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Rabbinic tradition in Genesis Rabbah follows earlier Jewish traditions, found in the book of Jubilees, that explain the reason for the Genesis flood, describing that generation as corrupt, lawless, and unmerciful.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Jubilees 7:20
Pseudepigrapha
20 During the twenty-eighth jubilee [1324-72] Noah began to prescribe for his grandsons the ordinances and the commandments — every statute which he knew. He testified to his sons that they should do what is right, cover the shame of their bodies, bless the one who had created them, honor father and mother, love one another, and keep themselves from fornication, uncleanness, and from all injustice. 21 For it was on account of these three things that the flood was on the earth, since it was due to fornication that the Watchers had illicit intercourse — apart from the mandate of their authority — with women. When they married of them whomever they chose, they committed the first acts of uncleanness. 22 They fathered as their sons the Nephilim. They were all dissimilar from one another and would devour one another: the giant killed the Naphil; the Naphil killed the Elyo; the Elyo mankind; and people their fellows.
Genesis Rabbah 33:5
Aggadah
Rabbinic
“It was at the end of forty days, and Noah opened the window of the ark that he made” (Genesis 8:6). “It was at the end of forty days, and Noah opened [the window of the ark]” – this supports what Rabbi Abba bar Kahana said [earlier], that [the ark’s tzohar] was a window. “He sent the raven, and it went back and forth, until the drying of the water from upon the earth” (Genesis 8:7). “He sent the raven” – that is what is written: “He sent darkness and made it dark” (Psalms 105:28). “And it went back and forth [vashov]” – Rabbi Yudan in the name of Rabbi Yehuda ben Rabbi Simon: It began presenting arguments [meshivo] to him [Noah]. He said to him, [as it were]: Of all the animals, beasts, and birds that are here, you are sending only me? He said to him: What need does the world have for you – [you are fit] neither for food nor for an offering. Rabbi Berekhya said in the name of Rabbi Abba bar Kahana: The Holy One blessed be He said to him [Noah]: Accept it [back into the ark], as the world will have a need for it in the future. He said to Him: When? He said to him: “Until the drying of the water from upon the earth” – a certain righteous man is destined to arise and dry out the world, and I will bring it about that he will have a need for it [the raven]. That is what is written: “The ravens [orevim] would bring him bread and meat in the morning, and bread and meat in the evening” (I Kings 17:6). Rabbi Yehuda and Rabbi Neḥemya: Rabbi Yehuda says: There is a city in the environs of Beit She’an whose name is Aravi. Rabbi Neḥemya said: They were actual ravens. From where did they bring it [the food]? From the table of Yehoshafat. Rabbi Akiva delivered a homily in Ginzak regarding the generation of the Flood, and they did not weep, but when he mentioned to them the story of Job, they immediately wept. He applied this verse to them [to the generation of the Flood]: “The womb will forget him; he will be sweet for the maggots; he will no longer be remembered, and injustice will be broken like a tree” (Job 24:20). “The womb [reḥem] will forget him” – they caused mercy [raḥamim] to be forgotten among mankind; the Holy One blessed be He, too, caused His mercy to be forgotten from them. “He will be sweet for the maggots” – their flesh will be sweet for the maggots. “He will no longer be remembered, and injustice will be broken like a tree” – Rabbi Abbahu said: It is not written, “will be uprooted,” but rather, “will be broken” – like something that is broken and does not produce a replacement. What is it? It is the generation of the Dispersion.
Date: 500 C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... R. Aqiva is also our earliest authority to employ a verse from Job 24, in his discourses on the Generation of the Flood. When this scholar expounded on the fate of the Antediluvians to a congregation in the Median city of Ginzak he failed to evoke any sympathy from his audience for this wicked generation. Whereupon he applied to them 24:20 ... Presumably, R. Aqiva was alluding here to another ancient tradition, recorded in earliest apocryphal sources, regarding the lawless and violent character of the Antediluvians. (see Jubilees 7:20, and particularly Sybilla i, 177-201) This theme is developed more extensively in conjunction with the opening verses of chapter 24, in the following two passages ..."
Jacobs, Irving
The Midrashic Process: Tradition and Interpretation in Rabbinic Judaism
(pp. 28-29) Cambridge University Press, 1995
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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