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  • Essay / The Story of Noah in the Bible

    The Bible builds its literary foundations on the themes of knowledge and sin, two topoi which are reflected again and again in various parables, allegories and tales found in this sacred text. Genesis 9:20-27 illustrates the synthesis of these ideas, with the relatively short account of Noah's drunkenness revealing a deep exploration of underlying biblical themes. And yet, while being a perfectly self-contained passage, the story of Noah incorporates other parts of Genesis into its ideological framework, creating a multi-layered structure that is both self-contained and indebted to its larger context. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay The structure of the passage and its concepts explore the biblical theme of knowledge, making the story of Noah a literal meditation on the idea, within a humanistic context. setting. The distinction that Noah is a “man of the earth” is important in this context, because Adam and Eve also dealt with the theme of Knowledge, but in a more supernatural and divine environment (9:20). Thus, the story of Noah is not intended as an etiological narrative, but rather as a moral allegory intended to make the concept of Knowledge more intimately understandable to the average person of faith. Noah's intoxication from his wine leads him to remain "uncovered in his tent", a state of being that recalls Edenic associations with nudity and knowledge, reaffirming the connection between this passage and its place in Genesis (9:22). The climax of the scene comes when Ham ³[sees] his father's nakedness and [tells] his two brothers outside² (9:23). This moment, the moment when Ham becomes aware of his father's naked figure, is crucial to understanding the meaning of this passage. It not only illustrates the broader concept of Knowledge, but also describes the societal rules and norms regarding the interaction between father and son. The word "seen" in the passage alone carries several layers of meaning, its use being an intrinsic allusion to the moment when Adam and Eve ate from the tree of knowledge and saw each other naked for the first time. So this word and its application reveals to us that nudity is a shameful thing, and so Ham's knowledge of his father's nudity is, in fact, a horrible thing, for the relationship between father and son should be one of respect and not shame. The actions of Shem and Japheth also tell us that this event is shameful: to clothe their father, they "[take] a garment, place it on both their shoulders, and [walk] backwards and [cover] the nakedness of their father ; their faces [are] turned away, and they [do not] see the nakedness of their father² (9:23). This blatant avoidance of knowledge of nudity illustrates to the reader how to act in such a situation, as Noah's ultimate reaction to his sons reveals the merit of Shem and Japheth's actions? Noah grants them good fortune, while Canaan, Ham's son, is cursed to slavery. This punishment of the son reflects the generational trends of the Bible and once again reveals the relationship with Adam and Eve and the cursed nature of their offspring, namely humanity. Sin is also an extremely important aspect of this passage, incorporated into the theme of Knowledge while being independent of it, in that sin is a later addition to Genesis in terms of thematic vocabulary. The idea of ​​sin is a Christian element of the Bible, but one cannot read it as a piece of literature without understanding the echoes of its fundamental effect on one's literary interpretation. The use of words such as "cursed" reinforces the mental association with sin, because our.