Genesis 9 · The Lantern

The Covenant of the Rainbow

And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth.

And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be on every animal of the earth and on every bird of the heavens, on everything that moves on the ground and on all the fish of the sea — into your hand they are given.

Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you; as I gave the green plants, I now give you everything.

Moreover, you were commanded to abstain from certain kinds of food, in order that you might keep God before your eyes while you ate and drank, seeing that you were prone and very ready to depart from His knowledge, as Moses also affirms: "The people ate and drank, and rose up to play." And again: "Jacob ate, and was satisfied, and waxed fat; and he who was beloved kicked: he wa…

And He changed the food of men, giving them leave to eat flesh: for from Adam the first-formed until the Flood men ate only of seeds and the fruit of trees, and to eat flesh was not permitted to them.

Lo! I have given you all things as the green herb to eat, but flesh in the blood thereof shall ye not eat; meaning this: Lately I interdicted you from eating many things, but now I permit you to eat of all things, and to eat even flesh.

Only flesh with its life — its blood — you shall not eat.

God also blessed Noah and his sons that they might be fruitful and multiply and that fear of them should fall upon all flesh both in the sea and on dry land. "Only you shall not eat flesh with its life." That means you shall eat no flesh that has not been slaughtered and whose blood, which is its life, has not been drained.

From this the eating of meat takes its beginning, not for the purpose of prompting them to gluttony. But since some of the people were about to offer sacrifices and make thanksgiving to the Lord, he grants them authority over food and obviates any anxiety about foods lest they seem to be abstaining from foods because they were not properly consecrated.

Except that you shall not eat flesh with its blood. For blood rightly denotes carnal desires and carnal sense. Blood is poured out when one renounces carnal temptations and thoughts, in which one lived poorly, so that such people can say with the Apostle: Yet I live, now not I; but Christ lives in me (Gal. II, 29).

And surely for your own blood, for your lives, I will require an accounting: from the hand of every animal I will require it, and from the hand of man — from the hand of each one’s brother — I will require the life of man.

If anyone come with simple mind and desire to the Church, that he may make progress, that he may become better, this man, if he see us who have already stood in the faith for a long time either not acting rightly or speaking with offense, we become to him an occasion of falling into sin.

"Whoever sheds someone's blood, his own will be shed in payment for that person's blood, because I have made the human person in God's image." Consider, I ask you, how much fear he struck in them with that remark.

Moreover, sacred Scripture, too, testifies to the fact that there will be a resurrection of the body. Indeed, God already had said to Noah after the flood, "Even as the green herbs have I delivered them all to you: saving that flesh with blood of its life you shall not eat. And I will require your blood of your lives, at the hand of every beast I will require it.

Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed — for in the image of God he made man.

And you — be fruitful and multiply; swarm on the earth and multiply in it.”

And God said to Noah, and to his sons with him:

“And I — look, I am establishing my covenant with you, and with your seed after you,

and with every living being that is with you — the birds, the livestock, and every animal of the earth with you, all that came out of the ark, every animal of the earth.

And I will establish my covenant with you: never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood, and never again shall there be a flood to ruin the earth.”

And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant that I am giving between me and you and every living being that is with you, for endless generations:

my bow I have set in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth.

And when I bring clouds over the earth, and the bow is seen in the cloud,

I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living being of all flesh; and never again shall the waters become a flood to ruin all flesh.

And the bow shall be in the cloud, and I will look at it to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living being of all flesh that is on the earth.”

And God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth.”

Noah’s Shame and Canaan’s Curse

And the sons of Noah who went out of the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth — and Ham was the father of Canaan.

These three were the sons of Noah, and from these the whole earth was scattered.

And Noah, a man of the ground, was the first to plant a vineyard.

When Christ says, "I am the true vine," the blood of Christ is assuredly not water but wine. We are redeemed and made alive by his blood. But in the cup it is not wine as such that redeems but his blood. This is declared by the sacrament and testimony of all the Scriptures. For we find this even in Genesis also, in respect of the sacrament prefigured in Noah.

Perhaps, on the other hand, someone might say, "Why was vine dressing, source of such terrible wickedness, introduced into life?" Do not idly blurt out what comes into your head, O man: vine dressing is not wicked nor is wine evil—rather, it is use of them in excess.

Noah, a man of the earth, began to cultivate the ground and planted a vineyard, etc. It is often pleasing to repeat the word of the Lord, which he said to the Jews: "If you believed Moses, you would perhaps believe me as well, for he wrote about me" (John 5:46).

And he drank of the wine and became drunk, and he uncovered himself inside his tent.

That is why the drunkenness of Noah also has been described, so that we may guard against drunkenness as much as possible, with the picture of such a fall clearly described before our eyes in Scripture. That is why, too, the Lord blessed those who covered the shame of his drunkenness.

"Woe to you that demand strong drink as soon as they rise in the morning, and linger into the night while wine inflames them!" Noah drank wine and fell into a drunken stupor and became naked in the more shameful part of his body so that you may know that the mind of man is so confounded by wine and the reason of the human mind is made so dull that it does not have concern even…

In the mystery of the cleansing of crimes, Christ is symbolized by Noah who lay naked in his tent in a state of drunkenness: for Christ was drunk with love for His spouse and was naked on the cross — where the very wicked Cham derided Him.

And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside.

For another mystery was accomplished and predicted in the days of Noah, of which you are not aware. It is this: in the blessings wherewith Noah blessed his two sons, and in the curse pronounced on his son's son. For the Spirit of prophecy would not curse the son that had been by God blessed along with [his brothers].

Noah cursed Canaan, saying, "Cursed be Canaan. A slave of slaves shall he be to his brothers." But what sin could Canaan have committed even if he had been right behind his father when Ham observed the nakedness of Noah?

When Ham, the father of Canaan, saw that his father's nakedness was uncovered, he told his two brothers outside. But Shem and Japheth took a cloak, laid it upon their shoulders, and walking backward, covered their father's nakedness; their faces were turned away, and they did not see their father's private parts.

And Shem and Japheth took the garment and laid it on the shoulders of the two of them, and walked backward and covered the nakedness of their father — their faces turned backward, and the nakedness of their father they did not see.

And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his youngest son had done to him.

And he said, “Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants he shall be to his brothers.”

First of all, let us show great reverence to our parents, as we read in Genesis 9:25-27, that whoever was blessed by their father, was blessed, and whoever was cursed by their father, was cursed! Therefore, God has granted this grace to parents, so that the piety of their children may be provoked. Therefore, it is the duty of children to obey their parents.

To be sure, some will say, this shows that the reason he did not curse Ham was that he had enjoyed blessing from God. Nevertheless, why is it that though Ham was the sinner, Canaan had to pay the penalty? This does not happen idly either. Ham did not endure less punishment than his son. He too felt its effects.

This is prescribed by the order of nature: it is thus that God has created man. For "let them," He says, "have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every creeping thing which creepeth on the earth." He did not intend that His rational creature, who was made in His image, should have dominion over anything but the irrational creation,-not man…

Shem’s Blessing and Noah’s Death

And he said, “Blessed be the LORD, the God of Shem; and let Canaan be a servant to them.

May God enlarge Japheth, and may he dwell in the tents of Shem; and let Canaan be a servant to them.”

And Noah lived after the flood three hundred and fifty years.

And all the days of Noah were nine hundred and fifty years — and he died.

Genesis9

The Covenant of the Rainbow

Noah’s Shame and Canaan’s Curse

Shem’s Blessing and Noah’s Death