Holy Holy Holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come (Revelations 4:2-8)

Today, I tried to draw the Throne of Heaven from Revelations 4:2-8.

It is a very complex image with fanciful creatures.

At once I was in the Spirit, and there before me was a throne in heaven with someone sitting on it. ³ And the one who sat there had the appearance of jasper and ruby. A rainbow that shone like an emerald encircled the throne. ⁴ Surrounding the throne were twenty-four other thrones, and seated on them were twenty-four elders.They were dressed in white and had crowns of gold on their heads. ⁵ From the throne came flashes of lightning, rumblings and peals of thunder. In front of the throne, seven lamps were blazing. These are the seven spirits^[a] of God. ⁶ Also in front of the throne there was what looked like a sea of glass, clear as crystal.

In the center, around the throne, were four living creatures, and they were covered with eyes, in front and in back. ⁷ The first living creature was like a lion, the second was like an ox, the third had a face like a man, the fourth was like a flying eagle. ⁸ Each of the four living creatures had six wings and was covered with eyes all around, even under its wings. Day and night they never stop saying:

“‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty,who was, and is, and is to come.”

Christ, from Revelations

In my life, I went from loving Revelations, to hating and avoiding it, and now I find it beautiful.

I am currently doing the Jesuit prayer guide.  Today, we looked at the description of Jesus from Revelations.  I used an hour to draw the crazy description of Jesus.  Here is the text from Revelations plus the picture I drew.

On a white page, I could not draw white hair.  Also, I colored the hands the same color as the feet and face, i.e., burned bronze and like the sun, even though the hands are not described.

"I saw seven golden lampstands, ¹³ and in the midst of the seven lampstands One like the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the feet and girded about the chest with a golden band. ¹⁴ His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and His eyes like a flame of fire; ¹⁵ His feetwere like fine brass, as if refined in a furnace, and His voice as the sound of many waters;¹⁶ He had in His right hand seven stars, out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword, and His countenance was like the sun shining in its strength. ¹⁷ And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead. But He laid His right hand on me, saying to me,^[h] “Do not be afraid; I am the First and the Last. ¹⁸ I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and of Death."

Revelations 1:12-18 (NIV)

Tower of Babel (Genesis 11:1-9)

Genesis 10 covered the dispersal of men around Mesopotamia and the ancient near east.

In Genesis 11, we follow the actions of men as they move east.

Despite the dispersal we saw in Genesis 10, mankind is unified by a common language.

In verse 3, mankind continues to be innovative and learns how to make bricks by baking them and using bitumen for mortar.  This replaces stone as a building material.

Mankind immediately decides to start building a giant tower, which would obviously remind the ancient readers of the ziggurats of Babylonia.  The intended height for this is tower is one that "reaches to the heavens" (v. 4).

According to Robert Alter's commentary, this phrase of reaching "to the heavens" is commonly found in inscriptions of large ancient buildings found in the ancient near east.

If we combine that with the building material they used (brick), then we can probably guess that this tower was not very tall.  Rather, it is what the tower symbolized and not its height that mattered to God.

The stated purpose for this tower is not to literally reach the heavens, but to "make a name for themselves and not be scattered over the whole face of the earth.". (v. 4).  They want their names to be remembered, which could refer to inscriptions on the buildings themselves.

They also want a concentration of human population.  On one hand, this fits the anti-city theme of Genesis.  It also could represent Babylonian power overall.  The people want to be unified under one government.  This presents a threat to the ancient readers of Genesis and as we know, Babylon conquers Judah and forever becomes a symbol of evil.

Back to Genesis, God comes and disperses the people by giving them separate language.  God's stated purpose is to concern that if God does not do this, then "nothing will be impossible for" mankind.

God confuses their languages and the people cannot make sense of each other.  So, they scatter and "stop building the city", which would include working on this tower.

Like I mentioned, I read this story more of a subtle attack on the Babylonian culture.  Or, perhaps it was a reminder to the ancient Israelites that God will protect them from the major neighboring empires of the day.

But the story discusses the origin of the diversity of language, so let's consider it on its own terms.

One question that comes to mind for me is - does God fear large, or even, world-wide empires united by a common tongue?

I think that God is aware of the power that can focus into the hands of dictators.  Perhaps that is what the story is about.

But in terms of unified languages, if we consider the last few centuries of our own history, we can see the rise and fall of various international languages coinciding with rising and falling empires.  Likewise, various ethnic groups and languages serve to unite areas on a regional area.

Spanish, Portuguese, and French
There used to be a worldwide empires for Spain, Portugal, and France.  Over time, these broke up.  Many areas that were part of their respective empires are still united by speaking the colonial governments, although they have various governments.

Russian
An analogous situation happened with the case of Russia and Russian language in the 20th century.  The Russian Tsarist empire converted to the Communist Soviet empire.  When the Soviet union collapsed, it left a legacy of Russian behind.

Chinese and German
These might seem like strange languages to group together.  But I think it is fair because regional trading and colonization led to wide areas of Europe speaking German and the Far East speaking China.

If one travels around central, northern, and eastern Europe, German might be better to get around than English.

Likewise, Chinese is spoken frequently outside of mainland China.

English
English is the dominant international language today.  The supremacy of English today stems from the British Empire in the 19th century and America's emergence as the lone superpower after the collapsed of the Soviet Union.


After considering these, does God hate unified people under common languages?  I do not think so.  Rather, it is what we do with unified power that matters.


The First Pentecost (Acts 2)
No discussion of the Tower of Babel is complete without considering the first Pentecost.  There, through the Holy Spirit, God undid the language diversity from the Tower of Babel and began to unite people with language.  God did not simplify the world into one language, but rather gave people the ability to speak in other languages to communicate with other people.  This tear downs walls that separate people.

Fruitful and multiplied (Genesis 9:18-10:32)

This section of Genesis covers Noah's sons and their descendants.

The curse of Canaan
After the Flood, one of Noah's sons, Ham, finds his father drunk from wine.  He is so drunk, that he is exposed in his own tent.  Ham sees his father's nakedness and tells the other sons, Shem and Japeth.  Shem and Japeth walk backwards into the tent and cover up Noah's nakedness.

Noah wakes up and curses Ham.  Although Ham has four recorded sons (10:6), this curse will only pass through Canaan.  Canaan will serve the descendants of Noah's other sons, Shem and Japeth.  (9:26-27).

This is one of those weird anecdotes of the Bible.  It has led to lots of speculation, in particular because it does not feel the stated actions of Ham warrant the curse on Canaan.

Here are the various interpretations I have come across from others or thought of myself.  They are not necessarily mutually exclusive, but could have worked together.


1.  Seeing one's own father's nakedness was itself very bad and was sufficient to warrant a curse.

2.  Ham mocked Noah.

Ham did not help to cover the nakedness, but instead told Shem and Japeth about it.  This makes one think the Ham was mocking Noah and wanted Shem and Japeth to mock him as well.  Instead, they do want

3.  Ham castrated Noah.
This reasoning borrows from the other regional Flood stories in which the person who saves humanity is subsequently castrated.  It not only is insulting and painful, but for someone who just saved humanity, it has an extra level of insult, because it removes the possibility of any more children from Noah at a time when there are almost no people on the planet.

The earth is devoid of humans.  The population is very low and here, the patriarch might be getting castrated by his own son.  Perhaps the son does not want anymore competition in repopulating the earth from his own father.

4.  Ham raped Noah.
This reasoning sees the story as an origin story about the people of Canaan and why they deserve to be destroyed.

The Canaanites are rapists and incestuous.  For example, we are about to come across the Canaanite cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, where man-on-man rape occurs without a thought.  The cities are also the home of Lot's daughters, who are incestuous.

Thus, Canaan receives the curse because they are incestuous rapists.  This in part justifies the later conquest and annihilation of the people by Joshua.


The descendants
In Chapter 10, the descendants of the sons of Noah spread out to the entire near east world.

From other commentaries about this, a few things stand out to me.

Nimrod (verses 8-12) is named as a great hunter.  He also established Ninevah, thus he could be the first Assyrian king.

The "Sea Peoples" (v. 5) likely refer to the Greeks.

If we add up all the people mentioned, 70 of them, they spread out and encompass the entire region.  Truly, the sons of Noah were fruitful and multiplied.

A restart (Genesis 9:1-17)

Noah, his family, and all the animals have left the ark.  God restarts the world through Noah and tells Noah and his family to "be fruitful and increase in number".  In fact, God gives this instruction twice, once in verse 1 and again in verse 7.  This is similar to the instruction that mankind received in 1:28.

God seems to make a few changes regarding the relationships between man and nature.  The fact that God specifies shows a potential contrast with either the antediluvian situation, the state of life for Noah in the last year while in the ark, or both.

Although God speaks to Noah, we can extrapolate this to mean God speaks to all humanity since Noah is now the father of all future generations.


1.  Animals
Two things happens with animals.  They are given the fear of people and as a corollary, God gives all animals to eat.

a.  Fear of people
The fear of people is placed into the heart of animals.  (v. 2)  This does not mean that animals will refrain from attacking or injuring people.  Rather, it means both that wild animals will try to avoid humans and that humans will have an easier time domesticating animals since they will have a natural respect for humans.

Humans are not the natural prey of any vertebrate animal.  I must specify "vertebrate" because we are the natural prey of microscopic organisms, such as the plasmodia that cause malaria.  I don't think this text addresses it.  But if an animal can feel fear or has a neural network, then it will fear humans.

This is one of those things that perhaps indicate what was very about the antediluvian situation.  If God indicates this after the Flood, then perhaps it did not exist prior to the Flood.  Or, if it did exist, it may have been corrupted.  If so, it may indicate what 6:11 means in that the "earth was corrupt in God's sight and full of violence.". Perhaps humanity was prey to animals.


b.  A fully carnivorous mankind
Man is given animals to eat, all animals.  (v. 2-3)  There are no restrictions here with regard to species, rather it is analogous to plants.  The only restriction is regard to blood, which I will discuss separately.

Why state this?

It is a sharp contrast to the flight from Eden by Adam and Eve, where there is no indication they are allowed to eat animals.  The only thing they were given to eat was plants.

Now, we can infer that they do start eating animals because God clothes them with animal skins (3:21) and in chapter 4, their son Abel is a shepherd and sacrifices one of his flock to God (v. 2-4).  But these are inferential whereas the case with Noah is explicit.

I think it also has something to do with the notion that perhaps the community on the ark was vegetarian during that year.  It certainly fits the pattern of re-creating Creation Week, but really, if the purpose of the ark was for mankind to protect animals, it would not make sense then to eat them.


2.  The special case with blood
God has special things about blood.

* Eating the lifeblood
Noah is told not to eat any meat that has its lifeblood in it.  (v. 5).  Looking ahead to the Mosaic code, it is a little different.  Note, this is not the same as "do not eat blood that has been drained".  The notion of "blood pudding" comes to mind, or also meat that has the blood removed by cooking.  Putting this together, God is saying, "do not eat, raw, bloody meat".

Going back to the notion about the microbes, cooking meat and avoiding it raw and bloody is good to avoid microbes.

* Accounting for blood
There are two aspects of this.  First, animals that draw human blood will be accounted for.  It is common practice today to put to death domestic animals that have attacked humans.  Likewise, animal control officials try to find and kill wild animals that have a "taste for human blood".  They are both aberrant to nature.

The second aspect is that people who kill another human must be accounted for with their own blood.  (v. 6).  There is no stated exception here for accidental murder, which we call "manslaughter".  Actually, taken literally, it justifies revenge killing for both intended and accidental murders.

We will find later in Mosaic Code an assortment of rules on how to deal with this, including safe cities of refuge for manslaughter.

It also stands as a stark contrast to the situation of Cain who was punished for his murdering Abel as a cursed farmer, and not killed himself (4:12-15).  Likewise, we do not exactly know what, if any, punishment Lamech received for killing a young man.  (4:23-24)

The statement by God could also be another solution to the antediluvian problem of violence (6:11).

Finally, given the phraseology of "accounting of blood" for shedding blood, one might wonder if it is appropriate to continue the death penalty after the death and resurrection of Christ.  If Christ's blood was shed for all and for all sins, then Christ's blood accounts for the blood of murderers.  Perhaps, the death penalty is now obsolete by the death of Christ.


3.  The Rainbow
Noah is probably shell-shocked from this whole Flood experience.  God promises him, every living creature with him (I.e., all nature), and all generations to come, to not do it again.

As a sign of this covenant, God creates rainbows in the clouds.

Let's consider the rainbow.

Scientifically, rainbows are formed from the separation of light through water in the air.  The moisture acts as a prism and separates light.  In other words, in order for a rainbow to form, there must be moisture in the air.  Enough moisture will cause rain or at least condensation.

The covenant by God, as indicated by the rainbow, means that even if there is moisture in the air, the entire earth will not be flooded with water.

This makes the rainbow an interesting accompaniment of rain clouds.  We can look to rainbows amidst rain clouds and know that particular rain cloud, nor any others, will flood entire the earth.

The only other rainbow I am aware of in the entire Bible occurs in Revelations 4:3.  Specifically, the throne of heaven is surrounded by a rainbow that resembles an emerald.  So, a rainbows signifies the power of God.

If we import this concept back into this covenant with Noah (and all and nature), then we can something else about the rainbow with rain clouds.  When we see a rainbow, it is like we can all look into heaven and see the throne of God holding back the waters of the flood.

The covenant and Global Climate Change
One final thing about the rainbow and more particularly about the covenant that God makes.  This regards global warming and climate change.  Some Christians look to this covenant by God to state that global warming and the associated ice melting and rising sea levels will not happen because of this covenant in Genesis 9.

I think that is a fundamental misunderstanding of the models and predictions of global climate change.  I have not seen any models or theories that the entire earth will be flooded.   Prohibition of the entire earth being flooded again is what the covenant of Genesis 9 pertains to.

The rainbow covenant is silent about regional flooding catastrophes.  We see plenty of regional flooding catastrophes each year.  Clearly, the rainbow covenant does not stop regional flooding catastrophes.

The models of global warming and climate change predict more regional flooding catastrophes.  This is something that should concern us all, regardless of the rainbow covenant.

The waters recede (Genesis 8)

The waters steadily recede.

Eventually, the mountaintops emerge from the waters, echoing Day Three of Creation Week (1:9).  Day Three also had the emergence of plants and we will soon see expedited plant growth in the Noah account.

Eventually, the ark comes to rest in the "mountains of Ararat".  This area is currently in Eastern Turkey.

Noah still cannot see any land, so he sends out a raven and then a dove looking for dry land.  They each return, but eventually the dove returns with an olive leaf and afterwards, it does not return at all.  Given the speed of the events, it suggests that there is miraculous plant growth in order to go from no dry land to an olive leaf within the span of a week.  (8: 9-11).  This is a more subtle reminder of Day Three of Creation Week.  (1:11-12).

I recently read the flood myth of the Pima people, a Native American tribe in Arizona.  This account has something similar to the Biblical one in that a woodpecker and a humming bird are dispatched to fly around the world looking for the "earth's navel", where the Pima people live.  It seems the gods are looking for the remnant of humans.

This is about the only similarity with the version about Noah.  Afterwards, one of the goods, Ee-ee-toy creates giant snakes that push away the waters.

Back to Genesis, the earth dries to the point that Noah can release the animals.  He does so and immediately builds an altar and sacrifices animals to God.  (8:20).  Here, we see that Noah conducts animal sacrifices, but still have no evidence that Noah eats the animals he was supposed to protect.  This falls in line with the idea that the seven pair of clean animals (7:3) were intended for sacrifice and not human consumption.

It is also the second recorded instant of animal sacrifice in the Bible.  The first one lead to the death of the sacrificer, Abel.  Here, no one is angered by it.  In both accounts, God is pleased and accepts the offering.  In fact, the smell of the offering is a fragrance to God.

It rains and it pours (Genesis 7)

God tells Noah to go into the ark.  The animals arrive and within a week, the rains begin.  The text provides three different sources of water.  In verses 11-12, they are:

* Rain for forty days and forty nights.
* Springs of the great deep burst forth.
* Floodgates of the heavens were opened.

I have heard theories from people who take the beginning of Genesis far more literal than I do, that the earth had a literal water sphere around it.  This water sphere had floodgates, which are opened at the this time, as the text states.  Later, as the water drains, it drains out of areas like a faucet drain, perhaps the same places as the "springs of the great deep".

I certainly cannot disprove such an idea, but I do not think we even need to go there for an interpretation that makes sense.  The "floodgates of the heavens were opened" feels like a metaphor to just mean a lot of rain, as we might say "it is raining cats and dogs".

Really, I think it is besides the point.  There is clearly a lot of supernatural activity as described in the text.  In fact, as modern readers, we are actually left with a lot of questions.

* What about insects?  Were they on the ark?  Bacteria, molds, fungi, and non-food plants?  Did Noah collect all of these, too?

* What about fresh water fish and seawater fish?  With all the waters mixing, this will destroy all freshwater environments.  Freshwater fish would be poisoned by the high salt content.

* Why did not people just get in boats and save themselves?


Regional or worldwide flood?
The text indicates that it was a worldwide.  Even if we allow that from Noah's perspective, it could have "worldwide" to him, there is something that is not quite right about that.  Mainly, the stated purpose of the flood was that it would need to be worldwide.

The biggest issue I have with a super-literal interpretation comes from plant growth records that extend by 10,000s years.  From there, we can a see a continual growth pattern with no evidence of a cataclysmic flood.

Really, I do not know.  Obviously, what happened requires a major supernatural event.  Could God have flooded the world, then removed all geological and paleobiological evidence to that effect?  Sure, I suppose.

I also am not impressed with the "universal flood myth" in many cultures as evidence of the great flood.  The main reason is that the details of the flood look very different in cultures far removed from mesopotamia.  There, we find floods that were regional, caused by rain, or caused by tsunamis or hurricanes.  What that shows to me is not that the "great flood" was universal, but rather that flooding is a universal problem.

Another theory is that this came from the end of the Ice Age when flooding became a major problem.  Ice melted and dry land filled in with water.  For instance, both the Persian Gulf and the Black Sea were largely dry basins not too long ago.

The clean and unclean animals always stand out to me.  The Robert Alter translation and commentary states that this referred to sacrificial animals, not dietary animals.  This would make more sense given that the ark environment would have to be vegetarian to some extent.

God's instructions to Noah (Genesis 6:13-22)

This is the longest continuous speech thus far in the book of Genesis.  It contains God's instructions to Noah to escape the oncoming flood.

God tells Noah to:

1.  Build an ark of cypress wood
God gives Noah specific details about the dimensions (300 x 50 x 30, cubits).  It also should include a skylight at the top and a door on the side.

2.  Collect animals
A male and female of every kind.  We later see Noah collected seven of every clean and unclean animal.

3.  Collect food
Some of every type to serve as food Noah and his family and the animals.  Collecting plants would allow all terrestrial plant life to survive the food.

Taking the story as it is laid out, an open question is -- how much God would help Noah in doing all of this?  After all, God is about to do a major supernatural event.  Noah is asked to an awful lot.

I think it is usually assumed that God helped Noah at least with the collection of animals.  Animals are not corralled or herded without a herdsmen or someone directing their activity.  Likewise, how would Noah know which animals is every kind unless God tells him so.

More realistically, and I think tends to be overlooked in depictions of Noah's Ark, some animals would need their character changed.  Some would be dangerous to either Noah or other animals.  For instance, it would not help the survival of zebras if lions ate all of them while on the ark.

Likewise, collecting enough food for them is a major undertaking, let alone collect the cypress wood necessary for the ark.

Noah could reasonably either (1) be a lumberjack and collect the wood, (2) build the ark, (3) collect animals, (4) grow voluminous amounts of food, or (5) collect the food harvests, but probably could not do all five simultaneously.

In depictions of the story that I have seen, God gives Noah the lumber and Noah is the shipbuilder.  Likewise, God sends the animals, two by two, to Noah.  Plants are usually overlooked in depictions, but God would have to do the same.


Undoing Creation and Re-creation
What is about to happen is simultaneously an doing of creation and its re-creation.

God is about to change the boundary of earth, sea, and sky, which were set in Days Two and Three of Creation Week.  This change in the boundaries will unleash waters and kill animals, plants, and humanity, undoing the creation of life on Days Three, Five and Six.

We also will see a re-creation.  In order for the animals to live happily together on the ark, they must be returned to the condition they had in the Garden of Eden.  In other words, the ark itself must be a vegetarian community, at least for the animals.  So, assuming assuming that happens, then creation is happening a second time, and whatever tainted nature the animals had due to man's corruption is being undone.

Of course, we will see a new population of people, just like with Adam and Eve.  God is starting humanity over with Noah.

Prelude to the Flood (Genesis 6:1-12)

People have spread out from the Garden of Eden and multiplied.  The result of which displeases God.  Here is what happened:

* Total wickedness
People are wicked and every inclination of their thoughts is for evil.  (v. 5).  It is hard to imagine what the Bible means by such a statement.  We get a few details later on, but I think the only fair contrast is Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 19.  There, we find two cities where visitors are almost raped.  We can assume that this, or possibly worse, occurred in the world, but on a global level.


* The Nephilim
The text states that sons of God intermarry with the daughters of men.  (v. 1-2).  This seems to create a race of people known as the Nephilim.  (v. 4)

Who were these people?  Most commentators I found believe that this was an angelic-human hybrid race.

We encounter them again in Numbers 13:33.  There, we learn they are giants that inhabit Canaan prior to the conquest of Joshua.

We can infer some things about them based on God's reaction to them.  First, they seem to be an attempt by humanity to reach immortality.  This I infer from Genesis 6:3, where God decides to limit the human lifespan to 120 years in the midst of discussing a hybrid human race.  So, perhaps copulation with an angel was one way to achieve immortal offspring, although it displeases God.

At this point, the echoes of the Greek myths where humans and gods copulated frequently.  It is also should remind of us the circumstances behind the birth of Christ.  If we take the Virgin Birth of Christ seriously, then perhaps we should not be surprised that angels and humans are having children.  We should understand as fallen angels, I.e., demons.

This also echoes a few other things we find in the early accounts of Genesis.  In that, it is the attempt by humanity to become like gods.  Being "like God" is what the serpent tempted Eve.  (3:4).  Looking ahead to the Tower of Babel, one of the stated reasons for its construction was to "reach the heavens".  (11:4).

Second, the existence of Nephilim is something that should be destroyed.  It displeases God in Genesis 6 and in Numbers 13, it is a condition that precedes the conquest.  God authorizes total war and annihilation of the inhabitants of Canaan.  Thus, the presence of the Nephilim is again associated with oncoming destruction by God.

Putting this together, it makes an interesting contrast to the other views offered by ancient near east mythology.  Here, the Bible assumes the existence of the ancient heroes and calls them the Nephilim.  But the God of the Bible is not happy with them and their existence is a prelude to the destruction, either of the earth or Canaan.  The Bible is saying that God is not with them, they are not gods like "God", and God can destroy them.


* Violence and corruption
The earth is corrupt and full of violence because mankind corrupted itself (vv. 5,11-12).  The corruption of man is so bad, that it has corrupted nature.  One wonders what exactly this means.  Perhaps, animals attacked humans on a level worse than today.  Or, perhaps there were more violent diseases.



The Effect
God's heart is filled with pain and he regrets creating mankind.  God plans to wipe out humanity, all but one man and his family.

The beginning of Genesis 6 sounds both harsh and strange.  It is harsh because God wants to destroy the world.  But it is strange because the earth seems to be filled with angelic-human hybrids and nature itself is corrupted.

It is time for a new beginning.