Chapter XX.
To indicate that Noah was the first in two generations to be righteous, it is mentioned that on one day the water receded and on another the earth dried up. The uncovering of the ark represents the renunciation of physical pleasure. This is why the first or second month of the spring season is called the 'day of spring'. Finally, the difficulty of finding a leaf is resolved.
In the 601st year of Noah's life, on the first day of the month, it is said that the water began to decrease on the earth; but in the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, it is recorded that the earth was completely dry. What does this addition of the decrease in water signify, when the previous calculation seems to have concluded the year, which begins in the second month and continues until the second month of the following year? Unless, of course, we wish to understand the stated form literally; that the first year was the year in which the flood began, after six hundred years, namely the first year; the first year again and the first month after six hundred years, when the water was decreased from the face of the earth. This is because Noah was righteous in the generation of sinners which was destroyed because of their sins, and he was the first in the second generation, which began after the flood, and he surpassed all others in order, because he was the first of the second generation and the first in merit. For indeed much honor is given to him who was both the first of the first generation and the beginning of the later one; who deserved to both escape from that and to be propagated to this field. For when others had perished, he alone, by the merit of an outstanding life and the prerogative of virtue, did not experience the corruption of wickedness, through whom it was made so that the whole body of the human race would not seem to be either abolished on earth or left behind by God's grace.
72. And he uncovered, he said, the roof of the ark (Gen. VIII, 13). When we interpreted the ark as mentioned above (above, c. VI), we understood it as the appearance of the body, so what does it mean for the body to be uncovered according to a higher sense? However, it is clear how the ark could be opened literally. So, what is the roof of the human body that was closed in the flood, unless we perhaps take it as pleasure, which covered this body of ours and, as it were, covered it through the error of Adam? And it is rightly considered to be most like a roof; because all the senses are in the head, from there all pleasure was subject to the body. But when the mind of a just man, sober and untouched by the corruption of the flood, desired to spring forth and fly to the higher things, inflamed by the desire of divine knowledge, it uncovered all that was hindering it, and it thoroughly uncovered and opened again the appearance of pleasure, which was covering the other parts of the body like a veil; so that it would not only free the body from the servitude of a base mistress, but also comprehend those things which were incorporeal; for those things which are not seen are eternal. And therefore the just man, who did not see the Lord, sought after Him, incorruptible and desiring eternity.
73. Moreover, what he says about the first or second month, and that it is the day of springtime, you have also said elsewhere: This month will be the first for you in the days of the year (Exod. XII, 2). For he who, first in grace after peril, rightly received the prerogative of the first month.
74. And let it not bother you that we said above that a leaf found on a branch could have been generated after the flood (Above, Chapter XIX): although grasses usually sprout under water, so that any doubt can be removed completely, what is the big deal if, by God's command, on the day when the waters were diminished, the earth immediately sprouted, since He is both the restorer and the creator of fruits, and did not forget the use of His work? Finally, you also have in Genesis immediately what He commanded, that the earth would sprout grass for pasture, and a fruit-bearing tree with its fruit, and immediately the earth produced grass for pasture, having seed according to its kind, and a fruit-bearing tree; and that day was one on which God commanded or did these things (Gen. I, 11). Therefore, God, not forgetful of His own kindness, yet forgetful of our iniquity, restored His work with the same measure of time as when He began.