NOAH, Noach, or Noe, the son of Lamech, was born in the year of the world 1056. Amidst the general corruption into which all mankind had at this time fallen, Noah alone was found to be just and perfect in his generation, walking with God. This extraordinary person having therefore found favour in the sight of Heaven, the Almighty, seeing that all flesh had corrupted their ways, told Noah that he was resolved to destroy mankind from the face of the earth by a flood of waters; and not them alone, but all the beasts of the earth, and every creeping thing, as well as the fowls of the air. The Lord therefore directed Noah, as a means of preserving himself and his family (for he had three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, who were all married before the Flood), to build an ark or vessel of a certain form and size fitted to that end, and which might besides accommodate such numbers of animals of all sorts, that were liable to perish in the Flood, as would be sufficient to preserve the several species, and again to replenish the earth.

In the year of the world 1656, being the six hundredth of his age, Noah, by God’s appointment, entered the ark, together with his wife, his three sons, their wives, and all the animals which God had caused to come to him; and being all entered, and the door of the ark being shut down from, the outside, the waters of the Deluge began to fall upon the earth, and increased in such a manner that they were fifteen cubits above the tops of the highest mountains, and continued thus upon the earth for 150 days; so that whatever had life upon the earth, or in the air, was destroyed, except such as were with Noah in the ark. But the Lord remembering Noah, sent a wind upon the earth, which caused the waters to subside; so that upon the seventeenth day of the seventh month the ark rested on the mountains of Ararat; and Noah having uncovered the roof of the ark, and observing that the earth was dry, he received orders from the Lord to come out of it, with all the animals that were therein. This he did in the six hundred and first year of his age, on the 27th day of the second month. See the article Deluge.

Then Noah offered as a burnt sacrifice to the Lord one of all the pure animals that were in the ark; and the Lord accepted his sacrifice, and said to him that he would no more pour out his curse upon the whole earth, nor any more destroy all the animals, as he had now done. He gave Noah power over all the brute creation, and permitted him to eat of them, as well as of the herbs and fruits of the earth; excepting only the blood of animals, the use of which God did not allow him. He bade him increase and multiply, made a covenant with him, and engaged no more to send an universal deluge upon the earth; and as a memorial of his promise, he set his bow in the clouds, to be as a pledge of the covenant which he had made with Noah.

Noah, being an husbandman, began now to cultivate the vine; and having made wine and drank thereof, he unwarily became intoxicated, and falling asleep in his tent, happened to uncover himself in an indecent posture. Ham, the father of Canaan, having observed him in this condition, made sport with his father, and acquainted his two brothers, who were without, of the exposure of thepatriarch But they, instead of making it a matter of sport, turned away from it, and going backwards, they covered their father’s nakedness, by throwing a mantle over him. Noah awaking, and knowing what Ham had done, said that Canaan the son of Ham should be accursed, that he should be a slave of slaves in respect of his brethren. It is thought he had a mind to spare the person of his son Ham, for fear the curse might light upon the other children of Ham, who had had no part in this action. He cursed Canaan by a spirit of prophecy, because the Canaanites, his descendants, were afterwards to be rooted out by the Israelites. Noah added, Let the Lord, the God of Shem, be blessed, and let Canaan be the servant of Shem. And he was so in effect, in the person of the Canaanites subdued by the Hebrews. Lastly, Noah said, Let God extend the possession of Japheth; let Japheth dwell in the tents of Shem, and let Canaan be his servant. This prophecy had its accomplishment, when the Grecians, and afterwards the Romans, being descended from Japheth, made a conquest of Asia, which formed the portion of Shem.'

But Noah lived yet after the Deluge three hundred and fifty years; and the whole duration of his life having been nine hundred and fifty years, he died in the year of the world 2006. He left three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, of whom mention is made under their several names; and, according to the common opinion, he divided the whole world amongst them, in order that it might be repeopled. To Shem he gave Asia, to Ham Africa, and to Japheth Europe. Some will have it, that, besides these three sons, he had several others. The spurious Berosus assigns him thirty, called Titans, from the name of their mother. It is also pretended that the Teutons or Germans are derived from a son of Noah called Thuiscon. Methodius likewise mentions Jonithus or Jonicus, a pretended son of Noah.

St Peter calls Noah a preacher of righteousness, because before the Deluge he was incessantly preaching and declaring to men, not only by his discourses, but by his blameless life, and by the building of the ark, in which he was employed six score years, that the wrath of God was ready to descend upon them. But his preaching had no effect, since, when the Deluge came, it found mankind plunged in all their former enormities.

Several learned men have observed, that the Heathens confounded Saturn, Deucalion, Ogyges, the god Coelus or Uranus, Janus, Proteus, Prometheus, and others, with Noah. The wife of Noah is called Noriah by the Gnostics; and the fable of Deucalion and his wife Pyrrha is manifestly a corruption of the history of Noah.