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Genesis Study Index Page
The quote for this chapter begins this chapter: "But God remembered Noah and all the beasts and all the livestock that were with him in the ark." (8:1 ESV)
Verse 1
"way yizkor" (and remembered / mindful) 'Elohim (GOD) of Noah and every "chay" (living / alive thing) and all "behemah" (beasts / animals) that were with him in the ark.....
Interesting that Noah's family is included with the 'living things' on the ark, remember that we'll touch on it again when the water goes down.
God causes a "ruah" (wind (same word is used for Spirit and breath)) and "shakak" (abate / decrease) the waters
note the term for The Deity at the end of chapter 7, and from now through when Noah lights a special fire.
2
and "caker" (stop / stopped) 'fountains of the deep' and the 'windows of heaven', and "kala" (restrained / withheld) the rain from heaven.
Once again all three sources of water are listed separately.
3
and "shub" (return / go back) the waters from the earth, "halak" (departed / go / left / etc) "shub" (return (same word to imply a steady progress)) and "chaser" (decrease / empty) the waters "qatseh" (after) 150 days.
There can be some debate about the total period the waters covered the earth. And it doesn't really matter. Nobody can 'tread water' for even the period of active rainfall, 40 days and nights, without a break, and then however long it took the water to go away, which we'll take a long look at in a moment.
4 and 5
and "nuach" (rest / rested) "tebah" (box / ark) ... on the "har" (mountains / hill country) of 'Ararat.
Mountaineering note
The mountains in question are in extreme eastern Turkey just south of a line between the southern coast of the Black Sea and the central Caspian Sea, where Iran, Armenia, and Turkey all meet.
The name of the mountain range is the same in Hebrew as English, and is from the ancient name "Ararad" which is from old Armenian and is associated with the prehistoric kingdom of Urartu in today's Armenia. The Turkish name for the mountains "Agir Dag" means "pain mountain". While the name Ararad is ancient, it may not be as old as the story of Noah, even though the ancient Persians called the largest peak "the Mountain of Noah". Greater Ararat is the tallest mountain in modern Turkey with a height of just under 17,000 feet (5,100 meters). Little Ararat rises to about 13,000 feet (4,000 meters). Both are active volcanoes with the last major eruption occurring in 1840 that released a pyroclastic flow to the north, as well as several large earthquakes and related landslides that resulted in 10,000 deaths, including destroying the ancient St Jacob monastery and the village of Akori on the side of the mountain.
Archaeologically speaking. Human settlement in this region goes back to at least the end of the last Ice Age, and is only some 300 miles (480 Km) from the Gobekli Tepe site which may have existed during the Ice Age and just before the flood (the two events may well be related, but that discussion is beyond the scope of this study). The Iron Age kingdom of Urartu is known both from Biblical texts (Jeremiah 51 and Isaiah 37) and Assyrian reliefs.
The story comes nicely full circle with the establishment of the Armenian church in the first century AD, and then the founding of the St Jacob monastery on the side of Ararat in about 380. This idea continues to be in play as, according to some, Christians in the Ottoman Empire, which was based in Constantinople (now Istanbul), Turkey, were called "Armenians", no matter where they were from or what church they belonged to. See site linked below for more on that history.
End Note
The ark ran around on 17 Tishrei.
Jewish Calendar Tangent don't worry, it's short, you'll be OK:
The Jews, ancient and modern, observe twelve lunar months in a year:
Nisan, Iyar, Sivan, Tammuz, Av, Elul, Tishrei, Heshvan, Kislev, Tevet, Shevat, and Adar. With five of the months thirty days long, and five being one day shorter, and the other two variable (29 or 30 days) depending on the year. With the normal year being 354 days.
However, because the Solar Year and the Lunar Year don't play nice together they have to insert a "Leap Month" every two or three years to bring them back into synch. Which is where Second Adar comes into play, which is always shorter than First Adar. If this explanation isn't confusing enough for you, there's more information at the link below.
end tangent
6 - 12
Observations and comments.
Entire books have been written about Noah's choice of feathered scouts, so we'll just hit a few high points and move on.
The first item is that the Raven, the largest member of the crow family, is unclean both for religious offerings and for food, which makes one wonder about his reasoning. While the Dove is the prime choice for both, and is also the widely recognized symbol of, when flying horizontally: Peace, and when descending: The Holy Spirit, so this bird going out from the window becomes heavily symbolic for us.
Anyway, he sends out the black bird and... does he ever see it again?.....
One of the topics mentioned in those 'birds from the ark' books is the sexes of the two individual animals, that some commentators gas on about.... the male raven and the female dove. We actually don't know whether either bird was male or female. When you look at the species names in Hebrew, the word "oreb" (raven) is a masculine noun, while "yonah" (dove) is feminine. That's all.
Noah waits another week and sends the dove out again, this time it comes back with the other heavily symbolic item from this part of the episode, a "aleh" (leaf) from an "zayith" (olive tree). After ANOTHER seven days, Noah sends the dove out again, and it stays out.
13 - 14
Date check. It is the First of Nisan, year 601 - of Noah's life (although verse 13 doesn't explicitly state that). And another statement and restatement about the water being gone, but because of the wording of 14 we can think that it must have been really muddy outside the week before.
"And in the second moneth, in the seuen and twentieth day of the moneth was the earth drie." -1560 Geneva Bible
15 - 16
"way dabar" (and spoke) 'Elohim to Noah "amar" (saying)
.... "everybody off the boat" ... slight paraphrase there.
17
"kal" (every / all) "chay" (living things)...
a note about "chay"
This is one of those general Hebrew words that doesn't have an exact translation. The same word is used when the text talks about what year of Noah's life this all happened, and is used to describe the "living beasts on the earth" and the "living creatures" in the ocean during the Week of Creation, as well as what we call the Cherubim in Ezekiel 1 : 5, and as we mentioned early in this chapter, a form of the same word was used to describe Noah's family and all the animals on the ark in one shot.
The word's usage is totally dependent on context, including time periods, individual people and animals, or "all creatures great and small".... which probably drove the original translators insane trying to determine who / what it was referring to the Five Hundred Times it is used in the OT. In some ways the term is something akin to the Southern expression "y'all", or as would be used in science fiction "life forms", meaning, well, it means whatever you're talking about. Which is really hard to translate.
So in our study of Genesis, if anybody has any questions about how and why translators going back to the 1611, the Geneva Bible, or even the Vulgate had issues with making the meaning of some obscure Hebrew phrase from not too far this side of 4004 BC clear to a modern reader, we'll just say "chay".
end note
17 continues.....
The text just said "every living creature", then it gets somewhat more specific to make sure nothing is left behind.
... "sharats" (teem / swarm) "erets" (earth / land), "parah" (bear fruit) and "rabah" (become many / multiply) on the "erets" (earth).
This is a revisit of verse 22 of chapter one.
18 - 19
The human passengers leave first.
The 'critters' follow.... by "mishpachah" (family / families).
This is the same word we'll see later in the divisions of the nation of Israel in the Exodus where the tribes are listed 'by family'.
20
"way" (and) "banah" (built / made) Noah an "mizbeach" (altar) to YHWH....
A look at the Altar
"Believe It or Not!" This is the first altar in the Bible. Adam never had one that we know of. Abel, and Cain, made their offerings to the Lord without one. Enoch walked with God, but he evidently didn't walk to an altar. And before the rainstorm, per the text, Noah was found righteous before God - without one.
The altar being referred to is specially constructed and dedicated place of sacrifice, and was not used for any other purpose. Later in the OT we see quite elaborate altars being constructed, especially in the Temple built by Solomon. MUCH later, we see an Altar in Heaven, Revelation 6 : 9 and following. See the link below for an overview of altars in the Bible.
There were a couple of different types of altars in used throughout the Bible, but the most common type was made of stone and designed to hold a wood fire sufficiently large and hot to totally immolate the body of the animal being killed and burnt. Which means that it was well built of fairly large rocks. The other was specific to the Tabernacle and, later, the Temple, the Altar of Incense, see Exodus 30 and an example at 2 Chronicles 26: 16.
Also, it is with this verse that we are back to the name YHWH for the Creator, for now.
end look
.... and he took of every clean animal, and every clean bird...
Remember: these categories of animal have not yet been defined by the text.
... "alah" (went up / climbed up) "olah" (ascended (implies the smoke)) on the altar.
21
And "ruach" ('acceptable') YHWH "reyach" ((act of smelling) aroma / scent ) "nichoach" (soothing (something that causes relaxation)) - and said YHWH in His "leb" (heart / 'inner self' (we last saw this word in 6 : 5 with the 'professional evildoers', and we see it again in a moment)) "lo" (not / never / etc) "yasaph" (add / again) "qalal" ((has several meanings including being used in 8 : 8 for the water receding) slight as in 'treat with contempt', make less of, curse, etc) the ground because of man,
"ki" (is / was / be) "yetser" (purpose / intent) of man "leb" (inner self) of man "ra'" (evil) "naur" (early in life) ... ...
dramatic pause
There's a double meaning here that we want to address. This is the same sort of statement made before the flood, and has been in the background since Eve stopped by the wrong fruit stand. The implication is both that an individual human has evil in their heart from early in life, and that humanity as a race has had evil in its heart since they began, or quite soon thereafter.
But this is also the notice of a change of how GOD relates to humans, and while He will judge humanity, it will be one at a time, instead of as a species all at once, as we'll see in a moment.
end pause
... "lo" (not) again will "nakah" ('smite' (same word from the Cain and Abel story)) every "chay" (life form) as "asah" ('have done').
22
The verse from the Geneva Bible, 1560:
"Hereafter seed time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease, so long as the earth remaineth."
Once again we hear GOD talking to Himself. This has been a recurring theme in the early sections of Genesis. And is used throughout the OT with passages such as the famous question in Isaiah 6 : 8.
And until now, there has been no mention of the seasons, which is evidently another change brought about by the planet wide event.
Also note: we haven't seen a rainbow yet. … oh, yes, a quesiton...
"Where did all the water go? Did it go back where it came from?"
Short answer about where it went: It's still here.
First we'll take a quick look at where the water came from. Then there is a long, somewhat twisted, and sometimes obvious explanation about 'where it went'.
During the Act of Creation, "the waters" were divided, chapter 1 verse 6. Some went up, and some went down. Those that stayed on the planet's surface were gathered into the seas, but where did the water that went into the "firmament" actually end up?
Some have speculated that it was a gaseous vapor that was actually part of the atmosphere, but there are certain climatological issues with that idea that cannot be easily overcome. An explanation that doesn't lead to a runaway greenhouse effect is that the water was 'gathered' into a ring around the planet, like the rings of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune, which may be composed, at least substantially, of small (and not so small) crystals of ice. Frozen water in orbit is still water, it's just hard water.
When that water out there suddenly 'came down' it could well have accounted for the 'extra water' needed to have a world wide flood when added to the water that was already here.
Before the Flood, the world looked very different than it does now. Everybody knows that, but, just like they "know" about the animals boarding the boat "two by two", they don't think about it. Many believers assume that their base of reference for the way the landscape looks is the way it has been, more or less. The "Steady State" theory of Earth History has been around for a long time, and was part of the charges leveled against Galileo. Any proposal that our planet hadn't always been as it was then was declared heresy. See more about that issue linked below.
It is not beyond the realm of possibility that BEFORE the flood, all the land on the planet was in the one of the massive super-continents called either Pangaea or Gondwanaland. One landmass, with no dramatic mountains. And what amounted to a global ocean wthat as significantly shallower than our oceans are now.
Go back and read parts like verse three again. The English text is slightly misleading, and the Hebrew is poetic. The waters didn't "go down", as much as the land "came up."
There is nothing that is geologically impossible here. Plate Tectonics is a proven planetary phenomena, and is suggested by Genesis 10 25, which we'll look at when we get there.
Let's take a break for Psalm 104 : 8 which describes Creation, and the flood, and perhaps what we are discussing here:
"And the mountaines ascend, and the valleis descend to the place which thou hast established for them." The Geneva Bible.
So areas like Doggerland, east of England and north of France which was an inhabited area, as well as parts of what is now the Black Sea ended up below the oceans. There is some introductory material below.
Will we ever KNOW what the world was like before and just after the Flood? Probably not. In the end, does it really matter? No. Is it interesting to speculate about it? Yes. And so we have done.
Now, shall we go look for a rainbow?
End 8
http://www.genevabible.org/geneva.html
It is what the link says it is:
https://westernprelacy.org/history-of-the-armenian-church/
A look at the ancient site of Göbekli Tepe, in Turkey: https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1572/
A magazine article about the site: Smithsonian Magazine https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/gobekli-tepe-the-worlds-first-temple-83613665/
"Months of the Jewish Year https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/months-of-the-jewish-year/
"The Armenian genocide (1915–1916) refers to the physical destruction of Armenian Christian people in the Ottoman Empire. It is sometimes referred to as 'the first genocide of the 20th century'." https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/the-armenian-genocide-1915-16-overview
Edgar Allan Poe's masterwork from 1845:
"On this home by Horror haunted - tell me truly, I implore -
Is there - is-there balm in Gilead? - tell me - tell me, I implore!"
Quoth the Raven "Nevermore."
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/48860/the-raven
it is longer, and stranger, than you remember!
"Biblical, historical, & scientific articles that focus upon the veracity of the Flood account, Noah's Ark & early post-Flood history, & other Flood related topics (Genesis 6-11)."
https://biblearchaeology.org/research/chronological-categories/flood-of-noah
Baker's Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology - Altar https://www.biblestudytools.com/dictionary/altar/
Doggerland:
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2021/aug/01/doggerland-lost-atlantis-of-the-north-sea-gives-up-its-ancient-secrets
-and-
"Archaeologists working for Vattenfall, the Swedish energy group developing Norfolk’s largest offshore wind farms, have recovered unique evidence in the North Sea which is hoped will tell a more detailed story of ‘Doggerland’, the submerged landscape which was flooded more than 8,000 years ago."
https://www.wessexarch.co.uk/news/secrets-doggerland
The Inquisition http://galileo.rice.edu/chr/inquisition.html
The link title explains what it is: https://newsroom.ucla.edu/releases/the-truth-about-galileo-and-his-conflict-with-the-catholic-church
The British Museum: The Babylonian Map of the World with Irving Finkel https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUxFzh8r384
Genesis Study Index Page
NOTE: The Bible Study Lesson presented above is posted as a reference document to begin a conversation of the topic. And that's it. Please accept it at such.
http://centralparkchurchofchrist.org
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