Sons of God and daughters of men
1 When people began to increase on the earth and daughters were born to them,
2 the sons of God saw that men’s daugh ters were very beautiful, so they married those they chose.
3 Yahweh then said, “My spirit will not remain in man forever, for he is flesh. His span of life will be one hundred and twenty years.”
4 At that time there were giants on the earth, and afterwards as well, when the sons of God went to the daughters of men and had children by them. These were the heroes of old, men of renown.
The flood
5 Yahweh saw how great was the wickedness of man on the earth and that evil was always the only thought of his heart.
6 Yahweh regretted having created man on the earth and his heart grieved.
7 He said, “I will destroy man whom I created and blot him out from the face of the earth, as well as the beasts, creeping creatures and birds, for I am sorry I made them
8 But Noah was pleasing to God.
9 This is the story of Noah. Noah was a just man, blameless among the people of his time, a man who walked with God.
10 Noah became the father of three sons: Shem, Ham and Ja pheth.
11 The earth became corrupt in God’s sight and was full of violence.
12 God saw the earth and saw it was corrupt, for corrupt, indeed, was the way of all mortals.
13 Yahweh said to Noah, “I have in mind to destroy all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. This is why I will destroy them and with them the earth.
14 As for you, build an ark of cypress wood. You will make rooms in the ark and coat it with pitch inside and outside.
15 This is the way you will do it: the length of the ark, four hundred and fifty feet; the width, seventy-five feet; the height, forty-five feet.
16 You will put a roof on the ark and finish it within eighteen inches from the top. Put a door in the side of the ark and have lower, middle and upper decks.
17 I am about to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy the earth, to destroy all life under the heavens, every creature that has the breath of life. Everything on earth will perish,
18 but I will establish my covenant with you. You shall come into the ark, you, your wife, your sons and your sons’ wives with you.
19 You shall bring into the ark two of every kind of living thing, male and female, to keep them alive with you.
20 Of the birds, the animals and all creeping things on the ground, according to their kind, two of ev ery sort shall come in to be kept alive with you.
21 Take with you every sort of food that is eaten. Make a store of it and it will be food for you and them.”
22 And Noah did all as God had commanded him.
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Comments Genesis, Chapter 6
• 6.1 Here we have a popular belief of the Israelites. In the Hebrew language, sons of God means “divine beings.” At the beginning they were gods, but in Israel they became heavenly servants of God. In these first pages of the Bible we find the tradition of a testing of the celestial beings at the beginning of the world, with the fall of many among them (Mt 25:41; Rev 12:4; 12:7).
We must remember that, while we believe that humanity improves and progresses, ancient peo ple thought that their ancestors were stronger and better formed than themselves. When they spoke of the pride of a person who intends to compete with God, they thought that it had been their an cestors’ sin. To us this arrogance seems more characteristic of our contemporaries, who are conceited over technological development. The lesson, however, is clear: a superman—even if he believes himself to be the ruler of heaven—does not know the ways of God.
• 5. Today, especially, we may feel uneasy when we see an increase of certain evils, be it drugs, or the total absence of moral formation in a great number of young people to whom their elders have taught nothing other than the enjoyment of life. History shows that crises happen at times to purify through destruction and elimination. Have no fear. A remnant will always escape the storm and build anew. But whole sections of our culture that are deeply tainted will collapse so that the self-sufficiency stamped in our humanism may disappear: we must recognize our need for a savior.
According to Noah’s story, this is God’s intention with the Flood, except that God does not destroy everything. He saves Noah, the just one, so that a holy race may spring from him. Throughout sacred history God will bring the worst disasters on his unfaithful people, but he will always preserve a Remnant (Is 4:2-6; 6:13).
This is how God chooses Noah from all the sons of Adam; later he will choose Abraham from among Noah’s descendants; then David from Abraham’s sons and, finally, one of Da vid’s sons, Christ, the representative and Sa vior of all humanity. The Bible brings out this contrast: while the sin present in our roots ex tends to all people and frustrates the progress of civilization, God focuses all his attention on a single people, a single family, and a single man who will save everyone (Rom 5).
Like Noah, the believer is a person who willingly enters into God’s plans and cooperates with him in the salvation of the world. It is not enough to say: “I have my faith.” Will this faith of mine lead me to sacrifice myself to change the world? Unlike the negligent, the lazy and the corrupt, Noah, the man of faith, begins to work and does not doubt or become discouraged while building his ridiculous and apparently useless boat.
The time comes when God eliminates the unprepared, those who preferred to enjoy life now rather than work for a future God pointed out to them (Mic 3:9-12; Zep 2:1-3; Mt 24:38).
Noah’s story has its source in very old leg-ends. It was put in writing for the first time in the days of King Solomon. At a much later date the Jewish priests added the paragraphs indicated in the text by smaller italics.
The story of the flood is recalled in several places in the New Testament (see 1 P 3:20 and 2 P 2:5). This story teaches us that God wants to renew our sinful world. For that to be accomplished, we need a process of purification and we need to look at not only our evil habits but the very roots of our culture. To begin with, we must let go of our pride and admit that we need a Savior.
In some way, the Church is this Ark which we enter through faith and baptism and where we are welcomed by Christ, the new Noah. It would ob viously be wrong to lock ourselves in the Church as in a refuge of the saved and from there to condemn everything taking place in the world, forgetting that our mission is to save the world (Jn 3:17). Yet, we must not forget that the Church is the only hope of the world and nothing can enter the Kingdom without passing through purifying and destroying waters.
Never again will I curse the earth because of man. With these words the Bible assures us that human errors and crimes cannot lead to chaos. Not only will the sun give its warmth and the earth its bread, but in every century, humankind will find a solution to its problems.