Wives aboard the Ark
Encyclopedia
Although the Book of Genesis in the Bible
does not give any further information about the four women it says were aboard Noah's Ark
during the Flood, there exist substantial extra-Biblical traditions regarding these women and their names.
, known to have been in use from the late 2nd century BC, the names of the wives of Noah
, Shem
, Ham
and Japheth
are as follows:
It adds that the three sons after some years struck out in different directions from the original camp near Mount Ararat
and founded three villages bearing the names of these three mothers of the human race.
the wives of Shem
, Ham
and Japheth
enjoyed fantastically long lifespans, living for centuries, while speaking prophecy to each generation they saw come and go. (These are not considered to be the Sibylline books
of the Greeks and Romans, which were lost in antiquity, but rather pseudo-Oracles dating from the middle of the 2nd century BC at the earliest to the 5th century AD, composed by Alexandrian Jews and revised and enriched by later Christian editors, all adding texts in the interests of their respective religions.) According to the anonymous preface of the Judeo-Christian Sibylline Oracles, the Sibyl author was a daughter-in-law of Noah: the "Babylonian Sibyl
", Sambethe — who, 900 years after the Deluge, allegedly moved to Greece
and began writing the Oracles. The writings attributed to her (at the end of Book III) also hint at possible names of her family who would have lived before the Flood — father Gnostos, mother Circe
; elsewhere (in book V) she calls Isis
her sister. Other early sources similarly name one of the Sibyls as Sabba (see Sibyl in Jewish Encyclopedia
).
(d. 235 AD) recounted a tradition of their names according to the Syriac Targum
that is similar to Jubilees, although apparently switching the names of Shem's and Ham's wives. He wrote: The names of the wives of the sons of Noah are these: the name of the wife of Sem, Nahalath Mahnuk; and the name of the wife of Cham, Zedkat Nabu; and the name of the wife of Japheth, Arathka. He also recounts a quaint legend concerning the wife of Ham: God having instructed Noah to destroy the first person who announced that the deluge was beginning, Ham's wife at that moment was baking bread, when water suddenly rushed forth from the oven, destroying the bread. When she exclaimed then that the deluge was commencing, God suddenly cancels his former command lest Noah destroy his own daughter-in-law who was to be saved.
An early Arabic
work known as Kitab al-Magall or the Book of Rolls (part of Clementine literature
), the Syriac Book of the Cave of Treasures
(ca. 350), and Patriarch Eutychius of Alexandria
(ca. 930) all agree in naming Noah's wife as "Haykêl, the daughter of Namûs (or Namousa), the daughter of Enoch, the brother of Methuselah
"; the first of these sources elsewhere calls Haikal "the daughter of Mashamos, son of Enoch", while stating that Shem's wife is called "Leah, daughter of Nasih".
Furthermore, the Panarion
of Epiphanius
(ca. 375) names Noah's wife as Barthenos, while the ca. 5th century Ge'ez work Conflict of Adam and Eve with Satan
calls Noah's wife "Haikal, the daughter of Abaraz, of the daughters of the sons of Enos" — whom some authors have connected with Epiphanius' Barthenos (i.e., Bath-Enos, daughter of Enos). However, Jubilees makes "Betenos" the name of Noah's mother. The word haykal is Syriac for "temple" or "church"; in the Georgian copy of Cave of Treasures, we find instead the name T'ajar, which is the Georgian word for the same.
Armenian tradition give the name of Noah's wife as Nemzar, Noyemzar or Noyanzar.
Patriarch Eutychius of Alexandria, writing in Arabic, also states that Shem's wife was Salit, Ham's Nahlat and Japheth's Arisisah, all daughters of Methuselah. The theologian John Gill
(1697–1771) wrote in his Exposition of the Bible of this tradition "that the name of Shem's wife was Zalbeth, or, as other copies, Zalith or Salit; that the name of Ham's Nahalath; and of Japheth's Aresisia."
A manuscript of the 8th century Latin work Inventiones Nominum, copies of which have been found at the Abbey of St. Gall
in Switzerland, and in a library at Albi, SW France, lists as Noah's wife Set, as Shem's wife Nora, as Ham's wife Sare, and as Japeth's wife Serac.
midrash
lists Naamah, the daughter of Lamech
and sister of Tubal-Cain
, as the wife of Noah, as does the 11th century Jewish commentator Rashi
in his commentary on Sefer Bereishis 4:22.
In the medieval
midrash , the name of Noah's wife is said to be Naamah, daughter of Enoch
.
(c. 915) recounts that Japheth's wife was Arbasisah, daughter of Marazil, son of al-Darmasil, son of Mehujael, son of Enoch, son of Cain; that Ham's wife was Naḥlab, daughter of Marib, another son of al-Darmasil; and that Shem's wife was Ṣalib, daughter of Batawil, another son of Mehujael. He says Noah's wife was Amzurah, daughter of Barakil, another son of Mehujael.
(According to George Sale
's Commentary on the Quran (1734), some Muslim commentators asserted that Noah had had an infidel wife named Waila, who perished in the deluge, and was thus not aboard the Ark.)
Codex Junius (ca. 700 AD), a Bible paraphrase written in the fashion of Germanic saga
s, and often attributed to the poet Caedmon. The wife of Noah is given as Percoba in Codex Junius.
The Anglo-Saxon "Solomon and Saturn
" dialogue gives for Noah's wife Dalila, for Ham's, Jaitarecta, and for Japheth's Catafluvia, while giving Olla, Ollina and Ollibana as alternatives. The name of Shem's wife is missing. Some versions of the Gaelic Lebor Gabala also name Shem's, Ham's and Japheth's wives as Cata Rechta, Cata Flauia and Cata Chasta respectively. Similar traditions seem to have endured for several centuries in some form, for in Petrus Comestor
, we read that the wives of Noah, Shem, Ham and Japheth are Phuarpara, Pharphia, Cataflua and Fliva respectively, and in a 15th century Middle English
catechism, we find written "What hicht Noes wyf?" "Dalida; and the wif of Sem, Cateslinna; and the wif of Cam, Laterecta; and the wif of Japheth, Aurca. And other 3 names, Ollia, Olina, and Olybana."
Ælfric of Eynsham
's Anglo-Saxon translation of the Heptateuch
(ca. 1000) included illustrations with the wives' names recorded in the captions. One such illustration (fol. 17) names Noah's wife as Phiapphara, Shem's as Parsia, Ham's as Cataphua, and Japheth's as Fura. Another (fol. 14) includes one wife, presumably Noah's, named Sphiarphara. A Middle English illustrated version of Genesis dating to the 13th century also gives Puarphara as Noah's wife.
literature, of uncertain antiquity, refers to Noah's wife by the name Nuraita (or Nhuraitha, Anhuraita, various other spellings).
, including texts ascribed to her, as reported by Epiphanius, and confirmed in modern times with the discovery of these texts at Nag Hammadi
.
in the 14th century Képes Krónika
.
had stated that the sons' wives were Pandora, Noela, and Noegla, and that Noah's wife was Tytea. However, Annio's manuscript is widely regarded today as having been a forgery.
Nonetheless, later writers made use of this "information", sometimes even combining it with other traditions. The Portuguese friar Gaspar Rodriguez de S. Bernardino wrote in Itinerario da India por terra ate a ilha de Chypre in 1842 that the wives of Noah, Shem, Ham and Japheth were named Tytea or Phuarphara, Pandora or Parphia, Noela or Cataflua, and Noegla, Eliua or Arca. In Robert Southey
's Common-place Book from around the same time, similar names are given, with the information attributed to the "Comte de Mora Toledo": Titea Magna; Pandora; Noala or Cataflua; and Noegla, Funda or Afia, respectively.
work that appeared in 1670, known as Comte de Gabalis
, considered sacred in Rosicrucian
ism, maintains that the name of Noah's wife was Vesta.
This name for Noah's wife had earlier been found in Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa
's History of the Incas (c. 1550), where the names Prusia or Persia, Cataflua and Funda are also given for Shem, Ham, and Japheth's wives respectively.
people of China preserved in their traditions the name of Noah's wife as Gaw Bo-lu-en.
, first published in 1842, mentions the name of Egyptus (Abraham 1:23) as being Ham's wife; his daughter apparently has the same name (v. 25).
("The Great Flood", 1830), Italian composer Gaetano Donizetti
named Japhet's wife Tesbite, Shem's wife Asfene, and Cham's wife Abra. These are of course fictional names.
Amélie Louise Rives wrote a short story in 1887 called "The Story of Arnon" told in the first person by "Arnon, the fourth son of Noah", who hid his beloved, Asenath daughter of Kemuel, aboard the Ark.
In Andre Obey
's 1930 play Noah
, Noah's wife is given no proper name, but is called simply "Mamma" by all, even Noah. Shem's intended bride is Sella, Ham's is Naomi (or, in one English translation, "Norma"), and Japheth's is Ada.
In Clifford Odets
' 1954 play The Flowering Peach, Noah's wife is Esther, Shem's wife is Leah, and Ham's wife is Rachel (These traditional Jewish names are taken from other figures in the Old Testament). In the course of the play, Ham divorces Rachel and she marries Japheth, who has always loved her from afar. Ham takes Goldie, whom Noah had intended as Japheth's wife, as his new bride, and all ends happily. (Goldie is an outsider from another tribe, hence her unusual name.) These names are also used in the Broadway musical adaptation, Two by Two
(1970).
In Madeleine L'Engle
's novel Many Waters
(1986), the wife of Shem is said to be Elisheba, that of Ham to be Anah, sister of Tiglah, and that of Japheth Oholibamah. Noah's wife is called Matred. These names were all taken from characters mentioned elsewhere in the Old Testament.
In Stephen Schwartz
's 1991 musical Children of Eden
, Noah's wife is given no name, but is called Mama Noah in the script or simply Mama by the characters. Ham's wife is called Aphra and is pregnant with their child at the time of the flood. The child is born after the flood and they name her Eve after the Eve in the first act. Shem's wife is called Aysha. Japheth, at the time of the flood, is in love with the family's servant, a young girl named Yonah who is a descendant of Cain. Since God has forbidden all concourse with those of the race of Cain, Noah forbids Japheth to take Yonah on the Ark. However, Japheth hides Yonah inside a covered hold on the Ark. She escapes the flood, to be later reconciled with both the family and God when Shem discovers her after Yonah releases the dove to find dry land. (In the Schwartz musical, with script by John Caird, it is significant that after the flood, two of the wives' names become the names of the continent to which that couple migrates: Ham and his wife set out for the land later known as Africa
- Aphra = Africa; while Shem and his wife set out for the land later known as Asia
- Aysha = Asia. Japheth and his wife Jonah merely say their descendants will cover the world in their search for a return to the lost Eden.)
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
does not give any further information about the four women it says were aboard Noah's Ark
Noah's Ark
Noah's Ark is a vessel appearing in the Book of Genesis and the Quran . These narratives describe the construction of the ark by Noah at God's command to save himself, his family, and the world's animals from the worldwide deluge of the Great Flood.In the narrative of the ark, God sees the...
during the Flood, there exist substantial extra-Biblical traditions regarding these women and their names.
Book of Jubilees
In the Book of JubileesJubilees
The Book of Jubilees , sometimes called Lesser Genesis , is an ancient Jewish religious work, considered one of the pseudepigrapha by Protestant, Roman Catholic, and Eastern Orthodox Churches...
, known to have been in use from the late 2nd century BC, the names of the wives of Noah
Noah
Noah was, according to the Hebrew Bible, the tenth and last of the antediluvian Patriarchs. The biblical story of Noah is contained in chapters 6–9 of the book of Genesis, where he saves his family and representatives of all animals from the flood by constructing an ark...
, Shem
Shem
Shem was one of the sons of Noah in the Hebrew Bible as well as in Islamic literature. He is most popularly regarded as the eldest son, though some traditions regard him as the second son. Genesis 10:21 refers to relative ages of Shem and his brother Japheth, but with sufficient ambiguity in each...
, Ham
Ham, son of Noah
Ham , according to the Table of Nations in the Book of Genesis, was a son of Noah and the father of Cush, Mizraim, Phut and Canaan.- Hebrew Bible :The story of Ham is related in , King James Version:...
and Japheth
Japheth
Japheth is one of the sons of Noah in the Abrahamic tradition...
are as follows:
- Wife of Noah - Emzara, daughter of Rake'el, son of MethuselahMethuselahMethuselah is the oldest person whose age is mentioned in the Hebrew Bible. Extra-biblical tradition maintains that he died on the 11th of Cheshvan of the year 1656 , at the age of 969, seven days before the beginning of the Great Flood...
- Wife of Shem - Sedeqetelebab
- Wife of Ham - Ne'elatama'uk or Na'eltama'uk
- Wife of Japheth - 'Adataneses
It adds that the three sons after some years struck out in different directions from the original camp near Mount Ararat
Mount Ararat
Mount Ararat is a snow-capped, dormant volcanic cone in Turkey. It has two peaks: Greater Ararat and Lesser Ararat .The Ararat massif is about in diameter...
and founded three villages bearing the names of these three mothers of the human race.
Sibylline oracles
According to the Sibylline OraclesSibylline oracles
The Sibylline Oracles are a collection of oracular utterances written in Greek hexameters ascribed to the Sibyls, prophetesses who uttered divine revelations in a frenzied state. Fourteen books and eight fragments of Sibylline Oracles survive...
the wives of Shem
Shem
Shem was one of the sons of Noah in the Hebrew Bible as well as in Islamic literature. He is most popularly regarded as the eldest son, though some traditions regard him as the second son. Genesis 10:21 refers to relative ages of Shem and his brother Japheth, but with sufficient ambiguity in each...
, Ham
Ham, son of Noah
Ham , according to the Table of Nations in the Book of Genesis, was a son of Noah and the father of Cush, Mizraim, Phut and Canaan.- Hebrew Bible :The story of Ham is related in , King James Version:...
and Japheth
Japheth
Japheth is one of the sons of Noah in the Abrahamic tradition...
enjoyed fantastically long lifespans, living for centuries, while speaking prophecy to each generation they saw come and go. (These are not considered to be the Sibylline books
Sibylline Books
The Sibylline Books or Libri Sibyllini were a collection of oracular utterances, set out in Greek hexameters, purchased from a sibyl by the last king of Rome, Tarquinius Superbus, and consulted at momentous crises through the history of the Republic and the Empire...
of the Greeks and Romans, which were lost in antiquity, but rather pseudo-Oracles dating from the middle of the 2nd century BC at the earliest to the 5th century AD, composed by Alexandrian Jews and revised and enriched by later Christian editors, all adding texts in the interests of their respective religions.) According to the anonymous preface of the Judeo-Christian Sibylline Oracles, the Sibyl author was a daughter-in-law of Noah: the "Babylonian Sibyl
Persian Sibyl
thumb|right|Michelangelo's rendering of the Persian SibylThe Persian Sibyl was the prophetic priestess presiding over the Apollonian Oracle. The Sibyl is sometimes referred to as the Babylonian Sibyl....
", Sambethe — who, 900 years after the Deluge, allegedly moved to Greece
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
and began writing the Oracles. The writings attributed to her (at the end of Book III) also hint at possible names of her family who would have lived before the Flood — father Gnostos, mother Circe
Circe
In Greek mythology, Circe is a minor goddess of magic , described in Homer's Odyssey as "The loveliest of all immortals", living on the island of Aeaea, famous for her part in the adventures of Odysseus.By most accounts, Circe was the daughter of Helios, the god of the sun, and Perse, an Oceanid...
; elsewhere (in book V) she calls Isis
Isis
Isis or in original more likely Aset is a goddess in Ancient Egyptian religious beliefs, whose worship spread throughout the Greco-Roman world. She was worshipped as the ideal mother and wife as well as the matron of nature and magic...
her sister. Other early sources similarly name one of the Sibyls as Sabba (see Sibyl in Jewish Encyclopedia
Jewish Encyclopedia
The Jewish Encyclopedia is an encyclopedia originally published in New York between 1901 and 1906 by Funk and Wagnalls. It contained over 15,000 articles in 12 volumes on the history and then-current state of Judaism and the Jews as of 1901...
).
Christian writers
The early Christian writer St. HippolytusHippolytus (writer)
Hippolytus of Rome was the most important 3rd-century theologian in the Christian Church in Rome, where he was probably born. Photios I of Constantinople describes him in his Bibliotheca Hippolytus of Rome (170 – 235) was the most important 3rd-century theologian in the Christian Church in Rome,...
(d. 235 AD) recounted a tradition of their names according to the Syriac Targum
Targum
Taekwondo is a Korean martial art and the national sport of South Korea. In Korean, tae means "to strike or break with foot"; kwon means "to strike or break with fist"; and do means "way", "method", or "path"...
that is similar to Jubilees, although apparently switching the names of Shem's and Ham's wives. He wrote: The names of the wives of the sons of Noah are these: the name of the wife of Sem, Nahalath Mahnuk; and the name of the wife of Cham, Zedkat Nabu; and the name of the wife of Japheth, Arathka. He also recounts a quaint legend concerning the wife of Ham: God having instructed Noah to destroy the first person who announced that the deluge was beginning, Ham's wife at that moment was baking bread, when water suddenly rushed forth from the oven, destroying the bread. When she exclaimed then that the deluge was commencing, God suddenly cancels his former command lest Noah destroy his own daughter-in-law who was to be saved.
An early Arabic
Arabic language
Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
work known as Kitab al-Magall or the Book of Rolls (part of Clementine literature
Clementine literature
Clementine literature is the name given to the religious romance which purports to contain a record made by one Clement of discourses...
), the Syriac Book of the Cave of Treasures
Cave of Treasures
The Cave of Treasures, sometimes referred to simply as The Treasure, is a book of the New Testament apocrypha.-Origin:This text is attributed to Ephrem Syrus, who was born at Nisibis soon after AD 306 and died in 373, but it is now generally believed that its current form is 6th century or...
(ca. 350), and Patriarch Eutychius of Alexandria
Patriarch Eutychius of Alexandria
Eutychius or Sa'id ibn Batriq or Bitriq was the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Alexandria. He is known for being one of the first Christian Egyptian writers to use the Arabic language...
(ca. 930) all agree in naming Noah's wife as "Haykêl, the daughter of Namûs (or Namousa), the daughter of Enoch, the brother of Methuselah
Methuselah
Methuselah is the oldest person whose age is mentioned in the Hebrew Bible. Extra-biblical tradition maintains that he died on the 11th of Cheshvan of the year 1656 , at the age of 969, seven days before the beginning of the Great Flood...
"; the first of these sources elsewhere calls Haikal "the daughter of Mashamos, son of Enoch", while stating that Shem's wife is called "Leah, daughter of Nasih".
Furthermore, the Panarion
Panarion
In early Christian heresiology, the Panarion , to which 16th-century Latin translations gave the name Adversus Haereses , is the most important of the works of Epiphanius of Salamis...
of Epiphanius
Epiphanius of Salamis
Epiphanius of Salamis was bishop of Salamis at the end of the 4th century. He is considered a saint and a Church Father by both the Eastern Orthodox and Catholic Churches. He gained a reputation as a strong defender of orthodoxy...
(ca. 375) names Noah's wife as Barthenos, while the ca. 5th century Ge'ez work Conflict of Adam and Eve with Satan
Conflict of Adam and Eve with Satan
The Conflict of Adam and Eve with Satan is a Christian pseudepigraphical work found in Ge'ez, translated from an Arabic original and thought to date from the 5th or 6th century AD....
calls Noah's wife "Haikal, the daughter of Abaraz, of the daughters of the sons of Enos" — whom some authors have connected with Epiphanius' Barthenos (i.e., Bath-Enos, daughter of Enos). However, Jubilees makes "Betenos" the name of Noah's mother. The word haykal is Syriac for "temple" or "church"; in the Georgian copy of Cave of Treasures, we find instead the name T'ajar, which is the Georgian word for the same.
Armenian tradition give the name of Noah's wife as Nemzar, Noyemzar or Noyanzar.
Patriarch Eutychius of Alexandria, writing in Arabic, also states that Shem's wife was Salit, Ham's Nahlat and Japheth's Arisisah, all daughters of Methuselah. The theologian John Gill
John Gill (theologian)
John Gill was an English Baptist pastor, biblical scholar, and theologian who held to a firm Calvinistic soteriology. Born in Kettering, Northamptonshire, he attended Kettering Grammar School where he mastered the Latin classics and learned Greek by age 11...
(1697–1771) wrote in his Exposition of the Bible of this tradition "that the name of Shem's wife was Zalbeth, or, as other copies, Zalith or Salit; that the name of Ham's Nahalath; and of Japheth's Aresisia."
A manuscript of the 8th century Latin work Inventiones Nominum, copies of which have been found at the Abbey of St. Gall
Abbey of St. Gall
The Abbey of Saint Gall is a religious complex in the city of St. Gallen in present-day Switzerland. The Carolingian-era Abbey has existed since 719 and became an independent principality during the 13th century, and was for many centuries one of the chief Benedictine abbeys in Europe. It was...
in Switzerland, and in a library at Albi, SW France, lists as Noah's wife Set, as Shem's wife Nora, as Ham's wife Sare, and as Japeth's wife Serac.
Jewish Rabbinic literature
The Genesis RabbaGenesis Rabba
Genesis Rabba is a religious text from Judaism's classical period. It is a midrash comprising a collection of ancient rabbinical homiletical interpretations of the Book of Genesis ....
midrash
Midrash
The Hebrew term Midrash is a homiletic method of biblical exegesis. The term also refers to the whole compilation of homiletic teachings on the Bible....
lists Naamah, the daughter of Lamech
Lamech
Lamech is a character in the genealogies of Adam in the Book of Genesis. He is the sixth generation descendant of Cain ; his father was named Methusael, and he was responsible for the "Song of the Sword." He is also noted as the first polygamist mentioned in the Bible, taking two wives, Ada and...
and sister of Tubal-Cain
Tubal-cain
Tubal-cain is an individual mentioned in the Hebrew Bible, in . He was a descendant of Cain, the son of Lamech and Zillah, and the brother of Naamah.-Name:...
, as the wife of Noah, as does the 11th century Jewish commentator Rashi
Rashi
Shlomo Yitzhaki , or in Latin Salomon Isaacides, and today generally known by the acronym Rashi , was a medieval French rabbi famed as the author of a comprehensive commentary on the Talmud, as well as a comprehensive commentary on the Tanakh...
in his commentary on Sefer Bereishis 4:22.
In the medieval
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
midrash , the name of Noah's wife is said to be Naamah, daughter of Enoch
Enoch (ancestor of Noah)
Enoch is a figure in the Generations of Adam. Enoch is described as Adam's greatx4 grandson , the son of Jared, the father of Methuselah, and the great-grandfather of Noah...
.
Islamic traditions
The Persian historian Muhammad ibn Jarir al-TabariMuhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari
Abu Ja'far Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari was a prominent and influential Sunni scholar and exegete of the Qur'an from Persia...
(c. 915) recounts that Japheth's wife was Arbasisah, daughter of Marazil, son of al-Darmasil, son of Mehujael, son of Enoch, son of Cain; that Ham's wife was Naḥlab, daughter of Marib, another son of al-Darmasil; and that Shem's wife was Ṣalib, daughter of Batawil, another son of Mehujael. He says Noah's wife was Amzurah, daughter of Barakil, another son of Mehujael.
(According to George Sale
George Sale
George Sale was an Orientalist and practising solicitor, best known for his 1734 translation of the Qur'an into English. He was also author of The General Dictionary, in ten volumes, folio....
's Commentary on the Quran (1734), some Muslim commentators asserted that Noah had had an infidel wife named Waila, who perished in the deluge, and was thus not aboard the Ark.)
Irish and Anglo-Saxon traditions
Irish folklore is rich in traditions and legends regarding the three sons and their wives. Here the wives are usually named Olla, Olliva, and Ollivani (or variations thereof), names possibly derived from the Anglo-SaxonAnglo-Saxons
Anglo-Saxon is a term used by historians to designate the Germanic tribes who invaded and settled the south and east of Great Britain beginning in the early 5th century AD, and the period from their creation of the English nation to the Norman conquest. The Anglo-Saxon Era denotes the period of...
Codex Junius (ca. 700 AD), a Bible paraphrase written in the fashion of Germanic saga
Norse saga
The sagas are stories about ancient Scandinavian and Germanic history, about early Viking voyages, the battles that took place during the voyages, about migration to Iceland and of feuds between Icelandic families...
s, and often attributed to the poet Caedmon. The wife of Noah is given as Percoba in Codex Junius.
The Anglo-Saxon "Solomon and Saturn
Solomon and Saturn
Solomon and Saturn is a work in the corpus of Anglo-Saxon literature. The work is cast in the form of a dialogue full of riddles, in which Solomon, the wisest king of the land of Israel, and Saturn, the eldest of the elder gods of Roman mythology, though identified in the poem as a prince of the...
" dialogue gives for Noah's wife Dalila, for Ham's, Jaitarecta, and for Japheth's Catafluvia, while giving Olla, Ollina and Ollibana as alternatives. The name of Shem's wife is missing. Some versions of the Gaelic Lebor Gabala also name Shem's, Ham's and Japheth's wives as Cata Rechta, Cata Flauia and Cata Chasta respectively. Similar traditions seem to have endured for several centuries in some form, for in Petrus Comestor
Petrus Comestor
-Biography:Born in Troyes, he was first attached to the Church of Notre-Dame in that city and habitually signed himself as "Presbyter Trecensis". Before 1148 he became dean of the chapter and received a benefice in 1148. About 1160 he formed one of the Chapter of Notre-Dame at Paris, and about the...
, we read that the wives of Noah, Shem, Ham and Japheth are Phuarpara, Pharphia, Cataflua and Fliva respectively, and in a 15th century Middle English
Middle English
Middle English is the stage in the history of the English language during the High and Late Middle Ages, or roughly during the four centuries between the late 11th and the late 15th century....
catechism, we find written "What hicht Noes wyf?" "Dalida; and the wif of Sem, Cateslinna; and the wif of Cam, Laterecta; and the wif of Japheth, Aurca. And other 3 names, Ollia, Olina, and Olybana."
Ælfric of Eynsham
Ælfric of Eynsham
Ælfric of Eynsham was an English abbot, as well as a consummate, prolific writer in Old English of hagiography, homilies, biblical commentaries, and other genres. He is also known variously as Ælfric the Grammarian , Ælfric of Cerne, and Ælfric the Homilist...
's Anglo-Saxon translation of the Heptateuch
Heptateuch
The Heptateuch is a name sometimes given to the first seven books of the Hebrew Bible. The first five of these are commonly known as "the five books of Moses", the Torah or the Pentateuch; the first six as the Hexateuch. With the addition of the Book of Ruth, it becomes the Octateuch...
(ca. 1000) included illustrations with the wives' names recorded in the captions. One such illustration (fol. 17) names Noah's wife as Phiapphara, Shem's as Parsia, Ham's as Cataphua, and Japheth's as Fura. Another (fol. 14) includes one wife, presumably Noah's, named Sphiarphara. A Middle English illustrated version of Genesis dating to the 13th century also gives Puarphara as Noah's wife.
Mandaeism
MandaeanMandaeism
Mandaeism or Mandaeanism is a Gnostic religion with a strongly dualistic worldview. Its adherents, the Mandaeans, revere Adam, Abel, Seth, Enosh, Noah, Shem, Aram and especially John the Baptist...
literature, of uncertain antiquity, refers to Noah's wife by the name Nuraita (or Nhuraitha, Anhuraita, various other spellings).
Gnostic literature
Gnostic literature of the first few centuries AD calls Noah's wife NoreaNorea
Norea is a figure in Gnostic cosmology. Sometimes she is said to be the syzygy of Adam, or wife of Noah, and daughter of Eve. Norea is perceived within gnostic thought as Sophia after her fall from grace....
, including texts ascribed to her, as reported by Epiphanius, and confirmed in modern times with the discovery of these texts at Nag Hammadi
Nag Hammâdi
Nag Hammadi , is a city in Upper Egypt. Nag Hammadi was known as Chenoboskion in classical antiquity, meaning "geese grazing grounds". It is located on the west bank of the Nile in the Qena Governorate, about 80 kilometres north-west of Luxor....
.
Képes Krónika
Hungarian folklore has several tales about Japheth and his wife called Eneh, attributing this information to the Chronicles of Sigilbert, Bishop of AntiochAntioch
Antioch on the Orontes was an ancient city on the eastern side of the Orontes River. It is near the modern city of Antakya, Turkey.Founded near the end of the 4th century BC by Seleucus I Nicator, one of Alexander the Great's generals, Antioch eventually rivaled Alexandria as the chief city of the...
in the 14th century Képes Krónika
Chronicon Pictum
The Chronicon Pictum Pictum, Chronica Picta or Chronica de Gestis Hungarorum) is a medieval illustrated chronicle from the Kingdom of Hungary from the fourteenth century...
.
Pseudo-Berossus
According to the 15th century monk Annio da Viterbo, the Hellenistic Babylonian writer BerossusBerossus
Berossus was a Hellenistic-era Babylonian writer, a priest of Bel Marduk and astronomer writing in Greek, who was active at the beginning of the 3rd century BC...
had stated that the sons' wives were Pandora, Noela, and Noegla, and that Noah's wife was Tytea. However, Annio's manuscript is widely regarded today as having been a forgery.
Nonetheless, later writers made use of this "information", sometimes even combining it with other traditions. The Portuguese friar Gaspar Rodriguez de S. Bernardino wrote in Itinerario da India por terra ate a ilha de Chypre in 1842 that the wives of Noah, Shem, Ham and Japheth were named Tytea or Phuarphara, Pandora or Parphia, Noela or Cataflua, and Noegla, Eliua or Arca. In Robert Southey
Robert Southey
Robert Southey was an English poet of the Romantic school, one of the so-called "Lake Poets", and Poet Laureate for 30 years from 1813 to his death in 1843...
's Common-place Book from around the same time, similar names are given, with the information attributed to the "Comte de Mora Toledo": Titea Magna; Pandora; Noala or Cataflua; and Noegla, Funda or Afia, respectively.
Comte de Gabalis
A cabalisticKabbalah
Kabbalah/Kabala is a discipline and school of thought concerned with the esoteric aspect of Rabbinic Judaism. It was systematized in 11th-13th century Hachmei Provence and Spain, and again after the Expulsion from Spain, in 16th century Ottoman Palestine...
work that appeared in 1670, known as Comte de Gabalis
Comte de Gabalis
The Comte De Gabalis is a sacred text for Rosicrucians and spiritual adepts. It is composed of five discourses given by a Count or spiritual master to the student or aspirant. It was anonymously published in 1670 under the title Comte De Gabalis. The meaning suggests the Count of the Cabala as...
, considered sacred in Rosicrucian
Rosicrucian
Rosicrucianism is a philosophical secret society, said to have been founded in late medieval Germany by Christian Rosenkreuz. It holds a doctrine or theology "built on esoteric truths of the ancient past", which, "concealed from the average man, provide insight into nature, the physical universe...
ism, maintains that the name of Noah's wife was Vesta.
This name for Noah's wife had earlier been found in Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa
Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa
Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa was a Spanish explorer, author, historian, astronomer, and scientist. His birthplace is not certain and may have been Pontevedra, in Galicia, where his paternal family originated or Alcalá de Henares in Castile, where he later is known to have studied...
's History of the Incas (c. 1550), where the names Prusia or Persia, Cataflua and Funda are also given for Shem, Ham, and Japheth's wives respectively.
Miautso traditions
The MiautsoMiao people
The Miao or ม้ง ; ) is an ethnic group recognized by the government of the People's Republic of China as one of the 55 official minority groups. Miao is a Chinese term and does not reflect the self-designations of the component nations of people, which include Hmong, Hmu, A Hmao, and Kho Xiong...
people of China preserved in their traditions the name of Noah's wife as Gaw Bo-lu-en.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
The LDS Book of AbrahamBook of Abraham
The Book of Abraham is a 1835 work by Joseph Smith, Jr. that he said was based on Egyptian papyri purchased from a traveling mummy exhibition. According to Smith, the book was "a translation of some ancient records....purporting to be the writings of Abraham, while he was in Egypt, called the Book...
, first published in 1842, mentions the name of Egyptus (Abraham 1:23) as being Ham's wife; his daughter apparently has the same name (v. 25).
Modern popular fiction
In his opera Il diluvio universaleIl diluvio universale
Il diluvio universale is an azione tragico-sacra, or opera, by Gaetano Donizetti. The Italian libretto was written by Domenico Gilardoni after Lord Byron's Heaven and Earth and Padre Ringhieri's Il diluvio....
("The Great Flood", 1830), Italian composer Gaetano Donizetti
Gaetano Donizetti
Domenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti was an Italian composer from Bergamo, Lombardy. His best-known works are the operas L'elisir d'amore , Lucia di Lammermoor , and Don Pasquale , all in Italian, and the French operas La favorite and La fille du régiment...
named Japhet's wife Tesbite, Shem's wife Asfene, and Cham's wife Abra. These are of course fictional names.
Amélie Louise Rives wrote a short story in 1887 called "The Story of Arnon" told in the first person by "Arnon, the fourth son of Noah", who hid his beloved, Asenath daughter of Kemuel, aboard the Ark.
In Andre Obey
André Obey
André Obey was a prominent French playwright during the inter-war years, and into the 1950s....
's 1930 play Noah
Noah
Noah was, according to the Hebrew Bible, the tenth and last of the antediluvian Patriarchs. The biblical story of Noah is contained in chapters 6–9 of the book of Genesis, where he saves his family and representatives of all animals from the flood by constructing an ark...
, Noah's wife is given no proper name, but is called simply "Mamma" by all, even Noah. Shem's intended bride is Sella, Ham's is Naomi (or, in one English translation, "Norma"), and Japheth's is Ada.
In Clifford Odets
Clifford Odets
Clifford Odets was an American playwright, screenwriter, socialist, and social protester.-Early life:Odets was born in Philadelphia to Romanian- and Russian-Jewish immigrant parents, Louis Odets and Esther Geisinger, and raised in Philadelphia and the Bronx, New York. He dropped out of high...
' 1954 play The Flowering Peach, Noah's wife is Esther, Shem's wife is Leah, and Ham's wife is Rachel (These traditional Jewish names are taken from other figures in the Old Testament). In the course of the play, Ham divorces Rachel and she marries Japheth, who has always loved her from afar. Ham takes Goldie, whom Noah had intended as Japheth's wife, as his new bride, and all ends happily. (Goldie is an outsider from another tribe, hence her unusual name.) These names are also used in the Broadway musical adaptation, Two by Two
Two by Two (musical)
Two By Two is a Broadway musical with a book by Peter Stone, lyrics by Martin Charnin, and music by Richard Rodgers.Based on Clifford Odets's play The Flowering Peach, it tells the story of Noah's preparations for the Great Flood and its aftermath....
(1970).
In Madeleine L'Engle
Madeleine L'Engle
Madeleine L'Engle was an American writer best known for her young-adult fiction, particularly the Newbery Medal-winning A Wrinkle in Time and its sequels A Wind in the Door, A Swiftly Tilting Planet, Many Waters, and An Acceptable Time...
's novel Many Waters
Many Waters
Many Waters is a 1986 novel by Madeleine L'Engle, part of the author's Time Quartet . The title is taken from the Song of Solomon 8:7: "Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it...
(1986), the wife of Shem is said to be Elisheba, that of Ham to be Anah, sister of Tiglah, and that of Japheth Oholibamah. Noah's wife is called Matred. These names were all taken from characters mentioned elsewhere in the Old Testament.
In Stephen Schwartz
Stephen Schwartz (composer)
Stephen Lawrence Schwartz is an American musical theatre lyricist and composer. In a career spanning over four decades, Schwartz has written such hit musicals as Godspell , Pippin and Wicked...
's 1991 musical Children of Eden
Children of Eden
Children of Eden is a two-act musical play with music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz and a book by John Caird. The musical is based on the Book of Genesis. Act I tells the story of Adam and Eve, Cain, and Abel, and Act II deals with Noah and the Flood...
, Noah's wife is given no name, but is called Mama Noah in the script or simply Mama by the characters. Ham's wife is called Aphra and is pregnant with their child at the time of the flood. The child is born after the flood and they name her Eve after the Eve in the first act. Shem's wife is called Aysha. Japheth, at the time of the flood, is in love with the family's servant, a young girl named Yonah who is a descendant of Cain. Since God has forbidden all concourse with those of the race of Cain, Noah forbids Japheth to take Yonah on the Ark. However, Japheth hides Yonah inside a covered hold on the Ark. She escapes the flood, to be later reconciled with both the family and God when Shem discovers her after Yonah releases the dove to find dry land. (In the Schwartz musical, with script by John Caird, it is significant that after the flood, two of the wives' names become the names of the continent to which that couple migrates: Ham and his wife set out for the land later known as Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
- Aphra = Africa; while Shem and his wife set out for the land later known as Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
- Aysha = Asia. Japheth and his wife Jonah merely say their descendants will cover the world in their search for a return to the lost Eden.)
See also
- Hebrew SibylHebrew SibylThe Hebrew Sibyl is identified as the author of the Sibylline oracles. Pausanias, 2nd century AD, used her name as Sabbe. Other oracles identify her as a pagan daughter-in-law of Noah.- External links :* *...
- List of names for the Biblical nameless
- Seven Laws of Noah