The root of all tellings of the story of Noah and the Great Flood is to be found in the Bible.There, in the book of Genesis, it is written,The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth,and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.And the Lord was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart.So the Lord said, I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the ground,man and beast and creeping things and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them.But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation.Noah walked with God, and Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.Now the earth was corrupt in God's sight, and the earth was filled with violence.And God said to Noah, I have determined to make an end to all flesh,for the earth is filled with violence through them.Behold, I will destroy them with the earth.Make yourself an ark of gopher wood.Make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and out with pitch.This is how you are to make it.The length of the ark, 300 cubits.Its breadth, 50 cubits.And its height, 30 cubits.Make a roof for the ark, and finish it to a cubit above.And set the door of the ark in its side.Make it with lower, second, and third decks.For behold, I will bring a flood of waters upon the earth,to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life from under heaven.Everything that is on the earth shall die.But I will establish my covenant with you.And you shall come into the ark, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons' wives with you.And of every living thing of all flesh,you shall bring two of every sort into the ark to keep them alive with you.They shall be male and female.Of the birds according to their kinds, and of the animals according to their kinds,of every creeping thing of the ground according to its kind,two of every sort shall come into you to keep them alive.Also take with you every sort of food that is eaten, and store it up.And it shall serve as food for you and for them.Noah did this.He did all that God commanded him.And after seven days the waters of the flood came upon the earth.In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month,on the seventeenth day of the month,on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst forth,and the windows of the heavens were opened.And rain fell upon the earth forty days and forty nights.On the very same day Noah and his sons Shem and Ham and Japheth,and Noah's wife, and the three wives of his sons with them entered the ark.They, and every beast according to its kind, and all the cattle according to their kinds,and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth according to its kind,and every bird according to its kind.They went into the ark with Noah, two and two of all flesh,in which there was the breath of life.And they that entered, male and female of all flesh,went in as God had commanded him.And the Lord shut him in.The flood continued forty days upon the earth.And the waters increased and bore up the ark,and it rose high above the earth.And the waters prevailed so mightily upon the earththat all the high mountains under the whole heaven were covered.And all flesh died that moved upon the earth,birds, cattle, beasts, all swarming creatures that swarm upon the earth,and every man, everything on the dry land,in whose nostrils was the breath of life, died.Only Noah was left, and those that were with him in the ark.But God remembered Noah,and all the beasts and all the cattle that were with him in the ark.And God made a wind blow over the earth,and the waters subsided.The fountains of the deep and the windows of the heavens were closed.The rain from the heavens was restrained,and the waters receded from the earth continually.At the end of a hundred and fifty days the waters had abated.And in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month,the ark came to rest upon the mountains of Ararat,and the waters continued to abate until the tenth month.In the tenth month, on the first day of the month,the tops of the mountains were seen.At the end of forty days Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made,and sent forth a raven,and it went to and fro until the waters were dried up from the earth.Then he sent forth a dove from himto see if the waters had subsided from the face of the ground.But the dove found no place to set her foot,and she returned to him to the ark,for the waters were still on the face of the whole earth.So he put forth his hand and took her and brought her into the ark with him.He waited another seven days,and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark.And the dove came back to him in the evening,and lo! in her mouth a freshly plucked olive leaf,so Noah knew that the waters had subsided from the earth.Then he waited another seven days and sent forth the dove,and she did not return to him any more.In the six hundred and first year,in the first month, the first day of the month,the waters were dried from off the earth.And Noah removed the covering of the ark,and looked, and behold, the face of the ground was dry.In the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month,the earth was dry.Then God said to Noah,Go forth from the ark, you and your wife,and your sons and your sons' wives with you.Bring forth with you every living thing that is with you of all flesh,birds and animals,and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth,that they may breed abundantly on the earth,and be fruitful and multiply upon the earth.So Noah went forth,and his sons and his wife and his sons' wives with him.And every beast, every creeping thing, and every bird,everything that moves upon the earth,went forth by families out of the ark.Then Noah built an altar to the Lord,and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird,and offered burnt offerings on the altar.And when the Lord smelled the pleasing odor,the Lord said in his heart,I will never again curse the ground because of man,for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth.Neither will I ever again destroy every living creature as I have done.While the earth remains,seed time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter,day and night, shall not cease.And God blessed Noah and his sons,and said to them,Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.The fear of you and the dread of youshall be upon every beast of the earth,and upon every bird of the air,upon everything that creeps on the ground,and all the fish of the sea.Into your hand they are delivered.Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you.And as I gave you the green plants,I give you everything.Only you shall not eat flesh with its life,that is, its blood.For your lifeblood I will surely require a reckoning.Of every beast I will require it,and of man.Of every man's brother I will require the life of man.Whoever sheds the blood of man,by man shall his blood be shed.For God made man in his own image,and you be fruitful and multiply.Bring forth abundantly on the earth,and multiply in it.Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him,Behold, I establish my covenant with you,and your descendants after you,and with every living creature that is with you,the birds, the cattle,and every beast of the earth with you,as many as came out of the ark.I establish my covenant with you,that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood,and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.And God said,This is the sign of the covenant,which I make between me and you,and every living creature that is with you,for all future generations.I set my bow in the cloud,and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth.When I bring clouds over the earth,and the bow is seen in the clouds,I will remember my covenant,which is between me and you,and every living creature of all flesh,and the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh.The sons of Noah who went forth from the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth.Ham was the father of Canaan.These three were the sons of Noah,and from these the whole earth was peopled.Noah was the first tiller of the soil.He planted a vineyard.