Mrs. Noah (Genesis 6-11, Moses 8)

Monday, January 31, 2022

 




Works Cited:

Transcript:

A big thank you to Mary for working on this transcript!

Channing: [00:00:006] Hi! I'm Channing.

Elise: And I'm Elise. 

Channing: And this is The Faithful Feminists Podcast. 

Elise: [00:00:12] We focus on feminist interpretations of scriptures and follow the LDS Come Follow Me manual as a guide for study. We understand scriptures can be a tricky endeavor for readers, but we also believe sacred texts contain compelling examples of loving and liberating relationships with The Divine, others, and ourselves. We hope you'll join us in exploring the problems and promises of sacred texts with imagination, critique, and celebration to reveal what we feel is the loving and liberating heart of scripture.

Channing: [00:00:41] While Mormonism with its iconic floral foyer couches is our background, we follow our faith and our God on the winding path of spirituality over institution, and connection over condemnation. We are fellow wanderers, weavers, and doubters. If you’ve found yourself feeling a little too faithful for some and not enough for others: Welcome. We've saved you a seat on the soft chairs. This podcast is funded by our listeners’ generous donations. If you'd like to support our work, connect with us on Patreon or on our website at www.thefaithfulfeminists.com.

Elise: [00:01:22] Welcome back to everyone. In this week's episode, we're talking about Genesis chapter 6-11 and Moses chapter eight for the dates January 31st through February 6th. 

Channing: [00:01:31] This week, we're grappling with a really tough and really emotionally rough story. This is the story of Noah and the ark and then also late in the chapters we encounter the story of the tower of Babel. This has been a really emotional process for Elise and I, to look at this story and try to figure out what interpretation we’ll offer and I can even hear my voice, like, kind of already getting a little shaky. So just, you know, hoping that this episode is a smooth ride today, but for now, we're just going to start with a quick summary of the chapters. We've been in the Pearl of Great Price for a couple of weeks, so it's nice to get back to Genesis. We begin in chapter six, where after Enoch's Zion was taken up from last week's episode, his son, Methuselah, stays behind because the promise that God gave Enoch was that his seed would survive the flood that we saw in Moses seven. From Methuselah comes Noah, a couple of generations later, and this is where the story begins. The chapter starts with, “And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose… when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children unto them, the same became mighty men…, men of renown.” Immediately after this verse five states, “And God saw the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” From here, God decides to “destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth”, but not only man, but “beast and creeping thing and the fowls of the air”. But luckily for Noah, “Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.” 

Elise: [00:03:34] We understand from the remainder of chapter six, that the world was “corrupt before God” and the earth was filled with violence. So God commands Noah to build an Ark and gives really specific instructions for its construction, including the iconic two by two of all species that are supposed to be taken into the Ark, as well as Noah's wife and their three sons and their wives. All of those people make it onto the Ark with all food that is eaten, so that obviously they'll have something to eat. 

Channing: [00:04:05] In chapter seven, the rains start to come and the flood rises and the Ark prevails while everyone and everything else perishes. The flood lasts for 150 days until dry land appears in chapter eight. Noah and everyone on the Ark gets off with the encouragement of God. Chapter eight verses 15 through 17 read, “And God spake unto Noah saying, Go forth of the ark, thou, and thy wife, and thy sons, and thy sons’ wives with thee. Bring forth with thee every living thing that is with thee, …that they may breed abundantly in the earth, and be fruitful, and multiply upon the earth.” They do so, and Noah offers sacrifice unto God and God makes a promise to not make a flood again. Noah gets some more commandments and we also see the rainbow promise in chapter nine, but additionally, some weird family drama plays out in a vineyard where Noah gets drunkenly naked. Chapter 10 is a lot of, like lineage, like so-and-so begat so-and-so and begat and begat. And then we move to chapter 11, which like we said earlier, tells the story of the tower of Babel. 

Elise: [00:05:16] This chapter starts out by saying, “And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech… As they journeyed… they said to one another… let us build a city and a tower whose top may reach unto heaven.” The entire tower of Babel story lasts nine verses and it's less than half of the chapter. For those of us who were unfamiliar with the story, what happens is that the Lord sees that everyone is working together and God says, you know what? Let's go down and, like, confuse and “confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech.” God and whoever they were talking to does so, and everyone is scattered and mixed up. The end. That's the end of the story. So the remainder of the chapter spans a handful of generations until verse 29, which says, “and Abram and Nahor took them wives. The name of Abram's wife was Sarai…, but Sarai was barren; she had no child.”

Channing: [00:06:05] Yeah. So we really see that the text moves quite quickly. In 11 chapters from the beginning of this year, we've moved from the Creation to Cain and Abel to Enoch to the flood to the tower of Babel and at the end of this week, we'll have arrived at the story of Abram and Sarai who will later become Abraham and Sarah. One thing that Elise and I are learning as we move through the text at this super lightning speed fastness, is that there's not nearly enough time to really digest these stories. These are stories of mythic proportions, like, I mean, not very literally like these read like myths, and they deserve far more time than what we're really offering them right now. For me, it's really interesting to see how the manual weights the content. For example, we'll cover two really big deal stories in the Bible in one week, but we spent two or three weeks for the stories in Enoch, in the Pearl of Great Price, and we'll take it really slowly, one chapter at a time. For me as I'm reading the text, I don't think that that's fair and I probably would have done it a little bit differently based on the amount of content that we have to work through in the Bible. And I wanted to bring this up because I think it's important to recognize what our institution weighs and prioritizes and what it doesn't. Because I really think that that can be a good indicator of where our values lie. Some of the questions that I'm asking is, “where does the manual take its time and where does it hurry? Why does it slow down and why does it hurry? What patterns emerge when we take this into account?” I'm not really ready to say for sure, just yet, but by the end of the year, I think that we'll be able to notice some really interesting things about what the institution considers important about the Bible and what it doesn't. So just in the background, this is something that I'm really paying attention to. So with that introduction and kind of that overview of the texts that we're working with this week, like we said, at the beginning of the episode, this has been a really emotional story for us to work with and we've really grappled with that.

Elise: [00:08:14] Yeah, we've sent a lot of Marcos this week, trying to figure out “did God literally kill everyone in this story?” And I feel like this is not the only story we've asked that question of. Like, we've asked “did God literally kill everyone?” many, many, many times. And so, I don't know, perhaps for all of our listeners like us, you might have remembered the story of Noah's Ark, but you remembered it in kind of like a Primary way with lots of great pictures from the library and lots of great illustrations and like fun, little cute animals walking hand in hand into the Ark. But then when you sit down to read it, you realize it isn't exactly as you remembered it. And so then what do you do with that? Everyone dies except for Noah's family, which means all of the adults, all the kids, all the teenagers and their crushes, all of the elderly folks and also all of the babies. And if we choose to take and trust the text at face value with this story, then we're confronted with really big questions. Like, “Do I believe in a God who would kill everyone, but save only one select family? Do I believe in a God who gets upset enough at humanity to flood the entire earth?” These are some of the things that Channing and I have grappled with and have gone around and around and around again. And as we've been grappling with these questions, other things have come up, like, other interpretations. Maybe it's really the people that were so awful to one another, that there was really no true love or compassion or any care for their relationships with their community, with God, or with the earth. Or maybe this is God throwing a really big fit and becoming frustrated with the frailties of humanity, like we've seen God do elsewhere. God kicks people out of Eden. God kicks people out of the east of Eden, and now God gets mad because humans are bad again and so God floods things.

Channing: [00:10:02] Yeah. It's just, I feel like every time we come to the story, we're like, maybe it's this, maybe it's this, maybe it's this. And at the end of the day I don't really think that we've confidently been able to land on an interpretation that checks all the boxes. And so we're kind of left again with this story of, like, “Ah, shoot, what do we do with this? With this iconic story that has real consequences and, like, has been in our minds, at least for Elise and I, since our primary days.” And so it feels like a huge undertaking to try to address this story in all of its complexity. And yeah, there's a part of me, and I do want to keep this in the episode, there is a part of me that feels so, like, this is probably going to be really vulnerable, but there's a part of me that feels, like, so sad because the story asked so much of us. And I know that there are still going to be people who are unsatisfied with what we have to offer here today, because it doesn't fit, you know, whatever expected interpretation there is. And so I really just, I think it's important for both of us that we kind of say at the get-go of this episode, that, like, yes, we are aware that there are as many ways to interpret this text as there are people. And what we offer here today is what feels right at this moment, in this time. So we invite you to join us and if what we have here today speaks to you, we're really grateful to have you. And if what we have here today doesn't speak to you, we're still really grateful for you being here and listening and engaging. And we encourage everyone, if it’s available to you in whatever state you are in, to also read the story and see what comes out for you.  

Elise: [00:12:11] And for me, I've noticed this week that what feels most fitting for me in this moment is it's a good reminder to me that scriptures are stories and stories are people's interpretations and retellings of events or encounters and experiences with themselves and with others, with The Divine and the earth. And so for me, I'm kind of asking, what would it be like if I were to free myself from the burden of trying to understand why God did or didn't do something in the story. And what if instead, I tried to show up with compassion for the humans and the animals here? What if I tried to think about this as the author, trying to make sense of some really awful environmental destruction and flooding and death? What if I tried to retell or re-see the story as one where God, instead of commanding destruction, is actually a God that is with all of those that didn't make it onto the Ark? Because I can only imagine how difficult it must be to be the author of the story, or to be Noah, and to have your home flooded and all of your friends and your neighbors and your family lost to the storm. And then to get out and look around at the carnage and think, “Wow, what did we do to make God so mad?” To have to read God into the worst situation as a director, like, as the God of vengeance and punishment is a really painful, scary, and intimidating way to have a relationship with God. 

Channing: [00:13:36] Yeah, I love those questions and they really have been at the forefront of our conversations and how we've kind of approached this text. And so I think at the end of the day, we're kind of like, “yeah, we don't know how to make sense of this story.” And maybe in some way, that's our gift to you. Instead of like this really solid answer and this really solid interpretation, we're kind of just, like moving with the story and moving with the text and we hope that you'll join us in doing that. So, yeah. All I know is that for this story, I have lots of feelings on the surface, but underneath everything is really this deep and great sadness. I have a lot of questions for the story, but as I kind of tried to feel my way through and see, “where am I feeling called? Where am I feeling pulled in this story?” I really felt drawn toward the figure of Noah’s unnamed wife.

And so she doesn't ever get named in the text. Her three daughters-in-law are also unnamed. And so as we, I think we're going to move through the story through the lens or through an imagining of what Noah's wife was like and what her experiences were like. And I think that that's the way that we'll move through the Ark story for this episode. So we really feel like when we're talking about Noah's unnamed wife, it seems appropriate and reasonable to just start with the question: “Noah's wife, what is your actual name?” I came across in my research and essay titled, “The 103 names of Noah's Wife” by Francis Lee Utley of Ohio State University. This article was written in 1941, so it may not be the most, like, up to date research of all time. But I did think that it offered something really beautiful for today's episode. Utley writes, “When the writers of these ageless authorities, the Bible and the Koran, failed to provide either her name or the names of her daughters in law, they opened the way for endless theorizing on the matter… It is my [Utley’s] intention to collect the names that I have come upon, and to supply a brief comment on them as I am able.” So what Utley did was they went through a whole ton of resources, like plays and midrash writings and like law codes, and a whole bunch of stuff. And they just collected all of the names that they could find referencing Noah's wife or potentially referencing Noah's wife. So we wanted to share just a handful, not all 103, but just a handful of the names that maybe might have been Noah's wife. Maybe Noah's wife was Abitisa, Amisra, Azara. Maybe Noah's wife was Cofa or Sidly or Eva, or Gia. Maybe Noah's wife was Marie or Milka or Naamah, maybe Nina, Noma, Nurita, Tara, Teetree, Tidia, Titia, Uchsor. Maybe she was Valia, Venus, Vesta, or Wila. The author writes, “Many of the names can be traced to one or more of five sources. These are varying schemes of transliteration, scribal error or the store of other feminine names in the Bible, classical parallels or etymological fitness.” Some of the many problems suggested by the names of Noah's wife have been touched upon in the author's essay. The major contribution of what Utley provides is “the revelation of the vast energy expended by writers of the east and west upon the shadowy identity of this common mother of us all.” I really liked this essay. We'll link it in the show notes, you can read all of Utley’s commentary on where these names came from and how they arrived to the conclusion that they were relevant names for Noah's unnamed wife. I like, I just, I like it because I think having a name for an unnamed person helps them to come alive in our minds. 

Elise: [00:18:00] From here, I think we can move to what Noah's wife's life might have looked like prior to the flood. There's a great essay titled “Commemorating the Nameless wives of the Bible: Midrashic Poems by Contemporary American-Jewish Women” by Anat Koplowitz-Brier. And this essay includes a handful of really beautiful midrash poems that we wanted to share here. And first we'd like to begin with a selection from Sherri Waas Shunfenthal. They write, “Although the Bible says that Noah was a man righteous in his time, Mrs. Noah must also have been righteous to have been saved from the flood.” In her poem, “Noah's wife speaks”, the wife recounts the building of the Ark from her perception. She writes, “Noah, my man of the soil walks with God. He is a quiet man. Faithful. Dependable. Noah is different from the wild men of town. He is loyal, constant like the sun and the moon. Noah senses weather patterns, our fields flourish. We are never hungry. Noah listens. He hears God tell him to build a house that floats. Waters will come, cover the land. It is hard for me to understand. Who has ever heard of a floating house? Who has heard of a house with three floors? I trust Noah. I must. There is nowhere for a woman to go alone with three sons. I stay. Watch. Work the fields, trying to imagine a floating house. I must trust Noah. I must. Channing: [00:19:27] We are isolated, alone. My boys wander the forest befriending wounded animals. I bind the creature's wounds with leaves, cloth, and mixtures of healing salts. It comforts me to comfort the animals. I learn their language in the same way I understood my boys' shrieks and sighs when they were babies. The animals respond to me when I call. My sons instinctively communicate with the animals too. The animals respond with long strings of singing sound. Together we live happily under one roof, my sons, their wives, the animals, Noah and me. Noah's Ark will be large enough for us with all the animals. We help build Noah's Ark, singing, sweating, shaping our future.” 

Elise: [00:20:18] This poem is one imagining of what her life might have looked like as she prepared herself and everyone she needed to, for the flood. It seems at least to us right now, like an equal mix of peaceful and confused and faithful even. 

Channing: [00:20:31] Another imagining comes from Rabbi Elaine Rose Glickman. Of Glickman, Koplowitz-Brier writes, “Her poem, Parashat Noach, addresses Mrs Noah’s feelings before the flood. This two-part poem thus makes us privy to Noah’s wife's thoughts and feelings.” Glickman writes in the voice of Noah's wife saying:


I.

My mothers and sisters— 

there would be no room for them. 

God had been very specific, 

my husband said, on this point 

as on all the others—


how long, how tall, how deep 

how many windows (one) 

how many animals (lots) 

how everyone else would die. 


II.

At nine, my youngest sister

 is brown-haired, plain, 

eyes quick and curious, 

lips filled with laughter and secrets. 


I will not go without her, I say

trying to sound fierce and certain 

against the darkening sky and gathering wind,

but I can hear my voice betray me, 

high-pitched, cracking, muted by thunder 

not so very far away.


I can't even imagine the trauma of, like, you know, I think when we think like, oh, Noah and his wife and his kids and his family and like their family, they all make it right. But like, when I think about my family, I don't just think about my spouse or my kids, like, it's all the people who I love and I would be so sad to leave them. And it just, like, breaks my heart. So yeah, I really strongly feel like I will never recover, like I will never recover from this poem, like it broke me in, like an irreparable way. So yeah, I think at least for me, like reading this story, I feel like I am remembering, you know, the picture perfect renderings of this story from my childhood. And in turn this poem that we just read really illuminates how difficult the task is for Naama and all of the grief that comes with it and knowing this and seeing the story in this way, I genuinely can't understand how we can somehow teach the story to Primary kids with animal cutouts on a felt board. How we can decorate our baby nurseries with Noah's Ark decor in cartoon style. And this poem really asks me to face this story and the awfulness, and kind of read between the lines and recognize that what is there is death and destruction and life shattering trauma. So, yeah. Woo, there's a lot to unpack there.

So as we move from there and we move along in our poetic imaginings of what, you know, Noah's wife's story might be, we are left to imagine what her life was like on the Ark. We found this really beautiful poem by CT Salazar titled, “Noah's Nameless Wife Takes Inventory” and it was published in Ruminate Magazine in 2019. It reads, “horse heart hyena heart swan spine silver fish shining in black water yes timber wolf tooth yes pity the ark with its belly full of glowing tongues touch the lion's paw only while it sleeps the red tailed hawk with jewels for eyes swallows the field mouse and the mouse was the only proof the field existed what else will be forgotten the hawk will starve soon we will starve soon the dogs will howl like a god learning the word for light and nothing will howl back.” And I wanted to include this poem because I feel like not only is it really well-written, but I like the little images that we get throughout the poem, like horse heart, hyena heart only touch the paw while the lion's sleeping. And I like the way that the poet just kind of puts these words together and really creates a picture for us just based on still images of what her life might've looked like and what some of the thoughts she might've had while she was on the Ark. I imagine experiencing a lot, a lot of grief. 

Elise: [00:25:05] Alongside these poetic imaginings of Noah's wife, there's also lots of research and studies and kind of essays or even poems that have been written about the connection between the environment and climate change and the story of Noah's Ark. We came across a few different articles that kind of highlighted different themes we wanted to share here. The first would be maybe a dangerous way to view the story of Noah's Ark in denial of climate change, actually. I wonder if there are moments in our lives where we think, “Well, you know what, God promised that nothing bad would ever happen to the earth again, so it doesn't really matter if I care for it or not.” So you have this kind of denial and lack of responsibility showing up in one's approach to climate change. We might also be able to read the story as a preparation tale for getting ready for what's on the horizon with climate change. Right? We see Noah who listened to God and believe that there was an environmental crisis on the horizon. So Noah did what he could to prepare and protect those that he loved. And I like this reading kind of, but it's a little bit reactive as if the only thing left to do is to shut ourselves away in an Ark and hope for the best. Another interpretation that we've seen of this story is that Noah reminds us that humans cause climate change and we have responsibility to do something about that. Especially, I think, as we see highlighted in verses 11, 12, and 13 of chapter six, really tie human's actions to the earth. Verse 11 says, “The earth was filled with violence” 12, “All flesh has corrupted his way upon the earth” and 13, “The earth is filled with violence and behold, I will destroy them with the earth.” We also have wondered what it would be like to read Noah not as the good guy, but as the bad guy who shuts other people out. I think, like we said earlier in the beginning of the episode, what if we saw God as the one who stays with those who drown and sink? What if God is the one who stays with those pounding on the doors and taking one last breath? God, not as someone who caused a flood, but as a compassionate suffering presence throughout environmental crises?

Channing: [00:27:13] We also, wonder if we can see Noah and his family as being really connected to the earth, to each other, and to God. What if we could imagine Noah as someone who tries to share plans for the Ark, who tries to pack it full with friends and neighbors, as many as he can? What if we can imagine Noah's wife as someone who tends to the land and the animals, moving in gratitude and faith like we did in the poem that we shared? Maybe she's the woman who kept toads in her pocket and would pick up grasshoppers. Maybe goats followed her and deers connected with her. She saw them and cared for their souls and no wonder they followed her. I like this reading of the Noah's Ark story as kind of indicative or relative to climate crisis, because that is definitely something that's been at the forefront of my mind over the last couple of weeks. I came across another poem by Maya C. Popa and she writes “A Letter to Noah’s Wife,” as she faces, as we all do, the ever looming threat of climate crisis. Her poem reads:


You are never mentioned on Ararat

or elsewhere, but I know a woman’s hand

in salvation when I see it. Lately,

I’m torn between despair and ignorance.

I’m not a vegetarian, shop plastic,

use an air conditioner. Is this what happens

before it all goes fluvial? Do the selfish

grow self-conscious by the withering

begonias? Lately, I worry every black dress

will have to be worn to a funeral.

Anything but illness, I beg the plagues,

but shiny crows or nuclear rain.

Not a drop in London May through June.

I bask in the wilt by golden hour light.

Lately, only lately, it is late. Tucking

our families into the safeties of the past.

My children, will they exist by the time

it’s irreversible? Will they live

astonished at the thought of ice

not pulled from the mouth of a machine?

Noah’s wife, I am wringing

my hands not knowing how to know

and move forward. Was it you

who gathered flowers once the earth

had dried? How did you explain the light

to all the animals?


I find a lot of comfort in this letter because climate crisis is something which really haunts me as a parent. And I wonder, there's a big part of me that wonders, if this is why I feel so emotional over this story. I also wonder if it's because the sister in Glickman’s poem that we read earlier, is nearly the same age as my daughter. And my questions about her and about this story is how do I explain to my daughter that this beautiful world is half dead and already dying. That the oceans rise. That what awaits our future is not projected to be rainbows and a parade from the belly of an Ark. And my other questions are, how do we make sense of any of these stories? And especially for us this week on the podcast, how do we make sense of this story? I am so grieved over these stories. I feel so much like Enoch of last week's chapters. I refuse to be comforted. And I'm also deeply sorrowful at the way that God is read into the story. Last week, we explored a God who punished the earth by flood and wrath and vengeance. Was God wrong? Was this God's mistake? Could it have been prevented by anyone? Or maybe the flood happened independent of anyone or anything? And God was read into the situation in an attempt to make sense of it. And I feel like I, every time it's just around and around in circles, maybe, maybe, maybe. And like we said earlier, we don't know the answer, but I do feel strongly to remember again, that stories are not benign. The stories that we tell influence the way that we see and move in the world. And I am wary of stories in which God saves the 1% and drowns the 99. I am wary of stories which present wickedness as justification for genocide. This is a slippery slope. Who decides who deserves to die? Who acts for God in God's place? How has the rhetoric of the righteous cleansing the earth from the dirty, unrighteous scourge of the unwanted influenced or attempted to justify human-enacted genocides of history? Stories are not benign. So as I move from this story and from the text, I am asking the question: What does this story call me to do? Does it ask me to look for rainbows? Does it ask me to count animals two by two and sing camp songs about it? Or does this story call me to step into a role which witnesses the suffering of others and refuse to be comforted? To say, I will not leave without her. To pause the ship building long enough to ask what do you mean the whole earth? That can't be right. To stand up and say, I will not build that Ark. I will not gather the animals and you will not flood the ground I stand on. For if they die, I die with them. Does it call me to wonder and see myself into the story as Noah and ask God, you say you love me and you made my father's father's father a promise and I'm cashing in now. I will make it through the flood with everyone else and we will start anew, we will figure out a way, you and I God together and I'm counting on you, God of miracles to help me make one. 

Elise: [00:33:00] That kind of rousing call and this kind of, I don't know, courageous rebellion that you're inciting, reminds me of a sermon that I have listened to called “Risking Everything: Noah's Ark in an Age of Climate Crisis” by Rabbi Adina at the Jewish Studio Project. She says, “...In the end, he lives through the flood only to find life unlivable. Once on land, Noah plants a vineyard - a strange choice for the first crop planted post destruction. He then proceeds to make wine and get drunk. In the very next verse, we read of Noah’s death. It seems, at least for Noah, in a world in which all around us is being destroyed, even if we ourselves and our family make it through safe and protected, life becomes no longer worth living.” Throughout the rest of the sermon, the rabbi asks very similar questions to the ones you're asking. Like, could Noah have pushed back or risked challenging God and questioning God's judgment like Abraham or Moses? Could Noah have argued for goodness, for the goodness of humanity, like, surely Noah knew not everyone around him was wicked. Like he grew up with the people around him. In this way, Noah questioning God would have first meant that Noah had to see the people around him as important and vibrant and good. He needed to see them worth saving too. Or maybe could Noah have refused to be a partner in God's plan? And if he did that, he would have first have had to risk being seen as special in God's eyes. In the sermon Rabbi Adina says, “By refusing to be an accomplice, Noah would be risking something else - destabilizing his special status in God’s eyes. This would mean potentially losing his designation as “righteous among his generation,” potentially losing his spot on the ark. It would mean sitting in the truth that no one, not even he, should be valued in God’s eyes above all others.” Could Noah have risked, maybe seeing how he too, and his family, like all of us are a mixture of goodness and shortcomings, just like everyone else? And that no one deserves, in any way, to be washed and drowned completely from the earth?” Finally, Rabbi Edina says, “The story of the Flood ends with the rainbow, bright and beautiful stretching across the sky, a sign, as God says, that God will never cause this kind of massive destruction to happen again. “God” won’t, but it doesn’t mean we won’t. In our day the devastation of the flood doesn’t hinge on one person arguing - or not - with God for humanity’s salvation. Today, in a way, we are all Noah and God lives within each one of us. We all play a part in our shared destruction and all of us are needed for our collective salvation.”

Channing: [00:35:57] We hope that throughout today's episode, that we've been able to share some of the challenges that we've experienced with this story, what we feel called to really sit with and identify with and work our way through as we walk through this text, and, I don't know, hopefully offer some perspective and compassion and empathy and maybe offer different interpretation. I'm excited to see what other people who are similarly placed in this work see in this text. It might be different. It might be the same, and I have total trust that we will figure out a way together through this text that is both liberating and loving.

Elise: [00:36:51] Friends, thank you so much for joining us today for another episode of the faithful feminist podcast. We know your time and space is sacred and we are so grateful to have spent ours with you. If you enjoyed this episode, we'd be so happy if you left us a loving rating on iTunes and Spotify so other seekers can find us. 

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