Picture description: Noah’s
Picture copyright: V.
“I have decided to put an end to all people, for the world is filled with violence because of them.”
Today, we describe someone as “Noah” to commend his unwavering faith in a mission that seems impossible on the surface.
Noah is a descendent of Seth, the third son of Adam and Eve. It came to pass that the world in Noah’s times was full of violence and sin. One day, God appeared to him and said, “I have decided to put an end to all people, for the world is filled with violence because of them.” (Genesis 6:13)
So God instructed Noah to build an ark of cypress wood which was large enough to accommodate a diversity of animals to preserve the species. After forty days of continuous flooding, all mankind was wiped out by the flood except the family of Noah. To others, building an ark of that size would be something unfathomable. But to Noah, a man of great faith, he simply obeyed God’s order without question.
There are a number of ark-related idioms. We describe something “out of the ark” when it is out-dated or old-fashioned. If an object “went out with the ark”, it became obsolete and is not used anymore.
Picture discs went out with the ark – people use compact discs or other forms of digital media these days.
A lot of phrases, such as "two-edged sword" and " an eye for an eye", are taken from the English Bible. Learning the stories behind these idioms is fun, and can help boost your vocabulary. Click here to find out now!