Noah the Movie, Part III: There are Biblical Themes There

When the filmmaker of Noah described it as “the least biblical biblical movie” ever made [he did not say it was the “least biblical movie”], he was probably referring to the fact Noah the movie is not a mirror image of Noah the biblical figure. Genesis is not the script for the movie. Rather, the script includes 1 Enoch and Jubilees among other ancient Jewish traditions, as well as some postmodern imagination and styled in the genre of The Lord of the Rings trilogy.

However, there are dimensions of the movie that are robustly “biblical.” Here are a few.

  • There is a transcendent Creator of the earth
  • The Creator invested humanity with the care of the earth as the image of God.
  • Humanity failed to image God.
  • Cain-Tubal (and the line of Cain in general) is the anti-image of God; represents Cain who killed Abel.
  • The line of Seth represents those who honor the Creator (including Enoch and Methuselah).
  • Humanity is invested with the choice to image God or to create their own world.
  • Humanity pursued its own violent agenda–against creation and against each other.
  • The Creator justly judges humanity’s violence and evil with water–“making it right.”
  • The water is the uncreation of the creation; it is a return to the chaos that existed when God first began to create a habitable space on the earth.
  • The Creator gives life to those on the ark.
  • The Creator’s mercy preserves humanity.
  • The Creator renews life after the flood.
  • The Creator renews the human vocation to care for the earth and fill it.
  • The Creator is “unnamed”–the name of the Creator was not revealed until Moses inquired in Exodus.

Certainly more could be added to this list, but this gives us plenty to ponder!

See Part I for a perspective on the biblical story, and Part II for a review of the movie.

 

This entry was posted on March 31, 2014 at 12:47 pm and is filed under Biblical Texts, Theology. Tagged: , , . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.



3 Responses to “Noah the Movie, Part III: There are Biblical Themes There”

  1.   Terrell Lee Says:
    March 31st, 2014 at 2:14 pm    Reply

    Thanks for this series, especially Part 1, in its theological context. I missed your Lipscomb lecture but certainly appreciate you sharing your notes.

  2.   Nick Gill Says:
    March 31st, 2014 at 7:28 pm    Reply

    Humanity pursued its own violent agenda–against creation and against each other.

    Can you expound a little on how the Bible expresses the theme that pre-Flood humanity pursued a violent agenda against creation?

  3.   johnmarkhicks Says:
    April 1st, 2014 at 8:36 am    Reply

    Nick,

    That is a good question. It is more implicit than it is explicit in Genesis 1-9.

    Since Genesis 6 highlights the depravity of humanity in every thought and wickedness, and since the primary vocation of humanity is to care for the earth (from “ruling and subduing” to “guard and protect” in Gen. 2:15), it seems that this would be one of the failures of humanity as well.

    Another line of thought is to highlight the function of “adamah” (ground) in Genesis 1-9. Human violence in Genesis 4 separates humanity from the ground and causes the ground to cry out for justice. The effect of human sin on the creation is a theme throughout Scripture (as in Hosea 4:1-5, for example). The cursing of the ground, due to human failure, is part of this story. When human fails to image God, the ground suffers.

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