the complexity of Noah and the Ark

[DamianWarS]

The account of Noah and the ark is put together very carefully in a chiastic structure as the following shows:

A Noah: the righteous man (6:9)

B Noah’s sons: Shem, Ham and Japheth (6:10)

C Earth filled with violence and corruption (6:11-12)

D First divine address (1): earth to be destroyed (6:13)

E First divine address (2): Noah to build Ark (6:14-22)

F Second divine address (1): command to enter Ark (7:1-3)

G Second divine address (2): 7-day wait for Flood (7:4-5)

H 7 days waiting for flood (repeated) (7:6-10)

I Beginning of Flood and entry into Ark (7:11-15)

J God shuts the door (7:16b)

K 40 days flood, waters increase (7:17a-18)

L Waters prevail, mountains covered (7:19-20)

M 150 days waters prevails (7:21-24)

N GOD REMEMBERS NOAH (8:1a)​

M´ 150 days waters abate (8:1b-5)​

L´ Waters abate, mountain tops visible (8:5)​

K´ 40 days (end of) (8:6a)​

J´ Noah opens window of ark (8:6b)​

I´ Raven and dove leave ark (8:7-9)​

H´7 days waiting for waters to subside (8:10-11)​

G´ 7 days waiting for waters to subside (8:12-14)​

F´ Third divine address: command to leave Ark (8:15-19)​

E´ Noah builds an altar (8:20)​

D´ God’s commitment to preserve the earth (8:21-22)​

C´ Fourth divine address: covenant blessing and peace (9:1-17)​

B´ Noah’s sons: Shem, Ham and Japheth (9:18-27)​

A´ Noah: life and death (9:28-29)

this has a very intentional organization to it and carefully planned out by its author. You can't get this level of structure randomly and it speaks to the author of the words as being aware of it.

Noah is a part of the creation account but too often we polarize it to a literal or myth account but end up missing all these details while doing so, and I suspect the entire point. Is it literal or myth? that's probably the least interesting part of the account... let's focus on the deeper content because it carries the real meaning.

 

[Pavel Mosko]

Well the Chiastic part of it really shows me the oral tradition part of the tale. (Majority) Jewish tradition says that Moses recorded it, but this is something that the believing monotheist (pre-Jews) brought back from Abraham etc. It's interesting, I came very very close on doing a thread on chiastic and poetry of Jesus sermons and sayings etc. but some of the sources from Aramaic web sites are not as good as they once were (fell into decline and not everything I remember being there was archived on peshitta.org )

Aramaic Herald: Jesus the Poet: Christ’s Words as Hebrew Poetry By Stephen Andrew Missick

 

[Pavel Mosko]

chiastic structure

Is this not an acrostic? or maybe a chiastic is a more general term (I was confused when you used that a few days ago on a previous thread).

 

[DamianWarS]

Is this not an acrostic? or maybe a chiastic is a more general term (I was confused when you used that a few days ago on a previous thread).

"Chiastic structure, or chiastic pattern, is a literary technique in narrative motifs and other textual passages. An example of chiastic structure would be two ideas, A and B, together with variants A' and B', being presented as A,B,B',A'."

I think acrostic is when the first letter of each line spells a word or develops some sort of pattern. A Bible example would be Psalm 119. which Chiastic structures in the bible it often plays out with a type of opener then mirrored at the end as a closer for example Gen 1:1 "In the Begining God created the Heavens and the Earth" then mirrored with Gen 2:1 "Thus the heavens and the earth were finished..." then all the stuff in between do similar things just act at their own levels within the account.

 

[Pavel Mosko]

"Chiastic structure, or chiastic pattern, is a literary technique in narrative motifs and other textual passages. An example of chiastic structure would be two ideas, A and B, together with variants A' and B', being presented as A,B,B',A'."

I think acrostic is when the first letter of each line spells a word or develops some sort of pattern. A Bible example would be Psalm 119. which Chiastic structures in the bible it often plays out with a type of opener then mirrored at the end as a closer for example Gen 1:1 "In the Begining God created the Heavens and the Earth" then mirrored with Gen 2:1 "Thus the heavens and the earth were finished..." then all the stuff in between do similar things just act at their own levels within the account.

Yeah I just got done googling it. I was familiar with the term with hearing it used concerning Hebrew poetry.,


Acrostics actually begin each line of the poem with a letter of the Hebrew alphabet in sequence like our A, B, C...preschool/kindergarten alphabet primer.

 

[DamianWarS]

Well the Chiastic part of it really shows me the oral tradition part of the tale. (Majority) Jewish tradition says that Moses recorded it, but this is something that the believing monotheist (pre-Jews) brought back from Abraham etc. It's interesting, I came very very close on doing a thread on chiastic and poetry of Jesus sermons and sayings etc. but some of the sources from Aramaic web sites are not as good as they once were (fell into decline and not everything I remember being there was archived on peshitta.org )

Aramaic Herald: Jesus the Poet: Christ’s Words as Hebrew Poetry By Stephen Andrew Missick

I agree that the believing monotheists prior to Moses kept these accounts but I don't think in they would be so organized. Pre-Moses there was no organized religion, no established leader, no temple, no established priesthood, sacrifice or law/scripture and with the pre-Abrahamic accounts, they would have a lot of competition from surrounding cultures. I'm sure aspects of those things existed but in no orthodox way and probably varied from family to family and this what I see as one of the main roles of Moses was to present an orthodox and ordained version of these accounts to these pre-Abrahamic oral accounts to unify the people and point them to God. With Abrahamic accounts, these would have far greater accuracy as the accounts are more intimate and specific to the Hebrews with no surrounding competition; they knew their story best. But still, Moses would have come and presented a divined ordained version.

No doubt the chiastic structure helps in oral cultures and prior to Moses' various mnemonic devices I'm sure were used and perhaps in chiastic form but I can't see these being very consistent with the absence of any real organized systems in place or leadership. The more I read these accounts they seem to more about harmonized oral traditions that are de-paganized and made orthodox to unify a nation and pointing to God not to mention foreshadowing God's redemptive plan. This values the accounts rather than just toss them away and it also gives glory of God through them. I'm not saying they are myth I just see the literalness of the account the least important role it has to offer.