NOEMI. — Wife of Elimelech, from Bethlehem, Ruth (v.); in Hebrew *No'omi* "graceful," an epithet recurring in the poem of 'Anat (IV AB, 2, 16; 3, 11; C. Virolleaud, in *Syria*, 17 [1936], pp. 150-151).
Driven by famine, Elimelech with Naomi and their two sons takes refuge in Moab, where he dies. The sons marry two Moabite women and also die. Naomi decides to return home and urges her daughters-in-law Orpah and Ruth to provide for themselves by returning to their families. Ruth does not abandon her and comes with her to Bethlehem. Naomi arranges for the devoted daughter-in-law and succeeds in marrying her to Boaz, her wealthy kinsman. At the birth of Obed, Naomi receives the congratulations of the women of Bethlehem; she adopts the child and becomes his nurse (*Ruth* 1-4). Naomi is an example of trust and humble submission to divine Providence, and of maternal solicitude.
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**cf. V. LÉRINS, *Les psautiers mas. latins des bibl. pub. de France*, Mâcon 1910-11, pl. 81**
**NOB** — Noah’s ark, the raven, and the dove. Paris Psalter or Psalter of St. Louis (c. 1260) — Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, ms. lat. 10525, f. 3v.
The office he held as savior of humanity after having in vain exhorted it to penance through example and the construction of the ark and, according to Jewish tradition (H. L. Strack-P. Billerbeck [V. BIBLICA.], III, p. 769), through word, by the offering of a sacrifice acceptable to God and the renewal of the covenant with him.
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ARCHAEOLOGY. — In early Christian art the oldest representations of Noah’s ark are found in catacomb frescoes; the earliest opens the series, depicting him emerging in prayer from the ark in the so-called Greek Chapel at Priscilla. In all these catacomb frescoes and also in sarcophagi the ark is a simple chest; it never takes the form of a ship, just as in the mythical scenes of Deucalion and Pyrrha, of Danaë and Perseus, cast into the sea in a chest. The only exception is at Baghawat, where it appears as a gondola (W. De Bock, *Matériaux pour servir à l'archéologie chrétienne de l'Égypte*, St. Petersburg 1901, p. 22 and pl. 12). The ark has locks and its cover is almost always raised, in accordance with the text *aperiens Noe tectum arcae* (Gen. 8:13). To the list of G. Wilpert (*Pitture*, p. 332) other scenes must be added; in a hypogeum discovered near the tomb of the Scipios, between the Appian and Latin Ways, in an arcosolium was Noah in the ark (G. B. De Rossi, *Conferenze di archeologia cristiana*, in *Bull. arch. crist.*, 4th ser., 4 [1886], p. 5 and pl. 3, 3). In the Cemetery of Pamphilus, in an arcosolium dating before 350, the ark is shown closed, with the raven departing and the dove returning with an olive branch (E. Josi, *Il cimitero di Panfilo*, in *Riv. di arch. crist.*, 3 [1926], p. 191, fig. 76). Two other scenes were found painted in the Cemetery *inter duas lauros* (G. P. Kirsch, *Un gruppo di cripte dipinte inedite del cimitero dei SS. Pietro e Marcellino*, ibid., 7 [1930], p. 219, fig. 9; p. 228, fig. 15).
Noah’s ark is very frequent in representations on sarcophagi as well. The earliest, according to Wilpert, is that on Sarcophagus 119 (*Sarcofagi*, pl. 9, 3, p. 233).