Daily Question Jan 21

Leon Kass is a secular (as in not-religious) Jewish medical doctor from Chicago. His book, The Beginning of Wisdom, is a careful literary reflection about this first book of the Bible. Drawing on what Kass has to say, please say a few words about how the narrative about Noah furthers the concerns present in the account of the first sin in Genesis 3. He doesn’t make the connection explicitly, but it is common knowledge that the so-called “primeval history” of Genesis 1-11 contains a series of narratives that are all variations on a theme. Each informs and shapes our reading of the other. Knowing that to be the case, I expect that what you read in Kass will enrich what we spoke about on Thursday.

In order for me to discuss how the narrative about Noah furthers the concerns present in the account of first sin in Genesis 3, it’s first necessary for me to identify what exactly these concerns are. As we read in the first creation account of Genesis 1, God created the universe in its perfect state, “how it ought to be”, and notably, created man in his image and likeness which tasked mankind with the god-like duties of creating and ordering things. However, in the account of Genesis 2-3, specifically when Adam & Eve ate of the forbidden Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, they explicitly disobeyed God (original sin) and began making subjective moral judgments about things while simultaneously becoming bound to sin and mortality, and were cast out of the Garden of Eden, separated from God. This is the primary concern, then, raised in Genesis 3 – mankind is separated from God and that union is broken. In many ways, the rest of the overarching narrative of the Bible plays out by demonstrating this brokenness, and progressing toward an eventual reunification of this divine union. This concern is clearly present in the narrative about Noah, as it states “The LORD saw how great was man’s wickedness on earth, and how every plan devised by his mind was nothing but evil all the time. And the LORD regretted that He had made man on earth, and His heart was saddened” (Gen. 6:5-6). This establishes the perpetual brokenness and wickedness that characterized the human condition ten long generations after the day of Adam. Evidently, the initial concern is still present as ever. When Noah finds favor in the eyes of God prior to the flood, I find striking parallels between this and the narrative of the Gospel. God sees an “earth filled with lawlessness,” but mercifully chooses people to save (Noah and his family along with the animals) yet commands Noah to do certain things in order to do this. Noah is essentially serving God’s kingdom. This shows God’s wrath, sovereignty and authority yet also his mercy and love, which are all important themes that continue throughout the Bible. After the flood, God establishes a covenant with Noah – “never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth” (Gen 9:11). Also interestingly, God commands Noah and his family the same things that were commanded of man in Genesis 1, to be fruitful and multiply and he grants dominion to man over the animals and plants of the earth. To me, this seems to signify something of a fresh start for man, but not fully, as people are still born into sin and bound to their sinful nature – the concern of brokenness and separation from God still persists.