Noah's wife
{{Short description|Nameless female in the Bible}}
Noah's wife is one of the four wives aboard Noah's Ark. While nameless in the Bible (Genesis 4:22; Gen. 7:7), apocryphal literature lists 103 variations of her name and personality.{{cite journal |last1=Utley |first1=Francis Lee |title=The One Hundred and Three Names of Noah's Wife |journal=Speculum |date=1941 |volume=16 |issue=4 |pages=426–452 |doi=10.2307/2852842 |jstor=2852842 |s2cid=163797953 }}
Some apocryphal literature identified her with Naamah, the daughter of Lamech,{{cn|date=March 2024}} and thus a descendant of Cain, but the deuterocanonical Book of Tobit states that Noah's wife was one of his "own kindred" (Tobit 4:12). In the Dead Sea Scrolls, she is named Emzara.{{cite journal |last1=Schuller |first1=Eileen |title=Women in the Dead Sea Scrolls: Some Observations from a Dictionary |journal=Revue de Qumrân |date=2009 |volume=24 |issue=93 |pages=49–59 |jstor=24663086 }}
In Mandaeism
The Book of Kings, the final book of the Mandaean Right Ginza,{{cite book | last=Häberl | first=Charles | url=https://www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/doi/book/10.3828/9781800856271 | title=The Book of Kings and the Explanations of This World: A Universal History from the Late Sasanian Empire | location=Liverpool | publisher=Liverpool University Press | date=2022 | isbn=978-1-80085-627-1 | page=| doi=10.3828/9781800856271 | doi-broken-date=1 November 2024 }} refers to Noah's (or Shem's){{cite book |section=Book Nineteen: The Deluge |pages=203–204 |title=Ginza Rabba |volume=Right Volume |translator1-last=Al-Saadi |translator1-first=Qais |translator2-last=Al-Saadi |translator2-first=Hamed |edition=2nd |place=Germany |year=2019 |publisher=Drabsha}} [Note: this book, or a larger text containing it, is numbered book 18 in some other editions.] wife by the name Nuraita (or Nhuraitha, Anhuraita, among various other spellings).{{cite book |url=https://livingwaterbooks.com.au/product/ginza-rba/ |last1=Gelbert |first1=Carlos |title=Ginza Rba |year=2011 |publisher=Living Water Books |location=Sydney |isbn=9780958034630}} There is some contradiction between texts, and some textual ambiguity, regarding which patriarch is married to Nuraita; additionally, Anhuraita appears to be a portmanteau of Nuraita and Anhar, the wives of Noah and Shem.{{cite book |last1=Lupieri |first1=Edmondo |chapter=The Mandaeans and the Myth of Their Origins |pages=127–144 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_u2nU2RBm10C&pg=PA127 |editor1-last=Macuch |editor1-first=Rudolf |title=Und das Leben ist siegreich! / And Life is Victorious |date=2008 |publisher=Otto Harrassowitz Verlag |isbn=978-3-447-05178-1 }}
See also
References
{{reflist|colwidth=30em}}
Bibliography
- {{cite journal |last1=Utley |first1=Francis Lee |title=The One Hundred and Three Names of Noah's Wife |journal=Speculum |date=1941 |volume=16 |issue=4 |pages=426–452 |doi=10.2307/2852842 |jstor=2852842 |s2cid=163797953 }}
- {{cite journal |last1=Tolmie |first1=Jane |title=Mrs Noah and didactic abuses |journal=Early Theatre |date=1 January 2002 |volume=5 |issue=1 |pages=11–36 |doi=10.12745/et.5.1.623 |id={{Gale|A228909147}} |jstor=43499152 |doi-access=free }}
- {{cite journal |last1=Young |first1=Wilfred |title=Noah and His Wife: A Note on Three English Miracle Plays |journal=Hermathena |date=1957 |issue=90 |pages=17–32 |jstor=23039504 }}
- {{cite journal |last1=Mill |first1=Anna Jean |title=Noah's Wife Again |journal=PMLA |date=1941 |volume=56 |issue=3 |pages=613–626 |doi=10.2307/458985 |jstor=458985 |s2cid=163574912 }}
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Category:Women in the Hebrew Bible