RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Nitzsch Noah
posed to, but preparatory to, the revelatio didactica of the New Testament. His principal treatises were collected in two volumes, De revelatione religionis externa eademque publico, prolusiones academical (Leipsic, 1808) and De discrimine revelationis imperatorioe et didactica prolusiones academicoe (2 parts, Wittenberg, 1830). A short summary of his doctrinal system, as he taught it in his lectures, is given in his treatises, Ueber das Heil der Welt (1817); Ueber das Heil der Kirche (1821) ; and Ueber das Heil der Theologie (1830). (F. NiTzscHf.)
Bibliography: E. A. D. Hoppe, Denkmal des verewigten Dr. C. L. Nitzsch, Halle, 1832; J. C. H. von Zobel, Das Leben und Wirken der Pastoren und Superintendenten in der Stadt Borna, pp. 65-72, Boma, 1849.
NO : A name used for the Egyptian city Thebes in Jer. xlvi. 25; Ezek. xxx. 14-16; and Nahum iii. 8, where the Hebrew text has No-Amon, i.e., " No of Amon," the great deity of Thebes (see Amon). The later Greek name (Diospolis) is used' by the Septuagint in the passage from Ezekiel. No is a corruption of the Egyptian nwt, " the city, capital," found also in the cuneiform inscriptions in the form Ni-i' as a name of Thebes. The true Egyptian name was Weset. Thebes was insignificant during the Old Kingdom (third millennium b. a), but rose in importance in the Middle Kingdom (after 2000 B.C.), and under the eighteenth dynasty became the capital of Egypt and so remained for centuries. Not until the royal residence was removed to Lower Egypt in the seventh century B.C. did it begin to decline. Under the Ptolemies it took part in several revolts and was repeatedly besieged. It was completely destroyed by Cornelius Gallus, first prefect of Egypt under Augustus. Strabo found on its site in 24 b.c. only isolated villages (Geog., xvii., i. 46). The ruins of Thebes lie on the eastern bank of the Nile near the present Luxor and Karnak, and include the remains of the great temple of Amon ; the most magnificent and imposing of the sacred edifices of the Egyptians; on the west bank is the great necropolis of Thebes. (G. Steindorff.)
Bibliography: Among guide-books the best are: Baedeker's Egypt (revised by G. Steindorff), Leipsic, 1907; E. A. W. Budge, Cook's Handbook for Egypt and the Soudan, London, 1905; Macmillan's Guide to Egypt and the Sudan, ib., 1905; Murray's Handbook for Egypt and the Sudan, ib., 1907; A. E. P. Weigall, A Guide to the Antiquities of Upper Egypt., ib., 1910. Consult the commentaries on the three passages cited; works on the history and antiquity of Egypt; A. H. Sayce, The Egypt of the Hebrews and Herodotos, London, 1902.
NOAH.
Character of Noah's Age (§1).
The Interwoven Hebrew Flood Story (§2).
Its Significance and Consequences (§ 3).
Babylonian and Hebrew Accounts Compared (§ 4).
A New Tablet (§ 5).
The Narrative in Relation to History (§ 5).
Noah, with whose name the memory of the deluge is connected (cf. Isa. liv. 9), was, according to Gen. v. 28 sqq., the son of Lamech, and was the tenth and last of the lineage of Seth. The name means " rest, " but Gen. v. 29 connects it with the root naham, " to comfort." The Biblical recital indicates that Noah lived in a period of moral degeneracy which can be estimated through the so-called commandments of Noah (Gen. ix.), which imply a reign of
bloodshed and reckless disregard of life. Sexual conditions also must have degenerated to a degree menacing the very integrity of human nature — this
is the meaning of the enigmatic passage
i. Charac- Gen. vi. 1 sqq. Hence came the Lord's
ter of decision to root out the human race.
Noah's Age. The limitation of man's life to 120
years merely signifies a respite of that duration until the flood. According to vii. 11, the flood began in Noah's six-hundredth year, therefore the revelation must have been made in his fourhundred and eightieth year; this was, according to the Hebrew chronology, 1,656 years after the creation of man. The Septuagint makes it 2,242 and the Samaritan version 1,307.
The account of the flood (Gen. vi. 9, ix. 17) is combined from two different recitals, as is seen in the repetition of the account of Noah's entry into the ark (vii. 7-9 and 13-16a). The first account,
marked by the use of the divine name
2. The Yahweh, tells of God's command to
Interwoven Noah to enter the ark with his family,
Hebrew and to take with him seven of each
Flood Story, kind of clean animals, three pairs and
one for sacrifice, and one pair of each kind of unclean animals, since in seven days a fortydays' rain would be sent to destroy all life on the face of the earth. Noah obeys this command (vii. 1-5). After seven days the flood begins (verses 7-10), and lasts forty days and forty nights (verse 12). God shuts Noah in the ark (verse 16b), which is borne on the water for forty days (verse 17). After all living things outside the ark are destroyed (verses 22, 23), the rain ceases (viii. 2b, 3a). Noah sends forth the raven which does not return; then he sends a dove, which comes back, since it does not find a resting-place; seven days later he sends another dove, which returns with an olive-branch; at the end of another seven days he liberates a third dove, which does not return (viii. 6-12). Upon this, Noah uncovers the ark and sees that the earth is dry (13b); he builds an altar and makes a burntoffering to God of the clean beasts and birds. God accepts this sacrifice and covenants that, in view of man's inborn evil, no such visitation shall again take place. This account is interwoven with another, wherein the divine name Elohim is used. Here is the command to build the ark and to place in it one pair of each kind of animals with the necessary provisions, so as to save them from the coming destruction (vi. 9-22). In Noah's six hundredth year on the seventeenth day of the second month, on which day Noah entered the ark, " were all the fountains of the great deep broken up and the windows of heaven were opened " (Gen. vii. 11). The water rises until the one hundred and fiftieth day and reaches a height of fifteen cubits above the highest mountains, so that all life perishes (vii. 6, 11, 13-1 6a, 17-21, 23b-24). The waters then subside and, on the seventeenth day of the seventh month, the ark rested on Mount Ararat. On the first of the tenth month, the peaks of the hills are seen; on the first of the first month of the second year, the water has left the earth, and on the twentyseventh day of the second month, the earth is dry and Noah is commanded to leave the ark (viii. 1, 2a,
Noah