In its weekend debut, it rose to the top of box office sales. Remarkably, the epic movie, Noah, collected 44 million dollars from Friday to Sunday March 28 to 30. Perhaps part of the reason for the surge in ticket sales is the controversy over the movie and whether it is an accurate Biblical portrayal.
Over the last week, I was struck by the debate in the media about whether the movie would accurately reflect the Biblical story. At times, I had to chuckle at the irony. The debate is ironic because there isn’t one story about Noah but a mash-up of two different narratives in the Biblical book of Genesis. The intertwined stories of Noah are one of many contradictions found in the Bible.
Both stories have the same essential plot line: Noah builds an ark, loads it with animals, and saves life as it was known from a devastating flood. But what are the Biblical details?
In Genesis 6:16, Noah loads up the animals in pairs of two – one male and one female. But in Genesis 7:1, Noah brings seven pairs of ritually clean animals and only one pair of unclean ones, like pigs and shell fish. Which count is correct? Both verses state that these were God’s instructions. Did God change the instructions? Did Noah get it wrong the first time? What’s going on with this contradiction in the story?
Genesis 7:12 notes that it rained for 40 days and that the water dried up after 150 days when the ark settled on dry ground. But Genesis 8:1-3 explains that it rained for 150 days. It then took ten months for the water to subside. But somehow, Genesis 8 has the ark being grounded on dry land in seven months. I’m not sure how to sort out the math behind Genesis 8, but there are clearly some differences here about the number of days it rained and the duration of the flood.
Genesis 8 goes on to say that a raven was sent out to find dry land. Then it says that a dove was sent. Most English translations of the Bible try to make sense of this by inferring that one bird was sent before the other, but the original text doesn’t convey that meaning. The original text simply says that Noah sent out a raven. Then it says Noah sent out a dove.
When did the water dry up? Was it the first day of the first month? Or was it the 27th day of the second month? Again, the Genesis account that we inherited says both things.
What happened with Noah and the flood? Why does the Bible contradict itself? How can the Bible not get the details of the story right? (By the way, there are similar problems with the multiple stories of creation in Genesis as well as repeated accounts of other things in the Bible. The Bible frequently contradicts itself.)
Here’s what scholars know about the book of Genesis. This explains how the contradictions occurred. What we know today as the book of Genesis wasn’t originally written as one text. There are written accounts that pre-date the book of Genesis. Generally, scholars agree that at least four different sources were written in different places and in different time periods that were edited together to create what we know as the book of Genesis. With the story of Noah, at least two of these sources were combined in Genesis 7 and 8: one was concerned with Jewish law and what animals were clean and unclean and another that used the name “Elohim” for the deity. Sometime around 500 BCE, an editor put both of these stories together into what we now have in the Genesis account.
This is the important question to ask: was the editor trying to give a detailed and accurate picture of early human history? No! The editor’s concern was to convey something about faith. Because the editor’s purpose was related to faith, the contradictory details didn’t matter to the editor. It’s the message that mattered.
Many other Middle Eastern cultures have stories of ancient floods. The most notable is the epic of Gilgamesh, which is the first recorded account of a great flood. There’s also archeological evidence of great floods in ancient times in the Middle East. Let’s be clear: there’s no archeological evidence of a flood that covered the whole Earth, including Mount Everest.
My conclusion about Noah is that a flood probably occurred and that from generation to generation people told stories of the great flood. It had to be a very scary event for early humans. Within the context of the stories of the horrible human tragedy, stories arose about a man named Noah. Noah had a really rough life. Noah’s life was so rough that when he was passed out drunk, his son Ham had anal intercourse with him! Yet, despite his bad luck and tragic circumstances, God was a faithful presence in his life and saved him from destruction. That’s an inspiring story of faith. By using a familiar story, the author was trying to convey that no matter how bad things get – even when you’re about to lose everything in the world around you – God is still there and will provide courage and strength.
Does the movie, Noah, accurately tell the Biblical story? How could it? The Biblical story doesn’t make sense because the essential facts all contradict each other. Does it follow the Biblical tradition preserved in Judaism today called midrash? Yes. Midrash is homiletic reflection on the Biblical text that makes the story alive in new ways for the current generation. People paid $44 million to see the movie in one weekend. It seems to me that the retelling of the story in a modern way is inspiring people. That’s a wonderful thing. However, I didn’t see the movie and I doubt that I’ll pay $11.00 for the opportunity of viewing it.
So….see the movie or don’t see the movie. That’s really up to you. But don’t expect any movie about the Bible to be historically accurate. Nothing in the Bible was written as an accurate historic account. Instead, recognize that the Bible is filled with stories meant to inspire your vision of what life can be. The unique inspiration of the stories of the Bible lie in their ability to touch our hearts and minds millennia after they were first told. Isn’t that miracle enough?