Noah's Religion - Parshat Noach

After the lapse of a long time the Glorified and Awesome Name was forgotten to be mentioned by the mouth of all substance and blotted out from their consciousness, so that they gave God no recognition, as a consequence whereof all the men of the earth as well as women and little children knew not save the image of wood and stone, the stony temple wherein they were brought up from their infancy to bow down to it, to worship it and to swear by its name. As for their wise men, for example, their priests and their like, they supposed that there was no God save the stars and planets for whose sake, and in whose likeness, those images were made; but the Rock of Ages not a man was there to recognize God or know God, save some individuals in the whole world, for example, Enoch, Metushelah, Noah, Shem, and Ever. And, on this path the world continued its course of circuity until the birth of the firmest pillar of the world, Abraham our father.

(9) This is the line of Noah —Noah was a pure and righteous man in his generation, and Noah walked with God.

(1) When Avram was ninety-nine years old, the Eternal appeared to Avram and said to him, “I am El Shaddai. Walk before me and be pure. (2) I will establish My covenant between Me and you, and I will make you exceedingly numerous.”

(21) When Enoch had lived 65 years, he begot Methuselah. (22) After the birth of Methuselah, Enoch walked with God 300 years; and he begot sons and daughters. (23) All the days of Enoch came to 365 years. (24) Enoch walked with God; then he was no more, for God took him.

(8) They heard the sound of the Eternal God walking through the garden at the breezy time of day; and Adam and his wife hid from the Eternal God among the trees of the garden.

(18) So Noah came out, together with his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives. (19) Every animal, every creeping thing, and every bird, everything that stirs on earth came out of the ark by families. (20) Then Noah built an altar to the Eternal and, taking of every pure animal and of every pure bird, he offered burnt offerings on the altar. (21) The Eternal smelled the pleasing odor, and the Eternal spoke in Its heart: “Never again will I doom the earth because of humanity, since the devisings of the human mind are evil from its youth; nor will I ever again destroy every living being, as I have done.

(1) God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth. (2) The fear and the dread of you shall be upon all the beasts of the earth and upon all the birds of the sky—everything with which the earth is astir—and upon all the fish of the sea; they are given into your hand. (3) Every creature that lives shall be yours to eat; as with the green grasses, I give you all these. (4) You must not, however, eat flesh with its life-blood in it. (5) But for your own life-blood I will require a reckoning: I will require it of every beast; of humans, too, will I require a reckoning for human life, of every man for that of his fellow human! (6) Whoever sheds the blood of another human,
By human hands shall his blood be shed;
For in God's image did God make the human being. (7) Be fertile, then, and increase; abound on the earth and increase on it.”

(8) And God said to Noah and to his sons with him, (9) “I now establish My covenant with you and your offspring to come, (10) and with every living thing that is with you—birds, cattle, and every wild beast as well—all that have come out of the ark, every living thing on earth. (11) I will maintain My covenant with you: 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.” (12) God further said, “This is the sign of the covenant that I set for the between Me and you, and every living creature with you, for all ages to come. (13) I have set My bow in the clouds, and it shall serve as a sign of the covenant between Me and the earth. (14) When I bring clouds over the earth, and the bow appears in the clouds, (15) I will remember My covenant between Me and you and every living creature among all flesh, so that the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. (16) When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures, all flesh that is on earth. (17) That,” God said to Noah, “shall be the sign of the covenant that I have established between Me and all flesh that is on earth.”