Noah

Noah’s story occupies Genesis 5–9. He is the tenth in the line from Adam through Seth, born to Lamech five generations after Enoch. The text says simply that he “found favour in the eyes of the LORD” (Gen.6.8) and “walked with God” (Gen.6.9) at a time when the earth was filled with violence. Warned of the coming flood, he built an ark roughly 300 by 50 by 30 cubits (about 137 by 23 by 14 metres) of “gopher wood,” in three decks, sealed with bitumen. The flood narrative gives a careful chronology: forty days of rain, 150 days of prevailing waters, and a total of about a year and ten days from boarding to disembarking on the mountains of Ararat in eastern Anatolia. After the flood Noah built an altar, offered sacrifices, and received the covenant of the rainbow — the first universal covenant in scripture, made with “every living creature.” Genesis 9 records his subsequent vineyard and the curse on Canaan. He lived 950 years according to the genealogy (Gen.9.29).