02 March 2024
Surely by now the Flood in Genesis has obvious symbolism of the ravages of time and chaos. The dry land was covered and all life was drowned and washed away. God would start fresh with what Noah had in his boat. Noah found God's grace. While Pageau notes that Noah thus represented the proper balance between above and below, of space and time, we are led to yet another review of left and right eyes.
While Pageau doesn't use the image of forest and trees, it fits perfectly. The right eye sees the particular and thus, the trees. It's looking for precision and propriety. The left eye sees the forest; it's a fuzzy receptor that takes in the whole. It represents completion. Thus, we learn that space is about what is correct and righteous based on direct observation (and thus, exact knowledge), while time is about seeing the whole based on an indirect grasp of things.
Now let's add the two birds Noah sent out. The dove correlates to the right eye and precise knowledge; she brought back irrefutable evidence of the flood abating. The raven correlates to the left eye and indirect indication, in that its habit of resting on floating carcasses gave proof the job of wiping out life was done. Is it any surprise that both birds were used in divination rituals? The raven is used in pagan idolatry and no one eats them because they are carrion eaters, but doves are kosher offerings and food.
And Noah's kosher offering after disembarking from the ark reminds us that this was far more than a mere transaction between God and man. Noah was wise enough to be grateful to God for sparing him and his family. However, if God were going to speak, it would be due to Noah's piety in thinking that such a sacrifice was warranted. Thus, we have the union of above and below restored, as building an altar is the first step in building a new civilization on the spatial axis.
Thus, peace was restored and God promised not to destroy life that way again. Fire on the altar correlates to building space, something artificially constructed from trees. Water as a flood is the opposite, correlating to time and chaos, the quintessential force of nature. The community altar of fire correlates to the individual hearth in the home. Fire protects and promotes human existence against weather and other natural threats.
Pageau makes much of the symbolism of meat being rectified by fire, made edible; the presence of blood hearkens to the flood and destruction. He also points out the moral linkage between eating meat with blood in it and the divination God prohibited (Leviticus 19:26). At the community level, cooking meat is linked to using justice to avoid unnecessary bloodshed, thus the underlying principle of the Code of Noah (Genesis 9:5).
If we were all merely individuals as they were before the Flood, then blood feuds would be entirely natural as an instinct for self-preservation. But God demanded that humanity form tribal societies; thus the Code of Noah requires a community that must strive to stabilize by structured law. Surrendering individual retribution was a sacrifice, the key to peace with God: "You shall not take vengeance or bear any grudge against your people. You shall love your neighbor as yourself" (Leviticus 19:18).
Again, notice how the symbolism works across the various levels of personal, communal and cosmic.
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