Darren Aronofsky's Interpretation of Genesis 6-9

            Genesis begins by expressing the Lord’s regret in creating humankind by saying, “I will blot out from the earth the human beings I have created—people together with animals and creeping things and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them” (Genesis 6:7). Then the story continues by favoring Noah because “Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation; Noah walked with God” (Genesis 6:8). Trusting in Noah to build a very specific ark, God announces that He will put an end to the violence and he will destroy them along with the earth. After the flood it is said that “all flesh died that moved on the earth, birds, domestic animals, wild animals, all swarming creatures that swarm on the earth, and all the human beings; everything on dry land in whose nostrils was the breath of life end” (Genesis 7:21-22). Darren Aronofsky creates a new or “rewritten” version of the flood story in his 2014 film, Noah. Three noteworthy interpretations of Aronofsky in Noah were: the people drowning in the flood and trying to get onto the ark, the perception of Noah’s malicious character during parts of the movie and the aspect of global conservation.

The first aspect—the scene of people drowning and suffering in the flood—was really interesting because the Bible never spoke of this. All Scripture said was that God would blow out every living creature and then said every living creature was dead. Aronofsky adding in the scene of people climbing the highest thing they could see to save their lives so they wouldn’t drown to death was enormously powerful because not many people think about what that would have looked like. Since it is not in the Bible, this could be considered to be an interpretation or reworking of the text.

The second viewpoint is how Noah’s personality is portrayed in the ark. It is understood in the Bible, that God chose Noah because he was neither violent nor evil. But, one can see how Noah becomes cruel on the ark. Noah almost ends up killing Ila and Shem’s daughters. This of course is another interpretation that could simply indicate that Noah was human, was not perfect and did not always know what God’s instructions were for him. Again, this is an interesting interpretation because of the contrast of Noah’s character in the Bible and in the film.

The third concept that was evident from the beginning of the film when Ham picks the flower and Noah instructs him not to take what is the Earth’s. In Genesis 9 it is written that God said to Noah and his sons, “Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you; and just as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything” (Genesis 9:3). Thus, Aronofsky’s is using his own version of environmentalism. The article and video I read and watched went more in depth in Aronofsky’s main purpose creating his film, Noah.

Aronofsky’s main objective was not to retell the same flood story that is written in the Bible, but to use authoritative scripture to justify why humans need to conserve the environment. Many critics are not fond of the film, Noah, because Aronofsky does several of his own interpretations of Genesis 6-9 and does not keep to Scripture. Thus, through interviews and quotes, one can see that Aronofsky’s purpose was not to keep to an exact representation of the flood account, but to create a new important message of environmentalism.