Alright. Today we finally have our second development in our “Bible Entertainment” blog series . Back in January it was announced that we would be writing several blogposts to discuss movies, tv shows, and other modern entertainment and really dive in and take a look at their biblical accuracy using scriptural references. Since it is nearing the anniversary release of the movie Noah this blogpost is going to be covering that movie and if it has biblical accuracy. The 2014 movie Noah is a modernly made movie about the biblical account of Noah. This movie is one of the few biblical movies with a big budget (the budget being estimated at $125 million dollars). The movie has a stunning array of visual effects, but the movie has several faulty plot elements that are either twisting the original Bible account or adding many controversial elements.
The Noah movie 2014 poster
Noah - Official Trailer (2014) HD Russel Crowe, Emma Watson
Noah movie trailer
This movie begins with a brief chronological series of events visually depicting the events leading up to Noah’ s early childhood. In the movie it begins with Noah as a young boy with his father Lamech , who is killed by Tubal-Cain . Though all of the named people in this sequence are biblical, Noah was beyond childhood when Lamech died as it is mentioned that he fathered Noah[1]. Additionally, it would’ve been very unlikely that Tubal-Cain had any sort of leadership position as he was the one who made tools and was a blacksmith [2]
The film skips on to many years later with Noah as a full grown adult married to Naameh. Though Noah had a wife[3], she is unnamed in the Bible and the biblical person Naameh actually was the sister of Tubal-Cain [4]. Noah sees a drop of water make a plant instantly grow and has a dream that night which leads him to realize God is trying to communicate with him. Therefore he and his family go to visit Methuselah , Noah’s grandfather[5]. On their journey their they encounter an injured woman named Illa and they take her with them. They are soon chased by Tubal-Cain’s followers but cease chasing after Noah and his family enter a land that are inhabited by “The Watchers”.
Though Methuselah would’ve been living at the time Noah was instructed to build the Ark, the Bible does not mention Noah seeking the guidance of Methuselah but rather is instructed directly by God that a flood was coming and that he was to build an ark [6].
While discussing with Methuselah in the movie Noah and his family also meet “The Watchers” who are revealed as the biblicalnephilim . Methuselah explains that were encased in rock after aidingCain and his establishment of society in Nod . Also Methuselah detailed how they aided humanity but were only threatened to be enslaved and killed and so Methuselah defended them. The Nephilim are mentioned only once in the Bible in Genesis as one God’s prime motives of the great flood [7]. The Nephilim were offspring of demons and human women [8] and were of great evil rather than good.
During the on-screen encounter with the The Watchers, Noah asks for their help in building the Ark and they accept. The Watchers are then later forgiven for this act. This in itself is unbiblical as according to several verses in the Bible, Angels are not shown mercy when they sin[9]
Eight years lapse and the Ark is finally complete and it is shown that there a thousands upon thousands of animals entering the ark showing many of each animal. While God did instruct Noah that a male and female of each animal[10] as well seven of each for sacrifice[11], He specifically instructs Noah of each kind rather than every species and in the modern film it depicts many different species (this is often a common misconception).
The villain of Paramount’s “version” of the Noah account, Tubal-Cain begins growing violent towards the threat of the Ark and makes threats to Noah to raid the Ark. Tubal-Cain and his followers are warded off by the Watchers for an amount of time. Noah then begins to realize that each of his sons are in needs of wives in order to reproduce, but Noah had to exclude his adopted daughter Ila that had fallen in love with Shem as she was barren.
Therefore, Noah travels into a camp to find wives but changes his mind after seeing the evil of the Earth. Ham though decides to find a woman himself and meets a girl named Na’el, though she is caught in animal trap and dies. Finally the rains occur and Noah, Naamel, Shem, Ham , Japheth and Ila all board the ark- leaving Methuselah to die as he chose to stay. As the rains begin to fall hundreds to thousands attempt to board the Ark but are drowned. Tubal-Cain manages to survive and climbs aboard the Ark.
According to the Bible there were eight people who boarded the Ark [12], Noah and his son’s and all of their wives [13] resulting in wive for the four men in total). On Noah there are seven who board the ark, with only one of the sons having a wife and an inhabitant outside of Noah’s family Tubal-Cain. Methuselah did indeed die the year of the flood, but God had found favor on Noah’s ancestry[14] so it is more probable he died sometime before the Flood.
Once Noah is on the Ark Illa becomes pregnant and threatens to kill the babies if they are women in order to end the human line due to its wickedness and to obey God. This angered Shem and Tubal-Cain seeing the anger beings to influence the sons to plot against Noah. Shem even attempts to build a raft to escape but Noah viciously attacks it to prevent escape. Shortly after this Ila goes into labor to bear twin girls. Noah decides not to kill the children as all he could feel was love for the children.
Tubal-Cain still plots with Ham to kill Noah and engages Noah in a brutal fight. Ham watches the battle and not bearing being able to watch his father dies kills Tubal and ends his life.
The actions of Noah are very contradictory to the Scripture account as God firmly established a covenant of the survival of Noah and the Earth’s ancestry driving from him [15]. Also with the birth of the children on the Ark makes the population of the Ark nine. After Tubal-Cain’s death the surviving population is eight but is instead the children of Shem and Ila [16].
Finally the Ark lands and are given a rainbow as a promise. As in the Bible, Noah grows wine and becomes drunk from it and the sons cover his nakedness. In the movie though the cause of it was Noah felt he had failed God whereas in the Bible he simply just drank to much wine[17].
As you can see from this blogpost movies such as Noah may claim to align themselves with the truths found in the Bible but rather twist it and falsely misinterpret this. This blogpost was written to thoroughly analyze the inaccuracies of the movie compared to the Bible. This should serve as a warning when watching a movie based off the Bible, reading a historical fiction book or reading content of this website you should always look into the Bible for yourself and see if the content is truthful. There will be those in the media that will try to present something different from the truth and change it into myths for the sake of it being more entertaining and better than the actual Bible [18].
I hope this blogpost was helpful in really understanding the inaccuracies of the movie and that if you are unsure about a teaching you can rely on the truths only found in the Bible to prove it right. If you liked this post feel free to share comment below and share it with your friends on social media
References[]
- ↑ Gen 5:28-30 (Link)
- ↑ Gen 4:22 (Link)
- ↑ Gen 6:18 (Link)
- ↑ Gen 4:22 (Link)
- ↑ Gen 5:25-30 (Link)
- ↑ Gen 6:9-21 (Link)
- ↑ Gen 6:4-7 (Link)
- ↑ Gen 6:1-3 (Link)
- ↑ 2 Peter 2:4; Jude 1:6 (Link)
- ↑ Gen 6:19-20 (Link)
- ↑ Gen 7:2-3 (Link)
- ↑ 1 Peter 3:20 (Link)
- ↑ Gen 7:13 (Link)
- ↑ Gen 4:26 (Link)
- ↑ Gen 6:18; Gen 9:7 (Link)
- ↑ Gen 8:16 (Link)
- ↑ Gen 9:20-23 (Link)
- ↑ 2 Tim 4:3-4 (Link)