Genesis 9 · The Lantern

And God blessed Noe and his sonnes and sayd vnto them: Increase and multiplye and fyll the erth.

The feare also and drede of yow be vppon all beastes of the erth and vppon all foules of the ayre ad vppon all that crepeth on the erth and vppon all fyshes of the see which are geven vnto youre handes

And all that moveth vppon the erth havynge lyfe shall be youre meate: Euen as ye grene herbes so geue I yow all thynge.

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 the flesh with his life which is his bloud se that ye eate not.

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).

For verely the bloude of yow wherein youre lyves are wyll I requyre: Eue of the hande of all beastes wyll I requyre it And of the hande of man and of the hand off euery mannes brother wyll I requyre the lyfe of man:

God requires the blood now and in the future. He requires it now in the case of a death that he decreed for a murderer, and also a stoning with which a goring bull is to be stoned. At the end, at the time of the resurrection, God will require that animals return all they ate from the flesh of man.

"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.

so yt he which shedeth mannes bloude shall haue hys bloud shed by man agayne: for God made man after his awne lycknesse.

See that ye encrease and waxe and be occupyde vppon the erth and multiplye therein.

Farthermore God spake vnto Noe and to hys sonnes wyth hym saynge:

see I make my bod wyth you and youre seed after you

and wyth all lyvynge thinge that is wyth you: both foule and catell and all maner beste of the erth that is wyth yow of all that commeth out of the arke what soeuer beste of the erth it be.

I make my bonde wyth yow that hence forth all flesh shall not be destroyed wyth yt waters of any floud ad yt hence forth there shall not be a floud to destroy the erth.

And God sayd. This is the token of my bode which I make betwene me and yow ad betwene all lyvynge thyng that is with yow for ever:

I wyll sette my bowe in the cloudes and it shall be a sygne of the appoyntment made betwene me and the erth:

So that when I brynge in cloudes vpo ye erth the bowe shall appere in ye cloudes.

And than wyll I thynke vppon my testament which I haue made betwene me and yow and all that lyveth what soeuer flesh it be. So that henceforth there shall be no more waters to make a floud to destroy all flesh.

The bowe shalbe in the cloudes and I wyll loke vpon it to remembre the euerlastynge testament betwene God and all that lyveth vppon the erth what soeuer flesh it be.

And God sayd vnto Noe: This is the sygne of the testament which I have made betwene me and all flesh yt is on the erth.

The sonnes of Noe that came out of the arke were: Sem Ham and Iapheth. And Ham he is the father of Canaa.

These are the.iij. sonnes of Noe and of these was all the world overspred.

And Noe beynge an husbad man went furth and planted a vyneyarde

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 drancke of the wyne and was droncke and laye vncouered in the myddest of his tet.

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 sawe his fathers prevytees and tolde his ij. brethren that were wythout.

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 Sem and Iapheth toke a mantell and put it on both there shulders ad went backward ad covered there fathers secrets but there faces were backward So that they sawe not there fathers nakydnes.

As soone as Noe was awaked fro his wyne and wyst what his yongest sonne had done vnto hym

he sayd: cursed be Canaan ad a seruante, of all seruantes be he to his brethren.

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.

Why did Ham sin and yet vengeance was declared against his son Canaan? Why was the son of Solomon punished by the breaking up of the kingdom? Why was the sin of Ahab, king of Israel, visited upon his posterity?

And he sayd: Blessed be the LORde God of Se and Canaan be his seruante.

God increase Iapheth that he may dwelle in the tentes of Sem. And Canaan be their seruante.

And Noe lyved after the floude.iij. hundred and.l. yere: So that all the dayes of Noe were ix. hundred and.l. yere ad than he dyed.

Genesis9