I didn't publish much here on the blog today because my entire day was taken up with the literary analysis of Genesis 9:1-17. This is work that was due at 6PM tonight for my Old Testament I seminary class. I must admit that I'm not pleased with the amount of time I have to invest into this class. The time and effort necessary to plant a new church sucks all the available study time away from my seminary course. And it's a real shame too because I'm learning so much from this class and from my excellent teacher, Dr. Dan Hawk.
As with the rest of my life, I am putting my work up here on the blog. If you would like to know the significant things I learned today about the literary nature of God's covenant with Noah after the great flood, read on!
The pericope of Genesis 9:1-17 proclaims the blessing of God upon Noah. The purpose of this brief paper is to demonstrate how the literary form and context of this passage support the message of God’s blessing. The placement of this section within its larger context, the repetition of key phrases, the two smaller sections within the passage supporting the key idea, the use of broad inclusive words such as “all” and “everything,” the different parties with whom God phrases His covenant, the use of divine speech, and the parallel and inclusio structure of the covenant itself all emphasize the message of God in 9:1: “God blessed Noah.”
Genesis 9:1-17 is a part of the larger narrative that begins with Genesis 6:1 and concludes with Genesis 9:29. While the story of Noah doesn’t begin until 6:9, and thus many commentators begin their outlines also at verse 9, it is the opinion of this exegete that 6:1-8 provides the preface to the story of Noah, with the key verse being verse 8: “But Noah found favor in the sight of the LORD.” The story which follows concludes with the passage under consideration, 9:1-17. The remainder of chapter 9 provides a postscript to the main story in the same way that the first 8 verses of chapter 6 provide the preface. The preface sets up the salvation of mankind and the earth because Noah found favor with God. Noah’s favor was rooted in his righteousness. The postscript drives home the unilateral nature of God’s covenant established in 9:1-17 as Noah is portrayed in a much less righteous way in the verses that follow.
The larger narrative of Genesis 6:9 through Genesis 9:17, supports the key verse of 6:8: “But Noah found favor in the sight of the LORD.” Through the rising and falling action of the flood narrative, the reader is reminded of God’s favor for Noah. From 6:9 the story crescendos to its peak in 8:1, “God remembered Noah,” and then declines into the resolution of the story in the passage being considered here, the first 17 verses of chapter 9. From the beginning (Noah found favor in God’s sight) through the peak (God remembered Noah), to its conclusion (God blessed Noah), the reader hears the blessing of Noah repeated by the narrator.
Also prior to the pericope under consideration is the repetition of the phrase, “Be fruitful and multiply.” The reader first encounters this phrase in Genesis chapter 1 during the creation narrative, where the phrase is repeated both in verse 22 and again in verse 28. As was the case in chapter one, this phrase is repeated twice in chapter nine, in verse one and again in verse seven. Such a key repetition is a cue to the reader that the world is being restored to God’s original plan of blessing and filling. The fact that it is repeated in chapter nine frames the first divine speech given in this passage (the fourth divine speech communicated to Noah in the larger story). To be fruitful and multiply not only frames God’s speech, but also contrasts His first speech to Noah in Genesis 6:13 when God said, “I have determined to make an end to all flesh.” The language of violence and destruction at the beginning is replaced with the language of blessing and filling in the conclusion.
The conclusion of the flood story, in this interpreter’s thinking, would begin with Genesis 8:20 and move through Genesis 9:17. Without being slavish to the artificial chapters and verses, the conclusion story is set apart by the word, “Then,” at the beginning of 8:20. Noah builds an altar to the Lord, just as he had built the ark. God’s reflective speech to Himself at the end of chapter 8 is communicated openly to Noah at the beginning of chapter 9. While the conjunction “and” is not used within the NRSV, it is used in other English translations including ASV, ESV, and the NASB. The use of the conjunction, “and,” provides more of a connecting thought with what has gone before. So God thinks to Himself that He will never again curse the ground because of humankind (8:20-22) AND blesses Noah and his sons (9:1-17).
Within the assigned passage of 9:1-17 the reader finds two subsections, which both support the central theme of God’s blessing to Noah in Genesis 9:1. The first is 9:2-7 and the second is 9:8-17. The first section of this pericope provides for the authority of mankind over all other things, reminiscent of the instruction given by God in Genesis 1:28 at the conclusion of the first creation story. The poetic structure of verse 9:6 with its chiastic repetition and reversal of “sheds,” “blood,” and “human,” reasserts the inimitable standing of humankind and why human life is particularly protected. This section may be considered as an inclusio because it is framed at the beginning and at the end with “be fruitful and multiply,” reemphasizing Noah’s blessing.
The second smaller subsection of Genesis 9:8-17 continues Noah’s blessing with the unilateral covenant given by God. This section is structured with parallelism and an inclusio:
The use of the parallelism emphasizes God’s unilateral covenant with all living creatures.
Another literary device that emphasizes God’s inclusiveness of His covenant is the repeated use of the words “all,” (7x) “every,” (8x) and “everything” (2x). The covenant may be made with Noah, but it’s much more all encompassing than Noah. It involves all flesh, every animal, every bird, every moving thing, all future generations, and every living creature. In addition the covenant itself is for a term of time known as “everlasting.”
Finally, the form of the covenant phrase always uses the words “my covenant,” identifying the covenant as God’s covenant. But the coupling party with God varies throughout the narrative, always growing more inclusive with each description. His covenant is established “with you,” meaning to Noah and his sons (verse 8) as well as with “your descendents after you.” Verse ten expands the parties to “every living creature” with them including “the birds, the domestic animals and every animal of the earth with them on the ark.” In verse 15 the covenant is between God “and the earth.” By verse 16 the covenant expands to being between God “and every living creature of all flesh.” The flood story and the covenant in its conclusion is more about God than it is about Noah.
The blessing of Noah was a blessing not only for Noah but for all life that would follow. The blessing covenant was not contingent upon man’s righteousness, as was so clearly made plain by Noah’s own failings in the passage immediately following, but was dependent wholly upon God unilateral decision and promise. The structure of larger context surrounding 9:1-17, the supporting literary forms of parallelism and inclusio within the passage, as well as the repeated use of all inclusive wording demonstrate the greatness of God’s blessing to Noah.
