2.

The Covenant with Noah (Genesis 9)

The Covenant with Noah

Noah plays little part in major discussions of covenant, such as those by Eichrodt and
Nicholson. Genesis 9 is the first explication of a covenant in the Bible: overlooked as
a late tradition, lack of reciprocity, or lack of involvement of Israel? Kutsch (TDOT)
sees ‘covenant’ as an obligation.

What kind of covenant is it? What is its content? How does it relate to other parts of
the Noah story?

First mention of covenant

Gen 6.18
17 I am going to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy all life under the heavens,
every creature that has the breath of life in it. Everything on earth will perish. 18 But I
will establish my covenant with you, and you will enter the ark—you and your sons
and your wife and your sons’ wives with you. 19 You are to bring into the ark two of
all living creatures, male and female, to keep them alive with you.

18a might not add much (so Westermann), but it is a promise based on an antecedent, Noah’s
righteousness (so Barr).

Documentary Hypothesis
Traditionally two sources (J and P) identified in Genesis 6–9. E.g., majority is considered J,
but P is identified in: Gen 6.9–22;
7.6, 11, 13–16a, 17a, 18–21, 24;
8.1–2a, 3b–5, 13a, 14–19;
9.1–17, 28–29
J: flood lasted 40 days, plus a week of waiting and 2 weeks afterwards (Gen 8.10, 12)
P; longer period, including 150 days (Gen 8.13a)
Contradictions over number of animals (6.18-20; 7.1-15), and many doublets: commands to
enter ark, the flood, increase of waters, end of the flood, drying of earth, and the promise
never to repeat it.
Some repetitions, such as in ch. 9, might be literary rather than source-based.
J is more descriptive and narrative, usually considered earlier.
P is precise and lacks elaboration: describes building of the ark. Could be as late as exilic.
Noah offering sacrifice (Gen 8.20-22) is J, since for P the cult is Mosaic, established in
Leviticus.

Attempts have been made to read the narrative as a single unit (e.g., Cassuto, Wenham), but
do not account for contradictions sufficiently.

Recent Pentateuchal Criticism

Distinguish “Priestly” (P) from “non-Priestly” texts (non-P).
Unified or not? Several layers (more than Pg and Ps)
Relation to Holiness Code (Leviticus 17–26): H from a priestly circle possible postdating P.

Preceding (J) Narrative

20 Then Noah built an altar to the Lord, and took of every clean animal and of every
clean bird, and offered burnt-offerings on the altar. 21 And when the Lord smelt the

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 pleasing odour, the Lord said in his heart, ‘I will never again curse the ground because
of humankind, for the inclination of the human heart is evil from youth; nor will I
ever again destroy every living creature as I have done.
22 As long as the earth endures,
seedtime and harvest, cold and heat,
summer and winter, day and night,
shall not cease.’
Promise of never again a universal destruction, but without mention of flood or a sign. Curse
upon the land. The seasons are the guarantor. Less connection with the flood than Genesis 9.

Genesis 9 (7x references to covenant)

8 Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, 9 ‘As for me, I am establishing my
covenant with you and your descendants after you, 10 and with every living creature
that is with you, the birds, the domestic animals, and every animal of the earth with
you, as many as came out of the ark. 11 I establish my covenant with you, that never
again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood, and never again shall there be
a flood to destroy the earth.’
12 God said, ‘This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you
and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: 13 I have set my
bow in the clouds, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. 14
When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, 15 I will
remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all
flesh; and the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. 16 When
the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between
God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.’ 17 God said to Noah,
‘This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all flesh that
is on the earth.’

Genesis 8 ends with Noah offering sacrifice, in the same manner as Utnapishtim does in
Tablet XI 159–161 of the Epic of Gilgamesh (cf. Atraḫasis III 5 34–35). In ANE texts the
survivors are also bestowed with blessing as in Gen 9.1.

The flood has been a reversal of creation – no longer be fruitful and multiply (Gen 1.28),
chaos returns. Gen 9.1 repeats the command to propagate, a reminder of the first creation;
Gen 6.6 and 7.4 are explicit on the opposite of creation (2.5 states God has not let it rain);
Gen 6.12 God saw the earth and it was corrupt; Gen 7.11 springs of underworld burst open;
each animal according to its kind.
However, in Genesis 9 vegetarian lifestyle is renounced, a renunciation of the
prescription in Gen 1.18–29.

Blessings of Creation are renewed in opening of Gen 9. In Gen 1–2 blessings are bestowed
on birds and fish (1.22); humans (1.28) and seventh day (2.3). Gen 9.1–2 has blessing on
Noah and sons as representatives of creation. The animals are intertwined with the promise of
the covenant, verse 8–17.

What Type of Covenant?

Establishing (hqym; Gen 6.18; 9.9) a covenant and not cutting (krt) a covenant – ratifying a
pre-existent agreement, or maintaining? More likely an avoidance of cultic language in P (J.
Day).

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Content: never again universal judgement. Divine promise with no human involvement, in
contrast to Gen 17. Guarantees created order, and therefore too the promises of Gen 9.1, 7.
Noah is addressed but does not respond. Covenant seems to be a free gift and not response to
sacrifice, despite the evil still inherent in mankind (as outlined in 9.1–7). Animals and
creation more prominent than evil, though. God calls it “my covenant”.

Sign of the Covenant

Bow (a weapon of a warrior God according to Gunkel) perhaps marker of firmament (cf.
Ezek 1.22–26). Various ‘cognition’ signs (Fox): luminaries, blood of paschal lamb, Sabbath,
altar-cover, Aaron’s rod, circumcision (cf. Harland). A reminder for God and humans, but
especially God who remembers the covenant (9.15, 16; cf. Exod 2.24; 6.5).
Argument for bow restated recently by van Wolde.

Does Gen 9 look forward to Gen 17? – promise of land; specification of Israel; stability of
natural order and command to be fruitful.

Noachide Laws
God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill
the earth. 2 The fear and dread of you shall rest on every animal of the earth, and on
every bird of the air, on everything that creeps on the ground, and on all the fish of the
sea; into your hand they are delivered. 3 Every moving thing that lives shall be food
for you; and just as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything. 4 Only, you
shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. 5 For your own lifeblood I will surely
require a reckoning: from every animal I will require it and from human beings, each
one for the blood of another, I will require a reckoning for human life.
6 Whoever sheds the blood of a human,
by a human shall that person’s blood be shed;
for in his own image
God made humankind.
7 And you, be fruitful and multiply, abound on the earth and multiply in it.’

Four points: all animals will feel fear; all animals are given as food; meat must not be eaten
with blood; retribution for shedding of blood.
These laws precede the covenant. The covenant does not seem to be conditional upon
them in contrast to Sinai covenant (Exod 34). Renewal of created order requires human
behaviour and establishment of laws to preserve that order. Humans will now inflict
punishment and therefore order is maintained.

v.1 repeat of words from Gen 1.28. But here dominion is expressed more strongly.
9.3= 1.29 in providing food, only this time it is meat.
v. 5 animals accountable for homicide; see too in Exod 21.28. Death of animals is now felt to
be necessary.

Leviticus 17
10 If anyone of the house of Israel or of the aliens who reside among them eats any
blood, I will set my face against that person who eats blood, and will cut that person
off from the people. 11 For the life of the flesh is in the blood; and I have given it to
you for making atonement for your lives on the altar; for, as life, it is the blood that
makes atonement.

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 12 Therefore I have said to the people of Israel: No person among you shall eat blood,
nor shall any alien who resides among you eat blood.
13 And anyone of the people of Israel, or of the aliens who reside among them, who
hunts down an animal or bird that may be eaten shall pour out its blood and cover it
with earth. 14 For the life of every creature--its blood is its life; therefore I have said
to the people of Israel: You shall not eat the blood of any creature, for the life of every
creature is its blood; whoever eats it shall be cut off.

Bibliography
Commentaries
Cassuto, Umberto, A Commentary on the Book of Genesis, vol. 1 (Jerusalem: Magnes Press, Hebrew
University, 1961).
McKeown, James, Genesis (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 2008).
Wenham, Gordon J., Genesis 1–15 (Waco, Tex.: Word Books, 1987).
Westermann, Claus, Genesis 1–11 (Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1972).
Hamilton, Victor P., The Book of Genesis: chapters 1–17 (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1990).
Studies
Barr, James, “Reflections on the Covenant with Noah,” in Covenant as Context: Essays in Honour of
E.W. Nicholson (ed. A.D.H. Mayes and R.B. Salters; Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003),
11–22.
Carr, David McLain, Reading the Fractures of Genesis: Historical and Literary Approaches
(Louisville, Ky.: Westminster John Knox Press, 1996).
Day, John, “Why does God ‘establish’ rather than ‘cut’ covenants in the Priestly source?” in
Covenant as Context: Essays in Honour of E.W. Nicholson (ed. A.D.H. Mayes and R.B. Salters;
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003), 91–109.
Dell, K.J., “Covenant and Creation in Relationship,” Covenant as Context: Essays in Honour of E.W.
Nicholson (ed. A.D.H. Mayes and R.B. Salters; Oxford: OUP, 2003), 111–33.
Dumbrell, W.J., Covenant and Creation: A Theology of the Old Testament Covenants (Carlisle:
Paternoster, 1997).
Eichrodt, Walther, Theology of the Old Testament, vol. 1 (London: SCM Press, 1961).
Harland, P.J., The Value of Human Life: A Study of the Story of the Flood (Genesis 6–9)
(Supplements to Vetus Testamentum 64; E.J. Brill, Leiden, 1996).
Nicholson, Ernest W. God and his People: Covenant and theology in the Old Testament (Oxford:
Clarendon, 1986).
Nihan, Christophe, From Priestly Torah to Pentateuch: A Study in the Composition of the Book of
Leviticus (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck), 2007.
Nihan, Christophe, “The Priestly Covenant, its Reinterpretations, and the Composition of ‘P,’” in
Sarah Shectman and Joel S. Baden (ed.), The Strata of the Priestly Writings: Contemporary
Debate and Future Directions (Zürich: Theologischer Verlag Zürich, 2009), 87–134.
Noort, Ed, “The Stories of the Great Flood: Notes on Gen 6:5–9:17 in its Context of the Ancient. Near
East,” in Interpretations of the Flood (ed. Florentino Garcia Martinez and Gerald P.
Luttikhuizen; Leiden: Koninklijke Brill, 1998), 1-38.
Novak, D., The Image of the Non-Jew in Judaism: An Historical and Constructive Study of the
Noahide Laws (New York: E. Mellen Press, 1983).
Shaviv, Samuel “The Polytheistic Origins of the Biblical Flood Narrative,” Vetus Testamentum 54
(2004), 527–48.
Ska, Jean Louis, Introduction to Reading the Pentateuch (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2006).
van Wolde, Ellen, “The Bow in the Clouds in Genesis 9.12–17: When Cognitive Linguistics Meets
Visual Criticism,” in A Critical Engagement: Essays on the Hebrew Bible in Honour of J.
Cheryl Exum (ed. David J.A. Clines and Ellen van Wolde; Sheffield: Sheffield Phoenix, 2011).

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Noah covenant plays little role in OT theologies (e.g., Zimmerli, Westermann, von Rad).
Result of source critical relegation to P as postexilic alignment with deuteron-Isaiah.

Noah covenant so late since it is dependent on more important Abraham (a back reference as
it were) and on Deuteronomic theology. Not with Israel and no requirements, and hence no so
important (and yet set within an ancient tradition if giants and tower of Babel).

Conditional on Noah’s earlier action – finding favour (6.8 J), being righteous (7.1 J) and
walking with God (6.9 P).

The flood – waters of chaos = a reversal of myths of creation when god defeats the waters (cf.
esp. Ps 74: 13 You divided the sea by your might; you broke the heads of the dragons in the
waters. 14 You crushed the heads of Leviathan; you gave him as food for the creatures of the
wilderness.

P versus J
Vocab and narrative features define the sources, not just divine names.
In P patriarchs never offer sacrifice or build an altar, even though cult is a major topic,
especially in legislation given to Moses.

So J has Noah offer sacrifice (even if elsewhere pleasing smell is not in J, but in ANE
precendents).

Animals – J distinguishes clean from unclean animals (Gen 7.2-3) but P does not (Gen 6.19-
20) since such laws on animals not revealed until Lev 11.

P picks up promise not to destroy the earth (Gen 9.11, picking up J’s Gen 8.21-22) –
repetition or later commentary.

Genesis 8
Mpies a covenant, the earth as a sign; but goes back to Gensis 2-3 and not to the flood.

Genesis 9.1-7
Goes back to Genesis 1-3 but not the flood (not shedding blood and image of God).
Intentionally no mention of covenant, when so prominent in the next verses.

Establish a covenant – Jer 34 indicates word-play on cutting covenant still alive.

Those who see the sense of maintaining, require a pre-existent covenant with Adam (in part
through interpretation of Hosea reference to covenant ‘with’ Adam).

What type of covenant?

Unconditional; first with one person and then all living.
If P is unified, why no covenant reference to Sinai? Some see as unconditional (Zimmerli
sees Mosaic law-bound as rejected in favour of covenant of grace; cleansing seremony of Lev
16; sins cannot interrupt relationship if ceremony is performed), but that is not convincing.
Reinterpretation by giving it to Abraham after Exile? Cf. Jer 31 and Ezek 16.
All depends on how one reads Abraham and how Noah relates to it.

Rainbow – sign of remembrance also in tell sefire treaties. Continues in biblical narratives.

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Everlasting/perpetual covenant:
The first everlasting covenant was made with Noah (Genesis 9:16), a promise never to send a
worldwide Flood again, sealed with the sign of the rainbow.

The second is recorded in our text and was God's promise to Abraham and his descendants.
The promise was to give them "the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession" (Genesis
17:8), and the seal was to be the rite of circumcision.
Davidic
A few others with Israel … (Jer. xxxi. 31 together with Is. lxi. 8; Jer. xxxii. 37ff. and Ezk.
xvi. 60.)
One of the latter was the covenant of the Sabbath. “Wherefore the children of Israel shall
keep the sabbath . . . for a perpetual covenant. It is a sign between me and the children of
Israel for ever: for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day He
rested, and was refreshed” (Exodus 31:16-17).

Noahide Laws
Represents a change of the natural order; not a return to the creation. Might account for the
covenant here and not with Adam.
Looks back to Gen 1.28 and forward to Deut and Lev 17.
P introduces animal slaughter, but as a problem it is responded to by limiting eating blood
and killing humans. It is a revision of vegetarianism in Gen 1 since animals will be killed in
sacrifice.
In many societies animal death is justified through sacrifice.

Lev 17 start of Holiness code (17-26). Earlier source updated by P, or addition to P (Knohl)?
H a distincty school based on P (Nihan).
17.15-16 could be an addition of P.

Lev 17.10-14 – general prohibition against eating blood.

2 laws –one on sacrifice and one on catching game.
Includes a motivation clause and a final clause, introduced by “said” quoting a previous
divine saying.

Cf. Deut 12.23 Only be sure that you do not eat the blood; for the blood is the life, and you
shall not eat the life with the meat. 24 Do not eat it; you shall pour it out on the ground like
water.

Lev 17.10-12 is development of tradition – “blood is life” in Gen 9.4 and Deut is used
negatively to justify prohibition of blood in Lev 17.10, followed in v. 11 by a positive use =
the function of blood as a substitutive conception of sacrifice. Makes sense here after
discussion of sacrificial system in Lev 1-16. Note this cult is for Israel only, in contrast to the
general prohibition to Noah and his sons.