parashat noach Amalgamation
The Torah portion read in synagogues around the world this week is parashat noach. parashat noach runs from Genesis 6:9 until 11:32. We’ll read just a few verses from the parasha. Genesis 6:11-13.
“And the earth was destroyed before God, and the earth was filled with lawlessness. And God saw the earth, and behold it was destroyed, for all flesh had destroyed their way on earth. And God said to Noach, ‘The end of all flesh has come before me, for the earth is filled with lawlessness because of them. And behold, I am destroying them with the earth.’”
Our parasha emphasizes that even before God brought the deluge, the earth was already destroyed. The purpose of the deluge then, was not to destroy the earth, which was already destroyed, but to destroy all flesh. Genesis 6:17 spells this out.
“As for me, I am bringing the deluge, which is water on the earth to destroy all flesh.”
You may wonder, in what sense can the earth be said to be destroyed, if God still needed to bring the deluge in order to destroy all flesh?
Genesis chapter 38 supplies a clue as to in what the sense the earth was already destroyed before God brought the deluge. Chapter 6 and chapter 38 are the only two passages in the Book of Genesis where the word “destroy” and the word “earth” appear together. When we study Torah, we do well to compare the usage of an expression in other passages. Genesis 38:7-10.
“And it came to pass that Er the firstborn of Yhuda was evil in the eyes of HaShem, and HaShem put him to death. And Yhuda said to Onan, ‘Go into your brother’s wife and do her the duty of a brother-in-law and raise up seed for your brother.’ And Onan knew that the seed would not be his, and when he would go into his brother’s wife he destroyed on the earth so as not to give seed to his brother. And what he did was evil in the eyes of HaShem, and he put him to death also.”
From this story in Genesis chapter 38 we learn in what sense the earth was destroyed prior to the deluge. The expressionושחת ארצה“he destroyed on the earth” explains the expression ותישחת הארץ “the earth was destroyed.” By cheating his brother’s wife out of, what in that society were, her lawful conjugal rights, Onan selfishly withheld seed. The Torah says,
“He destroyed on the earth so as not to give seed to his brother.”
This is not the place to speculate as to by what particular sex act Onan selfishly withheld seed. The point is that the Torah considers the earth itself to be destroyed by forbidden sexual practices. I would argue that it is in this sense parashat noach says the earth was destroyed prior to the deluge. This interpretation, that the earth was destroyed by forbidden mating habits, is reinforced by the language of Genesis 6:12.
“And God saw the earth, and behold it was destroyed, for all flesh had destroyed their way on earth.”
Here we are interested in the expression “their way on the earth.” Again, we take our clue from the language of the Torah. In Genesis 19:31 the expression “the way of all the earth” refers to procreation. The passage tells how the daughters of Lot conceived.
“And the firstborn said to the younger, ‘Our father is old and there is no man on earth to come into us according to the way of all the earth.’”
I would argue it is in this sense of the word “way” that Genesis 6:12 states “all flesh had destroyed their way on earth.” I would argue from the language of the book, that Genesis 6:12 means: all flesh had destroyed their way of procreation on the earth.
A few years ago, Peter Wallis and Kellie Smith of Albuquerque, NM, met at work. They soon started dating and eventually moved in together. Then Kellie informed Peter she was pregnant. What happened next shows the chaos that ensues when a society enshrines sexual autonomy. When Wallis found out, he was furious. As he told the Washington Post, “I felt shocked, overwhelmed and rather betrayed.” Wallis contends that he and Smith had an understanding that their sex life should be non-procreative. “I told her the only method that was foolproof enough for me was the Pill.” Upon learning that she was pregnant and refused to have an abortion; Wallis threw Smith out of the apartment. But he went one step further. He filed suit, charging her with “intentionally acquiring and misusing” his semen. Happily, the case, as well as the appeal, have been dismissed.
This bizarre story marks the intersection of two obnoxious cultural trends: First, in this age of sperm banks semen has become a commodity. In other words, it’s property, and the concept of property carries with it an implied right of ownership: There’s a right to dispose of property as one sees fit. But even more important, Wallis’s claim is the inevitable result of the disconnect between sex and procreation. [BreakPoint Commentary - November 30, 1998 “Sperm Abuse” What Modernity Hath Wrought by Charles W. Colson 1998 Prison Fellowship Ministries]
Ancient Jewish tradition is also familiar with the concept that the earth was destroyed because biological life was corrupted, but ancient Jewish tradition derives it from a different detail in the text than my previous suggestion. Midrash Tanchuma offers an explanation pegged to the expression “all flesh.” I quote.
ואף הבהמה קלקלו לשאינן מינן הסוס על החמור והחמור על הסוס והנחש על הצפור שנאמר "כי השחית כל בשר." כל אדם לא נאמר אלא כל בשר. לפיכך "וימח את כל היקום אשר על פני האדמה האדם עד בהמה" וגו'. ולא נכנסו לתיבה אלא אותן שלא קלקלו לשאינן מינן.“Even the beasts corrupted with those not of their own kind: the horse on the donkey, the donkey on the horse, and the snake on the bird. As it says, “for all flesh had corrupted their way.” All humanity it does not say, but “all flesh.” Therefore Scripture continues, “And he wiped out all existence on the face of the ground, from human to beast, from creeping creature and to fowl of the sky. None entered the ark excepting for those who hadn’t corrupted with those not of their kind.”” [Tanchuma, noach 12]
That’s what ancient Jewish interpretation has to say. This ancient interpretation is actually based on close attention to the Torah’s language. By referencing the various life forms wiped out in Genesis 7:23 Midrash Tanchuma specifies which creatures were corrupted. Genesis 7:23 says:
“And he wiped all existence on the face of the ground, from human to beast, to creeping creature, and to fowl of the sky; and they were wiped from the earth.”
The beasts which ancient Jewish tradition says corrupted with those not of their own kind correspond to the list in Genesis 7:23. Scripture says, “from human to beast,” so tradition specifies, “even the beasts corrupted with those not of their own kind: the horse on the donkey, the donkey on the horse.” Scripture says, “to creeping creatures and to fowl of the sky,” so tradition specifies, “and the snake on the bird.”
Mind you, I’m not asking you to accept what ancient Jewish tradition says at face value. Just because tradition is old is no reason to accept it. I’m simply pointing out that here ancient Jewish tradition is an interpretation of Torah. Other ancient interpretations of Genesis 6:12 are still more bold. Bavli tractate Sanhedrin [108a]. I quote:
"כי השחית כל בשר את דרכו על הארץ" אמר רבי יוחנן מלמד שהרביעו בהמה על חיה וחיה על בהנה והכל על אדם ואדם על הכל. “For all flesh had corrupted their way on earth.” Rabbi Yochannon said, ‘This teaches that beast laid on animal, and animal on beast, and all of them on human, and human on all of them.’”
In the Bavli Rabbi Yochannon claims that the corruption of life forms extended to human beings. My own theory is that from their familiar surroundings coupled with the language of the Torah ancient Jews deduced life forms had once been corrupted. Ancient Jews were confronted by idolatrous images at every turn. Many of these pagan images were of composite animals or of composite human/animals. Ancient Jews knew of no such creatures living in God’s world. They may have imagined that such creatures had existed in the previous world.
But the notion that the earth was destroyed by the mating with humans with those not of their own kind is more than a fantasy of ancient readers. Torah teaches the relationship between the earth and forbidden relations in Leviticus chapter 18. Notice what is written at the end of the list of forbidden relations in Leviticus 18:23-25.
“And with any beast do not allow your lying to become unclean by it. And do not put a woman up before a beast to lay on her, this is תבל a confusion. Do not make yourselves impure by any of these things, for by these things the Gentiles are impure who I am sending out before you. And the earth will become impure and I will visit her punishment upon her, and the earth will vomit her inhabitants.”
We can think of the floodwaters exactly in those terms: the vomit of the earth, when the impure earth vomited out her inhabitants. The biblical concept is that the earth is punished for the confusion of human and non-human. You’ll recall in the creation story God had said:
“Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds.” [Genesis 1:24]
Because it is the earth which is supposed to bring forth living creatures according to their kinds, the earth suffers when living creatures are brought forth not according to their kinds. This concept of the earth’s liability is what lies behind Genesis 6:12.
“And behold, I am destroying them with the earth.”
If ancient Jewish interpretation sounds too outrageous for Seventh-day Adventist sensibilities, allow me to quote Ellen White in her book Spiritual Gifts, volume 3, page 64.
“But if there was one sin above another which called for the destruction of the race by the flood, it was the base crime of amalgamation of man and beast which defaced the image of God and brought confusion everywhere. God purposed to destroy by a flood that powerful, long-lived race that had corrupted their ways before him.”
That’s the end of the quotation.
Unlike the ancient Jewish traditions we have examined, Ellen White doesn’t attach her teaching to the wording of any particular passage; she simply states it on her own authority. Yet Ellen White’s amalgamation statement echoes the language of Scripture.
She says the “Amalgamation of man and beast which defaced the image of God and brought confusion everywhere.” This echoes Leviticus 18:23:
“Do not put a woman up before a beast to lay on her, this is a confusion.”
She says, “God purposed to destroy by a flood that powerful, long-lived race that had corrupted their ways before him.” This echoes Genesis 6:12:
“For all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth.”
As you may know, the amalgamation statement has been an embarrassment to many Seventh-day Adventists. Many Seventh-day Adventists have said that Ellen White should have known that humans cannot amalgamate with other biological forms. Even during her own lifetime, in the successor to Spiritual Gifts, in the Conflict of the Ages series, the amalgamation statement was dropped. In the spot where it would have gone, the book Patriarchs and Prophets skips silently down to the next paragraph.
But Torah, Jewish tradition, and Seventh-day Adventist prophecy have a way of being ahead of time. Only forty years ago the invention of the oral contraceptive managed to separate passion from procreation. Today, biological science is on the brink of divorcing the propagation of the species from parental participation altogether. First we removed the risk from romance; the next step is to remove the human touch from reproduction. First we learned to make love without making babies; next we’ll make babies without making love.
The technology already exists to replace human genes with those borrowed from other life forms. Up to now the scientific community has exercised commendable restraint in applying genetic engineering to the human species. But as with any promising technology, it is only a matter of time before someone, somewhere, has to try it out on the real thing. You and I are living in the first generation since the generation of the flood which has the know-how to amalgamate human and beast! I speak to you as brothers and sisters eagerly awaiting the end. Let us reconsider the solemn pronouncement in Genesis 6:13:
“And God said, ‘The end of all flesh has come before me.’”
What Seventh-day Adventists have played down so patronizingly as Ellen White’s ignorance has become current state-of-the-art. Perhaps she was ignorant concerning the laws of genetics. That much I’d grant. Meanwhile, we’ve discovered how to circumvent the laws of genetics.
We’ve dealt at length with the corruption which destroyed the earth in the days of Noach; during the remainder of our time I’d like to deal with the cosmic setting of our parasha. Genesis 6:13.
“And God said, ‘The end of all flesh has come before me.’”
The setting of these words is the heavenly courtroom. The biblical expression “has come before me,” is like the throne-room scene in the Book of Esther chapter 9. Let me reemphasize that one of the most important methods for studying Torah is to compare other usages of verbal expressions. Esther 9:11.
“On that day the number of the slain in Shushan the capitol came before the king.”
“To come before” is the biblical expression for judicial review. In this regard also, traditional Jewish interpretation is enlightening. You know that we Seventh-day Adventists have been chided by our Evangelical friends for inventing the doctrine of the investigative judgment in the heavenly courtroom. The Jewish record testifies that careful students of Scripture taught the investigative judgment long before any Seventh-day Adventists came along. Contrary to what you may have read on the web, the investigative judgment is not some Seventh-day Adventist invention. Allow me to quote from the commentary of Rabbenu Ephraim ben Shimshon, who taught six hundred years ago:
היה יכול לומר "קץ כל בשר בא" ולשתוק. מהו "לפני"? נ"ל כך הוא המדה לפני ה'. כשנגזר כליה על בני אדם מלאך הממונה כותב גזר דינו ומביאו לפני הקב"ה, והוא חותם. וזה דכתב בא לפני כלומר הכתב.“It could have said, “The end of all flesh has come,” and nothing more. What’s the point of “before me”? It appears to me that such is the attribute of justice before HaShem. Whenever annihilation is decreed on the children of men, the appointed angel writes up the decree of the court and brings it in before the Holy One blessed be he and he seals it. This is what Scripture means by ‘Has come before me,’ that is, the document.” [Tosafot Hashalem, vol 1, p. 204 citing perush hatorah lrabbenu efraiyim according to three MSS: Munchen 15, Oxford 2105, Parma 1098]
That’s what Rabbenu Ephraim ben Shimshon had to say about the procedure of the heavenly court. When the end of all flesh came before God the decree came before him to seal or to suspend.
Midrash Haggadol also employs legal terminology to describe the decision to destroy the antediluvians:
אמר רב הונא בשם ר' יוסף, לא נתחתם גזר דין שלדור המבול עד שכתבו גומסיות לזכר ולבהמה.
“Rav Hona said in the name of Rabbi Yosef, ‘The decree of the court against the generation of the flood wasn’t sealed until they composed wedding songs for men with beasts.’” [Midrash Haggadol, Noach 153]
That’s what Jewish tradition has to say about the sealing of the divine decree. According to the written Torah, the decision to destroy all flesh with the earth was not arbitrary, but a measured response for damages incurred. The language of the Torah indicates this exact correspondence between crime and punishment.
The first indication of correspondence is the repetition of the word “behold” three times. Genesis 6:12 says,
“And God saw the earth, and behold it was destroyed, for all flesh has destroyed their way on the earth.”
The commensurate response is in verse 13. The word “behold” is repeated.
“And behold I am destroying them with the earth.”
In verse 17, God discloses how he will implement the decree. The word “behold” is repeated.
“As for me, behold I am bringing the deluge, which is water on the earth, to destroy all flesh.”
Behold God saw that the earth was destroyed, behold it was all flesh who had done the destroying, behold the destruction of the destroyer will be by water. Behold, behold, behold.
The second indication of the correspondence between crime and punishment is the verbsבאandמביא , the indicative and the causative conjugations of the same verb.
In verse 13 we read:
“The end of all flesh בא has come before me.”
In verse 17 we read:
“I am bringing מביאthe deluge.”
The whole arrangement is eminently just and fair from a legal standpoint; God brings the deluge to pay all flesh in kind for what has come upon the earth because of them, measure for measure. To use the language of the twenty-four elders in Revelation chapter 11:
“Your wrath has come, and the time...for destroying those who destroy the earth.”
At such a time, when the decree comes up in the heavenly court, God seeks an intercessor on behalf of the earth. Ezekiel chapter 22 tells us that during the last days of Judah that God sought such an intercessor. Ezekiel 22:30.
“And I sought from them a person, a barrier builder, who could stand before me on behalf of the earth so as not to destroy it — and I did not find.”
Since God found no one who could stand before him on behalf of the earth, God determines to make a new earth to stand before him. I refer to the end of the prophecy of Isaiah. Isaiah 66:22, 23.
“For as the new heavens and the new earth which I make stand before me, oracle of HaShem, So shall stand your seed and your name. And it shall be from month to month and from Shabbat to Shabbat, all flesh shall come to worship before me, says HaShem.”
When you want to assure someone that your promise is for real, you compare it to the most sure thing you can see. In Isaiah 66:22 God is promising Israel and the converted Gentiles a seed and a name that will stand. The most sure thing God has to anchor his promise on is his new heavens and earth. There is nothing more real to God in the whole universe than his new heavens and earth! They stand right before him!
The old heavens and the old earth were destroyed “because all flesh had destroyed their way.” The error of Er was that “he destroyed on the earth so as not to give seed.” But in the new heavens and the new earth, God promises, “Your seed shall stand!”
In the old heavens and the old earth “the end of all flesh came before” God. But in the new heavens and the new earth “all flesh shall come” before him.
In the old heavens and the old earth “all flesh השחית destroyed.” But in the new heavens and the new earth, God promises, “all flesh shall come להשתחותto worship.”
And that, friends, is the great difference between the old and the new. In the new earth there will be no more destroying. Never again will the earth be “filled with lawlessness.” Never again will the earth be covered with water. Isaiah prophesies:
“They will not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, for the earth will be filled — with the knowledge of HaShem as the waters cover the sea.” [Isaiah 11:9]
As in the days of Noach the end has come before the judgment throne. We want to praise God as we see signs of the end fulfilling all around us. We want pray in Yeshua’s name that we would not be counted among those destroying the earth, but among those standing on behalf of the earth. We believe God’s promise of a seed that will stand. We believe God’s promise of a name that will stand. His new heavens and earth stand before him.
