26 Facts About Noah

Noah's story appears in the Hebrew Bible, the Quran and Baha'i writings.

Noah is referenced in various other books of the Bible, including the New Testament, and in associated deuterocanonical books.

Noah is portrayed as a "tiller of the soil" and as a drinker of wine.

Tenth and final of the pre-Flood Patriarchs, son to Lamech and an unnamed mother, Noah is 500 years old before his sons Shem, Ham and Japheth are born.

Noah drank wine made from this vineyard, and got drunk; and lay "uncovered" within his tent.

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John Chrysostom, Archbishop of Constantinople, and a Church Father, wrote in the 4th century that Noah's behavior is defensible: as the first human to taste wine, he would not know its effects: "Through ignorance and inexperience of the proper amount to drink, fell into a drunken stupor".

Philo, a Hellenistic Jewish philosopher, excused Noah by noting that one can drink in two different manners: to drink wine in excess, a peculiar sin to the vicious evil man or to partake of wine as the wise man, Noah being the latter.

In Jewish tradition and rabbinic literature on Noah, rabbis blame Satan for the intoxicating properties of the wine.

Oxford Encyclopedia of the Books of the Bible notes that this story echoes parts of the Garden of Eden story: Noah is the first vintner, while Adam is the first farmer; both have problems with their produce; both stories involve nakedness; and both involve a division between brothers leading to a curse.

Noah became the subject of much elaboration in the literature of later Abrahamic religions, including Islam and Baha'i faith .

Book of Jubilees refers to Noah and says that he was taught the arts of healing by an angel so that his children could overcome "the offspring of the Watchers".

Noah has often been compared to Deucalion, the son of Prometheus and Pronoia in Greek mythology.

Noah is never seen to speak; he simply listens to God and acts on his orders.

Encyclopedia Judaica notes that Noah's drunkenness is not presented as reprehensible behavior.

For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away.

In Newton's view, while Noah was a monotheist, the gods of pagan antiquity are identified with Noah and his descendants.

Noah is considered an important prophet of God among Druze, being among the seven prophets who appeared in different periods of history.

Noah is a highly important figure in Islam and he is seen as one of the most significant of all prophets.

Noah's life is spoken of in the commentaries and in Islamic legends.

Noah has several titles in Islam, based primarily on praise for him in the Quran, including "True Messenger of God" and "Grateful Servant of God" .

Noah is later reviled by his people and reproached by them for being a mere human messenger and not an angel .

Only the lowest in the community join Noah in believing in God's message, and Noah's narrative further describes him preaching both in private and public.

The Quran narrates that Noah received a revelation to build an Ark, after his people refused to believe in his message and hear the warning.

Also, Islamic beliefs deny the idea of Noah being the first person to drink wine and experience the aftereffects of doing so.

In Baha'i belief, only Noah's followers were spiritually alive, preserved in the ark of his teachings, as others were spiritually dead.

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The Baha'i scripture Kitab-i-Iqan endorses the Islamic belief that Noah had a large number of companions, either 40 or 72, besides his family on the Ark, and that he taught for 950 years before the flood.