"And he drank of  the  wine,  and  was  drunken;  and  he  was
        uncovered within his tent.  And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw
        the nakedness  of  his  father,  and  told  his  two  brethren
        without...  And  Noah  awoke from his wine,  and knew what his
        younger son had done unto him.  And he said, Cursed be Canaan;
        a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren."
                                               (Genesis 9:21-25)

        From the description given above we can get an impression that
the  effect  of  taking wine was very unexpected both to Noah (we know
"Noah was a just man and perfect",  and that in every kind of  society
this  means  moderation  and temperance) and to his family — only this
assumption can explain such an inappropriate reaction of  his  younger
son,  for  he  already had children of his own.  More than that,  this
trouble with Noah was  the  first  registered  evidence  of  alcoholic
intoxication.
        Let's try to find some reasonable explanation  of  this  fact.
First we shall consider a mechanism of alcoholic (ethanolic) influence
on a living organism.
        All effects  that  occur  in the human organism as a result of
ethanolic  influence  to  great  extent  depend  on  the   degree   of
acetaldehyde accumulation that occurs when ethanol is oxidized [1].
        We can show metabolism of ethanol in such scheme:

ethanol --> acetaldehyd --> acet acid -->

--> acetilcoenzyme A --> Crebb's cycle --> CO2 + H2O + energy
         |
         V
  lipoid acids and cholesterol synthesis;
  different biosynthesis reactions

        Acetaldehyde is a very toxic substance and thus the  grade  of
alcoholic  intoxication  as  a  rule  is  measured  by  the  ethanolic
concentration in blood,  namely the acetaldehyde quantity in blood and
the  rate  of  its  utilization  can  show  us  a  clinical picture of
alcoholic intoxication.  An  organism  strives  to  get  rid  of  free
acetaldehyde  as  soon as possible through the oxidizing reaction with
the resulting production of acet acid.  This reaction requires ferment
aldehyddehydrogenase  as  a part,  which uses NAD+ (nicotinamid adenin
dinucleotide):

           O       O
          //        //
         CH3-C +  NAD+  + H2O  -->  CH3-C + NADH + H+      (1)
           \        \
            H      OH
     (acetaldehyde)                             (acet acid)

        NAD+ receives    electrons   from   oxidized   substrata   (in
particular,  from acetaldehyde) and by means of a number  of  carriers
transfers  them to oxygen accompanied with generation of energy stored
as ATP (adenosine triphosphate) [2].  The process called  biooxidation
takes  place  in the cells’ muthohondrias.  Carriers of electrons are:
NAD,  FAD (flavic ferment),  coferment Q (ubiquinone),  citochromes b,
c1, c and a.
        Oxygen is a  final  acceptor  of  electrons.  When  oxygen  is
insufficient (for instance, when its partial pressure in taking in air
is reduced),  the whole fermental system of biooxidation does not work
at  full  strength.  And  a result is the moving of the reaction's (1)
equilibrium leftwards with further accumulation of acetaldehyde in the
organism  and  the  developing  of  the effects peculiar for alcoholic
intoxication, which are even stronger than with the normal quantity of
oxygen.
        Lots of  tourists  visited  the  highlands  of  the   Southern
Caucasus   and  have  personally  experienced  the  burden  of  native
"hospitality.” Natives often involve them in a kind of a game that has
became  nearly  an  element  of  their  culture.  When  you reject the
invitation to accompany them in matching their drinking of wine,  they
call  it disrespect for ancient folk traditions.  The final aim of the
fun is to drink the guest under the table,  to get him to pass out  in
order to demonstrate the superiority of highlanders in comparison with
lowland weaklings.  The hosts, whose organisms are adapted to highland
conditions,  subconsciously use the effects of hypooxygen influence on
alcoholic  metabolism  that  appear  when  the  atmospheric   pressure
decreases  due  to  an  increase  in  elevation of around two thousand
meters.
        How did  natural  conditions  change  during  the  Flood?  The
majority of experts share the point of view that antediluvian  Earth’s
atmosphere  (which  is  called "firmament" in Genesis 1:7) was covered
with a vapor canopy  equal  to  12  meters'  layer  of  liquid  water.
Consequently,  the  collapse  of  that vapor canopy caused the rain to
fall upon the earth for forty days and forty nights during  the  Flood
[3].  Due to the waters which were above the firmament that caused the
greenhouse effect,  atmospheric pressure was 1.14  atmospheres  higher
than  it  is today — more than twice as high!  So before the Flood the
alcoholic effect of dry wine may not have been any stronger  than  the
effect of common milk fermentation products of today.
        The collapse of  the  vapor  canopy  surrounding  antediluvian
Earth’s  atmosphere  caused the reduction of atmospheric pressure (and
the partial pressure of oxygen dropped as well) more than twice.  That
certainly  had  an  effect  on  alcoholic  metabolism.  So,  alcoholic
intoxication would have been at least a great surprise to Noah, if not
the  first  such experience for all mankind.  This is another indirect
evidence of the Genesis record’s credibility.

        1. Rubin E., Cederbaum A.I. Effects of chronic ethanol feeding
and  acetaldehyde  on  mitochondrial  functions  and  the  transfer of
reducing equivalents. - In: Alcohol and aldehyde metabolizing systems.
New York, 1974. P.435-455.
        2. Checkman I.S.  Biochemical farmacodynamics. Kiev: Zdorovie,
1991. 200 p.
        3. Dillow J. The Waters Above. Chicago: Moody Press, 1981. 470 p.

Published by: Christian Scientific Center "Parthenit", 1995
Pamphlet #5. WHY WAS NOAH DRUNKEN (English).
Rev.Timofei Alferov, Sergei Golovin, Dmitri Pobersky
Translated from Russian by Helen Booklersky
Gogolia 33-8, Simferopol, Crimea, Ukraine