Methuselah took a wife for his son Lamech, and she bore him a man
child. The body of the babe was white as snow and red as a blooming
rose, and the hair of his head and his long locks were white as wool,
and his eyes like the rays of the sun. When he opened his eyes, he
lighted up the whole house, like the sun, and the whole house was very
full of light.[1] And when he was taken from the hand of the midwife,
he opened his mouth and praised the Lord of righteousness.[2] His
father Lamech was afraid of him, and fled, and came to his own father
Methuselah. And he said to him: "I have begotten a strange son; he is
not like a human being, but resembles the children of the angels of
heaven, and his nature is different, and he is not like us, and his
eyes are as the rays of the sun, and his countenance is glorious.[3]
And it seems to me that he is not sprung from me, but from the angels,
and I fear that in his days a wonder may be wrought on the earth. And
now, my father, I am here to petition thee and implore thee, that thou
mayest go to Enoch, our father, and learn from him the truth, for his
dwelling place is among the angels."
And when Methuselah heard the words of his son, he went to Enoch, to
the ends of the earth, and he cried aloud, and Enoch heard his voice,
and appeared before him, and asked him the reason of his coming.
Methuselah told him the cause of his anxiety, and requested him to make
the truth known to him. Enoch answered, and said: "The Lord will do a
new thing in the earth. There will come a great destruction on the
earth, and a deluge for one year. This son who is born unto thee will
be left on the earth, and his three children will be saved with him,
when all mankind that are on the earth shall die. And there will be a
great punishment on the earth, and the earth will be cleansed from all
impurity. And now make known to thy son Lamech that he who was born is
in truth his son, and call his name Noah, for he will be left to you,
and he and his children will be saved from the destruction which will
come upon the earth." When Methuselah had heard the words of his
father, who showed him all the secret things, he returned home, and he
called the child Noah, for he would cause the earth to rejoice in
compensation for all destruction.[4]
By the name Noah he was called only by his grandfather Methuselah; his
father and all others called him Menahem. His generation was addicted
to sorcery, and Methuselah apprehended that his grandson might be
bewitched if his true name were known, wherefore he kept it a secret.
Menahem, Comforter, suited him as well as Noah; it indicated that he
would be a consoler, if but the evil-doers of his time would repent of
their misdeeds.[5] At his very birth it was felt that he would bring
consolation and deliverance. When the Lord said to Adam, "Cursed is the
ground for thy sake," he asked, "For how long a time?" and the answer
made by God was, "Until a man child shall be born whose conformation is
such that the rite of circumcision need not be practiced upon him."
This was fulfilled in Noah, he was circumcised from his mother's womb.
Noah had scarcely come into the world when a marked change was
noticeable. Since the curse brought upon the earth by the sin of Adam,
it happened that wheat being sown, yet oats would sprout and grow. This
ceased with the appearance of Noah: the earth bore the products planted
in it. And it was Noah who, when he was grown to manhood, invented the
plough, the scythe, the hoe, and other implements for cultivating the
ground. Before him men had worked the land with their bare hands.[6]
There was another token to indicate that the child born unto Lamech was
appointed for an extraordinary destiny. When God created Adam, He gave
him dominion over all things: the cow obeyed the ploughman, and the
furrow was willing to be drawn. But after the fall of Adam all things
rebelled against him: the cow refused obedience to the ploughman, and
also the furrow was refractory. Noah was born, and all returned to its
state preceding the fall of man.
Before the birth of Noah, the sea was in the habit of transgressing its
bounds twice daily, morning and evening, and flooding the land up to
the graves. After his birth it kept within its confines. And the famine
that afflicted the world in the time of Lamech, the second of the ten
great famines appointed to come upon it, ceased its ravages with the
birth of Noah.[7]