The Case for a Local Flood (Part 3 of 6)

The Rainbow in Genesis

Introduction

A common reading of the story of the flood is that it describes the origins of the phenomenon of the rainbow. Such a phenomenon is global in nature – rainbows appear anywhere on earth given the right conditions. The beginning of such a phenomenon at this time is part and parcel of a global flood reading of Genesis 6-9. It requires that the meteorology of the earth was changed after the flood to bring about this phenomenon.[1] In this paper we will question this reading.

The Text

The text states,

And God said, This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations: I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth. And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud: And I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh. And the bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth. Gen 9:13-16 (KJV)

The Hebrew for “bow” is tvq, and it is the ordinary word for a bow—a weapon.[2] We might ask why the phenomenon we call a “rainbow” should be called a “bow” rather than, say, a “rain-arch”, or a “rain-arc”, and it might be difficult to think of a reason, except to point out that a “bow” was a weapon and God calls the phenomenon that he places “in the cloud”—“my bow”. A militaristic echo is not inappropriate as the flood has demonstrated that God is a God of judgment and he has wrought judgment in the land against the (bow-using?) marauders of the land.[3] That God has a bow is shown by Hab 3:9-11 and Ps 7:13.

However, this is an aside, and the main point for comment has to be on “my” in “my bow”. Why does God call the phenomenon something that belongs to him? Is this phenomenon just a rainbow? There is no word for “rain” in the text, and it is an ordinary word for “cloud”; we might ask then do rainbows always and only appear in clouds? The meteorological answer would be that this is not the case. The text asserts, “…when I bring a cloud over the land, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud”, and we might ask is this the case with clouds—do they always carry rainbows that are seen? Again the meteorological answer would be in the negative. If the phenomenon is not a spontaneously occurring rainbow then, is it something comparable to a rainbow, something that God brings about in a cloud from time to time?[4]

The Hebrew “in the cloud” or “in a cloud” (!n[b) occurs eight times outside Genesis 9 (Exod 16:10, 34:5, Lev 16:2, Num 11:25, Ps 78:14, Lam 3:44, Ezek 1:28, 32:7). Four occurrences relate to the theophanic cloud; for instance:

And it came to pass, as Aaron spake unto the whole congregation of the children of Israel, that they looked toward the wilderness, and, behold, the glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud. Exod 16:10 (KJV)

And the Lord descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord. Exod 34:5 (KJV)

And the Lord said unto Moses, Speak unto Aaron thy brother, that he come not at all times into the holy place within the vail before the mercy seat, which is upon the ark; that he die not: for I will appear in the cloud upon the mercy seat. Lev 16:2 (KJV)

And the Lord came down in a cloud, and spake unto him, and took of the spirit that was upon him, and gave it unto the seventy elders: and it came to pass, that, when the spirit rested upon them, they prophesied, and did not cease. Num 11:25 (KJV)

Two occurrences relate to God manifestation but not directly to the theophanic cloud:

In the daytime also he led them with a cloud,[5] and all the night with a light of fire. Ps 78:14 (KJV)

Thou hast covered thyself with a cloud, that our prayer should not pass through. Lam 3:44 (KJV)

The only divergent text is Ezek 32:7,

And when I shall put thee out, I will cover the heaven, and make the stars thereof dark; I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not give her light. Ezek 32:7 (KJV)

There are two points to note in the first four texts that bear comparison with Genesis 9:

  1. Genesis 9 associates the bow and the cloud with a token of a covenant. Similarly, God’s presence in the cloud on Sinai was how he manifested himself during the covenant-making of that time.
  2. God’s “glory” appears in the cloud or he appears in the cloud and this visible presence is a kind of light (or fire) in the cloud. Similarly, God places “his bow” (of glory) in the cloud before Noah.

The theophany of Ezekiel 1 seems to offer an exegesis of Genesis 9:

As the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud in the day of rain, so was the appearance of the brightness round about. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. And when I saw it, I fell upon my face, and I heard a voice of one that spake. Ezek 1:28 (KJV)

This text compares the appearance of the glory of the Lord around the chariot throne to that of a rainbow. What Gen 9:13 is saying to Noah then is: You are used to seeing rainbows when there are storms — I will now set “my bow” in a cloud — this cloud in front of you that manifests my presence, and in future when I manifest my presence in a cloud you will see my glory in the cloud.

There is irony in Genesis 9. The text does not say that God’s bow would be in the cloud when there is rain, and appearances of the theophanic cloud have not involved rain. The irony is that the flood was brought about in part through sustained torrential rain. The bow of the rain-less theophanic cloud is therefore a reminder that God would not bring about a flood and destroy the land, but he would remember the covenant with Noah.

If this construal of the “bow” is correct, then it implies that there was no change in climate conditions before and after the fall vis-a-vis the fact of rainfall.[6] The occurrence of rainfall prior to the flood is implied in a comment that at the time of the creation of Adam, there was no rainfall because there was no man to till the ground (Gen 2:5). Once there was a man to till the ground, the implication is that this brought about rainfall again in Eden (Gen 3:23). The Gilgamesh Epic[7]  mentions a similar phenomenon at the end of the flood,

As soon as the great goddess arrived [i.e. Ishtar] , she lifted up the great jewels which Anu had made according to her wish: ‘O ye gods here present, as surely as I shall not forget the lapis lazuli on my neck, I shall remember these days and shall not forget (them) ever! XI.162-165

This event takes place after Utnapishtim has offered the sweet smelling savour sacrifice (XI.159-160). Anu, the patriarchal god, gives Ishtar great jewels and this is taken to be a necklace represented as a rainbow in the sky. Ishtar then promises to remember the days of the flood which is comparable to Yahweh remembering the flood (Gen 9:15).

There are differences here with Genesis, but the similarities are notable. The manifestation of Ishtar was inferred from the presence of a bow described as “the great jewels”; the manifestation of God was seen in his bow in the cloud. However, the Gilgamesh Epic is too thin to support the proposition that the phenomenon of rainbows began at this time; it only records the fact of a bow. The Genesis account includes detail linking the bow to the future manifestation of God in a cloud, and this precludes the reading that rainbows began at this time; the bow of Genesis 9 is a very specific manifestation of God.

Conclusion

The bow of Genesis 9 is a theophanic manifestation of the God of Israel confirming a covenant with Noah. This form of manifestation is distinctive to Israel’s traditions; hence, clouds are not noted in the Gilgamesh Epic. It may have taken the form of something like a spectacular cloud-bow,  a glory, a coronae, or an iridescent cloud. Jewish interpretation of the first century makes the bow a rainbow (e.g. Jub. 3:12), and this has been the common Christian interpretation.[8] However, it is a mistake in this interpretative tradition to suppose that rainbows began at this time or that any rainbow seen today is a manifestation the God of the Noachic covenant.

[1] Many commentaries interpret the bow as a rainbow. For example, C. Westermann, Genesis 1-11 (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1994), 473.

[2] G. von Rad, Genesis (London: SCM Press, 1961), 130, and contra Westermann, Genesis 1-11, 473.

[3] Contra von Rad, Genesis, 130, who says that the signification is that God has put aside his bow of war; rather, the bow is in a cloud and this represents what has just happened: God has destroyed mankind with storm-clouds.

[4] The presence of God in a cloud through the wilderness might suggest that after the flood there was a similar journey to a new land.

[5] The same Hebrew preposition can be “in” or “with” (b).

[6] A hydrological cycle is implied in the common river geography before and after the flood (Gen 2:10-14).

[7] Casting the net wider, some non-Mesopotamian flood stories mention a rainbow at the end of the account and the existence of these stories has been seen as evidence of a worldwide flood—Bailey, Noah, ch. 1; Westermann, Genesis 1-11, 477.

[8] D. A. Young, The Biblical Flood: A Case Study of the Church’s Response to Extrabiblical Evidence (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1995), 25. The standard treatment of early Jewish and Christian interpretation is J. P. Lewis, A Study of the Interpretation of Noah and the Flood in Jewish and Christian Literature (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1968).