Noah’s work wasn’t done when the great flood was over, it was only just beginning.

Everyone knows the story of Noah, no matter what culture you come from. Though quite honestly what is known is pretty limited.  The usual information comes from the biblical tradition contained in just a few pages of the book of Genesis.  But there is a hidden dimension to the life of Noah, which comes from the classical, or secular tradition.  It does not occur to us that there may be an unknown story of Noah recorded in the histories of ancient peoples, because he was known by another name.  His story and many similar ones are obscured in the mythological accounts of the Greeks and Romans.

Have you ever had the experience of reading mythology and thinking that it almost seems like history, except it is so mixed up and fantastic as to be totally useless?  Although not very reliable or credible, mythology is in truly history.  As peoples drifted away from the original faith as taught by Noah, they began to put other idolatrous beliefs in its place. It became common for the people to deify great people after their deaths. In so doing, they created the chaotic system of mythology in which outrageous deeds and legendary accomplishments were attributed to these persons turned gods.  Their appearance was often corrupted and they were said to come from the wrong parents – usually some god or other.  The result was a convoluted system of fabulous fabrication that defies belief to those in our time.  The mythologists were not concerned with historical accuracy.  They simply wanted to promote their newly invented world-view to further the acceptance of their corrupted religious ideas.  

Sadly, even Noah himself was deified after his death.  He became known to the Romans, as the god Janus, who presided over everything.  They depicted him as having 2 faces, one which looked forward (into the future) and the other which looked backward (into the past – before the flood).  This imagery evolved into his being the god of doors and gates, each of which had two sides.  His image appeared on bronze and silver coins of the Roman empire for about 300 years.  Ironically, the obverse of some of these coins depicted a great ship. 

The key to the identity of Janus as Noah was given to us by Giovanni Nanni, a.k.a. Annius of Viterbe, in his commentaries published in 1498. After a lifetime of research in the ancient culture of Northern Italy, he announced that Janus, one of the early kings of Italy was none other than Noah himself.  From this revelation, accounts of this king’s accomplishments began to emerge.  It was the key that unlocked an entire arena of ancient history that had been obscured for centuries. It also led to identification of other biblical personalities that were known in mythology.  He discovered the fascinating story about Noah’s establishment of the first kingdoms of the ancient world.  Focusing primarily on the early kingdoms of Europe, Annius pieced together a gripping historical account of this almost unknown period of pre-history. He paints a coherent account of Noah’s work after the flood, namely the establishment of the first colonies of the earliest nations.  

About a century later, Annius’ work was redacted by a Londoner named Richard Lynche.  Noah – Founder of Civilizations is a modern English account of this more recent work which was last published in 1601.  It details the last 350 years of the life of Noah, and the extraordinary work that he accomplished in establishing a new society from the verge of oblivion.  It also traces those early kingdoms from their beginning through the next several centuries until classical times. 

In this text we read how Noah sent out the first colonists 100 years after the flood and how he first divided the three eastern continents among his three sons. Then he appointed grandchildren to be kings of the earliest nations of Europe under their authority.  Those kings were listed in the table of nations in Genesis 10.  Now we can understand why there were all those “begats” in the Genesis. 

It shows how Noah’s work was threatened by his son Ham, who masterminded a scourge of evil giants that oppressed much of the world after Noah’s death.  It follows with the story of Osiris and his son Hercules who finally purged most of those giant tyrants. The text finally proceeds systematically through the centuries to the founding of the city of Troy, in the era of the Greeks.

Undoubtedly this remarkable story is one you have never heard before.  It is also one you will never forget.

To learn more about our forefather Noah you can purchase Wayne Simpson's book Noah: Founder of Civilizations