Introduction
Last week, I examined the show-piece of the Documentary Hypothesis, the flood narrative. Today I present an alternative explanation for the use of two divine names, Elohim and YHWH, within the flood narrative.
Samuel Shaviv argues that the different names might have originally referred to two different deities, and that the flood narrative was edited to conceal its polytheistic origins. He suggests that someone unfamiliar with Judeo-Christian monotheism would not conclude that Elohim and YHWH refer to the same entity after reading the flood narrative.
Elohim and YHWH are translated into English as 'God' and 'the LORD', respectively. Below, I have copied the entire ESV Bible flood narrative and changed 'God' to 'Elohim' and 'the LORD' to 'Yahweh' (one of the possible ways that 'YHWH' might be pronounced) so that you can try to read it without the assumption of monotheism. Any changes to the usual translation are in italics, and Shaviv's explanations are included at the end.
While Shaviv's theory doesn't have the same level of support as the Documentary Hypothesis, but it does have its merits. Archaeology may one day discover a Special Extended Edition of the Biblical Flood Narrative, featuring extended and deleted scenes that Shaviv's re-imagining can only hint at.
Next week, I will be discussing a variety of other explanations for the use of the two divine names throughout the Torah.
The Story
When man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them, the sons of Elohim saw that the daughters of man were attractive. And they took as their wives any they chose.
Then Yahweh said, “My Spirit shall not contend with man forever, for he is flesh: his days shall be 120 years.”
The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of Elohim came in to the daughters of man and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown.
YHWH saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And Yahweh regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. So Yahweh said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them.”
But Noah found favor in the eyes of Yahweh.
These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with the gods (1). And Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
Now the earth was corrupt in the gods' sight (1), and the earth was filled with violence. And Elohim saw the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth.
And Elohim said to Noah, "The end of all flesh has come before me (2), for the earth is filled with violence through them. Behold, they are to destroy the earth (3). Make yourself an ark of gopher wood. Make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and out with pitch. This is how you are to make it: the length of the ark 300 cubits, its breadth 50 cubits, and its height 30 cubits. Make a roof for the ark, and finish it to a cubit above, and set the door of the ark in its side. Make it with lower, second, and third decks. For behold, I will bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life under heaven. Everything that is on the earth shall die. But I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall come into the ark, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons' wives with you. And of every living thing of all flesh, you shall bring two of every sort into the ark to keep them alive with you. They shall be male and female. Of the birds according to their kinds, and of the animals according to their kinds, of every creeping thing of the ground, according to its kind, two of every sort shall come in to you to keep them alive. Also take with you every sort of food that is eaten, and store it up. It shall serve as food for you and for them.” Noah did this; he did all that Elohim commanded him.
Then Yahweh said to Noah, “Go into the ark, you and all your household, for I have seen that you are righteous before me in this generation. Take with you seven pairs of all clean animals, the male and his mate, and a pair of the animals that are not clean, the male and his mate, and seven pairs of the birds of the heavens also, male and female, to keep their offspring alive on the face of all the earth. For in seven days I will send rain on the earth forty days and forty nights, and every living thing that I have made I will blot out from the face of the ground.” And Noah did all that Yahweh had commanded him.
Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters came upon the earth. And Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons' wives with him went into the ark to escape the waters of the flood. Of clean animals, and of animals that are not clean, and of birds, and of everything that creeps on the ground, two and two, male and female, went into the ark with Noah, as Elohim had commanded Noah. And after seven days the waters of the flood came upon the earth.
In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened. And Yahweh poured rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights (4). On the very same day Noah and his sons, Shem and Ham and Japheth, and Noah's wife and the three wives of his sons with them entered the ark, they and every beast, according to its kind, and all the livestock according to their kinds, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, according to its kind, and every bird, according to its kind, every winged creature. They went into the ark with Noah, two and two of all flesh in which there was the breath of life. And those that entered, male and female of all flesh, went in as Elohim had commanded him. And Yahweh shut him in.
The flood continued forty days on the earth. The waters increased and bore up the ark, and it rose high above the earth. The waters prevailed and increased greatly on the earth, and the ark floated on the face of the waters. And the waters prevailed so mightily on the earth that all the high mountains under the whole heaven were covered. The waters prevailed above the mountains, covering them fifteen cubits deep. And all flesh died that moved on the earth, birds, livestock, beasts, all swarming creatures that swarm on the earth, and all mankind. Everything on the dry land bin whose nostrils was the breath of life died. He blotted out every living thing that was on the face of the ground, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens. They were blotted out from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those who were with him in the ark. And the waters prevailed on the earth 150 days.
But Elohim remembered Noah and all the beasts and all the livestock that were with him in the ark. And Elohim made a wind blow over the earth, and the waters subsided. The fountains of the deep and the windows of the heavens were closed, the rain from the heavens was restrained, and the waters receded from the earth continually. At the end of 150 days the waters had abated, and in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. And the waters continued to abate until the tenth month; in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains were seen.
At the end of forty days Noah opened the window of the ark that he had made and sent forth a raven. It went to and fro until the waters were dried up from the earth. Then he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters had subsided from the face of the ground. But the dove found no place to set her foot, and she returned to him to the ark, for the waters were still on the face of the whole earth. So he put out his hand and took her and brought her into the ark with him. He waited another seven days, and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark. And the dove came back to him in the evening, and behold, in her mouth was a freshly plucked olive leaf. So Noah knew that the waters had subsided from the earth. Then he waited another seven days and sent forth the dove, and she did not return to him anymore.
In the six hundred and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried from off the earth. And Noah removed the covering of the ark and looked, and behold, the face of the ground was dry. In the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth had dried out. Then Elohim said to Noah, “Go out from the ark, you and your wife, and your sons and your sons' wives with you. Bring out with you every living thing that is with you of all flesh—birds and animals and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth—that they may swarm on the earth, and be fruitful and multiply on the earth.” So Noah went out, and his sons and his wife and his sons' wives with him. Every beast, every creeping thing, and every bird, everything that moves on the earth, went out by families from the ark.
Then Noah built an altar to Yahweh and took some of every clean animal and some of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar. And when the Yahweh smelled the pleasing aroma, the Yahweh said in his heart, “I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man's heart is evil from his youth. Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done. While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.”
And Elohim blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. The fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth and upon every bird of the heavens, upon everything that creeps on the ground and all the fish of the sea. Into your hand they are delivered. Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. And as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything. But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. And for your lifeblood I will require a reckoning: from every beast I will require it and from man. From his fellow man I will require a reckoning for the life of man. Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for Elohim made man in his own image. And you, be fruitful and multiply, increase greatly on the earth and multiply in it.”
Then Elohim said to Noah and to his sons with him, “Behold, I establish my covenant with you and your offspring after you, and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the livestock, and every beast of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark; it is for every beast of the earth. I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.”
And Elohim said, “This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: I have set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth."
Yahweh (5): "When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds..."
Elohim (5): "I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh. And the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh."
Yahweh (5): "When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between Elohim and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.”
Elohim said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth.”
Explanations
1) Genesis 6:9 and 6:11 are usually translated as 'Noah walked with God' and 'Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight'. In the Hebrew verses, the word "elohim" is accompanied by a definite article ha-, forming "ha'elohim". This article does not accompany the word "elohim" in any other verse of the flood narrative. The word 'Elohim' is plural, and roughly means 'the powerful ones' or 'the gods', but it is also used as a name to refer to a single entity. Shaviv suggests that the article 'ha-' might be used to distinguish between the use of 'Elohim' as a name and 'elohim' as 'the gods'. He backs this claim up with using other instances of "ha'elohim" in the Bible. In Exodus 21:6 and 22:8, "ha'elohim" is translated as either 'God', 'judges' or 'gods'.
This might explain why we are twice told that God saw that the earth was corrupt.
'Now the earth was corrupt in God's (ha'elohim) sight, and the earth was filled with violence. And God (elohim) saw the earth, and behold, it was corrupt'
2) Usually translated either as 'I have determined to put an end to all flesh' or 'The end of all flesh has come before me'. The latter is considered the more accurate translation.
3) Usually translated as 'Behold, I will destroy them with the earth.' I can't give more detail than this because Shaviv explains this change by quoting a German scholar, and I can't read German.
4) Genesis 7:12 is usually translated as 'And rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights.' Shaviv suggests that in a more archaic form of Hebrew, it might have read 'And Yahweh poured rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights.' Later redactors might have concealed Yahweh's presence in his line by using impersonal verbs.
5) This soliloquy might originally have been a longer discussion Yahweh and Elohim. This would explain why God refers to himself in the third person, saying 'the covenant between Elohim and...', very shortly after referring to it as 'my covenant'. We would expect him to say 'between me and...'. The rainbow is also alternately referred to as 'the bow' and 'my bow'.
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