My Thoughts on the Noah movie....

Last month I had the opportunity to check out Paramount Pictures’ Noah directed by Darren Aronofsky, who also co-wrote the screenplay along with Ari Handel. I thought it was quite the fantasy epic without a dull moment. There was, as anyone could predict, a hefty amount of artistic licensing going on, but the two storytellers crafted something that keeps the attention.

Aronofsky and Handel pit the biblical characters Noah (Russell Crowe) against Tubal Cain (Ray Winstone). Noah is a sort of radical environmentalist, who tries to care for the earth. He only uses from the earth what is necessary for survival. He eats only vegetables. He believes animals are innocent but humans are sinful, and the creation would be better off without mankind. He even chides his own son for picking a flower to admire its beauty, indicating they need to be left in the ground to grow. Tubal Cain, on the other hand, is an extreme humanist. He thinks animals exist only to benefit humans. He eats animals raw. He builds factories for manufacturing various technologies, which deplete the earth’s natural resources. He even manufactures weapons of war to take by force the property of others. Noah triumphs over Tubal Cain. Noah also changes his mind about mankind, seeing humans as possessing both goodness and evilness.

Noah imagines the sons of God in Genesis 6 to be angelic Watchers wanting to help fallen humanity, teaching them the secrets of building various technologies. His term “the Watchers” is actually drawn from a psedepigraphal text called the Book of Enoch. The Creator then punishes the Watchers for their misdeed, encasing them in bodies of stone. (Of course, Genesis 6:1-4 refers to the righteous sons of God from the line of Seth falling from grace and entering into marital unions with the daughters of men from the line of Cain.)

Aronofsky and Hendel imagine their own world, and they reason the God of that world would determine to destroy all life save the occupants of Noah’s Ark is because of humanity’s lack of reverence for the rest of the creation. Sinful humans think they have dominion over the rest of the creation, and they can subdue it to their own wishes. But, the consequence of their actions is the destruction of earth’s delicate eco system. So, Noah is almost right in thinking the world would be better off if the line of humans ended with his family, and the animals should be the flood survivors to repopulate the planet.

Genesis 1 does teach that Adam and Eve were the crowning jewels of God’s creation. Yes, humans are given dominion over the entire earth, but God has dominion over humans, and humans were to reflect the glory of the Creator in all their ways. Humans were made in the imago Dei. The wisdom writer says, “A righteous man has regard for the life of his animal, But even the compassion of the wicked is cruel” (Prov. 12:10, NASB). The Law of Moses even decreed: “If you see the donkey of one who hates you lying helpless under its load, you shall refrain from leaving it to him, you shall surely release it with him” (Exod. 23:5).

Is the Genesis flood just another fantasy epic story passed on from the ancient Hebrews and one should never think something like that ever happened? May it never be! The fact that flood stories have survived in the ancient writings from a diversity of cultures, particularly the Epic of Gilgamesh, certainly indicates a great deluge that nearly wiped out all of humanity did occur. The event was emblazed upon the collective consciousness of ancient survivors and it has survived today in a variety of forms. One can never doubt that God has spoken through Moses, and what came forth are the Scriptures we possess today, the Book of Genesis in particular.

~ WGN