kind, and all the cattle after their kind, and every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind, and every fowl after his kind, every bird of every sort. And they went in unto Noah into the ark, two and two of all flesh, wherein is the breath of life. And they that went in, went in male and female of all flesh, as God had commanded him.
And the flood was upon the earth; and the waters prevailed and were increased greatly upon the earth; and the ark went upon the face of the waters. And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth; and all the high hills, that were under the whole heaven, were covered. Fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail; and the mountains were covered. And all flesh died that moved upon the earth, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of beast, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth, and every man.
And the waters prevailed upon the earth an hundred and fifty days.
And God remembered Noah, and every living thing, and all the cattle that was with him in the ark: and God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters assuaged; the fountains also of the deep and the windows of heaven were stopped, and after the end of the hundred and fifty days the waters were abated. And the ark rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, upon the mountains of Ararat. And the waters decreased continually until the tenth month: in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, were the tops of the mountains seen.
And it came to pass in the six hundredth and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried up from off the earth; and in the second month, on the seven and twentieth day of the month, was the earth dried.
And God spake unto Noah, saying, Go forth of the ark, thou, and thy wife, and thy sons, and thy sons’ wives with thee. Bring forth with thee every living thing that is with thee, of all flesh, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth; that they may breed abundantly in the earth, and be fruitful, and multiply upon the earth. And Noah went forth, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons’ wives with him: every beast, every creeping thing, and every fowl, and whatsoever creepeth upon the earth, after their kinds, went forth out of the ark.
And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth. And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air, upon all that moveth upon the earth, and upon all the fishes of the sea; into your hand are they delivered. Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things. But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat.
And surely your blood of your lives will I require; at the hand of every beast will I require it, and at the hand of man; at the hand of every man’s brother will I require the life of man. Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man. And you, be ye fruitful, and multiply; bring forth abundantly in the earth, and multiply therein.
And God spake unto Noah, and to his sons with him, saying, And I, behold, I establish my covenant with you, and with your seed after you; and with every living creature that is with you, of the fowl, of the cattle, and of every beast of the earth with you; from all that go out of the ark, to every beast of the earth. And I will establish my covenant with you; neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood; neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth.
And God said, This is the token of the covenant which I make between men and you and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations: I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth. And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud: And I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh. And the bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth.
And God said unto Noah, This is the token of the covenant, which I have established between me and all flesh that is upon the earth.
And Noah lived after the flood three hundred and fifty years. And all the days of Noah were nine hundred and fifty years: and he died.
Now these are the generations of the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth: and unto them were sons born after the flood. The sons of Japheth; Gomer, and Magog, and Madai, and Javan, and Tubal, and Meshech, and Tiras. And the sons of Gomer; Ashkenaz, and Riphath, and Togarmah. And the sons of Javan: Elishah, and Tarshish, Kittim, and Dodanim. By these were the isles of the Gentiles divided in their lands; every one after his tongue, after their families, in their nations.
And the sons of Ham; Cush, and Mizraim, and Phut, and Canaan. And the sons of Cush; Seba, and Havilah, and Sabtah, and Raamah, and Sabtecha: and the sons of Raamah; Sheba and Dedan. These are the sons of Ham, after their families, after their tongues, in their countries, and in their nations.
The children of Shem; Elam, and Asshur, and Arphaxad, and Lud, and Aram. And the children of Aram; Uz, and Hul, and Gether, and Mash, These are the sons of Shem, after their families, after their tongues, in their lands, after their nations.
These are the families of the sons of Noah, after their generations, in their nations: and by these were the nations divided in the earth after the flood.
These are the generations of Shem: Shem was an hundred years old, and begat Arphaxad two years after the flood: and Shem lived after he begat Arphaxad five hundred years, and begat sons and daughters.
And Arp
haxad lived five and thirty years, and begat Salah; and Arphaxad lived after he begat Salah four hundred and three years, and begat sons and daughters.
And Salah lived thirty years, and begal Eber: and Salah lived after he begat Eber four hundred and three years, and begat sons and daughters.
And Eber lived four and thirty years, and begat Peleg: and Eber lived after he begat Peleg four hundred and thirty years, and begat sons and daughters.
And Peleg lived thirty years, end begat Reu: and Peleg lived after he begat Reu two hundred and nine years, and begat sons and daughters.
And Reu lived two and thirty years, and begat Serug: and Reu lived after he begat Serug two hundred and seven years, and begat sons and daughters.
And Serug lived thirty years, and begat Nahor: and Serug lived after he begat Nahor two hundred years, and begat sons and daughters.
And Nahor lived nine and twenty years, and begat Terah: and Nahor lived after he begat Terah an hundred and nineteen years, and begat sons and daughters.
And Terah lived seventy years, and begat Abram, Nahor and Haran.
Now these are the generations of Terah: Terah begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran begat Lot.
And Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran his son’s son, and Sarai his daughter in law, his son Abram’s wife; and they went forth with them from Ur of the Chaldees, to go into the land of Canaan; and they came unto Haran, and dwelt there. And the days of Terah were two hundred and five years: and Terah died in Haran.
This is the bare bones of a continuous and carefully chronological story from the Creation to Abram. To flesh it out the Biblical editors drew upon the J-document to include:
(1) An independent account of the creation
(2) The tale of Adam and Eve and the Serpent
(3) The tale of Cain and Abel, and of Cain’s descendants
(4) Examples of wickedness before the Flood
(5) An independent account of the Flood
(6) The tale of Noah and Ham
(7) A short account of Nimrod
(8) The tale of the Tower of Babel
Index
NOTE: Items are numbered according to the notations and not according to the pages.
Abyssinia, 85
Achilles, 196
Adam, 95
Aeneas, 196
Aepyornis, 195
Agade, 312
Ahriman, 17
Ahura-mazda, 17
Akkadians, 74, 312, 315
Alpini, Prospero, 45
Amenhotep IV, 50
Amorites, 310, 315, 328
Amphibia, 48
Anesthesia, 99
Angels, 50, 59
Animals, 27
speaking, 109
Antediluvian, 190
Apes, 52, 53
Arabia, 306
Arameans, 348
Ararat, 243
Aristotle, 210
Ark, 204, 206, 207
Arka, 331
Arvad, 333
Ashkenazim, 293
Asshur, 318
Assyria, intro, 309, 315, 316, 318, 345
Astrology, 31
Atlas, 21
Authority, 4
Authorized Version, 1
Avalon, 135
Babylon, 310, 368
Babylonians, 3, 62
Baluchitherium, 195
Bats, 40
Bdellium, 83
Beginnings, 4
Big bang, 16, 21, 60
Birds, 40
Bitumen, 359
Black slavery, 281
Blessing, 43, 44
Blood, 147, 261
Blood feud, 262
Bluebeard, 90
Blue-green algae, 39
Brass, 160
Breath, 261
Bricks, 358
Bronze, 160
Calah, 318, 320
Calendar, 62
Canaan, 305, 336, 337, 338, 339, 340
Carnivorousness, 260
Cassiodorus, 177
Castration, 280
Cattle, 47
Chaldeans, intro, 380
Chaos, 9, 12, 16, 17, 198, 199, 237, 238, 239
Chapters, Biblical, 3, 58
Cherubim, 133, 134
Childbirth, 122
Chlorophyll, 27
Chromosomes, 100
Chronology, Biblical, 4
Cimmerians, 286, 293
Cities, 153, 154, 360
Clay, 358
Clean beasts, 216, 217
Cloning, 101
Clothing, 104, 129
Copper, 160
Cosmic egg, 6, 16
Cosmos, 9, 17
Covenant, 209, 263, 264, 265, 268
Creation-tales, 64
Crimea, 286
Crocodile, 41
Culture heroes, 159
Cyprus, 295, 207
Dan, 340
Dante, 135
Dardania, 298
Darkness, 10, 17
Day, 18, 19, 20
Dead Sea, 339
Death, 75, 122
Decay, 126
Deep, 12
Diacritical marks, 65
Dinosaurs, 195
Dionysus, 275
Domesticated animals, 47
Dove of peace, 249
Dragon, 12, 112, 118
Dualism, 17
Earth, 60
age of, 4, 37
duration of, 257
formation of, 26
shape of, 8
Eden, 72
Egypt, 303, 321, 322, 323
Elam, 344
Elysian Fields, 135
Enkidu, 113
Entropy, 16, 61
Ethiopia, 85
Etruscans, 292
Euphrates River, 77, 78, 79, 85, 86, 88
Everest, Mt., 233
Evidence, 4
Evolution, 28, 39, 41, 51, 52, 53, 60
Farming, 124, 141, 144, 146, 153
Firmament, 21, 23, 24
Flood, 223, 232, 233, 254
Folk-etymology, 68, 128, 138, 166
Food gathering, 89
Forty, 222
Fruit, forbidden, 114
Galaxy, 9
Garden of Eden, 89, 135
Gaza, 338
Genealogy. 188
Genesis, 2
Gentiles, 299
Gerar, 337
Giants. 195, 196
Gigantopithecus. 195
Gihon, 84
Gilgamesh. 75, 91, 113, 203, 311
God, 5, 6
appearance of, 52
Chaos and, 12
dwelling place of, 25
limitations of, 61, 116, 117, 131, 132, 197, 363, 364
name of. 65
sacrifice and, 256
sons of, 192
Spirit of, 13, 69, 237
worship of, 168
Golden age, 74
Gomorrah. 339
Good and evil. 76
Grape-growing, 273
Greeks. 289
Grey, Thomas. 91
Gyges, 287
Hamath, 335
Hamitic languages, 284
Hammurabi, 310
Havilah, 81
Heaven, 7, 21, 25
Hellen, 289
Helpmeet, 93, 98
Hercules, 21, 196
Herding. 140, 141, 144, 146, 158
Heroes, 195, 196
Hittites 326
Hivites, 330
Hominids, 51, 73
Homo habilis, 51
Homo sapiens. 51, 52 53, 89
Hurrieans, 330
Iapetus. 285
Ice ages, 258
Ikhnaton, 50
Immortality, 75, 91, 122
India, 82
Indo-European languages. 284
Indus River. 82
Insects, 40, 210
Invertebrates, 48
Ion, 289
Iris, 269
Iron, 161
Isocrates, 177
Italics,
Biblical, 11
James I, 1
Japhetic languages, 284
J-document, 65
Jebusites, 327
Jehovah, 65
Jericho, 154
Jerusalem. 327
Kassites. 85, 315
Kenites, 150
King James Bible, 1, 11, 15
Kit ion. 297
Knowledge, danger of, 91, 122
Kosseans, 85
Kronos, 280
Kush, 65
Ladino, 293
Languages, 18, 97, 284, 305, 355, 366
Laws, 150, 262
of nature, 5
Lemaitre, Georges, 16
Leviathan, 41
Libya, 304
Life, 38, 39, 69, 147, 261
multiplication of, 44
Life-span, Biblical, 283, 372, 373, 374, 375, 382
Life-span, human, 176, 177
Light, 15, 16, 17, 29, 30, 32
Lightning, 134
Lord God, 65
LSD, 275
Lugal-zaggisi, 311, 312, 379
Lydia, 287, 347
Male chauvinism, 100, 123, 157, 218
Malthus, Thomas Robert, 44
Mammals, 47, 49
Mammoth, 53
Man, apes and, 52, 53
diet of, 55
evolution of, 51, 52, 53, 73
formation of, 68
Marduk, 12
Medes, 288
Metallurgy, 137, 159
Methuselah, age of, 187
Michelangelo, 52
Midas, 291
Milton, John, 100, 112
Modesty, 104, 115
Monogamy, 103
Moon, 31, 34, 36
Mormons, 299
Moses, 1
Murder, 150, 262
Names, 96, 97, 127
Neanderthal men, 51
Nebuchadnezzar, 368
Neutrinos, 16
Night, 18, 19
Nile River, 85
Nineveh, 316, 317, 320
Ninus, 309
Nomads, 144, 146, 148, 151
Nubia, 85, 302, 303
Nuclear fusion, 16
Ocean, formation of, 66, 67
Odo, 262
Olive trees, 249
Ouranos, 280
Pandora, 90
Papal bulls, 2
Paradise, 74
Patriarchs, 190, 194
P-document, 12
Peoples of the Sea, 323
Perfect numbers, 57
Persian Empire, 17
Persian Gulf, 77
Petroleum, 359
Phases of the Moon, 36