His father Lamech both imposed and explained the name of Noah, as Moses narrated above toward the end of the fifth chapter, writing thus: “And Lamech lived a hundred and eighty-two years, and begot a son; and he called his name Noah, saying: This one shall comfort us from the works and labors of our hands…”²

…on the earth which the Lord had cursed. Now the name Noë, or Noach (for so it ought to be said according to the form of Hebrew writing and pronunciation), means ‘rest,’ from the verb Noach, which is ‘to rest’; whence what follows, “He shall comfort us,” etc., the Septuagint translators rendered more in accordance with the etymology of the name Noah, saying, “He shall make us to rest,” etc. Eugubinus, in his annotations on the Pentateuch on this passage, hands down that there are two very similar Hebrew words: one (nacha) signifying to soothe, mitigate, and make to rest; the other (nacham), with mem, signifying to console — and that this latter is now in the Hebrew codices; but that the Septuagint translators, led by the similarity of the words, took one for the other, or read it in the former way. It could moreover be said that the final m is not of the essence of the verb, but is added in the pronoun ‘us,’ a thing which often happens among the Hebrews. Jerome seems to have read it similarly, since in the Hebrew Traditions on Genesis he derives the etymology of the name Noah from that which is ‘to make to rest’; and almost all the Fathers followed the reading of the Septuagint, not only the Greeks but many of the Latins too. Although “he shall comfort us from our labors” and “he shall make us to rest” seem to have the same sense; for it is a great consolation to the laboring to rest from their labors.³

Chrysostom indeed, explaining the aforesaid words of Lamech: “Among us,” he says, “the name Noah, if one interpret it, means ‘rest’; and he calls ‘rest’ that general destruction which was to come after many years, just as Job too said, ‘Death is rest for a man’; for wickedness is a very great labor, and so its coming abolition through the Flood he called ‘rest.’ Whence he subjoined: ‘This one shall give us rest from our works,’ that is, ‘He shall make us cease from wickedness,’ and ‘from the works of our hands,’ that is, from our evil works — not that the hands did evil, but because through their works and evil actions trouble and sadness were increased. And ‘from the earth,’ he says, ‘which the Lord God cursed’: he calls the earth cursed, which is worked and tilled with labor, on account of Adam’s transgression. Hence observe, beloved, how that little boy, gradually growing, was to all who saw him an occasion of learning; for as soon as anyone asked the boy’s name, from the interpretation of the word he learned that a general destruction would come. If someone, breathed upon by the divine Spirit, had simply said this would come to pass, it would at once have been given over to oblivion, and the gravity of the punishment would not have been fully known; but because that boy was before the eyes of all, in season and out of season he represented the divine indignation.” Thus Chrysostom, having carefully interpreted those words of Lamech according to the translation of the Septuagint.⁴

That phrase ‘from the works,’ Chrysostom and Hugh interpreted (with Jerome also assenting) of evil works and of sins. But more fitting is the interpretation which refers it to the laborious and troublesome works of men in tilling the earth. For, as if explaining what those works were, he added, ‘from the labors of our hands in the earth’; for which the Septuagint rendered ‘from the sorrows of our hands,’ others ‘from the troubles,’ others ‘from the pains,’ the Latin translator ‘from the labors.’ In Hebrew Hitsebon, having its origin from the verb Hatsab, properly means to press, compress, to be straitened; whence an idol is called…⁵

…hetseb, because the material from which an idol is fashioned by the craftsman is pressed with the hands. Here, then, it signifies the labor, distress, and oppression with which men before the age of Noah were afflicted in the cultivation of the earth. And that phrase, ‘In the earth which the Lord cursed,’ looks to what Moses had narrated in the third chapter that God said to Adam: ‘Cursed is the earth in thy work; in labors shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat thy bread.’ The earth, then, is called cursed because, though tilled by man with much and constant labor, it rendered him fruit neither abundant, nor perpetual, nor of the best.⁶

But someone may ask how, or by what means, Noah consoled men, or made them to rest, as his father Lamech had foretold by a prophetic inspiration. Saint Jerome: “Because,” he says, “under Noah all the works before him rested through the Flood, for this reason he was called Noah, that is, Rest.” I do not know of what works done before him Jerome speaks, unless perhaps of the evil works and sins of men, according to the interpretation of Chrysostom and Hugh set down above. Hugh says that Noah consoled men in this, that through him and by him the seedbed of the human race and of the animals was preserved in the ark, lest all things should wholly perish in the Flood.⁷

Quite probable is that interpretation of Rabbi Solomon and the Hebrews: that Noah was called the author of men’s rest and consolation because he first invented the principal rustic implements for carrying on and practicing agriculture; whence below, in the ninth chapter, Noah is called a husbandman. And in particular he is said to have devised the ploughshare and the plough, and that oxen, yoked beneath and dragging the plough, should cut the earth, whereas before men did this with their own hands. Great, then, was the consolation and rest of men, the labors of agriculture being for the most part transferred from men to the beasts. To others it is most pleasing that Noah consoled the men of his time chiefly in this, that he discovered the use of wine; for wine gladdens the heart of men and mitigates the harshness of labors, by restoring and strengthening the powers and cheering the spirit.⁸

Nor are there lacking those who believe that Lamech, by a prophetic spirit, foresaw that God, on account of Noah’s extraordinary piety and justice, would bless the earth — that is, that it would come to pass that the earth would henceforth be tilled by man with less labor and a more joyful yield. I will not be silent that there have been some who supposed that Lamech foresaw that to his son Noah, after the Flood, the use of flesh-food would be granted by God, to be a great aid and solace to mortals for the firmness of health and strength and for the preservation and propagation of human life. Therefore Noah, when he was newly born and could not yet, by reason of his tender age, give any hope of his singular character, was called by his parent by that most august name Noach, that is, ‘Rest’ or ‘Consolation’; which name promised a new and more joyful face of the world, the malignity of the earth being somewhat mitigated — that earth which, afflicted by the divine curse, had to a great degree frustrated the labors of mortals. And indeed the augury the outcome beautifully con-…⁹

…firmed it, when after the Flood God, restoring the world, promised that he would no more curse the earth for man’s sake, but that there would be henceforth preserved a perpetual and inviolate alternation and order of the four seasons of the year. Indeed, blessing Noah himself and his sons, he bade them increase by begetting offspring, and again imposed a new bridle of his word upon the wildness of the animals. Finally, after the sin of Adam, by a new covenant, as one now more appeased, he first bound himself to the human race.¹⁰

Although I, for my part, think that this so joyful name of Noah looked even further, and that it set before the minds of the pious even then the hope chiefly of that consolation or rest by which it would come to pass that, in Christ — who was to reconcile the human race to the angry Father — man would at length plainly find rest, and not faint in despair of the felicity lost in Paradise. In express words Rupert explained this very thing in the fourth book of the Commentaries on Genesis, ch. 16 and 17, writing in this manner: “Noah signified the Mediator of God and men both by his name and by his deed. By his name, namely, because the name itself, which is Noah, is interpreted ‘rest’; and our rest is truly he who says, ‘Take my yoke upon you, learn of me, for I am meek and humble of heart, and you shall find rest for your souls.’ But how he signified Christ by his deed must be more fully told hereafter. Therefore not without a divine presage did his father call him Noah, saying: ‘This one shall comfort us,’ or ‘shall make us to rest, from our works in the earth which the Lord cursed.’ And what is the rest or consolation with which this true Noah, namely the Son of God, consoles us, but the remission of sins which he bestows on us in his baptism, after the likeness of him who by his faith preserved with him in that Flood a few souls? For that the Flood was a figure of baptism, the Apostle Peter too testifies, when he says: ‘Who had once been incredulous, when they waited for the patience of God in the days of Noah, when the ark was being built, in which a few, that is eight souls, were saved by water; whereunto baptism, being of the like form, now also saves us,’ and the rest. And so, the Flood, baptism; those who perished in the Flood prefigured our sins, which are blotted out in Baptism. And in this way the prophecy is mystically fulfilled, of him who says: ‘This one shall comfort us,’ or ‘shall make us to rest from our works.’ There was one Noah, and in that one was the seed saved for the recovery of the world; because, namely, there is one Christ, in whom is our salvation, and ‘There is salvation in no other, for there is no other name under heaven given to men whereby we must be saved.’” One may also read what Ambrose wrote about the mystical interpretation of the same name in the book On the Ark and Noah. These things, then, about the word Noah, I have indicated could be said here briefly and not unaptly, thinking they would not be unpleasant to the reader.¹¹

There follows: “He found grace before the Lord.” For the condemnation of the rest (Ambrose says) and for the expression of the divine tenderness, Noah is said to have found grace with God. At the same time it is shown that the offense of others does not overshadow a just man, when he himself is reserved as the seedbed of the whole race…¹²

…‘To find grace before God,’ or ‘with God,’ or ‘in the eyes,’ or ‘in the sight of God,’ is a Hebraism signifying to please and be acceptable to God. For the word ‘grace,’ in Hebrew is the word Chen, signifying not only grace but also mercy, just as the verb Chanan means ‘to have mercy.’ And thus the sense will be: that, while all the others were perishing in the Flood, Noah alone found mercy with God, that he might escape the destruction of the Flood, and be the preserver not only of his own life and safety, but of the whole race of men and animals.¹³

And rightly it is said (as Cajetan noted) that Noah found grace with God, but not justice; nor in the eyes of Elohim, that is, of God the judge, but in the eyes of Jehovah, that is, of God the fount of being: for it was of grace that the being of man and of the rest of the animals should be saved through Noah. Weigh the progress of the divine kindness: at the first turn he gave a space for repenting; but at the second turn he took Noah into his grace, that in him the human race might be saved. And by saying ‘he found,’ the zeal of Noah in seeking the divine grace is commended. But for what did Noah find the grace of God? For the escape from the Flood, for the preservation of the race of men and animals, and that he might present a signal and illustrious image of Christ and the Church.¹⁴

But by what things did he find grace with God? Moses indicated it, subjoining that Noah was just and perfect in his generations and walked with God. And he is pointedly said to have found grace before God, and not before men (as Chrysostom well weighed this): namely, that toward that one eye of God, which never sleeps, which sees all things, to have pleased which is the highest grace and felicity, Noah always directed himself and all his affairs to be regarded; but men’s favor or contempt or hatred or goodwill he valued at little. For it is likely that, since he alone, against the custom of all, cultivated virtue, and indeed reproved their crimes with great freedom and constancy, he was jeered at by them, mocked, and incurred their offense, hatred, and indignation. The sense, therefore, is: although Noah was disagreeable, burdensome, and odious to the men of his time, because he would not enter upon that way on which they were set, yet to God, who searches hearts, he was most pleasing and most dear. And what harm could the alienation of men from him do him, when he himself was in the grace of God, and had God not only propitious to him, but even a friend and intimate?¹⁵