Genesis
Chapter 6
Sin of Men
When people began to multiply on the earth and daughters were born to them,
the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were very beautiful, so they married whoever they chose.
The Lord then said:
“My spirit will not remain in man forever, for he is flesh. His span of life will be one hundred and twenty years.”
At that time, there were giants on the earth, and later, when the sons of God went to the daughters of men and had children by them, these were the heroes of old, men of renown.
The Lord saw how great man’s wickedness on earth was and that evil was continually the only thought in his heart.
The Lord regretted having created man on the earth, and His heart grieved.
He said:
“I will destroy man whom I created and blot him out from the face of the earth, as well as the beasts, creeping creatures, and birds, for I am sorry I made them.”
But Noah found favor with God.
The Flood: God, Noah, and his Family
This is the story of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, who walked with God.
Noah became the father of three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
The earth had become corrupt in God’s sight and was filled with violence.
The Lord said to Noah: “I have in mind to destroy all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. This is why I will destroy them and, with them, the earth.
The Lord said to Noah:
“I have in mind to destroy all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. This is why I will destroy them and, with them, the earth.
As for you, build an ark of cypress wood.
This is how you will do it: the length of the ark shall be four hundred and fifty feet; the width shall be seventy-five feet; the height shall be forty-five feet. You will put a roof on the ark and finish it within eighteen inches of the top.
Place a door on one side of the ark and include the lower, middle, and upper decks.
I am about to bring floodwaters upon the earth to destroy it, eliminating all life under the heavens, every creature that has the breath of life. Everything on earth will perish,
but I will establish my Covenant with you. You shall come into the ark with you, your wife, your sons, and your sons’ wives.
You shall bring into the ark two of every kind of living thing, male and female, to keep them alive with you.
Of the birds, the animals, and all crawling creatures on the ground, according to their kind, two of every sort shall come in to be kept alive with you.
Take along every type of food that is eaten. Stock up on it, and it will serve as nourishment for you and them.”
Noah did all as God had commanded him.
Commentaries
Sin of Men.
As if it were an interruption in the list of Adam’s descendants, we find an elaborate account of an ancient belief in a special race of giants who, according to legend, come from the union of “celestial beings,” sons of God, with the daughters of human beings. It serves the writer to describe the scourge that the people suffered from the children of sacred prostitution, a widespread practice in that territory. The descendants of these unions claimed special privileges that led to further oppression and impoverishment for the people. It also reflects the painful memory of the injustices committed by the royal family. Remember that the king was considered the “son of God.”
This passage introduces us to the story of Noah. It heightens the tension between God’s harmonious and kind plan and human infidelity and corruption, which is the free and voluntary rejection of that plan. Seeing that man’s “wickedness” was “growing” on the earth (5), God “repents” of having created him (6). But immediately, Noah appears, who “obtained the favor of the Lord” (8).
The Flood: God, Noah, and his Family.
The punishment targets the descendants of Seth, the brother of Abel, who is supposedly the “good” branch of the human family. This narrative is based on an ancient Mesopotamian myth. The biblical account appears very ancient; scholars trace the current text to the editorial efforts of three of the four primary sources of the Pentateuch: the Yahwist (J), the Elohist (E), and the Priestly (P). The latter provided it with its definitive form and is, therefore, the one whose influence is most strongly felt.
In the dynamics of the first eleven chapters of Genesis, the narration of the flood serves as a self-criticism of Israel, which has failed, “shipwrecked”, in its vocation to the service of justice and life. Israel, too, as a chosen people, allowed itself to be dominated by the hoarding and selfish tendencies of human beings and ultimately ended up sinking into failure. From this perspective, questioning the historical veracity of the flood or the actual existence of Noah and his ark is of no benefit to faith. What matters is the message that the sacred author conveys: the abandonment of justice and commitment to life leads to real catastrophes. Faith must grow at the same pace as our commitment to life and justice.