Noah (pronounced /ˈnoʊə/; Hebrew: נֹחַ, spelled Nōaḥ, meaning "rest" or "consolation") is the last of the early leaders before the great flood in the traditions of Abrahamic religions. His story is found in the Hebrew Bible (Book of Genesis, chapters 5–9), the Quran, Baha'i writings, and other religious texts not considered official in some traditions.
The story of the flood in Genesis is one of the most well-known parts of the Bible. In this account, God decides to punish people who have done wrong. Noah follows God's instructions and works hard to build an Ark. This Ark saves his family, all humans, and every land animal from being destroyed during the flood. After the flood, God makes a promise with Noah, saying He will never again destroy the Earth with a flood. Noah is also described as a farmer who was the first person to grow grapes. God later tells Noah and his sons to "be fruitful, multiply, and fill the Earth."
The story of Noah in the Bible is similar to the flood tale in the ancient Mesopotamian Epic of Gilgamesh, written around 1800 BC. In that story, a hero builds a boat to survive a flood sent by gods. Scholars believe the biblical story may have been influenced by these older traditions, as both stories share similar events and structures. The story of Noah is also compared to the Greek hero Deucalion, who, like Noah, is warned about a flood, builds a boat, and sends a bird to check if the flood has ended.
Biblical narrative
According to the genealogy in Genesis 5, Noah was the tenth and final patriarch before the flood. He was the son of Lamech, whose wife’s name is not recorded. Lamech was 182 years old when Noah was born, and Noah was 500 years old when his sons—Shem, Ham, and Japheth—were born. Lamech believed Noah would bring relief from the hard work and suffering of people.
The story of the flood is found in chapters 6–9 of the Book of Genesis in the Bible. It describes how God decided to flood the Earth to destroy humanity because of their wrongdoing. The flood was meant to return the Earth to its original state of chaos before creation and then recreate it using Noah’s Ark as a small representation of life. The flood was not just a heavy rain but a reversal of creation. The story explains why God destroyed the world, how Noah and his family prepared the Ark for animals, and how God promised (through the Noahic Covenant) that he would never again destroy life with a flood.
After the flood, Noah offered sacrifices to God. God accepted the offering and made a covenant with Noah, promising that he would never again destroy the Earth or humanity with another flood. God blessed Noah and his sons, telling them to be fruitful, multiply, and fill the Earth. As a sign of this promise, God placed a rainbow in the sky.
Rules were given to Noah: eating meat was allowed, but not the meat of living animals. Killing a human was declared a crime punishable by death.
The Seven Laws of Noah, as listed in Jewish texts like the Babylonian Talmud and Tosefta, include laws such as prohibiting idolatry, murder, and sexual immorality.
Noah lived 350 years after the flood, dying at the age of 950. At that time, Terah was 128 years old. The Bible shows that human lifespans gradually decreased after the flood, from nearly 1,000 years to 120 years, as seen in the life of Moses.
After the flood, Noah became a farmer and planted a vineyard. He drank wine made from the vineyard, became drunk, and lay uncovered in his tent. His son Ham saw his father’s nakedness and told his brothers. Because of this, Noah cursed Ham’s son, Canaan.
Some ancient commentators, like John Chrysostom and Philo, explained that Noah’s drinking was not a sin because he was the first person to discover wine and did not know its effects. In Jewish tradition, some rabbis believed that Satan caused the wine to be intoxicating.
The Bible does not explain why Noah cursed Canaan or what Ham did to deserve it. Scholars have suggested that the story may be incomplete or based on a larger tale. Some interpretations link Noah’s drunkenness and the curse to themes of sexuality or incest, though these ideas are not directly stated in the text.
Genesis 10 lists the descendants of Shem, Ham, and Japheth, who spread across the Earth after the flood. Japheth’s descendants included maritime nations. Ham’s descendant, Nimrod, became a powerful hunter and king in Babylon. Canaan’s descendants lived in areas like Sidon, Gaza, and Sodom. Shem’s descendant, Eber, is also mentioned.
The genealogies in Genesis 10 are structured differently from those in Genesis 5 and 11, showing multiple offspring from each father. This structure contrasts with the story of the Tower of Babel, which describes people being in one place before being scattered.
The genealogy in Genesis 5, which traces Noah’s ancestors, comes from the priestly tradition. Another genealogy in Genesis 4 comes from the Jahwistic tradition. Scholars believe these are variations of the same list.
According to the documentary hypothesis, the first five books of the Bible (the Pentateuch) were written by combining four sources from around the 10th to 5th centuries BC. Two of these sources, the Jahwist (from the 10th century BC) and the Priestly source (from the 7th century BC), contributed to the flood story. Differences in the text, such as how many animals Noah took or how long the flood lasted, may result from combining these sources.
Some scholars note similarities between the flood story and the Garden of Eden story. Both involve a first farmer (Adam) and a first vintner (Noah), problems with their produce, and a curse after a conflict between brothers. However, in the flood story, Noah, not God, plants the vineyard and gives the curse, showing a different role for God.
Other accounts
Besides the main story in Genesis, the Hebrew Bible (Christian Old Testament) also mentions Noah in the First Book of Chronicles, Isaiah, and Ezekiel. References in the deuterocanonical books include Tobit, Wisdom, Sirach, 2 Esdras, and 4 Maccabees. The New Testament also mentions Noah in the gospels of Matthew and Luke, as well as in some epistles (Epistle to the Hebrews, 1 Peter, and 2 Peter).
Noah is discussed in more detailed descriptions in the literature of later Abrahamic religions, including Islam (Surahs 71, 7, 11, 54, and 21 of the Quran) and the Baháʼí Faith (Kitáb-i-Íqán and Gems of Divine Mysteries).
The Book of Jubilees mentions Noah and states that an angel taught him the arts of healing so his children could overcome "the offspring of the Watchers."
In 10:1–3 of the Book of Enoch (which is part of the Orthodox Tewahedo biblical canon and considered canonical for Beta Israel), the angel Uriel was sent by "the Most High" to warn Noah about the approaching "deluge."
There are about 20 fragments from the Dead Sea Scrolls that seem to mention Noah. Lawrence Schiffman writes, "Among the Dead Sea Scrolls, at least three different versions of this legend are preserved." In particular, "The Genesis Apocryphon includes a lot of information about Noah." However, "The material seems to have little in common with Genesis 5, which describes the birth of Noah." Also, Noah's father is reported to have worried that his son was actually born from one of the Watchers.
Religious views
The righteousness of Noah is a topic that many rabbis have discussed. The Bible calls Noah "righteous in his generation," which some people believe means his goodness was only compared to others in his time. For example, if Noah lived in the same time as Abraham, a very righteous person, he might not have been seen as so good. Some rabbis note that Noah did not pray to God for the people who would be destroyed, unlike Abraham, who prayed for the people of Sodom and Gomorrah. Noah is described as someone who listened to God and followed His commands without speaking out. This led some to describe Noah as "the righteous man in a fur coat," someone who focused on his own comfort rather than helping others. However, Rashi, a medieval commentator, believed Noah spent 120 years building the Ark to give people time to change their ways. Rashi also explains that Noah’s name, Noaħ, means "he will comfort us" after the hardships of working the cursed earth. Some believe this refers to Noah bringing a time of peace, such as introducing the plow to help farming.
The Jewish Encyclopedia says the Book of Genesis has two stories about Noah. In one, he is the hero who survives the flood, and in the other, he is the father of humanity who plants the first vineyard. These different stories show Noah had different roles, which some scholars say might mean they are about different people.
The Encyclopedia Judaica explains that Noah’s drunkenness is not seen as bad behavior. Instead, it is used to criticize Israel’s neighbors, the Canaanites. Ham, one of Noah’s sons, was the one who acted disrespectfully by seeing his father’s nakedness. However, Noah’s curse was directed at Ham’s son, Canaan, not Ham himself.
In Mandaeism, a religious tradition, Noah is mentioned in a text called the Right Ginza. His wife is named Nuraita, and his son is named Shum, which is the same as Shem.
The Bible also talks about Noah. In 2 Peter 2:5, Noah is called a "preacher of righteousness." In the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, Jesus compares Noah’s flood to the Day of Judgment, saying people will be surprised when it happens, just as they were during the flood.
The First Epistle of Peter compares baptism to being saved in the Ark. Later Christian ideas saw the Ark as a symbol of the Church, where salvation was found only through Christ, just as it was in the Ark. St. Augustine, a Christian thinker, said the Ark’s size matched the human body, which represented the body of Christ. This idea is still used in some Christian baptism ceremonies.
In medieval times, some Christians believed Noah’s three sons, Japheth, Shem, and Ham, were the ancestors of the people of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Others thought they represented different social classes: priests, warriors, and farmers. Ham was often linked to black Africans, and this idea was sometimes used to justify slavery.
Isaac Newton, a scientist and religious writer, believed Noah was a monotheist, and the gods of ancient pagan cultures were connected to Noah’s descendants.
A Gnostic text called the Apocryphon of John says the flood was caused by a powerful being who wanted to destroy the world. Noah was warned about this and told others to hide in a safe place. Unlike the Bible, this story does not mention an Ark.
The Druze, a religious group, see Noah as an important prophet who helped spread the belief in one God. He is considered one of seven key prophets in their tradition.
In Islam, Noah is a major prophet. The Quran mentions him 43 times, and one chapter is named after him, Sūrah Nūḥ. His story includes preaching to his people and the flood that destroyed those who refused to listen. The Quran says God made a covenant with Noah, similar to those with Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad. Noah faced rejection from his people, who called him a liar and thought he was possessed. Only a few people believed in him. The Quran also says Noah’s Ark rested on Mount Judi after the flood. Islamic teachings do not say Noah was the first person to drink wine.
The Baháʼí Faith sees the Ark and the flood as symbols. They believe only Noah’s followers were spiritually alive and saved, while others were spiritually dead.
Comparative mythology
Flood myths exist in many cultures, including those of ancient India and Greece. However, there is little evidence that these stories were directly influenced by the Mesopotamian flood myth, which is the basis for the biblical story of Noah.
The story of Noah in the Pentateuch is very similar to a flood tale in the Mesopotamian Epic of Gilgamesh, written around 1800 BCE. In this story, the gods decide to destroy humanity with a great flood. Both stories share key elements, such as the construction of an ark, the saving of animals, and the release of birds after the flood. Small differences include the number of days the flood lasted, the order in which birds were sent, and the name of the mountain where the ark came to rest. The flood story in Genesis 6–8 matches the Epic of Gilgamesh so closely that many scholars believe it was based on a Mesopotamian account. Notably, the Genesis story follows the Epic of Gilgamesh "point by point and in the same order," even when other versions of the story existed.
The earliest written flood myths are found in Mesopotamian texts like the Epic of Atra-Hasis and the Epic of Gilgamesh. According to the Encyclopædia Britannica, these myths influenced the biblical flood story, including details like the building and provisioning of the ark, its floating, and the receding waters. The Encyclopedia Judaica suggests that the Hurrians, a people who lived near the city of Harran (where Abraham’s ancestors lived), may have acted as an intermediary in spreading the flood story from Babylonia. Both the biblical and Mesopotamian stories share similarities, such as Noah being the tenth patriarch and the flood hero being the tenth king in Mesopotamian records. However, the ages of the heroes differ greatly, with Mesopotamian kings having reigns lasting thousands of years, while biblical figures lived much shorter lives. The names of the flood heroes also differ: the earliest Mesopotamian story called the hero Ziusudra.
Yi Samuel Chen notes that the oldest versions of the Epic of Gilgamesh did not mention a flood, only that Gilgamesh sought immortality from Utnapishtim. Later, during the Old Babylonian Period, the story of Gilgamesh meeting the flood hero was added, blending Utnapishtim with Ziusudra. The earliest Sumerian poems about Gilgamesh date to around 2100–2000 BCE, and some mention his journey to meet the flood hero. The earliest Akkadian versions of the Epic of Gilgamesh were written between 2000–1700 BCE. These texts may have included expanded flood stories, though some fragments only mention Gilgamesh’s journey to Utnapishtim. A later version, edited by Sin-liqe-unninni around 1300–1000 BCE, included a detailed flood story.
Chen argues that the flood narrative was added to the Epic of Gilgamesh during the Old Babylonian Period. He also notes that the Sumerian King List, which includes references to a pre-flood era, was likely updated during this time. The flood as a historical event may have been a new idea in Mesopotamian writing, as earlier texts like the Ur III copy of the King List did not mention it. Chen concludes that references to Ziusudra as a flood hero and the flood motif in the Instructions of Shuruppak were added later, influenced by the growing "Antediluvian Tradition."
In Greek mythology, the hero Deucalion, the son of Prometheus and Hesinoe, is compared to Noah. Like Noah, Deucalion was warned of the flood by Zeus and Poseidon, built an ark, and saved animals. After the flood, he released a bird (a pigeon) to check the world’s condition, and the bird returned with an olive branch. In some versions, Deucalion invented wine, like Noah. Scholars such as Philo and Justin linked Deucalion to Noah, and Josephus used Deucalion’s story to argue that the flood actually happened and that Noah existed.
Similar flood myths appear in Sumerian mythology, where Enlil caused the flood, and Enki saved humanity, much like Zeus and Prometheus in Greek stories. Scholar Stephanie West suggests that the Greeks may have borrowed these ideas from Near Eastern cultures.
In the Videvdad 29 and 37 of Zoroastrian texts, the mythical Iranian king Yīmā was ordered by Ahura Mazdā to build a subterranean shelter called Var, similar to Noah’s Ark. He was instructed to gather plants, animals, and humans, with some exceptions.