the Third Week of Advent
free while helping to build churches and support pastors in Uganda.
Click here to learn more!
Bible Dictionaries
Noah
Holman Bible Dictionary
or Old Testament 1. The son of Lamech, a descendant of Adam in the line of Seth, and a survivor of the flood. A good and righteous man, Noah was the father of Shem, Ham, and Japheth who were born when he was 500 years old. God warned Noah that He was going to wipe mankind from the face of the earth. Because Noah walked with God and stood blameless among the people of that time, God gave him specific instructions for building the ark by which Noah and his family would survive the coming flood. Noah followed the building instructions down to every detail. Then a week before the flood (Genesis 7:4 ), Noah led his family and all of the animals into the ark just as God directed. After seven days, the rain began and lasted for 40 days. As he sought to know whether it was safe to leave the ark, he sent out first a raven and then a dove. When the dove returned with an olive leaf, Noah knew the water had receded.
Once out of the ark, Noah built an altar and sacrificed clean animals as burnt offerings on the altar. Then the Lord promised never again to destroy living creatures as He had done in the flood and established a covenant with Noah and his sons and sealed that covenant with a rainbow. See Covenant .
The sinful nature of humanity is one thing that remained preserved on the ark. Once on dry ground, Noah planted a vineyard, drank of its wine, became drunk, and exposed himself in his tent. Ham informed Shem and Japheth about their father's nakedness. The latter two showed respect for their father and covered him. As a result, they received rich blessings for their descendants from Noah. Ham in turn received a curse for his descendant: Canaan. Noah lived another 350 years after the flood and died at the age of 950 years.
New Testament Hebrews 11:7 affirms Noah's actions of faith in building the ark. The references to Noah in 1 Peter 3:20 and 2 Peter 2:5 speak of Noah and those of his family who were saved in the flood. See Flood .
2. One of Zelophehad's five daughters (Numbers 26:33 ). Of the tribe of Manasseh, these daughters received an inheritance in the land in their father's name even though he was dead with no male offspring (Numbers 27:1-11 ). This was most unusal in that time. Judith Wooldridge
These dictionary topics are from the Holman Bible Dictionary, published by Broadman & Holman, 1991. All rights reserved. Used by permission of Broadman & Holman.
Butler, Trent C. Editor. Entry for 'Noah'. Holman Bible Dictionary. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/hbd/n/noah.html. 1991.
