Forefather Noah

DATE FORMAT CORRECTION: the previously listed fixed date "December 18 (O.S.)" approximately corresponds to the start of the range of the movable Sunday of the Holy Fathers, but the more precise and standard commemoration for an Old Testament forefather is the movable Sunday of the Holy Forefathers (two weeks before the Nativity of Christ, between December 11 and 17 O.S.) — the date has been corrected to honestly reflect the movable nature of the commemoration rather than a rigidly fixed day.

Noah, son of Lamech, was the tenth patriarch from Adam (through the line of Seth). Scripture calls him "a righteous man, blameless in his generation," who "walked with God" — the sole man found worthy amid a corrupted, violence-filled humanity that God resolved to destroy. By God's command he built an ark of gopher wood (300 cubits long, 50 wide, 30 high, with three decks and a door in the side) to save his family — his wife, his three sons (Shem, Ham, and Japheth) with their wives — and a pair (seven pairs of clean animals) of every creature.

The flood lasted 40 days as a downpour combined with the breaking forth of the great deep, destroying all terrestrial life outside the ark; after about 150 days the waters began to recede, and the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. Noah sent out a raven, then a dove, which eventually returned with an olive branch, signaling the appearance of dry land.

On leaving the ark (after about a year), Noah offered a sacrifice of clean animals, and God established His covenant never again to destroy the earth by flood, giving the rainbow as the sign of the covenant; He also renewed the blessing of fruitfulness and gave moral commandments, including prohibitions on consuming blood and on murder. Noah later planted a vineyard, made wine, and, becoming drunk, lay uncovered in his tent — his son Ham saw his father's nakedness and mockingly told his brothers, while Shem and Japheth reverently covered their father without looking at him (Genesis 9:20-27). On waking, Noah cursed Ham's son Canaan to servitude and blessed the lines of Shem and Japheth.

According to Scripture, he lived 950 years in total, 350 of them after the flood. The Apostle Peter calls him "a preacher of righteousness," and the Church interprets the flood and the ark as a type of salvation through baptism.