ABSTRACT
The rock giants offer a great starting point to explore allusions to extra-biblical literature in the film, since they are absent from Genesis. One of the most famous ancient retellings of the flood story occurs in 1 Enoch, and for anyone with a passing familiarity with this text, the fact that the film's rock giants are called 'Watchers' and one is named 'Samyhaza' establishes its influence right away. The rock giants begin as heavenly beings of light who only become encrusted when they enter Adam's world. As such, the igneous bodies of the rock giants are better explained by Kabbalah than by the Enochic tradition of the Watchers. Aronofsky and Handel's Noah draws extensively on extra-biblical literature to produce a truly innovative version of the flood story. Standing in a long stream of tradition, their flood captures the details of Genesis, pays repeated homage to Jewish interpretive tradition, and innovates with Jewish history's esoteric themes.
