Noah’s Original Identity: The First Winemaker
Before Noah became the protagonist of the Israelite flood story, his original place in Israelite historiography was as the ancient farmer who discovered wine, bringing the world relief from the toil of work caused by God’s cursing the soil.
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Published October 15, 2015
For more on Ancient Near Eastern flood stories, see Shalom Holtz’s TABS essay, “The Flood Story in its Ancient Near Eastern Context.” See also Norman Solomon’s TABS essay,“The Torah’s Version of the Flood Story.”
Arnold Ehrlich, Mikra Ki-Pheshuto: The Bible According to Its Literal Meaning, vol. 1 (New York: Ktav, 1969 [original: 1899]).
For more on the differences between P and J in the creation stories, see Marc Brettler’s TABS essay, “Differing Conceptions of the Divine Creator.”
See, for example, Richard Elliot Friedman’s note in The Bible with Sources Revealed (Harper San Francisco, 2003), 41.
Canaan, not Ham, seems to be Noah’s son in the original story. See my TABS essay, …., for the reason I make this claim. See also, Tzemah Yoreh’s TABS essay, “Noah’s Four Sons,” who comes to a similar conclusion.
Again, Löwenstamm must be credited for having noted this point.
מכל זה מסתבר שנח מעיקרו דמות המסורת הכנענית הוא ונעשה גיבור המבול רק בתקופה שבה סיגלה לעצמה המסורת הכנענית את המסורת השומרית-מיסופוטמית.
From all this it seems that Noah was originally a Canaanite figure and that he only became the hero of the flood story at a later point, when the Canaanite traditions began to incorporate Sumerian-Mesopotamian traditions into its repertoire…
I thank David Frankel for calling my attention to Löwenstamm’s work after reading an earlier draft of this essay.
