Wives aboard Noah's Ark

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The Construction of Noah's Ark. by Jacopo Bassano depicts all eight people said to be on the ark, including Noah's wife and the wives of his three sons.

The wives aboard Noah's Ark were part of the family that survived the Deluge in the biblical Genesis flood narrative from the Bible. These wives are the wife of Noah, and the wives of each of his three sons. Although the Bible only notes the existence of these women, there are extra-biblical mentions regarding them and their names.

In the Bible

In Genesis 6:18, God says to Noah, "But I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall come into the ark, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons' wives with you" (ESV).

The deuterocanonical Book of Tobit (written c. 225–175 BC) does not name any of the wives aboard Noah's Ark, but states that Noah's wife was one of his "own kindred" (Tobit 4:12).

1 Peter 3:20 (written in the late 1st century AD) states that there were eight people on the Ark.

In other writings

Dead Sea Scrolls

In the Genesis Apocryphon, part of the Dead Sea Scrolls, Noah's wife is named Emzara.[1][2]

Book of Jubilees

In the

Ethiopian Orthodox Church as well as Beta Israel
, the names of the wives are given as Emzara, wife of Noah; Sedeqetelebab, wife of Shem; Na'eltama'uk, wife of Ham; and Adataneses, wife of Japheth. It adds that the three sons each built a city named after their wives.

Sibylline Oracles

According to the

Jewish Encyclopedia
).

Comte de Gabalis

A kabalistic work that appeared in 1670, known as Comte de Gabalis, maintains that the name of Noah's wife was Vesta.[citation needed]

This name for Noah's wife had earlier been found in Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa's History of the Incas (c. 1550), where the names Prusia or Persia, Cataflua and Funda are also given for Shem, Ham, and Japheth's wives respectively.

In traditions

Christian traditions

The early Christian writer St.

Hippolytus (d. 235 AD) recounted a tradition of their names according to the Syriac Targum that is similar to Jubilees, although apparently switching the names of Shem's and Ham's wives. He wrote: "The names of the wives of the sons of Noah are these: the name of the wife of Sem, Nahalath Mahnuk; and the name of the wife of Cham, Zedkat Nabu; and the name of the wife of Japheth, Arathka". He also recounts a quaint legend concerning the wife of Ham: God had instructed Noah to destroy the first person who announced that the deluge was beginning, Ham's wife at that moment was baking bread, when water suddenly rushed forth from the oven, destroying the bread. When she exclaimed then that the deluge was commencing, God suddenly cancels his former command lest Noah destroy his own daughter-in-law who was to be saved.[4][5]

An early

Patriarch Eutychius of Alexandria (c. 930) all agree in naming Noah's wife as "Haykêl, the daughter of Namûs (or Namousa), the daughter of Enoch, the brother of Methuselah
"; the first of these sources elsewhere calls Haikal "the daughter of Mashamos, son of Enoch", while stating that Shem's wife is called "Leah, daughter of Nasih".

Furthermore, the

Enos" — whom some authors have connected with Epiphanius' Barthenos (i.e., Bath-Enos, daughter of Enos).[6] However, Jubilees makes "Betenos" the name of Noah's mother. The word haykal is Syriac for "temple" or "church"; in the Georgian copy of Cave of Treasures, we find instead the name T'ajar, which is the Georgian word for the same.[7]

Armenian tradition gives the name of Noah's wife as Nemzar, Noyemzar, or Noyanzar.

Patriarch Eutychius of Alexandria, writing in Arabic, also states that Shem's wife was Salit, Ham's Nahlat, and Japheth's Arisisah, all daughters of Methuselah. The theologian John Gill (1697–1771) wrote in his Exposition of the Bible of this tradition "that the name of Shem's wife was Zalbeth, or, as other copies, Zalith or Salit; that the name of Ham's Nahalath; and of Japheth's Aresisia."

A manuscript of the 8th-century Latin work Inventiones Nominum, copies of which have been found at the

Abbey of St. Gall in Switzerland, and in a library at Albi, SW France, lists as Noah's wife Set, as Shem's wife Nora, as Ham's wife Sare, and as Japeth's wife Serac.[8]

Hungarian folklore has several tales about Japheth and his wife called Eneh, attributing this information to the Chronicles of Sigilbert, Bishop of Antioch in the 14th-century Képes Krónika.

Jewish Rabbinic literature

The

Tubal-Cain, as the wife of Noah,[9] as does the 11th-century Jewish commentator Rashi in his commentary on Genesis
4:22.

In the

Enoch.[10]

Gnostic traditions

Gnostic literature of the first few centuries AD calls Noah's wife Norea, including texts ascribed to her, as reported by Epiphanius, and confirmed in modern times with the discovery of the texts at Nag Hammadi
.

portmanteau of Nuraita and Anhar, the wives of Noah and Shem.[12]

Islamic traditions

The Persian historian

Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari
(c. 915) recounts that Japheth's wife was Arbasisah, daughter of Marazil, son of al-Darmasil, son of Mehujael, son of Enoch, son of Cain; that Ham's wife was Naḥlab, daughter of Marib, another son of al-Darmasil; and that Shem's wife was Ṣalib, daughter of Batawil, another son of Mehujael. He says Noah's wife was Amzurah, daughter of Barakil, another son of Mehujael.

(According to George Sale's Commentary on the Quran (1734), some Muslim commentators asserted that Noah had had an infidel wife named Waila, who perished in the deluge, and was thus not aboard the Ark.)

Irish and Anglo-Saxon traditions

sagas, and often attributed to the poet Cædmon
. The wife of Noah is given as Percoba in Codex Junius.

The Anglo-Saxon "

Lebor Gabala also name Shem's, Ham's, and Japheth's wives as Cata Rechta, Cata Flauia, and Cata Chasta respectively. Similar traditions seem to have endured for several centuries in some form, for in Petrus Comestor, we read that the wives of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth are Phuarpara, Pharphia, Cataflua, and Fliva respectively, and in a 15th-century Middle English catechism, we find written "What hicht Noes wyf?" "Dalida; and the wif of Sem, Cateslinna; and the wif of Cam, Laterecta; and the wif of Japheth, Aurca. And other 3 names, Ollia, Olina, and Olybana."[citation needed
]

Ælfric of Eynsham's Anglo-Saxon translation of the Heptateuch (c. 1000) included illustrations with the wives' names recorded in the captions. One such illustration (fol. 17) names Noah's wife as Phiapphara, Shem's as Parsia, Ham's as Cataphua, and Japheth's as Fura.[13] Another (fol. 14) includes one wife, presumably Noah's, named Sphiarphara.[14] A Middle English illustrated version of Genesis dating to the 13th century also gives Puarphara as Noah's wife.

Pseudo-Berossus

According to the 15th-century monk

Annio da Viterbo, the Hellenistic Babylonian writer Berossus had stated that the sons' wives were Pandora, Noela, and Noegla, and that Noah's wife was Tytea. However, Annio's manuscript is widely regarded today as having been a forgery.[15]

Nonetheless, later writers made use of this information, sometimes even combining it with other traditions. The Portuguese friar Gaspar Rodriguez de S. Bernardino wrote in Itinerario da India por terra ate a ilha de Chypre in 1842 that the wives of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth were named Tytea or Phuarphara, Pandora or Parphia, Noela or Cataflua, and Noegla, Eliua or Arca. In Robert Southey's Common-place Book from around the same time, similar names are given, with the information attributed to the "Comte de Mora Toledo": Titea Magna; Pandora; Noala or Cataflua; and Noegla, Funda or Afia, respectively.

See also

References

  1. JSTOR 24663086
    .
  2. S2CID 193373500
    .
  3. ^ These were considered to be the Sibylline Books of the Greeks and Romans by Athenagoras of Athens, quoting them in a letter to the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius in 176 AD, but modern critics believe they are rather pseudo-Oracles dating from the middle of the 2nd century BC at the earliest to the 5th century AD, composed by Alexandrian Jews and revised and enriched by later Christian editors, all adding texts in the interests of their respective religions.
  4. ^ The Ante-Nicene Fathers: Translations of the Writings of the Fathers Down to A. Christian Literature Company. 1886. p. 196 – via Internet Archive. hippolytus nahalath.
  5. Stories of the Prophets by Ibn Kathir
    .
  6. ^ Smith, Sir William; Wace, Henry (1877). A Dictionary of Christian Biography, Literature, Sects, and Doctrines: Being a Continuation of "The Dictionary of the Bible". J. Murray. p. 268 – via Internet Archive. abaraz enos.
  7. ISBN 9789042908635
    – via Google Books.
  8. ^ Journal of Theological Studies. Macmillan. 1903. p. 243 – via Internet Archive. nahlat eutychius.
  9. ^ Midrash rabbah translated into English with glossary and indices under the editorship of H. Freedman and Maurice Simon p. 194
  10. ^ Parry, J. H. (ed.). "5:15". Book of Jasher. Translated by Moses, Samuel.
  11. ^ "Book Nineteen: The Deluge". Ginza Rabba. Vol. Right Volume. Translated by Al-Saadi, Qais; Al-Saadi, Hamed (2nd ed.). Germany: Drabsha. 2019. pp. 203–204. [Note: this book, or a larger text containing it, is numbered book 18 in some other editions.]
  12. ISBN 978-3-447-05178-1
    .
  13. ^ Journal of Theological Studies. Macmillan. 1903. p. 243 – via Internet Archive. nahlat eutychius.
  14. ^ Wright, Thomas (1845). The Archaeological Album: Or, Museum of National Antiquities. Chapman and Hall. p. 63 – via Internet Archive. catafluvia.
  15. ^ Wiener, Leo (1920). Contributions Toward a History of Arabico-Gothic Culture. Neale publishing Company. p. 207 – via Internet Archive. berosus pandora noela.

External links

by Virginia Maryweather
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