Wives aboard the Ark

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Although the Book of Genesis in the Bible does not give any information about the four women it says were aboard Noah's Ark (who had supposedly witnessed the days before the Flood), there exist substantial extra-biblical traditions regarding these women and their names.

In the Book of Jubilees, known to have been in use from the late 2nd century BC, the names of the wives of Noah, Shem, Ham and Japheth are as follows:

Wife of Noah - Emzara
Wife of Shem - Sedeqetelebab
Wife of Ham - Ne'elatama'uk or Na'eltama'uk
Wife of Japheth - 'Adataneses

It adds that the three sons after some years struck out in different directions from the original camp near Mount Ararat and founded three villages bearing the names of these three mothers of the human race.

The early Christian writer St. Hippolytus (d. 235 AD) recounted a similar tradition of their names according to the Syriac Targum, although apparently switching the names of Shem's and Ham's wives. He wrote: The names of the wives of the sons of Noah are these: the name of the wife of Sem, Nahalath Mahnuk; and the name of the wife of Cham, Zedkat Nabu; and the name of the wife of Japheth, Arathka.

The theologian John Gill (1697-1771) wrote in his Exposition of the Bible of an "Arabic" tradition "that the name of Shem's wife was Zalbeth, or, as other copies, Zalith or Salit; that the name of Ham's Nahalath; and of Japheth's Aresisia."

In the "Book of Jasher", known only from 1625 AD, as well as some earlier rabbinical sources, the name of Noah's wife is said to be Naamah, one of the Cainites. Gill and others evidently regarded the name Naamah as resulting from confusion between the names of Ham's wife and Noah's wife in some traditions.

According to the Sibylline Oracles the wives of Shem, Ham and Japheth enjoyed fantastically long lifespans, living for centuries, while speaking prophecy to each generation they saw come and go. These are not considered to be the Sibylline books of the Greeks and Romans, which were lost in antiquity, but rather pseudo-Oracles dating from the middle of the second century BC at the earliest to the fifth century AD, composed by Alexandrian Jews and revised and enriched by later Christian editors, all adding texts in the interests of their respective religions. According to these Judeo-Christian Sibylline Oracles, one of the Sibyls had a name similar to Zalbeth: the "Babylonian Sibyl", Sambethe, who, 900 years after the Deluge, moved to Greece and began writing the Oracles. These writings attributed to her allude to names of her family who lived before the Flood - father Gnostis, mother Circe, and sister Isis.

According to the Hellenistic Babylonian writer Berosus (writing ca. 280 BC), the sons' wives were Pandora, Noela, and Noegla.

Irish folklore is rich in traditions and legends regarding the three sons and their wives. Here the wives are usually named Olla, Olliva, and Ollivani (or variations thereof), names evidently derived from the Anglo-Saxon Codex Junius (ca. 700 AD), a Bible paraphrase written in the fashion of Germanic sagas, and often attributed to the poet Caedmon.

Hungarian folklore has similar tales about Japheth and his wife called Eneh, attributing this information to the Chronicles of Sigilbert, Bishop of Antioch.

Wives aboard the Ark

See also