Noah

Noah: My Take (spoilers alert)

Many of you probably know that I recently saw the movie Noah. Some of you take issue with that, and I’m well aware of that. I can’t say I completely enjoyed the movie, but I can say there are good things about it and bad things. I will deal with each here.

First the good. Noah is bigger than life. Truly an epic presentation. And it should be. Even though the story of Noah doesn’t occupy much space in Scripture, it is a very important story. Just as important as Adam and Eve.

It is very clear in the movie that mankind is going to be destroyed by a deluge because of their sin. Noah talks about that a lot. I’ve read some comments from reviewers that there is a big environmental push in the movie, that the sin of mankind was in not being environmentally conscious. That’s not true at all. The only thing I saw was a comment that Noah made that could be taken as meaning that mankind was being punished for sinning against the earth. But the statement could also be taken as meaning that mankind had sinned, period.

The Bible says that not only did rain fall, but there were also waters under the ground that broke upon the earth. (Gen. 7:11). This is clearly seen in the movie.

There are a couple flashback scenes of the Garden of Eden and Adam and Eve taking the fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden, also called the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Gen. 3:3; 2:17). The fruit clearly does not look like an apple. I’m glad, because many people think it was an apple. It could have been, but the Bible doesn’t say it was. It just says it was fruit (Gen. 3:6).

The ark looks like an ark. It is a huge structure, very capable of holding many animals. And it’s clear that there is pitch, or tar, in places on it (Gen. 6:14).

They do show a raven scanning the earth but never finding a place to land. And later they show a dove with an olive twig in its beak (Gen. 8:11). There is also a rainbow at the very end of the movie, long after Noah and his family came off the ark. I don’t know when God sent the rainbow, but from Gen. 9:13 it was clearly after they came off the ark.

Methuselah is part of the movie. He is presented as Noah’s grandfather. This is accurate according to Gen. 5:26-28. And Methuselah dies in the flood. I don’t know if this is true or not. From the historical evidence, it is clear that Methuselah died in the year of the flood, but he may have died just prior to it.

Before the deluge, Noah goes to visit Methuselah. He gives Noah some advice, but it’s somewhat veiled. There is a scene later in which Methuselah heals Ila (Seth’s wife) of her barrenness. I don’t think that happened at all.

Now about what some are calling the “rock people.” There were no rock people. The rock creatures in the movie were fallen angels, not people at all. The movie explains how they became that way. They had tried to help Adam and Eve after they fell. God cursed them and made them into rock creatures. Okay, whatever. We don’t know what angels look like, other than the fact that they often appear like humans when they appear to humans. That doesn’t mean that’s what they always look like.

The biggest problem I had with the fallen angels was not their appearance. There were three issues: first, they helped humans. No, fallen angels, like Satan, want to destroy humans. They won’t ever help people. Second, when Noah is building his ark, they help him build it. No, that would never happen. See point one. Third, just before the floods came, they start breaking apart from their rock formations and their spirit goes upward, ostensibly to Heaven. I don’t know where they went, but it was not to the abode of God. They’re f-a-l-l-e-n. Sinful.

Another problem is why Ham and Japheth do not have wives. For whatever reason, Noah doesn’t permit it. Um, the Bible makes clear that there were 8 people on the ark (Gen. 7:7; 1 Pet. 3:20). At one point just before the rains take the ark away, Japheth is bringing a girl with him that he wants to take. She gets caught on a bear trap of sorts that Noah had set much earlier. Why he set it, I don’t know. But she’s caught in it, and a crowd runs over her, so she doesn’t get to go.

So when Seth’s wife has two baby girls (more on that later), what is that all about? Are they one day going to marry Ham and Japheth? They would have to, because there are no other humans on the earth after the flood waters recede. The movie doesn’t address that. I don’t know why Aronofsky wrote the absence of wives for Ham and Japheth into the script. Why not just let Ham and Japheth bring wives like Scripture says? I honestly think it makes Aronofsky look silly.

Another wrong fact: Tubal-Cain was a stowaway on the ark. No, he wasn’t. As I said before, there were eight people on the ark: Noah, his wife, and his three sons and their wives. Tubal-Cain gets killed while on the ark in the movie, so he doesn’t survive to the new world, but still, it’s inaccurate.

About Tubal-Cain: they do portray him pretty accurately. He is a metal worker (Gen. 4:22). Nothing about him being a king in the Bible or even that he was an enemy of Noah, but he’s the king of the land in the movie and Noah’s archenemy.

During the battle between Tubal-Cain and Noah, something hits the boat (I don’t recall how it all happened) and causes some damage. Water starts coming it. The boat is not in any danger of sinking, but it clearly is a problem. Did something like this happen? I don’t know. It could have. Scripture doesn’t say.

In the movie, Japheth looks to be about a teenager. I don’t think this is accurate. I think all the sons were grown men. It took a long time to build the ark. Some think it took 120 years to build it, based on Gen. 6:3. I don’t think that’s an accurate representation of what that verse teaches, but that’s what some people believe. They also had wives, which is another reason to believe they were grown men. Finally, Gen. 5:32 says Noah was 500 years old when he became the father of Shem, Ham, and Japheth. In Gen. 7:6, he was 600 years old when the flood started. So his boys were 100 years old, clearly adults.

Before the deluge hits, some men on the earth kill and eat animals. Did this happen? I don’t think it’s likely, based on Gen. 9:3. But it’s hardly a serious issue for me.

The animals come to the ark. Noah doesn’t have to go get them. That doesn’t appear to be accurate according to Gen. 6:19; 6:2. These verses say that Noah was to “bring” and “take” the animals. Also, the first animals that come are birds. Hundreds and hundreds of them. I don’t know how many birds were on the ark, but the Bible clearly says that Noah was to take “kinds” (Gen. 6:20) of birds and animals. In the movie, there was a raven and a dove (true according to Gen. 8:7 and 11, so those clearly are two different kinds). But I don’t think he took every dog there is. I think he took 2 (or maybe 7; Gen. 7:2) dogs and no more. Then when the snakes came, again there were hundreds and hundreds. But to be accurate, there should be only the separate kinds of snakes. I’m not a biologist, so I don’t know the breakdown of the kinds.

There are a couple weird scenes where Noah wraps a snakeskin around his arm. Some reviewers have tried to point out that this is a form of Gnosticism. If so, it is lost on pretty much everyone. It’s not clear in the movie what the purpose of the snakeskin is for. I took it to mean mankind’s conquering of the serpent in the Garden of Eden. To be fair, Adam didn’t conquer the serpent. But there is a prophecy that the Messiah would (Gen. 3:15).

Back to the daughters of Seth and his wife (Ila). There’s nothing in the Bible about any children being born on the ark. I don’t think that happened. In Gen. 9:1, after the family leaves the ark, God tells them to be fruitful and multiply, which seems to mean it they hadn’t been fruitful yet.. But the bigger issue is why Noah wanted to kill the babies. Noah makes it clear that everyone is evil, including him and his family. And he’s right. The Bible makes clear that there is no one who is righteous (Rom. 3:10). But Noah takes that a bit far. He thinks that the only people God intended to save are him, his wife, his sons, and his adopted daughter (who married Seth). So he reasons that these children must die. He ends up not killing them, but it eventually leads to an estrangement from his wife. No evidence of that in Scripture.

In one of the last scenes of the movie, Noah is seen naked on the beach. Ham sees his father, which is what the Bible says happened (Gen. 9:22). But then the Bible says that Seth and Japheth walked backwards with a robe to cover their father. In the movie, this is done by Seth and his wife (Ila) (Gen. 9:23). In the movie, Noah gets upset, but he doesn’t curse Ham’s descendants, as the Bible says happened (Gen. 9:25). Also, there is some evidence from some writers that what Ham did was have a sexual encounter with his father. The Bible doesn’t say, and I’d rather not speculate. See http://community .beliefnet.com/go/thread/view/44041/22320721/Is_it_true_that_Noah_had_sex_with_a_man for one person’s opinion.

So that’s my take on it. In some respects, it’s good. But in others, it’s highly inaccurate. But it’s not the Devil, which is how some people portray it. I’ve read that the director, Darren Aronofsky, has said that this is the most unbiblical movie ever made. I’m not sure if that’s true, but I doubt it. There’s a lot of accurate information in this movie. Is it perfect? Of course not. It wouldn’t be perfect if you or I made it, either.

I welcome your comments, but I would please ask you to state whether you have seen the movie, and if you have not, whether you intend to. And be aware that if you haven’t seen it and don’t plan to, your opinion is based on the opinions of others and not based on the facts of the movie.