Survivor of the Flood in the Hebrew Bible
The Hebrew Bible records that God, seeing the corruption of humankind, resolved to destroy the earth with a flood, and that Noah alone was "a righteous man in his generation," instructed by God to build an ark and bring aboard his family and animals of every kind, "male and female." After the flood receded, God made a covenant with Noah, with the rainbow as its sign, promising never again to destroy the whole earth with a flood. This narrative is structurally similar in many respects to the older flood story of the Epic of Gilgamesh from Mesopotamia, and scholars broadly hold that both draw on the same ancient Near Eastern flood-legend soil.
God instructed Noah to build an ark to exact dimensions, sealed with pitch, and to bring aboard his wife, his three sons and their wives — eight in all — along with clean and unclean living things of the earth, "seven pairs" or "a pair" of each. Rain fell forty days and nights, the flood covered the whole earth, and every living thing outside the ark perished.
As the flood receded, Noah sent out a raven and then a dove to scout the waters; when the dove returned a third time, it carried in its beak a freshly plucked olive leaf, and Noah knew the waters had abated. The "olive branch" became a symbol of peace and hope ever after — the olive-branch motif on the United Nations flag comes from exactly this.
The Hebrew Bible’s flood story is structurally similar in many respects to the older Mesopotamian flood account in the Epic of Gilgamesh, and scholars broadly hold that both draw on the same ancient Near Eastern flood-legend soil — a case often discussed in comparative religion and comparative literature, without any judgment on the truth of faith.
Below are how modern works borrow or reinterpret this name or story — not the original material. The two differ, so keep them apart.
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