Gen 9:1-5

[edit] Questions

Even as the green herb: This is likely a reference to the Garden of Eden when God gave Adam and Eve permission to eat seeds and fruit (Moses 2:29, Gen 1:29).

Repition of "require":Cassuto (p. 127) notes that repitition of require three times in this verse emphasizes the sanctity of life, symbolized by blood.

There are some strong parallels between what Noah and his sons were told here and the account given of the creation. In verse 1, God tells Noah and his sons to be fruitful and multiply, as the first people were told in Genesis 1:28. They were given authority over animals, as the first people were in Genesis 1:28. More interestingly, after the Fall, the Lord provided angelic beings to keep Adam and Eve from the tree of life Genesis 3:24, but presumably anything else edible could be eaten. Here (verse 4), they could eat anything except that which had "life," symbolized by blood.

"And surely your blood of your lives will I require": This phrase could be read as God saying he will avenge the blood of any human killed (see the Leibowitz reference below). Alterntively, a slightly different translation, "And surely for your own blood" suggests this could be saying that the injunction in v. 4 not to drink blood (eat raw meat?) is a commandment that will be beneficial for humans to follow (blood stands for human life in this reading; see the Cassuto reference below).

Moving things as meat: Contrast what God seems to be saying here about eating meat with what God says in Moses 2:29-30 about eating seeds and fruit with no mention of eating "moving things" (animals).