Podcast / Episode 4

The Flood: Two Stories Stitched Together

Genesis 6:9–9:29 · World English Bible (public domain)

Now the hand changes, and the first line of the reading says so. This is the history of the generations of Noah. That formula, the generations of, is the spine of the Priestly writer's Genesis, and what follows for the next few verses is his: precise, ordered, interested in covenant and measurement. He will give you the ark's dimensions in cubits, which is the kind of detail this author loves and the kind the other one does not supply here.

How to read these notes

Every statement of fact in the commentary was recorded next to the sentence that makes it, together with what it rests on. A claim whose source has not yet been located says so plainly. The notes follow the episode in the order it is heard.

  • fact: checkable outside this series; a source is named.
  • measured: a count or figure worked out from the Bible text itself.
  • judgement: the narrator’s own opinion, stated as one; no source is owed.

“Text check” says where to look in the Bible text. “Checked” says how and when the claim was confirmed. Where scholars disagree, the note says CONTESTED and which way the field leans.

113 claims · 3 still without a source

Opening

“Now the hand changes, and the first line of the reading says so. This is the history of the generations of Noah. That formula,…”

  1. measuredThe first line of the reading is 'This is the history of the generations of Noah'.

    Text check: Gen 6:9

    Checked: scripture, 2026-09-20 (Gen 6:9 is 'This is the history of the generations of Noah' — the reading opens there, not at 6:10)

  2. factThe formula 'the generations of' is the spine of the Priestly writer's Genesis.

    Source: Genesis 1 - 11: Continental Commentaries (Claus Westermann; 1984), note at Genesis 2:4

    Checked: scholarship, 2026-09-19 (scholarship_bible_verse_notes #10751, cosine 0.80)

    Named in the script: Priestly writer

  3. judgementThe Priestly writer is precise, ordered, and interested in covenant and measurement.

    Named in the script: Priestly writer

  4. measuredThe Priestly writer gives the ark's dimensions in cubits.

    Text check: Gen 6:14-16

    Source: Genesis 1 - 11: Continental Commentaries (Claus Westermann; 1984), note at Genesis 7:20

    Checked: scholarship, 2026-09-19 (scholarship_bible_verse_notes #12233, cosine 0.77)

    Named in the script: Priestly writer

  5. factThe other author of the flood story does not supply dimensions in cubits.

    Source: E. A. Speiser, Genesis, Anchor Bible 1 (Doubleday, 1964), p. 47 and p. 49 (translation, P passages marked between diagonals)

    Checked: scholarship, 2026-10-22 (the cubit figures (vi 15, vii 20) fall inside the passages he marks as P; none appears in the J passages)

  6. factThe account of the flood is an example of two accounts braided into one.

    Source: Genesis 1 - 11: Continental Commentaries (Claus Westermann; 1984)

    Checked: scholarship, 2026-09-19 (scholarship_notes #43158, cosine 0.81)

  7. measuredOne writer of the flood account counted animals in pairs.

    Text check: Gen 6:19-20; Gen 7:8-9

    Source: Genesis 1 - 11: Continental Commentaries (Claus Westermann; 1984)

    Checked: scholarship, 2026-09-19 (scholarship_notes #41471, cosine 0.75)

  8. measuredOne writer of the flood account counted days in hundreds.

    Text check: Gen 7:11; Gen 8:3-6

    Source: Genesis 1 - 11: Continental Commentaries (Claus Westermann; 1984), note at Genesis 7:24

    Checked: scholarship, 2026-09-19 (scholarship_bible_verse_notes #12164, cosine 0.78)

  9. factOne writer of the flood account cared about dates and covenants.

    Text check: Gen 9:11

    Checked: scripture, 2026-09-18 (rests on our own reading: Gen 9:11)

  10. measuredAnother writer of the flood account counted clean animals in sevens.

    Text check: Gen 7:2

    Source: God's Propaganda: Pulling Back the Curtain on What the Bible Wants You to See (Kipp Davis; 2025)

    Checked: scholarship, 2026-09-19 (scholarship_notes #11197, cosine 0.77)

  11. measuredAnother writer of the flood account stated the rain ran for forty days.

    Text check: Gen 7:12

    Source: Genesis 1 - 11: Continental Commentaries (Claus Westermann; 1984)

    Checked: counted, 2026-09-20 (counted in our own text: Gen 7:12)

    Verses counted: Gen 7:12

  12. factAnother writer of the flood account stated that God shut the door.

    Text check: Gen 7:16

    Checked: scripture, 2026-09-18 (rests on our own reading: Gen 7:16)

  13. factAnother writer of the flood account stated that God smelled the smoke of the sacrifice afterwards.

    Text check: Gen 8:21

    Checked: scripture, 2026-09-18 (rests on our own reading: Gen 8:21)

  14. factAn editor laid the two flood accounts end to end and kept both.

    Source: Who Wrote the Bible? (Richard Elliott Friedman)

    Checked: scholarship, 2026-09-19 (scholarship_notes #36880, cosine 0.76)

After Gen 7:24

“Now, the flood, and it starts with a piece of cosmology rather than weather. Listen to the words again, because they are not the…”

  1. factThe fountains of the great deep burst open and the sky's windows opened during the flood.

    Text check: Gen 7:11

    Checked: scripture, 2026-09-18 (rests on our own reading: Gen 7:11)

  2. factIn the cosmology of the flood, the world is a bubble of air inside water.

    Text check: Gen 7:11

    Checked: scripture, 2026-09-18 (rests on our own reading: Gen 7:11)

  3. factThere is water below the ground and water above the dome of the sky.

    Text check: Gen 7:11

    Checked: scripture, 2026-09-18 (rests on our own reading: Gen 7:11)

  4. factThe dome of the sky has hatches in it.

    Text check: Gen 7:11

    Checked: scripture, 2026-09-18 (rests on our own reading: Gen 7:11)

  5. factGenesis chapter one describes God installing a dome on the second day to hold the upper water back.

    Text check: Gen 1:6-8

    Checked: scripture, 2026-09-18 (rests on our own reading: Gen 1:6-8)

    Named in the script: Genesis chapter one

  6. factThe flood consists of the dome being opened and the container failing rather than rainfall.

    Text check: Gen 7:11

    Checked: scripture, 2026-09-18 (rests on our own reading: Gen 7:11)

  7. factGenesis chapter six states that two of every sort, male and female, were taken.

    Text check: Gen 6:19-20

    Checked: scripture, 2026-09-18 (rests on our own reading: Gen 6:19-20)

    Named in the script: chapter six

  8. factGenesis chapter seven states that seven pairs of every clean animal and two of the unclean were taken.

    Text check: Gen 7:2-3

    Source: E. A. Speiser, Genesis, Anchor Bible 1 (Doubleday, 1964), p. 52

    Checked: scholarship, 2026-10-22 (note on vi 19: P specifies two of each; J specifies seven pairs of all animals ritually clean and one pair of those unclean (vii 2))

    Named in the script: Chapter seven

  9. factThe writer who specifies seven pairs uses a distinction between clean and unclean animals.

    Text check: Gen 7:2

    Checked: scripture, 2026-09-18 (rests on our own reading: Gen 7:2)

  10. factLeviticus introduces the distinction between clean and unclean animals.

    Text check: Lev 11

    Checked: scripture, 2026-09-18 (rests on our own reading: Lev 11)

    Named in the script: Leviticus

  11. factThe first writer of the flood account shows no awareness of the clean and unclean distinction.

    Text check: Gen 6:19-20

    Checked: scripture, 2026-09-18 (rests on our own reading: Gen 6:19-20)

  12. measuredOne verse mentions forty days and forty nights of rain.

    Text check: Gen 7:12

    Source: Genesis 1 - 11: Continental Commentaries (Claus Westermann; 1984), note at Genesis 7:12

    Checked: scholarship, 2026-09-19 (scholarship_bible_verse_notes #12141, cosine 0.81)

  13. measuredTwelve verses later, the text mentions a hundred and fifty days.

    Text check: Gen 8:3

    Checked: counted, 2026-09-20 (counted in our own text: Gen 7:12 to Gen 7:24)

  14. factThe hundred and fifty days occur inside a dated sequence running from the second month of Noah's six hundredth year.

    Text check: Gen 7:11; Gen 8:3-4

    Checked: scripture, 2026-09-18 (rests on our own reading: Gen 7:11; Gen 8:3-4)

  15. judgementForty is the folk-tale number.

  16. judgementA hundred and fifty is the bookkeeper's number.

  17. factEvery living thing, including every child, infant, and animal, was destroyed.

    Text check: Gen 7:21-23

    Checked: scripture, 2026-09-18 (rests on our own reading: Gen 7:21-23)

  18. factDeuteronomy forbids putting children to death for their fathers' sin.

    Text check: Deut 24:16

    Checked: scripture, 2026-09-18 (rests on our own reading: Deut 24:16)

    Named in the script: Deuteronomy

  19. factEzekiel contains a chapter insisting that the son will not bear the guilt of the father.

    Text check: Ezek 18

    Checked: scripture, 2026-09-18 (rests on our own reading: Ezek 18)

    Named in the script: Ezekiel

  20. factDeuteronomy and Ezekiel were written by Israelites about their own God.

    Source not yet located (searched scripture, count, scholarship, web on 2026-09-19 without result).

  21. judgementDeuteronomy and Ezekiel argue against the logic of the flood chapter in Genesis.

After Gen 8:19

“Where it comes to rest is worth a moment. On Ararat's mountains. Not Mount Ararat, which is a later identification. The Hebrew is…”

  1. factThe ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat.

    Text check: Gen 8:4

    Checked: scripture, 2026-09-18 (rests on our own reading: Gen 8:4)

  2. factThe identification of the landing site as specifically Mount Ararat is a later identification.

    Source: Genesis 1 - 11: Continental Commentaries (Claus Westermann; 1984)

    Checked: scholarship, 2026-09-19 (scholarship_notes #41709, cosine 0.82)

  3. factThe Hebrew word for the mountains of Ararat is plural.

    Source: Genesis 1 - 11: Continental Commentaries (Claus Westermann; 1984)

    Checked: scholarship, 2026-09-19 (scholarship_notes #41709, cosine 0.83)

  4. factArarat is a region known to the Assyrians as Urartu.

    Source: Genesis 1 - 11: Continental Commentaries (Claus Westermann; 1984), note at 2 Kings 19:37

    Checked: scholarship, 2026-09-19 (scholarship_bible_verse_notes #12238, cosine 0.82)

  5. factThe region of Urartu is located in what is now eastern Turkey and Armenia.

    Source: Wikipedia, “Urartu”

    Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urartu

    Checked: web, 2026-09-19 (Extract 1 states that the territory of Urartu extended over the modern frontiers of Turkey and Armenia.)

  6. factThere is no geological record of a global flood.

    Source: The New Oxford Annotated Bible with Apocrypha: New Revised Standard Version (Michael D. Coogan, Marc Z. Brettler, Carol A. Newsom, Pheme Perkins; 2018), note at Genesis 7:17

    Checked: scholarship, 2026-09-19 (scholarship_bible_verse_notes #13246, cosine 0.85)

  7. factGeological layers run continuously through the period of the flood and contain undisturbed ice cores and tree rings.

    Source not yet located (searched scripture, count, scholarship, web on 2026-09-19 without result).

  8. factSpeiser suggests the flood story may echo a sudden rise in sea level that submerged the coast of the Persian Gulf, and calls this speculation.

    Source: E. A. Speiser, Genesis, Anchor Bible 1 (Doubleday, 1964), p. 55 and p. 56

    Checked: scholarship, 2026-10-22 (he suggests the ultimate inspiration may lie in the geology of Lower Mesopotamia: not very long ago waters from the Persian Gulf submerged a large coastal area, probably through a sudden rise in sea level, perhaps with extremely heavy rains; 'all this, however, must remain in the realm of speculation')

After Gen 8:22

“Try a small experiment with Genesis six, seven and eight some time. Take a pen and mark every verse that says two of each animal,…”

  1. measuredGenesis 6, 7, and 8 contain verses that say two of each animal.

    Text check: Gen 6-8

    Source: The Atheist Handbook to the Old Testament: Volume 1 (Joshua Bowen; 2021), note at Genesis 6:19

    Checked: scholarship, 2026-09-19 (scholarship_bible_verse_notes #32678, cosine 0.86)

  2. measuredGenesis 6, 7, and 8 contain verses that date things by Noah's age.

    Text check: Gen 6-8

    Source: God's Propaganda: Pulling Back the Curtain on What the Bible Wants You to See (Kipp Davis; 2025), note at Genesis 7:6

    Checked: scholarship, 2026-09-19 (scholarship_bible_verse_notes #7786, cosine 0.89)

  3. measuredGenesis 6, 7, and 8 contain verses that call God Elohim.

    Text check: Gen 6-8

    Checked: counted, 2026-09-20 (11 verses in Gen 6-8 call God 'God' (WEB for Elohim): 6:2,4,9,11,12,13,22; 7:9,16; 8:1,15)

  4. measuredGenesis 6, 7, and 8 contain verses that talk about covenant.

    Text check: Gen 6-8

    Source: Genesis 1 - 11: Continental Commentaries (Claus Westermann; 1984), note at Genesis 6:18

    Checked: scholarship, 2026-09-19 (scholarship_bible_verse_notes #12081, cosine 0.85)

  5. measuredGenesis 6, 7, and 8 contain verses that say seven pairs of animals.

    Text check: Gen 6-8

    Source: Who Wrote the Bible? (Richard Elliott Friedman), note at Genesis 7:2

    Checked: scholarship, 2026-09-19 (scholarship_bible_verse_notes #10587, cosine 0.85)

  6. measuredGenesis 6, 7, and 8 contain verses that run on forties.

    Text check: Gen 6-8

    Source: Genesis 1 - 11: Continental Commentaries (Claus Westermann; 1984), note at Genesis 8:6

    Checked: scholarship, 2026-09-19 (scholarship_bible_verse_notes #11979, cosine 0.80)

  7. measuredGenesis 6, 7, and 8 contain verses that call God Yahweh.

    Text check: Gen 6-8

    Checked: counted, 2026-09-20 (10 verses in Gen 6-8 use Yahweh: 6:3,5,6,7,8; 7:1,5,16; 8:20,21)

  8. measuredGenesis 6, 7, and 8 contain verses where God shuts the door.

    Text check: Gen 6-8

    Source: Genesis 1 - 11: Continental Commentaries (Claus Westermann; 1984), note at Genesis 7:16

    Checked: scholarship, 2026-09-19 (scholarship_bible_verse_notes #12142, cosine 0.82)

  9. measuredGenesis 6, 7, and 8 contain verses where God smells the sacrifice.

    Text check: Gen 6-8

    Checked: counted, 2026-09-19 (counted in our own text: Gen 8:21)

    Verses counted: Gen 8:21

  10. measuredThe two sets of verses in Genesis 6-8 almost never interrupt each other mid-sentence.

    Text check: Gen 6-8

    Checked: scripture, 2026-09-20 (Gen 7:16 is the one verse carrying both names; everywhere else the two sets fall at verse boundaries)

  11. measuredEach of the two sets of verses in Genesis 6-8 can be followed on its own, with a beginning, a middle, and an end.

    Text check: Gen 6-8

    Source: E. A. Speiser, Genesis, Anchor Bible 1 (Doubleday, 1964), p. 54

    Checked: scholarship, 2026-10-22 (he marks P between diagonals so the two components can be distinguished at a glance or followed consecutively; the underlying versions, though cut up and rearranged, were not altered in themselves)

  12. factThe documentary hypothesis grew from a method begun in 1753 by Jean Astruc, who noticed that Genesis uses two names for God.

    Source: E. A. Speiser, Genesis, Anchor Bible 1 (Doubleday, 1964), p. xxii

    Checked: scholarship, 2026-10-22 (he names the 1753 observation of the French physician Jean Astruc, that some narratives in Genesis use Yahweh and others Elohim, as a significant milestone in the literary criticism of Genesis (with earlier roots in Ibn Ezra and Spinoza, pp. xx-xxi))

    Named in the script: documentary hypothesis

  13. factMost scholars have found no better explanation for why Genesis 6, 7, and 8 count everything twice.

    Source: E. A. Speiser, Genesis, Anchor Bible 1 (Doubleday, 1964), p. 54; Claus Westermann, Genesis 1-11: A Continental Commentary (Fortress Press, 1985), on Genesis 6:5-8:22, p. 425

    Checked: scholarship, 2026-10-22 (Speiser: the received flood account is a composite narrative 'beyond reasonable doubt'; Westermann: the flood narrative is the result of two sources worked together, though some exegetes (Nielsen, Cassuto) contest this even today)

After Gen 8:22

“Then the sacrifice, and one line of it matters for what comes next: Yahweh smelled the pleasant aroma. Compare a much older…”

  1. factYahweh smelled the pleasant aroma of the sacrifice.

    Text check: Gen 8:21

    Checked: scripture, 2026-09-18 (rests on our own reading: Gen 8:21)

  2. factIn the Mesopotamian flood epics, the surviving man releases birds to find land.

    Source: The Atheist Handbook to the Old Testament: Volume 2 (Joshua Bowen; 2022)

    Checked: scholarship, 2026-09-19 (scholarship_notes #80038, cosine 0.78)

    Named in the script: Mesopotamian flood epics

  3. factIn the Mesopotamian flood epics, the surviving man lands his boat on a mountain.

    Source: E. A. Speiser, Genesis, Anchor Bible 1 (Doubleday, 1964), p. 55

    Checked: scholarship, 2026-10-22 (he says each account has the eventual grounding of the strange vessel on top of a tall mountain (Noah on the Ararat range, Utnapishtim on Mount Nisir))

    Named in the script: Mesopotamian flood epics

  4. factIn the Mesopotamian flood epics, the surviving man offers a sacrifice.

    Source: Genesis 1 - 11: Continental Commentaries (Claus Westermann; 1984)

    Checked: scholarship, 2026-09-19 (scholarship_notes #41776, cosine 0.86)

    Named in the script: Mesopotamian flood epics

  5. factThe Mesopotamian flood epics state that the gods smelled the sweet savour and gathered like flies around it.

    Source: Genesis 1 - 11: Continental Commentaries (Claus Westermann; 1984)

    Checked: scholarship, 2026-09-19 (scholarship_notes #41811, cosine 0.79)

    Named in the script: Mesopotamian flood epics

  6. factThe account of the man releasing birds, landing on a mountain, and offering a sacrifice is found in tablet eleven of the Gilgamesh epic.

    Source: The Atheist Handbook to the Old Testament: Volume 2 (Joshua Bowen; 2022), note at Genesis 8:6

    Checked: scholarship, 2026-09-19 (scholarship_bible_verse_notes #33116, cosine 0.78)

    Named in the script: Gilgamesh epic, tablet eleven

  7. factThe Gilgamesh epic draws on the older story of Atrahasis.

    Source: Wikipedia, “Epic of Gilgamesh”

    Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epic_of_Gilgamesh

    Checked: web, 2026-09-19 (The text explicitly links the flood survivors in the epic to the story of Athra-Hasis.)

    Named in the script: Gilgamesh epic

  8. factThe Hebrew flood account is a version of a family of stories that predates Israel.

    Source: Heaven and Hell: A History of the Afterlife (Bart D. Ehrman)

    Checked: scholarship, 2026-09-19 (scholarship_notes #18938, cosine 0.84)

  9. factThe reason given for God never flooding the earth again is that the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth.

    Text check: Gen 8:21

    Checked: scripture, 2026-09-18 (rests on our own reading: Gen 8:21)

  10. factThe reason given for the original flood was that every imagination of the thoughts of man's heart was continually only evil.

    Text check: Gen 6:5

    Checked: scripture, 2026-09-18 (rests on our own reading: Gen 6:5)

After Gen 9:17

“A word about the bow. I set my rainbow in the cloud, God says, and the Hebrew word is just bow, the weapon. Many readers take the…”

  1. factIn Genesis 9:13, God says he sets his rainbow in the cloud.

    Text check: Gen 9:13

    Checked: scripture, 2026-09-19 (rests on our own reading: Gen 9:13)

  2. factThe Hebrew word used for rainbow in this context is the ordinary word for a weapon bow.

    Source: Claus Westermann, Genesis 1-11: A Continental Commentary (Fortress Press, 1985), on Genesis 9:13, p. 473

    Checked: scholarship, 2026-10-22 (read in the local pipeline copy (document 16): he says the word means a warrior's bow elsewhere in the Old Testament)

    Named in the script: Claus Westermann

  3. factMany readers take the image to be a warrior hanging his bow in the sky pointed away from the earth.

    Source: Claus Westermann, Genesis 1-11: A Continental Commentary (Fortress Press, 1985), on Genesis 9:13, p. 473

    Checked: scholarship, 2026-10-22 (he says almost all exegetes since Wellhausen have taken the warrior's-bow explanation, and rejects it)

    Named in the script: Claus Westermann

  4. factSome scholars (Westermann among them) read the bow as simply the rainbow after a storm.

    Source: Claus Westermann, Genesis 1-11: A Continental Commentary (Fortress Press, 1985), on Genesis 9:13, p. 473

    Checked: scholarship, 2026-10-22 (he says the bow in the clouds has nothing to do with the image of God as a warrior)

    Named in the script: Claus Westermann

  5. factThe covenant is with every living creature.

    Text check: Gen 9:10

    Checked: scripture, 2026-09-19 (rests on our own reading: Gen 9:10)

  6. factThe covenant is not only with people.

    Text check: Gen 9:10

    Checked: scripture, 2026-09-19 (rests on our own reading: Gen 9:10)

  7. factThe covenant is unconditional.

    Text check: Gen 9:8-17

    Checked: scripture, 2026-09-19 (rests on our own reading: Gen 9:8-17)

  8. factNo one has to do anything to keep the covenant.

    Text check: Gen 9:8-17

    Checked: scripture, 2026-09-19 (rests on our own reading: Gen 9:8-17)

After Gen 9:29

“The last story in the chapter belongs to the other writer, and you can hear the join at verse eighteen. Unlike the flood itself,…”

  1. factThe water is gone and the ark is empty at the start of chapter nine.

    Text check: Gen 9:1

    Checked: scripture, 2026-09-19 (rests on our own reading: Gen 9:1)

  2. factChapter nine contains accounts from two different writers.

    Source: Richard Elliott Friedman, Who Wrote the Bible?, the source table in the Appendix: J 6:5-8; 7:1-5, 7, 10, 12, 16b-20, 22-23; 8:2b-3a, 6, 8-12, 13b, 20-22; 9:20-27 — P 6:9-22; 7:6, 8-9, 11, 13-16a, 21, 24; 8:1-2a, 3b-5, 7, 13a, 14-19; 9:1-17, 28-29. Read in our ingested copy, documents.id 29

  3. factAn editor kept the accounts from both writers in chapter nine, placing them one after the other rather than braided together.

    Source: Richard Elliott Friedman, Who Wrote the Bible?, the source table in the Appendix: J 6:5-8; 7:1-5, 7, 10, 12, 16b-20, 22-23; 8:2b-3a, 6, 8-12, 13b, 20-22; 9:20-27 — P 6:9-22; 7:6, 8-9, 11, 13-16a, 21, 24; 8:1-2a, 3b-5, 7, 13a, 14-19; 9:1-17, 28-29. Read in our ingested copy, documents.id 29

  4. factThe Priestly writer provides a formal covenant with terms, a sign, and a scope wider than any previous covenant in the book.

    Text check: Gen 9:8-17

    Checked: scripture, 2026-09-19 (rests on our own reading: Gen 9:8-17)

    Named in the script: Priestly writer

  5. measuredThe second writer provides four or five verses about a man, a vineyard, excessive wine, and a family coming apart.

    Text check: Gen 9:20-24

    Checked: scripture, 2026-09-20 (Gen 9:20-24 is five verses: vineyard, wine, nakedness, the brothers, Noah waking)

  6. factThe second writer tells stories of this kind, whereas the first writer never does.

    Source not yet located (searched scripture, count, scholarship, web on 2026-09-19 without result).

  7. factThe transition between the two writers occurs at verse eighteen.

    Text check: Gen 9:18

    Checked: scripture, 2026-09-19 (rests on our own reading: Gen 9:18)

  8. factIn the flood narrative, the two writers' accounts run through each other sentence by sentence.

    Source: Richard Elliott Friedman, Who Wrote the Bible?, the parallel flood text in the chapter 'The Story of Noah—Twice' (J in roman, P in small capitals); read in our ingested copy, documents.id 29

  9. factIn chapter nine, the two writers simply take turns.

    Source: Richard Elliott Friedman, Who Wrote the Bible?, the source table in the Appendix: J 6:5-8; 7:1-5, 7, 10, 12, 16b-20, 22-23; 8:2b-3a, 6, 8-12, 13b, 20-22; 9:20-27 — P 6:9-22; 7:6, 8-9, 11, 13-16a, 21, 24; 8:1-2a, 3b-5, 7, 13a, 14-19; 9:1-17, 28-29. Read in our ingested copy, documents.id 29

After Gen 9:29

“Something in the story you have just heard does not add up, and it is worth slowing down for, because everything the curse was…”

  1. factHam is the one who sees.

    Text check: Gen 9:22

    Checked: scripture, 2026-09-19 (rests on our own reading: Gen 9:22)

  2. factCanaan is the one cursed.

    Text check: Gen 9:25

    Checked: scripture, 2026-09-19 (rests on our own reading: Gen 9:25)

  3. factCanaan is not in the scene.

    Text check: Gen 9:20-27

    Checked: scripture, 2026-09-19 (rests on our own reading: Gen 9:20-27)

  4. factCanaan is Ham's son.

    Text check: Gen 9:24; Gen 10:6

    Checked: scripture, 2026-09-19 (rests on our own reading: Gen 9:24; Gen 10:6)

  5. factCanaan is not mentioned as being there.

    Text check: Gen 9:20-27

    Checked: scripture, 2026-09-19 (rests on our own reading: Gen 9:20-27)

  6. factNothing is said about anything Canaan did.

    Text check: Gen 9:20-27

    Checked: scripture, 2026-09-19 (rests on our own reading: Gen 9:20-27)

  7. factThe line before the curse says Noah knew what his youngest son had done to him.

    Text check: Gen 9:24

    Checked: scripture, 2026-09-19 (rests on our own reading: Gen 9:24)

  8. factHam is not the youngest son.

    Text check: Gen 5:32; Gen 10:21

    Source: E. A. Speiser, Genesis, Anchor Bible 1 (Doubleday, 1964), p. 62

    Checked: scholarship, 2026-10-22 (he notes that the order Shem-Ham-Japheth is invariable and indicates age (v 32, vi 10, vii 13, ix 18, x 1), and that Ham is listed second in vs. 18 yet called the youngest in vs. 24)

  9. measuredHam is in the middle every time Shem, Ham and Japheth are listed.

    Text check: Gen 5:32; Gen 6:10; Gen 7:13; Gen 9:18; Gen 10:1

    Source: E. A. Speiser, Genesis, Anchor Bible 1 (Doubleday, 1964), p. 62

    Checked: scholarship, 2026-10-22 (he notes that the order Shem-Ham-Japheth is invariable and indicates age (v 32, vi 10, vii 13, ix 18, x 1), and that Ham is listed second in vs. 18 yet called the youngest in vs. 24)

  10. judgementThe phrase 'done to him' is a strange way to describe being looked at.

  11. factIn a culture built on honour and shame, finding your father helpless and telling your brothers is the offence.

    Source: Claus Westermann, Genesis 1-11: A Continental Commentary (Fortress Press, 1985), on Genesis 9:18-27, p. 488

    Checked: scholarship, 2026-10-22 (he says nakedness in the Old Testament refers to the loss of human and social dignity (citing J. A. Bailey), that sons were bound to stand by a father in this state, and that Ham's seeing him and telling his brothers was a grave breach of custom; Speiser p. 62 likewise calls it disrespect toward an incapacitated and exposed father)

  12. factThe two brothers carry a garment in on their shoulders, walk backwards, and keep their faces turned away.

    Text check: Gen 9:23

    Checked: scripture, 2026-09-19 (rests on our own reading: Gen 9:23)

  13. factIn Leviticus, to uncover the nakedness of your father means to have sex with your father's wife.

    Text check: Lev 18:8; Lev 20:11

    Checked: scripture, 2026-09-19 (rests on our own reading: Lev 18:8; Lev 20:11)

  14. judgementRead as a legal idiom, Canaan would be the child of that act.

  15. factThe rabbis of the Talmud proposed that Ham castrated his father.

    Source: Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin 70a

    Checked: scholarship, 2026-10-22 (Sefaria, William Davidson English: Rav and Shmuel disagree, one says Ham castrated Noah, one says he sodomized him; the castration side adds the fourth-son reasoning)

    Named in the script: the rabbis of the Talmud

  16. measuredCanaan is listed as the fourth son of Ham.

    Text check: Gen 10:8-12

    Source: Genesis 1 - 11: Continental Commentaries (Claus Westermann; 1984), note at Genesis 10:6

    Checked: counted, 2026-09-20 (counted in our own text: Gen 10:6)

    Verses counted: Gen 10:6

  17. factThe chapter curses a man for what his father did.

    Text check: Gen 9:25

    Checked: scripture, 2026-09-19 (rests on our own reading: Gen 9:25)

After Gen 9:29

“Consider the curse itself, which is harder to hear. Canaan is cursed into slavery to his brothers. The chapter is an origin story…”

  1. factHam saw his father naked.

    Text check: Gen 9:22

    Checked: scripture, 2026-09-19 (rests on our own reading: Gen 9:22)

  2. factCanaan is the son of Ham.

    Text check: Gen 9:18; Gen 9:22

    Checked: scripture, 2026-09-19 (rests on our own reading: Gen 9:18; Gen 9:22)

  3. factCanaan is the one who is cursed.

    Text check: Gen 9:25

    Checked: scripture, 2026-09-19 (rests on our own reading: Gen 9:25)

  4. factCanaan is cursed into slavery.

    Text check: Gen 9:25

    Checked: scripture, 2026-09-19 (rests on our own reading: Gen 9:25)

  5. factGenesis 9 is an origin story for why Israel was entitled to take the land of the Canaanites.

    Text check: Gen 9:25-27

    Checked: scripture, 2026-09-19 (rests on our own reading: Gen 9:25-27)

  6. factGenesis 9 was written by people who had taken the land of the Canaanites or were fighting to take it.

    Source: E. A. Speiser, Genesis, Anchor Bible 1 (Doubleday, 1964), p. 61 and p. 63

    Checked: scholarship, 2026-10-22 (p. 61 note on vs. 25 asks whether the enslavement of Canaan was an accomplished fact at the time of composition or only a wishful projection; p. 63 dates the verses to around the turn of the twelfth century B.C., when the Israelites were struggling against the entrenched Canaanites)

  7. factFrom the fifteenth century onward, Genesis 9:27 was used in Europe and the Americas as a biblical warrant for enslaving Africans.

    Source: David M. Goldenberg, The Curse of Ham: Race and Slavery in Early Judaism, Christianity, and Islam (Princeton University Press, 2003), pp. 175-177

    Checked: scholarship, 2026-10-22 (p. 175: the Curse first appears in the Christian West as soon as Europe discovered black Africa, with Gomes Eannes de Zurara in fifteenth-century Portugal; p. 176: in America it became 'the ideological cornerstone' of the justification of Black slavery, in a 1625 English author, 1759 Bishop Newton and 1857 Sloan; p. 177: Fray Francisco de la Cruz in 1575)

  8. factThe use of Genesis 9:27 to justify enslaving Africans relied on an identification of Ham with Africa that the text does not make.

    Text check: Gen 9:20-27

    Checked: scripture, 2026-09-19 (rests on our own reading: Gen 9:20-27)

  9. judgementThe verse enslaves the wrong man to begin with.

    Source: David M. Goldenberg, The Curse of Ham: Race and Slavery in Early Judaism, Christianity, and Islam (Princeton University Press, 2003), pp. 169, 177

    Checked: scholarship, 2026-10-22 (p. 169: of Ham's four sons only Canaan, the nonblack ancestor of the Canaanites, was cursed with slavery; p. 177: the later argument that Canaan means Ham is circular)

  10. judgementThe verse was used to enslave the wrong continent.

    Source: David M. Goldenberg, The Curse of Ham: Race and Slavery in Early Judaism, Christianity, and Islam (Princeton University Press, 2003), pp. 169, 177

    Checked: scholarship, 2026-10-22 (p. 169: Canaan is not an ancestor of Black Africans in the text; the link was made by genealogical or etymological manipulation (Ham meant 'black'); p. 177: the arguments are 'irrational' and circular)

Close

“So the chapter gives you both of these, twelve verses apart. A covenant with every living creature that requires nothing of…”

  1. factGenesis 9:8-17 is a covenant with every living creature, and Genesis 9:25 curses Canaan, Ham's son.

    Text check: Gen 9:8-17; Gen 9:22-25

  2. judgementThe two passages are in the same chapter because two writers with different concerns were preserved side by side rather than reconciled.

  3. judgementThe habit of keeping both accounts explains much of the contradiction later in the book.

Notes generated 2026-10-24.