Testimonia — Early Christian Bible Commentary

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Genesis 9

1God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, and replenish the earth.

2The fear of you and the dread of you will be on every animal of the earth, and on every bird of the sky. Everything that moves along the ground, and all the fish of the sea, are delivered into your hand.

3Every moving thing that lives will be food for you. As I gave you the green herb, I have given everything to you.

4But flesh with its life, that is, its blood, you shall not eat.

5I will surely require accounting for your life’s blood. At the hand of every animal I will require it. At the hand of man, even at the hand of every man’s brother, I will require the life of man.

6Whoever sheds man’s blood, his blood will be shed by man, for God made man in his own image.

7Be fruitful and multiply. Increase abundantly on the earth, and multiply in it.”

8God spoke to Noah and to his sons with him, saying,

9“As for me, behold, I establish my covenant with you, and with your offspring after you,

10and with every living creature that is with you: the birds, the livestock, and every animal of the earth with you, of all that go out of the ship, even every animal of the earth.

11I will establish my covenant with you: All flesh will not be cut off any more by the waters of the flood. There will never again be a flood to destroy the earth.”

12God said, “This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations:

13I set my rainbow in the cloud, and it will be a sign of a covenant between me and the earth.

14When I bring a cloud over the earth, that the rainbow will be seen in the cloud,

15I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh, and the waters will no more become a flood to destroy all flesh.

16The rainbow will be in the cloud. I will look at it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.”

17God said to Noah, “This is the token of the covenant which I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth.”

18The sons of Noah who went out from the ship were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Ham is the father of Canaan.

19These three were the sons of Noah, and from these the whole earth was populated.

20Noah began to be a farmer, and planted a vineyard.

21He drank of the wine and got drunk. He was uncovered within his tent.

22Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside.

23Shem and Japheth took a garment, and laid it on both their shoulders, went in backwards, and covered the nakedness of their father. Their faces were backwards, and they didn’t see their father’s nakedness.

24Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his youngest son had done to him.

25He said, “Canaan is cursed. He will be a servant of servants to his brothers.”

26He said, “Blessed be the LORD, the God of Shem. Let Canaan be his servant.

27May God enlarge Japheth. Let him dwell in the tents of Shem. Let Canaan be his servant.”

28Noah lived three hundred fifty years after the flood.

29All the days of Noah were nine hundred fifty years, and then he died.

Early Christian commentary

c. 182–188 AD (historical editorial dating) | Irenaeus of Lyons

1. And inasmuch as the apostle has not pronounced against the very substance of flesh and blood, that it cannot inherit the kingdom of God, the same apostle has everywhere adopted the term "flesh and blood" with regard to the Lord Jesus Christ, partly indeed to establish His human nature (for He did Himself speak of Himself as the Son of man), and partly that He might confirm the salvation of our flesh. For if the flesh were not in a position to be saved, the Word of God would in no wise have become flesh. And if the blood of the righteous were not to be inquired after, the Lord would certainly not have had blood [in His composition]. But inasmuch as blood cries out (vocalis est) from the beginning [of the world], God said to Cain, when he had slain his brother, "The voice of thy brother's blood crieth to me." And as their blood will be inquired after, he said to those with Noah, "For your blood of your souls will I require, [even] from the hand of all beasts;" and again, "Whosoever will shed man's blood, it shall be shed for his blood." In like manner, too, did the Lord say to those who should afterwards shed His blood, "All righteous blood shall be required which is shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zacharias the son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar. Verily I say unto you. All these things shall come upon this generation." He thus points out the recapitulation that should take place in His own person of the effusion of blood from the beginning, of all the righteous men and of the prophets, and that by means of Himself there should be a requisition of their blood. Now this [blood] could not be required unless it also had the capability of being saved; nor would the Lord have summed up these things in Himself, unless He had Himself been made flesh and blood after the way of the original formation [of man], saving in His own person at the end that which had in the beginning perished in Adam.

Commentary · Against Heresies, Book V, Chapter 14, Section 1 · Original source · Irenaeus of Lyons; The Writings of Irenaeus, Volume II, Ante-Nicene Christian Library IX; translated by Alexander Roberts and W. H. Rambaut; T. & T. Clark, Edinburgh, 1869. Existing transcription supplied by Wikisource contributors. · Licence · Source revision · Whitespace normalized; source pagination and footnote reference markers removed. English wording unchanged.