Note 8 to "Deep History"

According to the timeline in the Tanakh and the Old Testament, Noah was born in 2990 bce. The Flood was in 2390 bce according to the same source. In the story in Genesis, Noah was the ancestor of all people today, because he and his wife, his sons Shem, Ham and Japheth and their wives, survived the flood. It tells how God instructed Noah to build an ark, because there would be a great flood that would destroy all life. This was because a great injustice and disbelief among the people arose and God repented that he had had made humankind. Of every clean animal Noah took seven males and females - and of every unclean species one male and a female.
When the construction of the ark was completed, Noah, his wife, his sons and their wives went on board, and God closed the door of the ark. Then began the forty days and forty nights rain - there was a great flood and very heavy rain destroyed everything. Everything that lived perished except Noah and his family, and the animals with them in the ark. Hundred and fifty days the earth was covered by water. Then the water began to subside and the ark came stuck to Mount Ararat. The identification of Ararat with Mount Ağri Daği in Turkey dates from the Middle Ages. According to another tradition, Noah stranded on the same mountain on the border between Turkey and Armenia, though it can be one of the other mountains in the Ararat Mountains, like Mount Cudi Dagh. After forty days Noah sent a raven out to explore the area, but it continued to fly until the earth was dry. Then he let loose a dove. The dove returned because it could not find a place to settle down. After seven days Noah let the dove loose again. By evening it came back but this time with a young olive leaf in its beak. So Noah knew that the water had already quite reduced. Another seven days later, he send the dove for the third time and this time it did not come back.
After leaving the ark Noah brought an offering to God. God promised Noah that He would not destroy the earth and all that lived on it, again by water, and made a covenant with him. As a sign of God's covenant with Noah the rainbow would now appear. God gave Noah his command to be fruitful and to repopulate the earth. Of the three sons of Noah, all humans are descended. Shem, the Semites, Jews and Arabs, descended from Ham, the Chamieten, the people in Africa and in Canaan and Japheth of the Japhetites, the people of Europe. Noah after the flood became a vintner. Of the first vintage he drank too much and he got into a drunken state, lying naked in his tent. His son Ham discovered this and told Shem and Japheth so that they would come to see their father naked. But they covered, without looking, respectful Noah's nakedness with a mantle. This led Ham and his descendants to be cursed by Noah and he blessed Shem and Japheth.

Tanakh / Old Testament

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