The relationship between God and man in the Old Testament sheds light onto the relationship between God and his people throughout salvation history. Devora Steinmetz explores this relationship through her article in the Journal of Biblical Literature entitled “Vineyard, Farm, and Garden: The Drunkenness of Noah in the Context of Primeval History.” In it she offers insight into the correlation between the rise and fall of man in reference to both Adam and then Noah. The nature of man in relation to the earth, eating fruit from the earth, and nakedness are all motifs shared by both of these prophets. In the beginning the Lord creates the earth from nothing, all life and everything in it is made by God. The earth, sky, sea, beasts, fish, birds,
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Man’s relationship with the earth in Eden differs from man’s relationship with the earth after the flood. Up until the flood the sins of man lead to the destruction of the earth. For instance the circumstances previously described concerning Adam’s actions leading to his banishment from the paradise of pleasure. After many generations mankind forms a monstrous compilation of sins against God the effects of which are so desolate that the Lord destroys the entire earth, with the exception of Noah. When God spares Noah from the destruction of the world he establishes Noah as “distinct from the earth, and so his actions and those of his descendants will not inevitably cause the earth’s destruction” (Steinmetz 196). Noah is not in harmony with the earth as his forefather Adam once was. However, because of the dissociation between the sins of man and the earth the world that Noah inhabits after the flood is the same world that we inhabit today, according to Steinmetz the world remains intact because “the earth is not cursed, the earth need not enact the curse of the sinner”(202). The distinction between Noah and the earth is further illustrated in the planting of the vine. Contrary to the Adam’s sin in Eden, eating fruit from a tree which the Lord planted, “the vineyard is planted by Noah, and the wine of which Noah drinks is a human made product of the fruit of the vine” (Steinmetz 202). It is the drinking from the vine that leads to the sin of Noah and Ham just as the eating of the fruit leads to the first fall of man. While Ham does certainly violate both Noah and the Lord, Noah himself also sins: out of his own hands he grows wine which he drinks to the extreme point of inebriation at which point his son “sees his nakedness.” At this point in Noah’s story the reader understands that unlike Adam, who is tempted to eat from the Tree of Knowledge, Noah himself plants the very vine that leads him into
Man’s relationship with the earth in Eden differs from man’s relationship with the earth after the flood. Up until the flood the sins of man lead to the destruction of the earth. For instance the circumstances previously described concerning Adam’s actions leading to his banishment from the paradise of pleasure. After many generations mankind forms a monstrous compilation of sins against God the effects of which are so desolate that the Lord destroys the entire earth, with the exception of Noah. When God spares Noah from the destruction of the world he establishes Noah as “distinct from the earth, and so his actions and those of his descendants will not inevitably cause the earth’s destruction” (Steinmetz 196). Noah is not in harmony with the earth as his forefather Adam once was. However, because of the dissociation between the sins of man and the earth the world that Noah inhabits after the flood is the same world that we inhabit today, according to Steinmetz the world remains intact because “the earth is not cursed, the earth need not enact the curse of the sinner”(202). The distinction between Noah and the earth is further illustrated in the planting of the vine. Contrary to the Adam’s sin in Eden, eating fruit from a tree which the Lord planted, “the vineyard is planted by Noah, and the wine of which Noah drinks is a human made product of the fruit of the vine” (Steinmetz 202). It is the drinking from the vine that leads to the sin of Noah and Ham just as the eating of the fruit leads to the first fall of man. While Ham does certainly violate both Noah and the Lord, Noah himself also sins: out of his own hands he grows wine which he drinks to the extreme point of inebriation at which point his son “sees his nakedness.” At this point in Noah’s story the reader understands that unlike Adam, who is tempted to eat from the Tree of Knowledge, Noah himself plants the very vine that leads him into