What is Noah's heritage?

Answer 1

Noah was of Akkadian heritage, though he was also part Hurrian. He was born around 1760 BC in the city of Hanoch near the Tigris River (now the ruins of Hamoukan, eastern Syria). This was the city founded by Cain. There he was a vintner and sporadically a priest of Adonai. He was a descendant of Adammu (born around 2030 BC), a prince of Ur who had married his wife Hova in Urkesh (Mozah, Syria), got into serious religious trouble preaching monotheism (for the god Adonai, or Adonis), and who then moved to a large estate near the city of Nisibis (present-day Nusaybin, Turkey). He had three sons named Cain, Abel and Seth. Cain killed Abel in a religious argument and was banished from Nisibis. Accompanied by his brother Seth, he moved east towards the Tigris until he came to the ruins of an ancient city. Cain built a new city amidst the ruins and called it Hanoch after his son. Cain became the ruler and Seth the priest of the new settlement. The descendants of Cain were the kings of Hanoch, while the descendants of Seth were the high priests. But gradually the people of Hanoch stopped believing in Adonai and began worshipping many gods. Finally the priest Lamech shut the temple down and became a vintner, as was his son Noah. But it was at this time that King Jabal III of Hanoch became evil, and started sacrificing people to the gods. Noah was married to the king's sister Naamah, and thus was safe, but Noah shuddered for the fate of his people. One night Noah had a dream in which God commanded him to build a gigantic boat, which he promptly did. His neighbors laughed at him, for Hanoch was some miles from the river. But shortly afterwards the Tigris River overflowed in a gigantic flood and the city of Hanoch was destroyed. Only Noah and his family survived in the Ark. The wall of water swept them many miles south through the flooded plain until they fetched up against the Sinjar Mountains. There Noah disembarked and offered sacrifice for his celebrated escape. But Noah loved the riverlands no more, he was afraid of them. He moved his entire family to the highlands of Mannaea and lived in the town of Zolcarda (now Igdir, Turkey) under the shadow of Mount Ararat. There he died around 1680 BC, and was buried in a cave in the side of the mountain. His sons Shem and Ham then moved back to the Middle East, but his other son Japheth moved to Thrace.