The story of Noah, as recorded in the Bible in the book of Genesis, tells about how God destroyed the earth with a flood. The story of Noah and the flood is one of the stories that raise questions about its authorship. Why are there multiple repetitions in the story? Why does the story present several contradictions in some areas? There are narrative seams that the redactor of this story left. A close look at the story reveals some major inconsistencies. If one person authored the story, some of the repetitions and inconsistencies, and contradictions would not exist. All these inconsistencies, repetitions and contradictions in the story indicate that there might have been more than one version of the story. The redactor of the story derived it from the various versions. Therefore, the story of Noah and the flood was written/told by more than one author.
This essay’s subsequent parts identify some parts of this story indicate that it was told by more than one person or author. In this story, the reason why God decided to destroy the earth with the flood is provided twice in different verses. In addition, the reasons differ, to some extent, although they might appear related. In Genesis 6:5, God saw that humankind was very wicked, and their thoughts were always evil. As a result, He was sorry that he had created human beings and placed them on earth. In Genesis 6:11, God destroyed the earth with floods because it was corrupt and full of violence. This indicates that there were two versions of the story, one that stated that wickedness was the reason as to why the earth was destroyed, and the reason provided by the other version is violence. The two versions are a clear indication that more than one authors told this story.
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There are inconsistencies in the number of animals allowed to enter with Noah into the ark. In Genesis 6:19, Noah was commanded by God to bring two of each kind into the ark. They were to be male and female, for each kind. Every type of animal, from creeping to the flying birds, all the animals entered into the ark in pairs, male and female. In contrast, in Genesis 7:2-3, Noah was commanded to take with him seven pairs of the animals that were considered clean, a pair of those considered to be unclean, and seven pairs of birds. The account provided in Genesis 6:19 is repeated in Genesis 7:14-15. This inconsistency also shows that there was more than one version of Noah’s story and the flood. There are more than one accounts combined to develop the story.
There are differences in the number of days it took for the water to dry up after the rain stopped. Genesis 7:17 – Genesis 8:5, the flood continued for 40 days. The water abated after one hundred and fifty days, after which the ark came to a standstill at Mount Ararat on the 17 th day of the seventh month. The water continued to reduce, and on the first day of the 10 th month, mountain tops could be seen. In Genesis 8:6-7, after forty days were over, Noah sent out a raven to see if the water had abated. However, the bird came back into the ark, which was an indication that the water was still on the face of the earth. Noah sent the bird again on two different occasions after every seven days, and on the last mission, the raven never returned, indicating that the waters had dried up. It took 150 days for water to dry up in one of the versions, while in the other version, it took fourteen days after the rains stopped for the waters to dry. This inconsistency in the number of days it took the waters to dry from the face of the earth shows that more than one author told the story.
The sign of the covenant that God gave that He would never again destroy the earth using floods is repeated in this story. It is mentioned twice in verses 12, 13, and 14 of Genesis chapter 8. This repetition alludes to the fact that there was more than one author of the story. Repetition is also seen in the mention of Noah’s family. A description of his family is provided twice in this story, and this is also a clear indication that more than one person told it. These two verses, “ And Noah with his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives went into the ark to escape the waters of the flood” and “On the very same day, Noah with his sons, Shem and Ham and Japheth, and Noah’s wife and the three wives of his sons entered the ark” mention the same thing twice which is a clear indication that one person did not give the story. The redactor of this story brought together more than one version of the story and did not seek to address consistency between them. In conclusion, it is clear that more than one person gave Noah’s story and the flood and that there might have existed different versions of the story. This is evidenced by the story’s redactor’s seams, as evidenced by multiple inconsistencies and repetitions evident throughout the narrative, as identified in this essay.
