Who was Noah’s wife? Why doesn’t Scripture tell us her name, choosing only to identify her as Noah’s wife? Why do some writers refer to her as Emzara?
Biblical names can be confusing. Viewing Scripture through a modern lens and through any specific cultural lens can add to the confusion. When approaching names in the Bible, it’s wise to understand specific ancient cultures, traditions, and geography.
For instance, in ancient cultures, society was usually organized by tribes, clans, families, and people groups. It’s common throughout Scripture for individuals (men and women) to be identified by their given name and then by their association with their father or brother. Sometimes, Scripture mentions which king reigned during a person’s life. It was commonplace for women to be identified by their connection to their husband or son. Survival depended on these communities and relationships, so individualism took a backseat in the narrative of history (although we still see God relating to men and women as individuals).
Also, with the prevalence of nomadic tribes in the ancient mid-east, it wasn’t uncommon for someone to be called by a variety of names due to the overlap of languages. We see this in the New Testament as well as the Old. The Israelites had their Hebrew language and spoke Aramaic, but leaders were also conversant in the language of the ruling culture, whether it be Egypt, Persia, Greece, or Rome. This resulted in variations on names as people may have a family name as well as one they used when trading or conducting business.
Add to all this that someone may have a nickname or be related to someone by both marriage and blood and you can see it requires close reading and sometimes careful research to understand biblical names.
Who Was Noah’s Wife in the Bible?
Noah’s story is one of the earliest in the Bible. It’s often one of the first stories we teach to children (because it has a large boat full of animals), but every adult believer should revisit it because it’s truly not a children’s story.
Noah was descended from Adam and he lived in a time when people had grown so corrupt and violent that God determined to end the lives of all the people and destroy the earth to start again with one family.
Genesis 6:5-8 ESV says, “The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. So the Lord said, ‘I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them.’ But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.”
The Bible describes Noah as “a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God” (Genesis 6:9 ESV). God gave Noah specific instruction to build an ark that would save him, his wife, their three sons Ham, Shem, and Japheth, along with their wives from the coming flood. Along with these eight human souls, they would bring along a large variety of animals to repopulate the earth after the devastation of the worldwide flood.
What Role Did Noah’s Wife Play in the Flood Story?
The construction of the ark and preparation for their survival took about 100 years. We aren’t given any details about how Noah’s wife occupied herself during this time, but these were days when any project was a family project. God provided great detail to Noah for the construction. He told Noah to bring animals and birds of every kind. Genesis 6:21 says He also instructed, “Also take with you every sort of food that is eaten, and store it up. It shall serve as food for you and for them.” With the scale of this project, we can imagine Noah’s entire family was involved in either building the ark, gathering animals, or preparing food and provisions, but we’re not provided these details. Noah’s wife likely was the overseer of all that was happening for supplies and clothing the family would need inside the ark as Noah oversaw the actual construction.
When the time came, God shut Noah and his family into the ark and water flooded the earth for 40 days. “And all flesh died that moved on the earth, birds, livestock, beasts, all swarming creatures that swarm on the earth, and all mankind. Everything on the dry land in whose nostrils was the breath of life died. He blotted out every living thing that was on the face of the ground, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens. They were blotted out from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those who were with him in the ark. And the waters prevailed on the earth 150 days” (Genesis 7:21-24).
Noah’s wife and three daughters-in-law were the only women to survive what amounted to the first apocalypse. When the land was ready again, God told Noah to take his wife and family out of the ark to begin the world again. He repeated the instructions He’d given Adam and Eve to “be fruitful and multiply, increase greatly on the earth and multiply in it” (Genesis 9:7).
Imagine being the matriarch of a family who has lost every trace of the world they once knew and been instructed by God to begin again. This would have required astounding faith in God. It makes a person think that Noah’s wife hasn’t been given enough credit by modern Christians. We need to stop thinking of her as a kindly gray-haired lady sweeping up after elephants and instead consider her a survivor, a pioneer, and a truly courageous matriarch of our faith.
Why Noah's Wife Sometimes Called Emzara?
Noah’s wife has, through the ages, been associated with at least two specific names, Emzara being one. Emzara is found in a Jewish apocryphal book called The Book of Jubilees or The Little Genesis. Here we find, “And in the twenty-fifth jubilee Noah took to himself a wife, and her name was ' Emzârâ, the daughter of Râkê'êl , the daughter of his father's brother, in 1207 A.M. the first year in the fifth week : and in the third year 1209 A.M. thereof she bare him Shem, in the fifth year thereof she 1212 A.M. bare him Ham, and in the first year in the sixth week she bare him Japheth.”1[LR1]
Based on this extra-biblical citation, some refer to Noah’s wife as Emzara.
According to Dr. Tim Chaffey, Noah’s wife has also been identified in a fifth century AD Jewish writing known as Genesis Rabba as Naamah, sister to Tubal-Cain mentioned in Genesis 4:19-22. Dr. Chaffey also cites other names scholars have considered possibilities for Noah’s wife.
Clearly, the name of Noah’s wife has been a curiosity for Bible students throughout time.
Why Does the Bible Leave Her Name Unmentioned?
We don’t know why God chose not to include Noah’s wife’s given name in the text. This wasn’t a common practice as we know the names of many women from the beginning of the Bible to the end. However, while we know the names of individual women from Sarah to Ruth, Deborah to Esther, and Mary to Syntyche, other women are only mentioned by association or title. Some of these include Manoah’s wife, mother of Samson, the Shunammite woman, the Samaritan woman at the well, and the woman caught in adultery.
Many of us get offended on Noah’s wife’s behalf, but we’re also seeing the story through our modern lens. We need to keep in mind the cultural practices and expectations of that time and also remember that God’s Word is primarily about God. He has given us all the details we need to understand, know, and worship Him, even if He doesn’t provide all we want to satisfy our curiosity.
In researching the women of the Bible, I have also reflected on another consideration. Noah and his wife lived in times when there was such corruption and violence on the earth God determined to end all humanity. Noah was the only righteous man following God among all the men of the earth. Perhaps Noah’s wife preferred to be known as exactly that—Noah’s wife. In that time, it may have been an honor, a stabilizing identifier, and a protection.
And consider having to orient yourself to a world that is completely changed from the only world you’ve ever known! Once again, being Noah’s wife may have served her well as a reminder that while all else had changed, she still had the same place in the world, the same role, same position, same man with whom to share it. I can almost hear her speaking to her daughters-in-law, comforting them by reminding them that the world was new but they served the same God, followed the same family leader, Noah, and loved the same men as before they entered the ark.
Noah’s wife may want us all to stop worrying about her name and focus our attention on the name of the God we follow through turbulent and changing times.
What We Can Learn from the Faith of Noah’s Wife
There are many lessons to draw from the story of Noah and his wife. It required great faith for Noah to remain faithful to the Living God when every other man on earth chose to rebel. It was from this faith foundation that he likely had the faith to build a boat in a desert.
Noah’s wife would also have had to have faith that her husband heard from God and that God would care for them through a supernatural disaster like the world had never seen.
Their faith journey, however, only began once the rain started. When the rain ended, an entirely new faith walk began as they bore the responsibility for starting over in a world that was now foreign to them. It’s good to remember that, like every other human being, Noah and his wife could have walked away at any time before the flood. After the flood, they could have fallen into despair. Instead, we know they obeyed God and that through their son, Shem, came the line of Jesus Christ who is our salvation.
Any woman facing a devastating change in the terrain of her own life can draw strength knowing Noah’s wife faced the flood, the loss of all she knew, and an entirely unknown new beginning relying on the same God we know. She walked by faith just as we must. No one else on earth may know our name, but that doesn’t matter as long as we remember that God knows our name and we know His. We are blessed even more than Noah’s wife because we know the name of Jesus. “And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12 ESV).
Further Reading:
4 Lessons of Hope from the Story of Noah and the Ark
Who Was Noah in the Bible? Meaning and Symbols of the Story of Noah
Related Resource: Genesis 6-7 – Noah and the Flood
[LR1]Charles, R.H. DD, THE BOOK OF JUBILEES OR THE LITTLE GENESIS TRANSLATED FROM THE EDITOR'S ETHIOPIC TEXT, London, Adam and Charles Black, 1902, Digitized by Google, p 42
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