Noah

Also known as: Menahem · Role: son of Lamech · First appears: The Birth Of Noah

Noah was born to Lamech and Lamech’s unnamed wife; Methuselah named him, saying he would bring joy in compensation for destruction. With Noah’s birth, the famine in Lamech’s time ceased, the sea stayed within its bounds, and the earth returned to its earlier state. Grown to manhood, Noah followed the ways of his grandfather Methuselah. At 498, he married Naamah, and later Uriel warned him that a flood would destroy the earth and taught him how to survive.

One week before the flood, Noah led two lion cubs into the ark. When the flood came, he refused the sinners’ request to enter, while he, Naamah, their sons and their sons’ wives escaped inside. Noah sent out a raven and then a dove to learn the state of the waters; the dove later returned with an olive leaf. He would not leave the ark until God swore never to bring another flood. When he stepped outside, he wept at the destruction, then offered a sacrifice, with Shem performing the priestly services. God blessed Noah and his sons, permitted them to eat animal flesh but not blood, and established the seven Noachian laws.

Later, Noah partnered with Satan to plant a vineyard; the grapes ripened that same day, and Noah drank the wine and became drunk. Ham saw him and attempted to prevent him from fathering another son. Shem and Japheth covered their father’s nakedness while walking backward, and Noah blessed them; he cursed Canaan in punishment for Ham’s irreverence. In 1569 after creation, Noah divided the earth by lot among Ham, Japheth and Shem, warning against taking land not assigned by lot. He also recorded remedies revealed to him and passed the book to Shem.