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Article published Jun 28, 2009 Noah's wife stands firmly by her man
By Gerald Ivey
Today we are studying about a woman we have all talked about. She is mentioned five times in the Bible, and again she is one that is not named. Here are some names from legends: Noema, the daughter of Enoch; Noria and Vesta. We know she had a name; whether it was one of these, we don't know.
You can find her in the very first book of the Bible. Yep, in Genesis chapters 6, 7 and 8. You guessed it -- she is Noah's wife.
Here we have another woman where we have very little information and a lot of speculation. Your imagination is as good as mine, and that's all we have in this story.
We all know about Noah and how God told him to build the ark; this is usually the first Bible story we learn in Sunday school. As Noah was building the ark, some say the 120 years of chapter 6, verse 3, was the time it took him to build it. Look at chapter 5, where Noah was 500 years old and had the boys. Now go to chapter 7, verse 6, where he was 600 years old when he entered the ark. Sorry, you can't get 120 years out of 100. Anyway, I wonder what Mrs. Noah was saying. Was she defending Noah for building a boat when it hadn't even rained yet? Was she still by his side when everyone was laughing at her family?
I think so. I can just see her telling her boys, "Your dad knows what he is doing, because God told him how to do it." Maybe she and her daughters-in-law took lunch to the men as they were working on the ark. I believe -- and here we are talking about my imagination, yours may be different -- she was there the whole time with Noah through all the ridicule he endured. I think she was the original "stand by your man" woman.
How many years did she live after the flood? We are not told. Was she alive when Noah got drunk (Genesis 9:21)? I don't think so or she would have taken care of the situation.
Here again we have many questions and no answers. What we do know is that we have a woman we know very little about who did a lot more than what's told.
Gerald Ivey is pastor of Crossroads Missionary Baptist Church, Walland. His column runs the second and fourth Sundays of each month in the Women's Section. Mail comments about his column to Gerald Ivey, The Daily Times, P.O. Box 9740, Maryville, TN 37802-9740 or e-mail Women's Times Editor Linda Albert at linda.albert@thedailytimes.com.