Noah and his City

Finding Ourselves as Male and Female in the Flood Narrative

 If you are new to my Substack, thank you for reading and thinking along with me. I have been writing about anthropology and gender, suggesting for several months that the creation of the man and woman in Genesis 1-2 gives the key or code to understanding the enduring significance of ourselves as male and female. I do not think we understand ourselves best by reflecting on abstract categories of “masculinity” and “femininity” in any given cultural context, nor by seeking our significance as male and female based on “roles,” ancient or modern. We best understand ourselves by meditating on the triune God who loves us and made us for never-ending union and communion with himself beyond this life.  

When God formed Adam and then built Eve from his consecrated side in Genesis 2, I believe that he was revealing himself through the things he made. That pattern of revelation did not begin on earth, but in heaven.  In Isaiah 6, the prophet writes of his vision of the dwelling place of God. He is caught up into the heavenly temple and sees a glory train proceeding from the throne. That train forms and fills God’s holy tent. Smoke permeates this throne room, and the thresholds shake. This glory procession is an appearance of the Holy Spirit. In the words of Meredith Kline, 

“As an epiphany, the Glory that constitutes heaven is identifiable with God. At the same time, this Glory epiphany is a created phenomenon. The account of the creation of heaven in Gen 1:1 is the record of the origin of the Glory epiphany, the creational investiture of Deity with majestic splendor (Ps 104:1, 2). The heavenly Glory is then a created embodiment of Deity. It is, moreover, a permanent embodiment. It is not a temporary theophanic manifestation but an eternally enduring epiphany, for the Glory-heaven has no ending, only a consummation” (Kline, God, Heaven, and Har Magedon, 13).  

The train and the smoke are nothing less than a visible manifestation of the infinite, eternal, unchangeable Spirit as he surrounds and fills the throne of Father and Son, sealing the revelation of the triune God in the heavenly temple. The Holy Spirit is the radiance, the effulgence of the throne, that fills heaven with light, even as the Son is the Lamp from which that glory emanates (Rev 21:23). Based on this theophany in the “upper register” throne room where angels worship, I have argued that God has represented himself and his presence above by creating us male and female. Maleness points to the enthroned Son, through whom God is bringing a people to heavenly rest. Being with the Son means nothing short of our never-ending blessedness and reward. On the other hand, femaleness points to the Spirit, the Glory-city and the end for which we were made. This is our enduring identity as a people, male and female, destined to be with the Son in the Spirit forever and ever.

Last week I introduced the Son and the City in Genesis 4-6.  In Cain and his city, as well as Cain’s descendant Lamech and his wives, we begin to see the antithesis of the Son and his Glory in chapter 4. The antithesis continues in Genesis 6 with the “sons of God” and their wives. This week I want to look at Noah, his wife, his sons, and their wives, and most specifically the ark. Some approach gender in the narrative, noticing the mention of the four women in the story. I imagine that some may find encouragement in the simple fact that the four wives are mentioned, saying to themselves, “Surely women must be important to the story and to God because they are explicitly referenced.”  However true that is, we also notice that we are not given their names. They have no individual identities apart from their husbands. They are the “wives” of Noah, Ham, Shem, and Japheth.  Not being given their names may fit well with a patriarchal view of gender. Some might reason from the text that what is most important to God is the male line. In other words, front and center and in focus is Noah the patriarch fathering sons. 

I suggest that the story of Noah’s ark is equally about the woman because I begin with the presupposition that we were made like him, in his image, mirroring God.  We are a unity as image-bearing mankind, and we are a diversity of persons, male and female (Genesis 1), in procession and embrace (Genesis 2). In other words, I expect to see male and female, man and woman, in their representation of the Son and his City.  I look for the representation of divine persons, equal in power and glory — both a Son and his Glory, the Spirit-City. And there she is, “built” like the woman of Genesis 2:22, a floating fortress, the Son’s ezer (helper). She is a strength for the son through the storm. I am suggesting that the glory of the woman does not shine in the mere mention of the nameless wives of four named men, but in what those women (beloved of God) represent, the Son’s citadel in the highest heavens. It may sound strange, but if we look for the woman in the text, we find a boat. Noah’s Ark reveals the Son’s glory as the citadel fortress of Zion. The ark points us forward to David’s city as an impenetrable fortress guarded by God, a haven from the threat of death and annihilation at the hands of his and our enemies. Consider David’s words in Psalm 48:12-14, “Go around Zion, encircle it; count its towers, note its ramparts, tour its citadels so that you can tell a future generation: ‘This God, our God forever and ever — he will always lead us.’” The city is called God himself, and not only in chapter 48. Consider Psalm 46:  

God is our strong refuge;

he is truly our helper in times of trouble.

For this reason we do not fear when the earth shakes,

and the mountains tumble into the depths of the sea,

when its waves crash and foam,

and the mountains shake before the surging sea. (Selah)

The river’s channels bring joy to the city of God,

the special, holy dwelling place of the Most High.

God lives within her, she cannot be moved.

God rescues her at the break of dawn.

Nations are in uproar, kingdoms are overthrown.

God gives a shout, the earth dissolves.

The Lord of Heaven’s Armies is on our side.

The God of Jacob is our stronghold. (Selah) (Ps 46:1-7)

The Son is enthroned within his city, and that city is a created manifestation of God the Holy Spirit. The Glory-city as a refuge, helper (ezer), and stronghold simply is the revelation of the person of the Spirit. We are a beloved people destined to behold that glory-city with our own eyes where we will be received into the love of God, through the grace of the Son, in the fellowship of the Spirit. God has written his plan on the things he has made here. We are irrevocably stamped with this message in our maleness and femaleness. The man represents the enthroned Son and the woman represents his glory, the Spirit, who proceeds from his throne. God has made us so that our thoughts about ourselves as male and female rebound right back to him from whom and for whom we were made.

When I see the consecrated  “city” represented in all its forms in Scripture, whether garden or ark,  mountain or tent, citadel or temple, holy land or holy people built on Christ the cornerstone, I believe I have approached the center of what God is telling me about himself by impressing me with his image.  In fact, sometimes I wonder if there is not a sixth sense by common grace that leads us there.  The very word “metropolis” as a leading or capital city comes from two words in Greek meaning “mother” and “city.”  Cities have long been feminized as mothers not only in Jewish thought as Mother Zion, but also among the Greeks. In their efforts to colonize foreign lands, Greeks first planted “mother cities,” from where the people would spread out and fill the surrounding areas.

In Genesis 6-9, the woman’s symbolism as ark has both senses: fortress and fruitful mother. The Ark is a fortress from the winds and waves of chaos raging against it. The ark is also a “mother ship” from which the world will be re-colonized. The corruption of mankind is the context for the building of the ark. Like the coming cities Sodom and Gomorrah and the land of Canaan, the images of son and city have been corrupted and distorted beyond recognition.  When the “sons of God” saw that the daughters of mankind were beautiful, they took any they chose  (6:2). Because of this, God grieves, regretting that he had made mankind on the earth (6:6). Violence and greed had utterly distorted our likeness to the Son and his Glory cloud theophany, so God chose a faithful son, Noah, and a citadel, the Ark. 

The woman is linked with the ark both as a (1) fortress and as a (2) womb from which mankind and the animals will be “born” again to fill the earth. First, the ark is a stronghold and sure defense. When we get to the first mention of Zion in 2 Samuel 5:7, she is a hilltop fortress of the Jebusites. King David captures her, and she becomes Jerusalem, the city of peace. She is a place of refuge for those fleeing the battle. There is life when encircled by her walls. She extends hope to those fleeing death. As we have mentioned before, Zion is feminized in the Hebrew and Greek Scriptures as a mother, daughter, and finally bride. She is the city of God, identified with a holy people from every nation, tribe, and tongue radiating the glory of her king. Within her walls there is never-ending peace and safety. This is the final image of Zion in the Scriptures. She is the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the Son. Outside her walls and gates, there is only judgment (Rev 22:15). 

The ark is not only a fortress but also a “mother ship” who brings her sons and daughters into a renewed world. In this sense, the ark has long been associated with Mary in the Western church. Tradition going back to the church fathers considers the ark as a foreshadowing of Mary, the ark’s greater fulfillment. Noah and the ark point to a future son harbored safely by Mary and brought into the world. And yet as the New Testament unfolds, the symbols of Son and City gather momentum, strength, and clarity, culminating in the Son and City in their final unveiling in Revelation. As I see it, the unfolding order of representation is this: 

1. God in himself, the Spirit proceeding from the Father and Son, the three exhaustively representing one another

2. God’s manifestation of himself in the heavens beginning with the Son enthroned at the Father’s right hand (man’s symbolism); the Spirit-city proceeding from the throne (woman’s symbolism) 

3. The man Adam and his sons (man’s); the prototypes of the city culminating in Zion (woman’s)

4. The woman’s Seed, the Second Adam (man’s); Eve-Mary-OT church (woman’s)

5. The ascended Second Adam, shepherd of his people (man’s); his NT wilderness glory-bride, the church (woman’s)

6. The Second Adam who has subdued all his enemies (man’s); his glorified bridal city, forever in union and communion with him (woman’s)

There is a pointing backward to God as Creator in whose image the man and woman of Genesis 1-2 were made, but there is also a pointing forward in time to the final and enduring representation of the Son and his Spirit. The culmination of the representation given us in Genesis is the Man of heaven and his bride, revealed in glory in Revelation. On that day, the triune God will be most fully known and loved by his people as their Alpha and Omega.

I hope to continue working my way through the Old Testament tracing the unfolding Son and City. Next Substack, I plan to write about the typology of the man and the woman in the story of the builders of Babel and their city set over and against Abraham and the land he is promised.