Luke Jeffery: Noah

Our discussion of myth vs. fact was timely, since just weeks later we saw the film Noah.  I couldn't help but think about this dichotomy, particularly in light of the biblical narrative Noah. Many evangelical Christians today are upset with the movie Noah because they see it as "unbiblical." To them, making any deviation from the literal text of the Bible should be considered not true. In response, I would like to highlight two things, first this movie was not based solely off of the biblical text, it was also drawn out of the apocryphal text of The Book of Enoch, which displays a godlike view of Noah. Second, many of the early church fathers had different lists of what was to remain canon and what was to be removed from the canon. This caused controversy within the Church, but many of these different leaders, whose canons were different were considered to be great heroes of the faith.

Myth has long been associated in American culture with lies.  Our culture is so focused on truth, which is much different from many other cultures in the world. For example, Asian culture holds honor higher than truth and will thus lie to save face, because for them it is more important.  Our high veneration of truth has caused a distortion in our view of myth or story. Though it is hard for us to understand this, it is important in the Noah movie to attempt to understand it in light of myth.  Much of the artistic license that was taken in the movie can be drawn from the text of the biblical narrative in conjunction with the Book of Enoch. Additionally, it also adds some great character development to Noah and some of the other characters. This really emphasized their qualities and struggles with the coming flood. Overall, I enjoyed the film thoroughly and would recommend it to anyone because it will challenge us to view the narrative of Noah as mythos and not simply fact vs. fiction.