The
Symbolism of the Rainbow
In the
second part of God’s speech in vv. 12-16 he emphasizes the role of the rainbow
as a sign of the covenant, guaranteeing his promise never to destroy the earth
again with a flood. Interestingly, God represents the rainbow as a reminder to
himself )though of course, in reality, it serves too to give humanity a
reminder).
How exactly
are we to envisage the role of the rainbow? Based on the fact that the word for
a rainbow in Hebrew is the name as that for a war bow used to fire arrows (qešet),
many scholars in recent times have argued that in setting the rainbow in the
heavens in Genesis 9 God is hanging up his war bow which had previously been
used in unleashing the flood, thereby symbolizing peace. Although generally
attributed to J. Wellhausen, this often-repeated view was already known to the
Jewish medieval rabbi Nachmanides (Ramban), and has been widely followed in
modern times.
In support
of this view, it has sometimes been pointed out that following Marduk’s defeat
of the sea monster, Tiamat in Enuma elish, his bow was hung up in the
heavens. This is referred to in Enuma elish 6.86-94:
Anu lifted
it up in the divine assembly,
He kissed the bow, saying: ‘It is my daughter!’
Thus he called the names of the bow:
‘Long stick’ was the first; the second was, ‘May it hit the mark’.
With the third name, ‘Bow star’, he made it to shine in the sky,
He fixed its heavenly position along with its divine brothers.
After Anu had fixed the destiny of the bow,
He set down a royal throne, a lofty one even for a god,
Anu set it there in the assembly of the gods.
It will be
noted, however, that Marduk’s bow is not here transformed into a rainbow
(something visible by day) but rather into a star (something visible by night).
But even apart from this difference, there are good grounds for rejecting the
popular view that the rainbow in Genesis 9 was God’s war bow. First, it is
surely significant that the imagery of the divine warrior is nowhere to be
found in the story of the flood, or indeed anywhere else in Genesis 1-11
(contrast God’s shooting of arrows in Ps. 18.13, ET 14 // 2 Sam. 22.14, ET 15;
Heb. 3.9). Though God is responsible for the flood, its rising and decline are
depicted in a purely naturalistic way in Genesis. Secondly, the rainbow is
simply an arc and lacks anything corresponding to the string of a bow. In the
light of these serious problems, we can also reject an alternative view that
the rainbow in Genesis 9 was a drawn war bow, indicating the deity’s
willingness to fight his enemies in battle.
Rather than
having been God’s war bow, it is more natural to assume that the rainbow in
Genesis 9 is simply that, a rainbow. That makes sense, since rainbows are
sometimes seen after a rain storm, and Noah’s flood was a gigantic rain storm.
While accepting this, L. A. Turner also believes that the rainbow was intended
as a pictorial representation of the dome-shaped firmament, which holds back
the cosmic waters of the flood (mabbûl). However, there is nothing in the text of Genesis 9
to suggest this. Turner claims support in Ezekiel 1, where he says the
firmament and rainbow are linked. But there is no obvious connection between
them (except their common arc shape): the firmament is described as being below
God’s throne (Ezek. 1.26), whereas what resembles a rainbow is the brightness
around God (Ezek. 1.28), which is higher up. Ezekiel 1.28 compares a rainbow to
Yahweh’s glory, not with the firmament. (John Day, “The Covenant with Noah and the
Noachic Commandments,” in From Creation to Abraham: Further Studies in
Genesis 1-11 [Library of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament Studies 726; London:
T&T Clark, 2022], 151-52)
