One in particular that I questioned was in the Noah: Noah's Sons (Genesis) reading. Near the end of the reading, Noah gets drunk of some wine and ends up passing out naked. According to the reading "Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brethren without." When Noah awoke he cursed Hem's son Canaan. When I read this I thought to myself, "A. What could Hem have done to cause Noah to curse his son and B. Why is Canaan being cursed for something that Hem did." I was glad to learn, from the Legends of the Jews section of the unit, that Noah couldn't curse Hem because God blessed Noah's family as they left the ark.
(Drunkenness of Noah, Carlos Saraceni: Wikimedia)
My favorite stories from the entire unit would have to be, The Punishment of the Fallen Angels and The Generation of the Deluge. I enjoyed these stories because it talked about the evils of the world before God decided to create the flood. I hadn't known that there were giants and other creatures creating a world of chaos and destruction besides just mankind. These readings also talk about how easy mankind's life was before the flood. "The wantonness of this generation was in measure due to the ideal conditions under which mankind lived before the flood. They knew neither toil nor care, and as a consequence of their extraordinary prosperity they grew insolent." It was hard for me to believe that there was a time that mankind had it so easy. To think that children were born "after a few day's pregnancy" is ludicrous thought.
Overall I thoroughly enjoyed this unit. My eyes were opened to many different aspects that I had not known in regards to the story of Noah. My only complaints are the lack of details in the Genesis versions compared to that of The Legend of the Jews versions. I am a bit curious as to why The Legend of the Jews version is so much more detailed, considering they both are different religions.
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