Friday, April 04, 2014

Was Noah an albino?

THE BBC: The people who think Noah had albinism (Damon Rose). The article makes clear that nothing in the Bible indicates that Noah was an albino. Nor does the Noah movie. But one of the Dead Sea Scrolls has been read that way by some:
Though Crowe's Noah has a dirty grey beard, the Old Testament figure who was ordered by God to build an ark, is often depicted with a long white beard.

This in itself is no evidence of albinism but some people have seized on text from the Dead Sea Scrolls which elaborates further. Discovered between 1946 - possibly 1947 - and 1956 in a cave east of Jerusalem, they are thought to contain the earliest known manuscripts of some parts of the Hebrew Bible.

In the scrolls, there is a description of Noah as a child "the flesh of which was white as snow, and red as a rose; the hair of whose head was white like wool, and long; and whose eyes were beautiful. When he opened them, he illuminated all the house, like the sun".

It doesn't exactly sound conclusive.
No it doesn't. The quoted text is from 1 Enoch 106:2, the Aramaic original of which survives in 4QEnochc (4Q204). It certainly doesn't read like a description of albinism; Noah's flesh is "red as a rose" as well as white. Rather, as the article goes on to suggest, it hints that he looks like he could be part divine or angelic (cf. Daniel 7:10; 10:6; Revelation 1:12-16), thus making his father Lamech fret that Noah might be one of the offspring of the Watchers. (George Nickelsburg discusses the background of the passage in his commentary on 1 Enoch.)

So, sorry, no albino Noah. Also, regarding the quote above, the Dead Sea Scrolls were found in eleven caves, not just one.

The Qumran Genesis Apocryphon also tells this story, but unfortunately the section parallel to this one is very fragmentary. More on that passage here.

And background on the Noah movie is here and links.