Noah

Noah is the tenth patriarch from Adam. In Genesis 6–9 God decides to destroy the corrupted earth with a flood and tells Noah to build an ark for his family and pairs of animals. After the waters recede, God makes a covenant never again to flood the earth, with the rainbow as its sign. Noah then plants a vineyard, and Genesis says he lived 950 years. His sons Shem, Ham and Japheth become the ancestors of the nations listed in Genesis 10.

Scholars have long noted that the story closely follows older Mesopotamian accounts: Utnapishtim in the Epic of Gilgamesh, Atrahasis, and the Sumerian Ziusudra. Most conclude the biblical version drew on that shared tradition.

Later texts added much. 1 Enoch and the Genesis Apocryphon describe his strange, shining birth. Jubilees says an angel taught him the healing uses of plants against demons, which he wrote in a book for Shem. The Cave of Treasures has him carry Adam's body in the ark. Islam honors him as the prophet Nuh.