Noah and the World Before the Flood
The older ribbons end one after another, Noah’s begins, and across the top Adams links the generations from Adam to Moses.
The numbered pins of this stretch, walked in order, are in the book (pp. 32–33). Here you can zoom and explore it freely.
The Chain of Long Lives
By the time you reach pp. 32–33, the crowded stack of ribbons from the earlier spreads has started to thin. Begin at the left edge, where Seth’s ribbon stops at “2962 B.C. 1042 A.M.” Just beneath it a tiny dashed 14 measures a gap. Fourteen years later a green ribbon rises from Lamech’s at “2948 B.C. 1056 A.M.,” with NOAH 950 YEARS printed across it. Seth, the son Eve called another seed, missed meeting Noah by fourteen years.
Lamech gave his son a name that was a hope said out loud: “This same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the LORD hath cursed” (Genesis 5:29). Keep that sentence in mind as you slide right. One by one the older ribbons end, each with its square edge: Enos at 1140 A.M., Cainan at 1235, Mahalaleel at 1290, Jared at 1422. Beside Lamech, Adams notes a first: he is the first man on record to die a natural death before his father. By the right edge only three ribbons are left, Noah’s, his father’s and his grandfather Methuselah’s.
If the page begins to feel like a row of funerals, read what Adams wrote along Noah’s ribbon. Noah “talked with” Cainan for 179 years, with Mahalaleel 234, with Jared 366 and with Lamech 595. Lower down Adams calls Lamech a link, able to talk with Adam 56 years and with Shem 98, and so to carry the history from Creation to the death of Shem. (The book points out on p. 33 that by Adams’ own ribbons the Shem figure comes to 93; the note makes its point either way.) Across the top Adams carries the idea to Moses, in a chain of eight lives with the shared years marked at every join.
Think about what those numbers meant for anyone living then. Nobody in Noah’s day had to piece together the story of Eden from hearsay. Noah had spent centuries with men who had spent centuries with Adam. And it was into a world “filled with violence” (Genesis 6:13) that this verse arrives: “But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.” It is the first time the Bible uses the word grace.
Under the stream, the line of Christ reaches Noah, and here Adams asks you to read slowly. He prints “NOAH was 502 years old when Shem was born,” though Genesis 5:32 says five hundred. He has set two verses side by side: Noah was six hundred at the Flood (7:6), and Shem was a hundred two years after it (11:10). So Shem came at 502. Adams is not correcting Genesis; he is letting one verse explain another.
At the right edge the Flood has already begun to appear in Adams’ notes: the ark finished, Noah and his wife, their three sons. Beside LAMECH 777 and METHUSELAH 969 two more notes start and run on into the next stretch, one for each man’s death, Lamech five years before the waters and Methuselah in the very year. Turn the page, and the single line of Seth’s family is about to become three.
“But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.”Genesis 6:8 · KJV
Think it through
Keep your Bible open. There are no wrong answers here; the worksheet in the free Companion gives you room to write.
- Lamech named his son for comfort. What comfort did Noah actually bring, and to whom? (Genesis 5:29; 8:20–22)
- Count the ribbons that end on pp. 32–33. Who is left when the Flood comes, and what does 2 Peter call the man God saved? (2 Peter 2:5)
- Noah talked with men who had talked with Adam. How does Psalm 78 describe the same handing-on from one generation to the next? (Psalm 78:4–7)
- Adams writes 502 where Genesis 5:32 says 500. Work out his reason from Genesis 7:6 and 11:10. What does it teach you about reading numbers slowly?
- Noah built “by faith,” warned “of things not seen as yet.” By building, Hebrews says, he “condemned the world.” How did an ark do that? (Hebrews 11:7)
- “But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD” is the Bible’s first use of grace. Why does it come right after the earth is “filled with violence”?
Find where Jared’s ribbon ends on pp. 32–33, “2582 B.C. 1422 A.M.” Using one key, how old is Noah in that year, and where does Adams print the same number?
Show the answer
Key 6 · Same column, same moment. 1422 − 1056 = 366: Noah is 366, the figure Adams writes along Noah’s ribbon, “with JARED 366 yrs.”
The Memory That Reached Noah
One idea runs through Adams’ notes on this stretch more than any other: who could talk with whom. Along Noah’s ribbon he lists the patriarchs Noah knew. Beside Lamech he writes that Lamech could talk with Adam and with Shem. Across the top he builds a chain from Adam to Moses, eight lives long, with the shared years at every join. Adams is making an argument with a ruler. The history in Genesis did not have to cross a long dark gap to reach the people who would write it down.
Scripture describes the same handing-on. Psalm 78 speaks of fathers who will not hide God’s works from their children, “shewing to the generation to come the praises of the LORD.” That is the picture on pp. 32–33. Noah spent hundreds of years with men who had spent hundreds of years with Adam, and Shem, born before the Flood, would carry the memory past it. One of Adams’ figures slips, as p. 33 shows, and the chain holds all the same.
Into that chain came the darkest verses so far. The earth was “filled with violence,” and God told Noah what he would do. Hebrews says Noah was “warned of God of things not seen as yet,” was moved with fear, and built. Peter calls him “a preacher of righteousness.” Knowing the story of Eden did not make the world good. It made Noah answerable, and he acted on what he knew.
Jesus pointed back to this stretch when he spoke of his own coming: people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day Noah entered the ark. Adams draws that ordinary life right up to the edge, with Lamech’s ribbon still putting out hooks of sons and daughters. When you study these pages alone, read Psalm 78:4–7 beside Matthew 24:36–39. The chain did not stop with Moses. You belong to it now, and the chart leaves you with a question: what will you hand on?
Read and reflect
“We will not hide them from their children, shewing to the generation to come the praises of the LORD, and his strength, and his wonderful works that he hath done.”
Who handed God’s works on to you, and to whom are you handing them?
“By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house…”
What does it look like to act on a warning from God before you can see what it is about?
“…they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away…”
What did the people of Noah’s day fail to know, and what would knowing it have changed?
Quiz: ten questions
Pick an answer to see whether it is right and why. Each explanation names the page of the book.
Read the whole chart, stretch by stretch
This site lets you wander; the book walks you through. All seventeen stretches on full spreads at 75% of the real chart, numbered pins explained in order, Adams' Six Keys on every page and a study page for every stretch. Large format, full color.