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Noah: A Righteous and Blameless Man Who Walked with God

(This article is my reflection on weekly Torah reading. The original article is written in Chinese (中文). The English version is translated by Philip Liu and edited by Teresa Chen.) Genesis 6:9 starts with: “ These are the generations of Noah... ” (Genesis 6:9a). Obviously, if the Bible is discussing Noah’s genealogy, it will then go on to list his sons: “ And Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth ” (Genesis 6:10); based on how the genealogy starts, it should also be quite similar to all the others in Genesis: “ Now these are the generations of Terah. Terah fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran… ” (Genesis 11:27a). However, one thing stands out in this particular genealogy as the verse goes on to say, “ Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God ” (Genesis 6:9b). In other words, this means that the Bible is specifically highlighting Noah as “ a righteous man, blameless in his generation ” and that he “ walked with God. ” So, Noah was

YHWH Is God’s Everlasting Name

(This article is my reflection on weekly Torah reading.  The original article  is written in Chinese  (中文) . The English version is translated by Philip Liu and edited by Teresa Chen.) At the very beginning of the book of Genesis and the Bible, it is written: “ In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth ” (Genesis 1:1 ESV). In the Biblical language of Hebrew, the word that is used here is אֱלֹהִים ("elohim"), which is the plural form of the word אֵל ("el"), which means “god”. In other words, the wor d אֱלֹהִים is the equivalent of the English word “gods.” However, we know that the Bible is not saying, “ In the beginning, gods created the heavens and the earth ” because the verb that follows (or rather, proceeds): בָּרָא ("bara", created), is singular. Therefore, we know that אֱלֹהִים is referring to the Creator of the Universe and not to “gods”. However, while אֱלֹהִים is often used to refer to God in the Bible, it is not, in f