The Book of Genesis, Chapter 7

Genesis 7:1-24

Summary

Various numbers of pairs of various creatures, clean and unclean, animal and bird, and other things of the like are invited on the ark. Noah is very old, the date on which the flood begins is very precise, and the rainstorm lasts over a month. In case you were wondering, God shuts the door.

The rain falls for a very long time, the water rose to the point of being about 7 metres (22.5ft) over the mountains. Everything except that which is in the ark dies (and I'm assuming, you know, the fish and the aquatic flora), and this flood lasts one hundred and fifty days.

Commentary

I think we have another example between this chapter and the previous one of the multiple authors of this section of the Bible. I won't go into the four authors theory, but you can read a little something about it here. I don't pretend to be an authority on the Bible*, and I don't pretend to know how much of what said at that site is accurate academic work. You have been warned.

I'm fascinated by the further information given about how many kinds of which animals get to come on the ark. Depending on your interpretation, the difference here can be interpreted as a further elucidation on the subject or a direct contradiction.

In the sixth chapter, it's stated that:

"[O]f every living thing, of all flesh, you shall bring two of every kind into the ark, to keep them alive with you; they shall be male and female." (Gen 6:19, emphasis mine)

The question here is whether "every" means "each" or not. It's not a direct contradiction, as written, but it's still fascinating to compare this to the directions given in chapter seven:

"Take with you seven pairs of all clean animals, the male and its mate; and a pair of the animals that are not clean, the male and its mate; and seven pairs of the birds of the air also, male and female, to keep their kind alive on the face of all the earth." (Gen 7:2-3)

It's true: At least two of every kind of flesh are getting on that ark. The directions here are much more specific, and much more religious in nature. I say religious because these directions draw a distinction between clean and unclean animals, which must have been understood in the society at the time of writing, because I haven't seen other references to the state of cleanliness of an animal yet.

There is also a poetic tone to the tale in this chapter, epitomized I think in this passage:

"Of clean animals, and of animals that are not clean, and of birds, and of everything that creeps on the ground, two and two, male and female, went into the ark with Noah, as God had commanded Noah." (Gen 7:8-9, emphasis mine)

I emphasized those words in the post because the poetic structure there, that's beautiful to me. I find the way the words roll together off the tongue fantastic, which hasn't happened too much in Genesis thus far.

Seven days later, the rain began to fall. The author here records the very date—relative to Noah's live—of the flood's beginning:

"In the six-hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened." (Gen 7:11)

There's something epic about this long, formal recitation of the date. It gives this grand story a grand feeling. I have a feeling it wouldn't feel nearly so massive if the passage read, "And then lots and lots of water came up from below and fell from the sky!" It's all about style.

The rest of the chapter is a similarly epic-feeling description of the waters rising, and the extinction of everything except those poor souls on the ark, alone in the rain.


*If you are an authority on the Bible, and would like to write a guest post on the four authors theory, please let me know in a comment and I'll be happy to invite you to do so.