(Bible) a righteous
man in the
Old Testament whom
God chose to spare from the flood that covered the face of the Earth. The
account is that the wickedness of people made
God regret that he had created them and made him
resolve to
send a flood that would
destroy all the
living creatures in the
world.
God decided to spare Noah and his family, who had lived virtuously, and to allow them to repopulate the Earth.
God commanded Noah to build an ark (a large, rudderless
ship), and to take his wife, three sons, and three daughters-in-
law into it, along with a pair of each of the Earth's animals. When Noah had done so,
God sent forty days and forty nights of
rain, until the entire globe was flooded, and all
living creatures were drowned. When the
rain ended, Noah
released a dove from the ark. When it
returned with an olive
branch in its beak, Noah knew that the waters had receded and that he and his family could begin a new
life.
—PDC Volume 3 Approved Glossary