Reflection for the Week - July 23

I find several things about the Flood story (Genesis 6-9), leaving aside the ‘sons of God’ taking wives and the Nephilim, rather amusing: trying to get all those animals, birds, and insects into the ark; only Noah and his clan are left; trying to get all those animals, birds, and insects out of the ark; from the three sons of Noah come all earth people; Noah gets drunk; Noah was naked; Noah is upset that he is ‘seen’ naked and this results in a cursing (slavery) for ‘seeing’ and a blessing (master) for ‘not seeing.’Surely, in the midst of all this the tale has theological and political points of view that rescue it from historical irrelevance, though these are definitely influenced by the story’s cultural context and the attempt to construct a ‘founding narrative’ for the nation of Israel and its God.