The Bible as Literature

Sample Lesson - Introduction

Lesson 2.05: The Flood: Or, Why God Lets the Pipes Burst

"Noah, honey? Did you remember your scuba gear?"
(Source)

Noah and the Flood.

In this, the most destructive of stories, the Almighty God throws in the towel (and it's a very wet towel).

After enduring generations of subpar humans, kicked off by our ever-deviant Adam, Eve, and Cain, God decides to send a deluge which covers the whole earth, and only save one guy and his kids. Also, all the animals. (God was pretty pleased with the platypus, it would seem.)

We watch them build a crazy ship, float around for forty days and forty nights, and be saved by getting stranded. And, even though the Bible tries to be kinda low-key about it, we realize that the entire human race just drowned…except for one okay dude. (Who says thank you, by the way, by drinking himself silly and passing out in the aftermath.)

The Flood story is a hard pill to swallow for some. It's just difficult to stomach how an all-loving and forgiving God would just wipe out most of humanity, just because he thought they were doing a bad job at living.

It's a theological sticking point—i.e., a hot-button issue for people who are trying to create portraits of God—and it's worth looking into. Because yes, there's a whole lot of flooding, and yes, a whole lot of death. But the way the Bible tells it, there's hope at the end of the tunnel. Like a too-short haircut: It's rough when it happens, but after about a month and a half, things seem to settle back into place.

So what's the silver lining? What's hiding at the end of the rainbow? We're about to find out.

In this lesson, you'll find some pretty outdated carpentry instructions, a coloring-book break, and a very brave bird. Intrigued? You should be.

Sample Lesson - Reading

Reading 2.2.05: Water, Water, Everywhere...

The Flood narrative brings together all the violence and disobedience we've been reading about, and takes it to its natural conclusion. Everybody except for Noah is doing God-knows-what (no really—only God knows. The Bible stays pretty vague about the details), and God has it up to here with their debauchery, ultimately deciding to just wipe the slate clean.

But, lest you think this is just the natural-disaster equivalent of dynamiting an old building, the narrative is just as much about redemption as it is about destruction. You see, in every cloud (or in a whole thunderstorm of them, as in Genesis 6), there is a silver lining, and in this case that silver lining is the establishment of the first covenant—a binding agreement between God and humanity in which both parties agree to hold up their end of the bargain…or else.

So grab your surfboard, and ride along/read along with Noah. Check out Shmoop's summary of the text.

Okay, so some of that probably sounded pretty similar to the Genesis account, what with the creation of a new world and all.

But in case we didn't catch it ourselves, the narrator helps us out, recalling the language and cosmic architecture of the first creation story (1:1-2:4). Check out the parallels:

• The deity destroys humankind together with every living creature (6:7; 7:21-23), which erases the sixth day of creation (1:24-31).
• The deity removes the vault (7:11) he had placed in the sky to separate the waters on the second day of creation (1:6-8).
• A "wind" (NRSV) hovers over the waters of the flood (8:1) just as a "wind" hovered over the chaos and void before God started creating (1:2).
• The deity patches up the vault (8:2), which was created (1:6-8), then removed to unleash the waters (7:11).
• The dry land appears again as the waters of the flood recede (8:3), just as the dry land appeared on the third day of creation after God gathered the waters into one place (1:9).

So, every rose has its thorn, and every world-destroying primordial flood has its rainbow. We have a destruction…but we also have a re-creation. In short, things seem to be looking up for the ol' human race.

Sample Lesson - Activity

Activity 2.05a: Where's Waldo Noah?

Remember our dove with her olive branch? Well, that olive branch has made it into modern politics and nonprofit work as a symbol of peace, trust, and agreement, just like it symbolized the covenant between God and Noah. Check out the logo for Doctors of the World, an organization that sends doctors into war-torn regions. Seems fitting, don't you think?

(Source)

The image above is a fresco by artist Domenico Morelli that weaves in some classic images from the Flood account. Your job is to identify five famous symbols/images from the Flood account depicted in this artwork, and find their corresponding mention in the biblical text.

In a total of 25–50 words per symbol/image, identify the image/symbol, then identify the sentence(s) from the source text where it appears. 

When you're done, upload your work below.

Sample Lesson - Activity

Activity 2.05b: The Blame Game

Imagine this scenario. You have the terrible misfortune of being one of the people left stranded as Noah and his family sail away. Picture it: You're at the tip of a mountain, watching the seas rise alarmingly around you, and that smug bearded guy is riding off into the sunset.

Luckily, someone left some papyrus and an ancient-style stylus, and you just know you can make the last-ever printing of an earthly newspaper (through some truly excellent paper airplane skills).

So, you decide to write a 300- to 400-word editorial, assigning the blame for your current predicament. Whose fault is this global flood?

• Is it your fault for stealing the last pomegranate or fish or whatever people stole from the proverbial cookie jar back in biblical times?
• Is it God's fault, for being a little arbitrary in his punishment style?
• Is it Adam/Eve/Cain's fault for messing things up in the beginning? 
• Or is it the fault of all men? Did all of humanity bring it on themselves? Except for Noah, of course. The do-gooder.

Check out Genesis 6:1-8, 7:1-4, and 8:20-22 if you want to hear God's side of the story.

Make sure to cite biblical verses as evidence, and use as much of the text as you can. Pick whichever side you like, but let loose.

For instance, Shmoop might note that in Genesis 8:21, God himself says that "every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood." We could use this as evidence that man is inherently evil, and that the Flood is all our fault.

Or we could look at the very next line, where God says that he will never again "destroy every living creature as I have done," suggesting that perhaps he regrets the punishment he meted out. Hey, Cain got away pretty easy considering he killed his brother. We don't even know what the world did this time to deserve the Flood, but it certainly doesn't seem that God's too consistent with his punishments.

And those are just a couple of possible directions you can take.

Got your answer? Upload your work below.