Genesis 6 begins with an account of all the evils that are taking place on Earth, with a hidden assumption (again) that beautiful women are to blame. There is a major difference in translation between the NIV and JPS Hebrew Bible.
Genesis 6:2, NIV – “the
sons of god saw that the daughters of men were beautiful, and they married
any of them they chose.” (emphasis my own)
Genesis 6:2, JPS – “the
divine beings saw how beautiful the daughters of men were and took
wives from among those that pleased them."
There are quite a few interpretations,
as exhibited above, over what is meant by “sons of god”. Some believe, as
exhibited in the JPS translation, that angels (the divine beings) were having
sex with humans. To early Jewish commentators, this was considered a
greater act of rebellion than the Adam and Eve story.
Others, in line with the NIV
translation, believe “sons of god” refers to the descendants of Seth, or kings
and other nobility. Conveniently, this interpretation completely rids Genesis 6
of its obviously mythological elements. Funnily, there are numerous debates
over whether or not angels have genitalia. Oh, the things that people latch on
to!
The Hebrew Bible also does a better
job of explaining what exactly the Nephilim are:
Genesis
6:4, JPS – “It was then, and later too,
that the Nephilim appeared on earth—when the divine beings cohabited with the
daughters of men, who bore them offspring. They were the heroes of old, the men
of renown.”
Genesis
6:1-4 carries a strong whiff of polytheism, with similar parallels to Greek
mythology, with Zeus and his love of mortal women, giving birth to people like
Hercules. End result of all this evil? God decides to kill us all. Oy vey! It
is never explained why God lacked the foresight to realize humans would
turn out to terribly. Denial? The remainder of this chapter details why God is saving
Noah and his family, and the instructions he gives to Noah as to how to build
the ark, and who is allowed to be in it.
Noah’s Flood Story vs the Epic of Gilgamesh
 |
| Gilgamesh as illustrated in The Chaldean Account of Genesis (1876) |
Just as
the Adam and Eve creation story has similarities to a Babylonian myth, so to
does the Genesis Flood story. Noah's flood finds roots in an ancient Sumerian
legend, from the Epic of Gilgamesh. The Epics of Gilgamesh may be one of
the oldest written stories on Earth, and was originally written on 12 clay
tablets in Akkadian cuneiform script. The Epic of Gilgamesh is about the
adventures of Gilgamesh, the King of Uruk.
The flood
story is an even closer match to the ancient Sumerian myth than the story of
Adam and Eve. They are so close in fact, that conservative rabbinic scholar
Robert Wexler even stated in 2001 that both Genesis and Gilgamesh drew their
material from a common tradition about a flood that existed in Mesopotamia.
In both
stories:
·
Mankind has become a pain to God. In Genesis, humans
were hopelessly wicked; in Gilgamesh they were too noisy.
·
Divine beings decide to send a flood to wipe out
all living things.
·
One righteous man existed in both stories: Noah
in Genesis and Ut-Naphishtim in Gilgamesh.
·
The righteous man was ordered to build a boat,
sealed with pitch, with a single door
·
The ark was boarded by the hero of the story, a
few other humans, and animals.
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