Gen 8

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The waters decrease

1 And God remembered Noe, and all the living creatures, and all the cattle which were with him in the ark, and brought a wind upon the earth, and the waters were abated. 2 The fountains also of the deep, and the flood gates of heaven were shut up, and the rain from heaven was restrained. 3 And the waters returned from off the earth going and coming: and they began to be abated after a hundred and fifty days. 4 And the ark rested in the seventh month, the seven and twentieth day of the month, upon the mountains of Armenia. 5 And the waters were going and decreasing until the tenth month: for in the tenth month, the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains appeared.

The dove brings a green olive branch

6 And after that forty days were passed, Noe, opening the window of the ark which he had made, sent forth a raven: 7 Which went forth and did not return, till the waters were dried up upon the earth. 8 He sent forth also a dove after him, to see if the waters had now ceased upon the face of the earth. 9 But she, not finding where her foot might rest, returned to him into the ark: for the waters were upon the whole earth: and he put forth his hand, and caught her, and brought her into the ark. 10 And having waited yet seven other days, he again sent forth the dove out of the ark. 11 And she came to him in the evening, carrying a bough of an olive tree, with green leaves, in her mouth. Noe therefore understood that the waters were ceased upon the earth. 12 And he stayed yet other seven days: and he sent forth the dove, which returned not any more unto him.

Noah leaves the Ark

13 Therefore in the six hundreth and first year, the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were lessened upon the earth, and Noe opening the covering of the ark, looked, and saw that the face of the earth was dried. 14 In the second month, the seven and twentieth day of the month, the earth was dried. 15 And God spoke to Noe, saying: 16 Go out of the ark, you and your wife, your sons, and the wives of your sons with you. 17 All livings things that are with you of all flesh, as well in fowls as in beasts, and all creeping things that creep upon the earth, bring out with you, and go upon the earth: increased and multiply upon it. 18 So Noe went out, he and his sons: his wife, and the wives of his sons with him. 19 And all living things, and cattle, and creeping things that creep upon the earth, according to their kinds, went out of the ark.

Noah's sacrifice after the flood

20 And Noe built an altar unto the Lord: and taking of all cattle and fowls that were clean, offered holocausts upon the altar. 21 And the Lord smelled a sweet savour, and said: I will no more curse the earth for the sake of man: for the imagination and thought of man's heart are prone to evil from his youth: therefore I will no more destroy every living soul as I have done. 22 All the days of the earth, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, night and day, shall not cease.

Commentary on Genesis 8

8:1 spirit: The word ‘spirit’ can be taken to mean God’s life-bringer himself, the Spirit, of whom in the beginning it was said, ‘and the Spirit of God moved over the waters.” Gen 1:2 The airy wind can also be called by the name of ‘spirit’. (St. Bede)

8:4 Armenia: Now all the writers of barbarian histories make mention of this flood, and of this ark; among whom is Berosus the Chaldean. For when he is describing the circumstances of the flood, he goes on thus: "It is said there is still some part of this ship in Armenia, at the mountain of the Cordyaeans; and that some people carry off pieces of the bitumen, which they take away, and use chiefly as amulets for the averting of mischiefs." Hieronymus the Egyptian also, who wrote the Phoenician Antiquities, and Mnaseas, and a great many more, make mention of the same. Nay, Nicolaus of Damascus, in his ninety-sixth book, hath a particular relation about them; where he speaks thus: "There is a great mountain in Armenia, over Minyas, called Baris, upon which it is reported that many who fled at the time of the Deluge were saved; and that one who was carried in an ark came on shore upon the top of it; and that the remains of the timber were a great while preserved. This might be the man about whom Moses the legislator of the Jews wrote." (Josephus)

8:6-7 The raven clung to the foul bodies. (St. Prudentius) In the Hebrew the matter concerning the raven is differently expressed: He sent out a raven and it went out, going out and returning until the waters were dried up from the earth. (St. Jerome)

8:8 The dove. At the end of the flood, whose symbolism refers to Baptism, a dove released by Noah returns with a fresh olive-tree branch in its beak as a sign that the earth was again habitable. When Christ comes up from the water of his baptism, the Holy Spirit, in the form of a dove, comes down upon him and remains with him. The Spirit comes down and remains in the purified hearts of the baptized. In certain churches, the Eucharist is reserved in a metal receptacle in the form of a dove (columbarium) suspended above the altar. Christian iconography traditionally uses a dove to suggest the Spirit. (Catechism of the Catholic Church 701)

8:17 Just as Adam became the beginning and root of all creatures before the flood, so Noah becomes a beginning and root of everything after the flood. From this point on, what is comprised in the make-up of human beings takes its beginning, and the whole creation recovers its proper order. (St. John Chrysostom)

8:20 built an alter: Noah was the first to erect an altar to God. (Sulpicius Severus) offered holocausts: not of course of the animals taken by twos for these were kept to multiply their species, but of those taken by sevens some of which had been set apart for sacrifice. (St. Jerome)

8:22 These words refer to the earth in its present state, when it is able to be the principle of the generation and corruption of plants. (St. Thomas Aquinas)

Subpages (1): Gen 9

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