Family Values, Biblical Style pt. 2
I'm going to back up. Not much. Names in the Bible, especially the beginning of Torah, tend to have meanings. Usually there's an explanation given, sometimes there's a double meaning. Sometimes there's a pun in Hebrew that doesn't translate into English at all. (I'll get there with Jacob.) Chava means 'life'... she's the mother of all humanity. Get it? I'm not sure how that got changed over to 'Eve', but it did, because the transition from Hebrew to English doesn't always make sense. (I'm still trying to figure out some of them.)
Let's get on with Noah. Noah, in the Bible, is explained means 'Rest'. And it does. But his name can also mean lazy. Just think about that as we go on.
Bereishit/Genesis 6:9-10
אֵלֶּה תּוֹלְדֹת נֹחַ נֹחַ אִישׁ צַדִּיק תָּמִים הָיָה בְּדֹרֹתָיו אֶת הָאֱ־לֹהִים הִתְהַלֶּךְ נֹחַ:
וַיּוֹלֶד נֹחַ שְׁלֹשָׁה בָנִים אֶת שֵׁם אֶת חָם וְאֶת יָפֶת:
These are the generations of Noah; Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with G-d.
And Noah fathered three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
The thing you need to know, was that Noah was NOT perfect. He was perfect for his time. But his time kind of sucked. I'm going to skip over stories, like I said. I'm interested in family relationships.
He and his kids and their wives all build a boat. Family activity, there. Also, his full grown, married sons do not have kids of their own. I'm not sure how old they are. If I'm doing my math correctly, I think Japheth is at least 100. So, if he got married at around 20, he's gone 80 years without having a kid. Just putting that out there. Space was limited on the boat.
Blah, blah, flood blah.
After the flood, we get a pretty rainbow. Noah's all, "I've had enough of stinky animals on this stinky boat with three kids and their wives and it's PARTY TIME!"
So he gets drunk. And passes out. As you do after you've been stuck on a boat for a year with a bunch of animals and four women and your three grown kids who you can't tell to move out and get a job.
And then, while he's passed out, one of his kids either rapes or castrates him.
We leave that part out of the kid version. We go up to rainbow and stop.
Bereishit/Genesis 9:21 - 23
וַיֵּשְׁתְּ מִן הַיַּיִן וַיִּשְׁכָּר וַיִּתְגַּל בְּתוֹךְ אָהֳלֹה:
וַיַּרְא חָם אֲבִי כְנַעַן אֵת עֶרְוַת אָבִיו וַיַּגֵּד לִשְׁנֵי אֶחָיו בַּחוּץ:
וַיִּקַּח שֵׁם וָיֶפֶת אֶת הַשִּׂמְלָה וַיָּשִׂימוּ עַל שְׁכֶם שְׁנֵיהֶם וַיֵּלְכוּ אֲחֹרַנִּית וַיְכַסּוּ אֵת עֶרְוַת אֲבִיהֶם וּפְנֵיהֶם אֲחֹרַנִּית וְעֶרְוַת אֲבִיהֶם לֹא רָאוּ:
And he drank of the win and became drunk; and he lay uncovered inside his tent.
And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside.
And Shem and Japheth took a garment, and laid it upon both their shoulders, and went backward, and covered the nakedness of their father; and their faces were backward, and they saw not their father's nakedness.
Okay, so the rape/castration thing is more conjecture than actually written there -- Jewish tradition has always had it as being there. Ham is the middle child. Japheth is the oldest. Ham definitely does more than see. His dad is passed out drunk and naked. If it's an 'oops', you run away. Instead, Ham's all, "Hey guys, look at dad, he's NAKED, come look [at what I did]."
Like I said, Noah's not perfect either. There's this whole getting drunk thing. He may be perfect within his generation, but he's a lazy drunkard. It's part of his name. The women in this story do not matter, they are there to bear more children.
I'm going to go through the next bit down to Abraham's family here, because we've got more incest to cover, and Abraham's family is going to be huge, so let's get down to it. (Also, if we were doing a Torah reading, going down to Abraham's family, well, Abram's family, is tacked on to the end of Noach.)
Shem lives for a very long time, he's still alive when Abram's around. Ten generations after Noach.
Okay, I decided to make a diagram rather than try and explain.
Solid black line, parent/child relationship. Solid red line, spouse.
There's some debate on the Sarai/Iscah thing. Sarai might be Iscah. In which case he lies later when he says she's his half sister. Or this Iscah person that is mentioned here is never mentioned again. That's not exactly unusual, but it is for a woman to be mentioned in a lineage like this and never brought up again. So Abram either married his niece or his half-sister. You decide.
And Sarai is barren and has no children. :( Very sad. Okay, next time... Abraham, Sarai, Hagar, and that whole mess.