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| It is significant that the first of the two verses, 21:30, is explicitly about the creation of the world. Reynolds notes an earlier parallel taught by the Syriac church father Ephrem (d. 373 CE). He writes, "[...] Ephrem, who explains that God created everything through water: 'Thus, through light and water the earth brought forth everything.' Ephrem, ''Commentary on Genesis'', 1:1-10)."<ref>Gabriel Said Reynolds, "The Quran and Bible:Text and Commentary", New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2018 p. 553. This is regarding {{Quran|24|45}}, though on p. 508 Reynolds cross references the same parallel regarding the other verse, {{Quran|21|30}}, which is more clearly a statement in the context of the Genesis creation story, like Ephrem's comment.</ref> Ephrem's comment is in the context of the Genesis creation story, much like the first Quranic verse, 21:30. Ephrem says that when heaven and earth were created there were no trees or vegetation as it had not yet rained, so a fountain irrigated the earth. Tafsirs say that when the heaven and earth were separated rain fell so that plants could grow. There is also a similarity with Ephrem in the other verse (24:45), which mentions creatures that move on two, four or no legs. Ephrem explains that as well as the "trees, vegetation and plants", the "Scripture wishes to indicate that all animals, reptiles, cattle and birds came into being as a result of the combining of earth and water".<ref>[https://faberinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Ephrem-the-Syrian-Commentary-on-Genesis-2-3-Brock.pdf Ephrem's commentary on Genesis] - Faber Institute.com</ref> | | It is significant that the first of the two verses, 21:30, is explicitly about the creation of the world. Reynolds notes an earlier parallel taught by the Syriac church father Ephrem (d. 373 CE). He writes, "[...] Ephrem, who explains that God created everything through water: 'Thus, through light and water the earth brought forth everything.' Ephrem, ''Commentary on Genesis'', 1:1-10)."<ref>Gabriel Said Reynolds, "The Quran and Bible:Text and Commentary", New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2018 p. 553. This is regarding {{Quran|24|45}}, though on p. 508 Reynolds cross references the same parallel regarding the other verse, {{Quran|21|30}}, which is more clearly a statement in the context of the Genesis creation story, like Ephrem's comment.</ref> Ephrem's comment is in the context of the Genesis creation story, much like the first Quranic verse, 21:30. Ephrem says that when heaven and earth were created there were no trees or vegetation as it had not yet rained, so a fountain irrigated the earth. Tafsirs say that when the heaven and earth were separated rain fell so that plants could grow. There is also a similarity with Ephrem in the other verse (24:45), which mentions creatures that move on two, four or no legs. Ephrem explains that as well as the "trees, vegetation and plants", the "Scripture wishes to indicate that all animals, reptiles, cattle and birds came into being as a result of the combining of earth and water".<ref>[https://faberinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Ephrem-the-Syrian-Commentary-on-Genesis-2-3-Brock.pdf Ephrem's commentary on Genesis] - Faber Institute.com</ref> |
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| ==Noah's disbelieving wife==
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| {{Quote|{{Quran|66|10}}|Allah presents an example of those who disbelieved: the wife of Noah and the wife of Lot. They were under two of Our righteous servants but betrayed them, so those prophets did not avail them from Allah at all, and it was said, "Enter the Fire with those who enter."}}
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| The Bible briefly mentions Noah's wife in one verse without further comment ([https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%207%3A7&version=NIV Genesis 7:7]), "And Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives entered the ark to escape the waters of the flood." Regarding the Quranic verse which speaks of her negatively, Reynolds briefly considers the possibility that the Quran has extended to their wives the parallelism between Noah (though not his wife) and Lot found in the New Testament ([https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2%20Peter%202&version=NIV 2 Peter 2]), but then comments, "However, it is important to note that already in the pre-Islamic period certain groups had developed hostile legends about Noah's wife." He cites Epiphanius (d. 403 CE), ''Panarion'' 2:26, which relates the Gnostic belief that she was not allowed onto the ark, having burned it down three times before the flood.<ref>Gabriel Said Reynolds, ''The Qurʾān and Bible'' p. 841</ref>
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| ==Noah's flood waters overflowed from an oven==
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| The Qur'anic version of the Noah's flood story describes the flood waters as overflowing from an oven. This element is not found even in more ancient versions of the story (Epic of Gilgamesh, Atra hasis, and Ziusudra).
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| Note that in his translation, Yusuf Ali mistranslates the Aramaic loan word for the oven (alttannooru ٱلتَّنُّورُ)<ref>[http://www.studyquran.org/LaneLexicon/Volume1/00000355.pdf Lane's Lexicon p. 318 تَّنُّورُ]</ref> as "fountains". The Arabic verb translated "gushed forth" (fara فَارَ) means overflowed or boiled in the context of water in a cooking pot<ref>[http://www.studyquran.org/LaneLexicon/Volume6/00000241.pdf Lane's Lexicon p. 2457 فور]</ref>, as well as in the other verse where it is used, {{Quran|67|7}}. Here is Pickthall's more accurate translation:
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| {{Quote|{{Quran|11|40}}|
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| (Thus it was) till, when Our commandment came to pass '''and the oven gushed forth water''', We said: Load therein two of every kind, a pair (the male and female), and thy household, save him against whom the word hath gone forth already, and those who believe. And but a few were they who believed with him.}}
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| {{Quote|{{Quran|23|27}}|
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| Then We inspired in him, saying: Make the ship under Our eyes and Our inspiration. Then, when Our command cometh '''and the oven gusheth water''', introduce therein of every (kind) two spouses, and thy household save him thereof against whom the Word hath already gone forth. And plead not with Me on behalf of those who have done wrong. Lo! they will be drowned.}}
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| At one time academic scholars thought this verse alluded to a Midrashic exegesis in which the flood waters were boiling hot (b. Sanhedrin 108b, [https://www.sefaria.org/Rosh_Hashanah.12a.4?lang=bi|Tracate Rosh Hashanah 12a:4]). More recent scholarship, particularly by Olivier Mongellaz in 2024,<ref name="Mongellaz2024">Olivier Mongellaz (2024) [https://brill.com/view/journals/arab/71/4-5/article-p513_4.xml Le four de Noé : un cas d’intertextualité coranique], Arabica 71(4-5), 513-637. https://doi.org/10.1163/15700585-20246900</ref> has identified that these verses most likely reflect a late antique legend in which water gushing up through a bread oven (a large hole dug into the ground) was a sign warning Noah's family of the imminent flood. The interpretation as Noah's own oven is attributed to a number of early commentators (such as Ibn Abbas, Mujahid), while others understood it to be the area of land where the flood waters first rose. Qurtubi said: "The sayings of commentators appear to be different as to the meaning of tannur, but this, in reality, is not a difference. When water began to bulge out, it overflowed from the bread baking oven, and from out of the surface of the land".
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| Significantly, Mongellaz has argued on literary grounds that a fragmentary Arabic text falsely attributed to Hippolytus of Rome, and which mentions the overflowing bread oven story, is independent of the Islamic tradition and was originally written in a very specific environment which has parallels with the context in which certain parts of the Quran were written.
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| {{Quote|Pseudo. Hippolytus of Rome (translated to English from Mongellaz's French translation)<ref name="Mongellaz2024" />|Meanwhile, Ham's wife stood up to take out the bread that remained in the oven and immediately water sprang out of the oven [fāḍa l-māʾmin al-tannūr] and immediately water came out of the oven, as the Lord had said: "The fountains of the great deeps were opened." Ham's wife called to Noah, saying, "My lord, the word of God has come true (Syr. what God promised has come true!)" - for it had come true just as the Lord had promised her. When Noah heard Ham's wife's words, he said to her, "Oh, the flood has come."}}
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| == Noah's ark left behind as a sign ==
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| {{Quote|{{Quran-range|54|13|15}}|And We carried him on a [construction of] planks and nails, Sailing under Our observation as reward for he who had been denied. And We left it as a sign, so is there any who will remember?}}
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| Unlike the bible, which does not mention the ark as a sign for future generations, Neuwirth (2024) notes the salvation of Noah is made physically plausible to the listeners through the reference to the material verifiability of the ark, which could be taken from various late antique traditions, for example Flavius Josephus (b. 37AD) reports in the ''Jewish Antiquities (I 3.5 § 92)'' of the existence of the remains of Noah’s ark in Armenia (Clementz 1959: 22).<ref name=":0">Neuwirth, Angelika. ''The Qur'an: Text and Commentary, Volume 2.1: Early Middle Meccan Suras: The New Elect (p. 62).'' Yale University Press. Kindle Edition.</ref> She also notes that the appeal to the willingness of the listeners to be admonished by the sign (āya) of Noah’s ark is also reminiscent of the Talmudic story (bSanhedrin 96a) of the death of Sennacherib, who was led to a fateful decision by seeing the remains of Noah’s ark.<ref name=":0" />
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| == Moses and Pharaoh == | | == Moses and Pharaoh == |