# Who was Noah in the Bible?

Noah was the man God warned before the flood in Genesis. He built an ark, brought his family and the animals through the waters, and God made a promise with him never to flood the earth again. The rainbow is the sign of that promise.

- When: Before any history we can date. Genesis places him in the tenth generation from Adam.
- Read: Genesis 6–9. Start with [Genesis 6](https://www.lumin.faith/read/genesis/6).

Source: https://www.lumin.faith/bible-people/noah. Scripture quotations are from the Lumin Translation.

## Noah’s life, in order

1. **A world gone wrong** ([Genesis 6:5-12](https://www.lumin.faith/read/genesis/6#5-12)). God sees violence filling the earth and grieves that he made people. Noah is the one man who walks with God.
2. **Build an ark** ([Genesis 6:13-22](https://www.lumin.faith/read/genesis/6#13-22)). God tells Noah to build a boat of cypress wood and gives its size. Noah does all God commands.
3. **Into the ark** ([Genesis 7:1-16](https://www.lumin.faith/read/genesis/7#1-16)). Noah, his wife, his three sons and their wives go in with the animals. God shuts the door.
4. **The flood** ([Genesis 7:17-24](https://www.lumin.faith/read/genesis/7#17-24)). Rain falls for 40 days and nights, and the waters cover the land for 150 days.
5. **The dove** ([Genesis 8:1-12](https://www.lumin.faith/read/genesis/8#1-12)). The ark rests on the mountains of Ararat. Noah sends out a raven, then a dove that comes back with an olive leaf.
6. **The rainbow promise** ([Genesis 9:8-17](https://www.lumin.faith/read/genesis/9#8-17)). Noah builds an altar. God promises never again to destroy the earth by flood and sets the rainbow as the sign.
7. **After the flood** ([Genesis 9:20-29](https://www.lumin.faith/read/genesis/9#20-29)). Noah plants a vineyard, gets drunk, and his family is torn by what follows. He dies at 950.

## Key verses

> This is the account of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time. Noah walked with God. ([Genesis 6:9](https://www.lumin.faith/read/genesis/6#9))

> I have set my bow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. ([Genesis 9:13](https://www.lumin.faith/read/genesis/9#13))

> By faith Noah, after God warned him about things not yet seen, with reverence built an ark to rescue his household. Through it he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that accords with faith. ([Hebrews 11:7](https://www.lumin.faith/read/hebrews/11#7))

## What the Bible says, and what tradition adds

### Did Noah take two of every animal?

**In the Bible.** Two of every kind, male and female. Genesis 7 adds seven pairs of the clean animals and of the birds, so not every animal came in twos. See [Genesis 7:2-3](https://www.lumin.faith/read/genesis/7#2-3).

### Where did the ark land?

**Not known.** Genesis says “the mountains of Ararat”, a region, not one peak. Tradition points to Mount Ararat in Turkey. No search for the ark has found it. See [Genesis 8:4](https://www.lumin.faith/read/genesis/8#4).

### Did the flood cover the whole earth?

**Readers disagree.** Christians disagree. Some read Genesis as a flood over the whole globe. Others read it as a flood over the whole land the writer knew. Both sides take the story as true and from God.

## Related people

- [Abraham](https://www.lumin.faith/bible-people/abraham): Left home at God’s call. Father of Isaac and of Israel.
- [Moses](https://www.lumin.faith/bible-people/moses): Led Israel out of Egypt. Received the law at Sinai.