Noah in Rabbinic Literature - His Marriage

His Marriage

Although Noah is styled "a just man and perfect in his generations" (Genesis 10:9), the degree of his righteousness is, nevertheless, much discussed by the ancient rabbis. Some of the latter think that Noah was a just man only in comparison with his generation, which was very wicked, but that he could not be compared with any of the other righteous men mentioned in the Torah. These same rabbis go still further and assert that Noah himself was included in the divine decree of destruction, but that he found grace in the eyes of the Lord (comp. ib. vi. 8) for the sake of his descendants. Other rabbis, on the contrary, extol Noah's righteousness, saying that his generation had no influence on him, and that had he lived in another generation, his righteousness would have been still more strongly marked (Talmud Sanhedrin 108a; Genesis Rabba 30.10). In like manner, the terms "wise" (hakam) and "stupid" (ba'ar) are applied to Noah by different rabbis (Exodus Rabba l.2; Numbers Rabba 10.9). Still, it is generally acknowledged that before the Flood, Noah was, by comparison with his contemporaries, a really upright man and a prophet. He was considered as God's shepherd (Leviticus Rabba 1.9; "Yalk. Hadash," Mosheh, No. 128).

Two different reasons are given why Noah begat no children until he had reached the advanced age of 500 years, while his ancestors had families at a much younger age (comp. Genesis 5). One explanation is that Noah, foreseeing that a flood would destroy the world on account of its corruption, refused to marry on the ground that his offspring would perish. God, however, ordered him to take a wife, so that after the Flood he might repeople the earth (Tan., Bereshit, 39; "Sefer haYashar," section "Noa?"). The other explanation is that God rendered him impotent until he reached the age of 500, saying: "If his children be wicked, he will be afflicted by their destruction; and if they be upright like their father, they will be troubled with making so many arks" (Genesis Rabba 26.2). The "Sefer haYashar" (l.c.) and Genesis Rabba (22.4) both agree that Noah's wife was called Naamah. According to the latter, she was the sister of Tubal-cain (Genesis 4.21); according to the former, she was a daughter of Enoch, and Noah married her when he was 498 years old.