Noah

🏷  Bible name Noah Semitic hidden ruler pun · name   —   by Gerry · Jul 2019 · 896 words

The name of the Biblical character Noah, written nḥ, means “leader”, and the story is a veiled parable about hidden leaders. The official meaning of Noah is “rest”, but the same word also means “putting down to rest” and “putting down” by destroying or killing. Noah’s puns are really about war, and how “leaders” sit it out by “resting” in secret hideouts!

Ham mocking Noah

The “drunken Noah” scene doesn’t seem to fit the story arc of “Noah’s ark”.
Only pun analysis can explain it.

As usual, all attributes and story elements of Noah are puns with his name: The ship, the ship being an ark, the animals, his leadership, the landing. But puns, and only puns, can also explain all the other weird elements that follow later in his story: His laying down naked after drinking wine, his sons stepping in front, and him cursing his innocent grandson!

Noah is officially derived from “rest”, but the same word also means “leader” & “driver”. This is sometimes said to be derived from “bringing other people to rest”. It may also be the reason why Noah got a vehicle in his story.

The seemingly unconnected pieces of the story seem to be spun around Noah’s other puns with nwg for “shipwrecked”, nḥt for “landing a ship”, nwh for “resting”, nˁw for “winepress”, nyḥwḥ for “soothing odor” of sacrificial offerings. See Noah’s story.

But Noah also uses another pun, which I overlooked at first: It’s the official one, with נוח nwḥ for “rest”. But this one has a particularly devious second meaning: As ניחה nyḥh, this word root also means “resting place” — but this is also the primary pun of Noah’s ark! Noah is a synonym for his ark! The ark as תבה tbh puns with יתבא ytbˀ for “resting place”. And the “raging waters” from which this “resting place” protects the “leader” Noah, they pun with “raging people”! The story of Noah’s ark is a gruesome tale about how our “leaders” can incite riots, and then wait them out in their “resting places”, to get a tame populace in the end. Very disgusting! If you feel you have the guts for it, you can read it up in Noah’s story or Noah’s interlinear puns.

Hebrew nwḥ = rest, put down to rest, put down to rid oneself, wait in rest

נח nḥ : Noah; “rest”, patriarch who survived the flood — Old Hebrew (Strong)

נוה nwḥ : quiet; (of the sea) state of becalmed; serenity; cessation — Aramaic (CAL)

נוה nwḥ : to rest; abandon, cast down, deposit, forsake, free, give rest, lay down, leave, let alone, put down, put aside, rid oneself, settle, station, wait quietly — Old Hebrew (Strong)

Hebrew nḥ = lead; nh = eminency

נחה nḥh : to lead, guide — Old Hebrew (Strong)

נחיה nḥyh : leading, guidance — Hebrew (Klein)

נה nh noah : eminency, distinction — Old Hebrew (Strong)

נהג nhg : to drive, conduct; led, directed, conducted — Hebrew (Klein)

Hebrew, Aramaic nyḥh = resting place; nwh = abode; tbh = ark; ytb = resting place

ניחה nyḥh : rest; resting place, abode — Aramaic (CAL)

נוה nwh : pasture, meadow; dwelling place, abode, habitation — Hebrew (Klein)

תבה tbh : ark, box; Holy Ark (in the synagogue) — Hebrew (Klein)

יתבא ytbˀ : dwelling places — Hebrew (Jastrow)

יתבו, יתבותא ytbw, ytbwtʾ : resting place; resting place — Aramaic (CAL)

🏷  Bible name Noah Semitic hidden ruler pun · name