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Then dieWith them!How dar’st thou look on that prophetic sky,And seek to save what all things now condemn,In overwhelming unisonWith just Jehovah’s wrath! (1.3.756-61).The contrast between father and son is enough to condemn the one and vindicate theother. Japhet then asks, “Can rage and justice join in the same path?”, to which hisfather replies, “Blasphemer! dar’st thou murmur even now!” (1.3.762, 3). WhileNoah is consistently obedient to the instructions which he has apparently received, itis Japhet who acts in the scripturally-prescribed philanthropic role, and this contrast,further underlined by the fact that Noah fails to show any compassion for thecondemned, does, indeed, make the patriarch sound like a fire-and-brimstone streetpreacher. Heaven and Earth thus highlights the disjunction between the Christiandiscourses of love and of dogmatism, effectively opposing orthodoxy to itself, in amove more ideologically radical than anything else in Byron’s representations ofreligion.TheodicyAs this dogmatism is a zealous adherence to the commands of God, the character ofGod is also called into question by this association. Noah’s viciousness, in particular,raises the question of who could declare him so uniquely righteous.Aholibamah is the most vehement questioner of dogmatism in the drama. WhenNoah’s son tells them that the obliterating flood is coming, she asks, “Who shall dothis?” and he replies, “He whose one word produced them.” To this, she demands,“Who heard that word?” (1.3.454-5). Her disbelief sounds remarkably like Lucifer’sin Cain 1.1.134-5, questioning the idea that God was the creator of everything, butJaphet answers in part by calling upon her immortal lover:JAPHET:The universe, which leaped353