Читать книгу Bereshit, The Book of Beginnings - David B. Friedman - Страница 12

1 This was when mankind began to populate the earth. In particular, many daughters were born to people in that period.1

2 The sons of God knew that these young women were beautiful. So they picked out whomever they desired and took (them as) wives from among them.

3 So God said, “I won’t fight with mankind forever, since they are frail and but human. So they will live to be only 120 years old.”

4 Fallen beings were present on earth in those days (as well as afterward) when they coupled with women. Their offspring were mighty warriors who had great reputations from early on in history.2

5 God knew that mankind was engaging in much evil activity. The entire scope of every desire and plan of mankind was wicked.

6 In addition, God regretted that He had created mankind upon earth, and He was saddened about their state of being.

7 So God said, “I will put an end to mankind which I created, since I regret that I created them all—from men to animals, and reptiles as well as the birds of the air.”

8 But Noah was favored by God.

9 This is the family history of Noah: Noah was a scrupulously righteous man who feared God. So he stood out among those of his generation, because he lived righteously before God.

10 Noah fathered three sons: they were Shem, Ham, and Yafet.

11 The earth was corrupt in its relation to God and was full of wanton violence.

12 Everything was perverted, because all mankind lived corrupt lifestyles on earth.

13 Then God told Noah, “All humanity is about to end, because all of earth is full of wanton violence. Men have perverted the entire earth.

14 So make for yourself a boat of buoyant wood; make animal pens in the boat, and coat it inside and outside with pitch.3

15 Make the boat 300 amah in length, 50 amah in width, and 30 amah in height.4

16 Make a roof for the boat, and build the vessel upward to an amah short of the roof. Put a door on the side of the boat, and build three decks on the vessel.

17 This is because I will definitely bring a catastrophic flood upon the earth, to destroy all animal and human life. Everything on earth is to be eradicated.

18 But I will fulfill My covenant with you, because you, your wife, your sons and their wives will board the boat.

19 As well, bring a pair (one male and one female) from all the animals, to the boat.

20 (Bring them) from the birds, each pair according to its species; and from the animals of the field, each pair according to its species; also from the reptiles, bring two of each species, so that they may continue to live.

21 Then take and store up food of every variety, so that you can consume it. This will be the food supply both for you (humans) and for them (the animal life).”

22 So Noah did everything that God commanded him; he did it all.

1. vv.1–2: See the very interesting analysis of the lessons of this narrative found at http://www.ericlevy.com/Writings/Writings_BneiElohim.htm. Levy summarizes the wrongdoings of the “sons of God” as: “. . . enabling their hedonistic desires. More specifically. . . [their] purpose is to dominate the daughters of man (and, de facto, man himself) for the sake of unbounded physical pleasure.”

2. vv. 4–5: These mighty warriors, the offspring of the sons of God, are identified as evil beings in the book of Hanoch: “They taught them [women] sorcery and incantations, how to cut roots and plants. And they gave birth to mighty giants 3,000 cubits high. [The giants] ate all that men could make until men could not longer sustain them. Then the great ones turned against and ate the men. And they began to sin against birds and beasts and crawly things, and to drink human blood. And Azzazael taught the children of men to make shields and armor . . . and taught them to make up their eyes and dyes, and of precious stones. . . .” (taken from www.ericlevy.com/ Writings/Writings_BneiElohim .htm). Levy then summarizes the book of Hanoch’s viewpoint on the offspring of the sons of God: “Bestiality, cannibalism, war, and seduction; these mirror the sins of the Generation of the Flood.” The book of Hanoch can be accessed at http://reluctant-messenger .com/book_of_enoch.htm and at http://www.sacred-texts.com/bib/boe/.

It is fascinating to read the Epic of Gilgamesh (see glossary) and to note the similarities between the figure of Gilgamesh and the “fallen ones” of v. 4. It is this author’s conclusion that this is a possible extra biblical epic drama of one, if not two, of these “fallen beings,” or their descendants. I refer the reader to The Epic of Gilgamesh, Tablet I:29–91, in particular. The Epic of Gilgamesh can be found at http://www.ancienttexts .org/library/mesopotamian/gilgamesh/tab1.htm.

In contrast to these ‘fallen beings’ who polluted mankind, we have Noah, who represented the line of mankind that had not been influenced by the ‘fallen beings’ or their offspring. He has no genealogical connection to them. The text infers that these are the reasons that his family was chosen to survive the flood (see 6.8–9).

3. v. 14: The identification and translation of gofer wood (Hebrew) is uncertain. It has been identified as various types of known woods: acacia and cypress are among them. However, whatever type of wood it was, it was certainly buoyant.

4. v.15: An amah is the Hebrew word for a measure of approximately twenty or twenty-one inches in length.