- Introduction
The story of Noah’s ark has always been a favorite for children’s ministry, yet beneath the images of docile beasts walking two by two, there runs a current of violence unparalleled in the Old Testament. “Rarely today are we shown images of those children who did not happen to be members of Noah’s family and are swept away in the deluge, never to be heard from again.” How could God, as revealed by Jesus Christ, purposefully destroy all of mankind? It is undeniable that when taken as a literal, historical event, the flood story implicates God in enormous violence against his creation. However, upon examination of the historical context and literary genre—particularly the numerous anthropomorphisms within the text—it is evident that within the flood story, there is a subversive counter-narrative that criticizes violence rather than endorses it.
There is substantial geological and scientific evidence that a worldwide flood such as described in Genesis was not a historical event. While this is comforting news for those who are troubled by the violence of the story, it does not render the flood narrative as “theologically useless.” It is a part of scripture, therefore it has something to teach the reader. As the Archbishop Lazar Puhalo says of the stories within the Old Testament, they show the reader “How mankind transfers his own passions, his own cruelties and his own aggressiveness onto his understanding of God.” In order to see this subtle criticism beneath the dominant narrative, it is necessary to step into the story-world of the text.
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