And all the days of Noah were nine hundred and fifty years: and he died.
Read Chapter 9
George Leo Haydock
AD 1849
He died, having witnessed the attempt of his children to build the tower of Babel, (we may suppose with disapprobation) and having been concerned in the dispersion of nations. Some imagine he travelled eastward, and founded the empire of China, which is denied by others. (Haydock)
The fathers conclude that he had no children after the deluge, as the Scripture mentions the world was divided among his three sons and their offspring. Perhaps the fabulous account of Saturn is a perversion of Noe's history, as the three great pagan deities, Jupiter, Neptune, and Pluto, to whom Saturn gave the empire of heaven, seas and hell, may have been intended for the three sons of Noe. The Egyptians have attributed to their Osiris the erecting of altars, cultivating vines, teaching agriculture for which we have seen Noe was so famous. (Calmet)
This great and virtuous patriarch had only been dead two years, when the faithful Abraham was born, as it were to succeed him in maintaining the cause of God. (Haydock)
The Rabbins assert, that God gave some general laws to Noe, which were necessarily to be observed by all who would obtain salvation: 1. To obey the laws; 2. Not to curse God; 3. Nor admit of any false god, nor of any superstition; 4. Not to marry one's mother, mother-in-law, sister by the same mother, or another person's wife, nor to commit sins against nature; 5. Not to shed blood, that of beasts must be buried; 6. Not to steal, or break one's word; 7. Not to eat the limb of a living creature. Maimonides thinks this last was given to Noe, the rest to Adam. (Calmet)
