Noahic Covenant

Biblical Text

Before the Flood, God tells Noah in advance, "But with thee will I establish my covenant" (Genesis 6:18). After the Flood has ended and Noah offers a sacrifice, God promises that while the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, and day and night shall not cease (Genesis 8:20-22).

The covenant itself is set out in Genesis 9. In Genesis 9:1-7, God renews to Noah's family the blessing to be fruitful and multiply. He gives them animals for food but forbids them to eat flesh with its blood, and He declares that He will require a strict reckoning from anyone who sheds human blood. The reason given is that humanity was made in the image of God (Genesis 9:6). Then, in Genesis 9:8-17, God promises never again to destroy all living creatures by a flood and appoints the rainbow in the clouds as the sign of this promise. The text calls this covenant "the everlasting covenant" (Genesis 9:16).

Background and Terminology

The Hebrew word berit, translated "covenant," denotes a solemn agreement between parties. Two features are commonly identified as distinctive of the Noahic covenant: it is a unilateral promise by God that places no conditions on humanity, and it is addressed not to a single nation but to all humankind and every living creature. The word for rainbow, qeshet, also denotes a bow used in warfare. For this reason, some interpreters read the sign as God having set aside and hung up His bow of judgment.

Significance in the Whole of Scripture

The Noahic covenant is the first explicitly stated covenant in the Bible and is understood as the background to the later Abrahamic covenant, Sinaitic covenant, Davidic covenant, and new covenant. Isaiah 54:9 appeals to the oath sworn in Noah's day to affirm the certainty of God's promises.

In the New Testament, Jesus compares the last days to the days of Noah (Matthew 24:37-39), and 1 Peter 3:20-21 connects deliverance through the Flood with baptism. In Revelation 4:3, a rainbow appears around the throne of God.

Interpretations and Issues

• Covenant theology and dispensationalism: Within covenant theology, some view the Noahic covenant as one stage in the unfolding of the covenant of grace. Others regard it as a covenant distinct from salvation, that is, a covenant of common grace that preserves the order of the world. Dispensationalism regards the period after Noah as the beginning of the dispensation of "human government."
• Prohibition of blood: This command is discussed together with Acts 15:28-29. Most Protestant denominations do not regard it as a dietary regulation binding today. Jehovah's Witnesses refuse blood transfusions on the basis of this and other passages, but the major Protestant denominations reject this interpretation.
• Capital punishment: Genesis 9:6 is cited in debates over capital punishment as grounds for retaining the death penalty. Opponents hold that the verse affirms the dignity of human life but does not directly prescribe present-day penal systems.
• Later traditions: It is often said that no rain fell before the Flood and that the rainbow therefore appeared for the first time at this point, but the text does not say so. Some interpreters hold that a new meaning was given to a rainbow that already existed. Likewise, the "Seven Laws of Noah" compiled in rabbinic literature are a later tradition rather than a list given directly in the text.

In Korean Churches

In Sunday school, this covenant is commonly taught as the "rainbow promise" alongside the story of Noah's ark.