ゾハル、ノア 5

1AND THE EARTH WAS CORRUPTED BEFORE GOD. Said R. Judah: ‘What does the phrase “before God” signify? ‘It signifies that they perpetrated their crimes openly in the eyes of all.’

2Said R. Jose: ‘I interpret it in a reverse sense, namely, that at first “the earth was corrupted before God”, that is, that they committed their sins secretly, so as to be known only to God but not to man. They finished, however, by coming out into the open, as it is written, AND THE EARTH WAS FILLED WITH VIOLENCE, indicating that there was not a place in the whole earth which did not witness their sins.’

3R. Abba said: ‘From the time that Adam transgressed the command of his Master, all the succeeding generations were called “sons of Adam” in a derogatory sense, as much as to say, “the sons of the man who transgressed his Master’s commands”.

4But when Noah appeared, mankind were called by his name, to wit, “the generations of Noah”, in an honourable sense, since he secured for them permanent existence in the world, and not “the generations of Adam”, since he had caused them to be driven from the world and brought death to all.’

5Said R. Jose to him: ‘But in a later passage (Gen. 11, 5) it is written, “and the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the children of Adam had built”- Adam and not Noah.’ R. Abba replied: ‘It was because he was the first sinner. Better had it been for him that he should not have been created, so as not to be mentioned in this verse.

6See now, it is written: “A wise son causeth his father to rejoice” (Prov. 10, 1). When a son is good, people mention his father’s name with praise; but if he is bad, they mention his father with reproach. So it was with Adam. He transgressed the command of his Master, and therefore when later men arose who rebelled against their Master, they were designated by the Scripture “the sons of Adam”, that is, the sons of the first man who rebelled against his Master and transgressed His commands.

7Hence “these are the generations of Noah”-these and not the former ones; these who entered into and emerged from the ark and brought forth generations to people the world; but they are not the generations of Adam, who emerged from the Garden of Eden without bringing any progeny forth from thence.