The Drunkenness of Noah

In the Broadway musical, "The King and I," the King is confronted by a problem that is described as a "puzzlement." In the biblical story of Noah and the flood, the reader also is confronted by a "puzzlement." Here is Noah, the most worthy human being saved from the devastating flood, and he is found drunk and naked in his tent. The narrator says nothing of motivation, so what prompts Noah to get so drunk as to appear ready for sexual intercourse? Has God completely misjudged Noah's character? A provocative exegesis whose insights derive from psychoanalysis, philology, and geology, THE DRUNKENNESS OF NOAH is additionally innovative in that it leads to a repudiation of the documentary theory, once a prime test of most biblical scholars. Cohen's insightful interpretation discovers the simple meaning of the text.