Noah

Noah (rendered Noe in some translations) is the man in Genesis through whom God preserves a remnant of humanity and animal life through the flood, and from whom human life begins again afterward.

The text says Noah was “a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time” and that he “walked with God” (Genesis 6:9). God announces to him that the earth is filled with violence and that he will bring an end to all flesh (Genesis 6:13), then tells him to come into the ship with all his household because God has seen his righteousness “in this generation” (Genesis 7:1). The Hebrew word for that vessel (tebah) is translated “ark” in many English versions and “ship” in others. After the flood God says in his heart that he will not again curse the ground for man’s sake, though the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth, and will never again strike every living thing as he has done (Genesis 8:21). He then blesses Noah and his sons with the creation charge, “Be fruitful, multiply, and replenish the earth” (Genesis 9:1), so that Genesis presents Noah as a second beginning for humanity.

Later Scripture treats him as a fixed reference point. Ezekiel names Noah alongside Daniel and Job as three righteous men who “would deliver only their own souls by their righteousness” and not their sons or daughters (Ezekiel 14:14, 20). Isaiah 54:9 appeals to God’s sworn oath concerning “the waters of Noah” as the measure of his commitment not to be angry with his people again. In the Gospels Jesus compares the days of the Son of Man to “the days of Noah” (Luke 17:26). Hebrews 11:7 says that by faith Noah, warned about things not yet seen, “moved with godly fear, prepared a ship for the saving of his house,” condemned the world, and became “heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.” First Peter 3:20 recalls God’s patience while the ship was being built and the eight souls saved through water, and 2 Peter 2:5 calls Noah “a preacher of righteousness,” preserved with seven others when the flood came on the world of the ungodly.

Christian traditions differ on how to weigh these texts. In Reformed readings Noah’s standing rests on grace received by faith, following Hebrews 11:7; in Catholic and Orthodox readings he is also held up as a righteous man whose obedience cooperates with grace, following the description in Genesis 6:9 and 7:1. Many traditions, especially Lutheran, Catholic, and Orthodox, read the waters of 1 Peter 3:20 as a figure of baptism (the passage itself draws that line in 1 Peter 3:21), while others read the emphasis as salvation through judgment and are cautious about making it a statement about baptismal regeneration. Interpreters also disagree about the flood’s extent, some reading it as a global cataclysm and others as a real but regional event in the ancient Near East; the text’s stated concern is the righteousness of God, the wickedness of humanity, and the preservation of a remnant.

AI-generated reference entry, grounded in the passages where this term appears — history and Scripture stated as such, interpretation labeled as interpretation. Not a substitute for the text itself.