1 Recordatus autem Deus Noë, cunctorumque animantium, et omnium jumentorum, quæ erant cum eo in arca, adduxit spiritum super terram, et imminutæ sunt aquæ.
Hippolytus of Rome · AD 235 Hippolytus, the expositor of the Targum, and my master, Jacobus Rohaviensis, have said: On the twenty-seventh day of the month Jiar, which is the second Hebrew month, the ark rose from the base of the holy mount; and already the waters bore it, and it was carried upon them round about towards the four cardinal points of the world.
John Chrysostom · AD 407 See how God did everything out of his esteem for the human being. As in the case of the destruction of human beings in the flood he destroyed also along with them the whole range of brute beasts, so in this case too, when he intends to show his characteristic love for the good man out of his regard for him, he extends his goodness to the animal kingdom as well, the wild beasts,…
Bede · AD 735 But the Lord remembered Noah, and all the living creatures, and all the cattle that were with him in the ark, and caused a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters were diminished.
2 Et clausi sunt fontes abyssi, et cataractæ cæli: et prohibitæ sunt pluviæ de cælo.
Jerome · AD 420 (Chapter 8, Verse 2) And the water subsided, and the fountains of the deep were revealed, and the floodgates of heaven were opened. The interpreters have translated the phrase 'fountains of the deep were revealed' as 'the closed and sealed fountains were opened'.
Bede · AD 735 And the fountains of the deep were closed, and the windows of heaven, and the rains from heaven were restrained, and the waters returned from the earth, going and coming, and they began to decrease after one hundred and fifty days.
3 Reversæque sunt aquæ de terra euntes et redeuntes: et cœperunt minui post centum quinquaginta dies.
Ephrem the Syrian · AD 373 The springs of the abyss and the floodgates of heaven were open forty days and forty nights and "the ark was afloat for one hundred fifty days." But after one hundred fifty days the waters began to subside and the ark came to rest on Mt. Qardu. In the tenth month the tops of the mountains were seen.
4 Requievitque arca mense septimo, vigesimo septimo die mensis, super montes Armeniæ.
Cosmas Indicopleustes · AD 550 In the Chaldaean books of Bêrôsus and certain others it is thus written: that ten kings reigned over the Chaldaeans 2242 myriads of years, but, under their tenth king Xisuthrus, as they called him, there was a great flood, and that Xisuthrus being warned by God embarked in a ship with his wife and kindred and cattle, and that having been brought over in safety, as their story g…
Bede · AD 735 And the ark rested in the seventh month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, upon the mountains of Armenia. That the ark rested in the seventh month refers symbolically to that seventh rest about which it has often been spoken, as those who are perfect and who have the stability of a mind fixed upon God, as if squared, tend toward rest.
5 At vero aquæ ibant et decrescebant usque ad decimum mensem: decimo enim mense, primo die mensis, apparuerunt cacumina montium.
Bede · AD 735 But the waters went back and decreased until the tenth month. The time of the tenth month can signify that period during which the saints enter the joys of eternal light with the Lord. For He also in the Gospel by the name of the denarius, which was to be given to the laborers of the vineyard, intimates the perception of the same heavenly kingdom.
6 Cumque transissent quadraginta dies, aperiens Noë fenestram arcæ, quam fecerat, dimisit corvum,
John Chrysostom · AD 407 But for the present we need to explain the reason why the bird [the raven] did not come back. Perhaps, with the waters subsiding, the bird, being unclean, happened upon corpses of men and beasts and, finding nourishment to its liking, stayed there!
Jerome · AD 420 (Verse 6) After forty days, Noah opened the door of the ark which he had made, and released a raven, but it did not return to him until the waters had dried up from the earth. As for the dove, it is said differently: He released a raven, and it went out, going and coming back until the waters had dried up from the earth.
Bede · AD 735 And when forty days had passed, Noah opened the window of the ark, which he had made, and sent out a raven, etc. We have spoken above about the window of the ark, which, after the flood has subsided, is opened, indicating the secret mysteries of the heavens, to which those baptized are especially initiated; but with these same sacraments some are led to the allurements of the w…
7 qui egrediebatur, et non revertebatur, donec siccarentur aquæ super terram.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 You do not know when that last hour is going to come and yet you say, "I am reforming." When are you going to reform? When are you going to change? "Tomorrow," you say. Behold, how often you say, "Tomorrow, tomorrow." You have really become a crow. Behold, I say to you that when you make the noise of a crow, ruin is threatening you.
Bede · AD 735 He went out and returned, until the waters were dried up from the earth. It does not say he went out and returned to the ark; but he went out and returned, it says, until the waters were dried up from the earth, because obviously he was turning here and there with uncertain flight, now beginning to go away, now returning as if about to enter the ark, but not really seeking the…
8 Emisit quoque columbam post eum, ut videret si jam cessassent aquæ super faciem terræ.
Maximus of Turin · AD 465 Christ is a dove because he commands his holy ones to be as doves when he says, "Be simple as doves." But the prophet speaks of what Christ the dove is when, in his person, he describes his return to heaven after his suffering: "Who will give me wings like a dove, and I shall fly away and be at rest?" When Christ the Lord, therefore, initiated the sacraments of the church a dov…
9 Quæ cum non invenisset ubi requiesceret pes ejus, reversa est ad eum in arcam: aquæ enim erant super universam terram: extenditque manum, et apprehensam intulit in arcam.
Bede · AD 735 He also sent out a dove after him, to see if the waters had ceased upon the face of the earth; but when she did not find where her foot might rest, she returned to him in the ark. For the waters were over the whole earth; and he extended his hand, and having caught her, brought her into the ark.
10 Expectatis autem ultra septem diebus aliis, rursum dimisit columbam ex arca.
11 At illa venit ad eum ad vesperam, portans ramum olivæ virentibus foliis in ore suo: intellexit ergo Noë quod cessassent aquæ super terram.
Ambrose of Milan · AD 397 The Synagogue has not this oil, inasmuch as she has not the olive, and understood not that dove which brought back the olive branch after the deluge.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 The secular powers often and for a long time spare the wicked from corporal punishment and relieve some of them from their harassments, but the hearts of holy men never have any respite until the end of the world from the sinful conduct of men.
Bede · AD 735 But after waiting another seven days, he again sent the dove out of the ark; and it came back to him in the evening, carrying a fresh olive branch in its mouth.
12 Expectavitque nihilominus septem alios dies: et emisit columbam, quæ non est reversa ultra ad eum.
Bede · AD 735 Noah then understood that the waters had subsided from the earth, and he waited another seven days, and sent out the dove, which did not return to him again.
13 Igitur sexcentesimo primo anno, primo mense, prima die mensis, imminutæ sunt aquæ super terram: et aperiens Noë tectum arcæ, aspexit, viditque quod exsiccata esset superficies terræ.
Bede · AD 735 Therefore, in the six hundred and first year, in the first month, on the first day of the month, the waters were dried from the earth; and Noah, opening the covering of the ark, looked out and saw that the surface of the ground was dry.
14 Mense secundo, septimo et vigesimo die mensis arefacta est terra.
Bede · AD 735 In the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dried. It was stated above that the surface of the ground was dried up in the beginning of the first month; and now, in the second month, nearly completed, it is described as dry because then the ground was dried on the surface with growing grass, so that it could revive and produce anew the grass that t…
15 Locutus est autem Deus ad Noë, dicens:
John Chrysostom · AD 407 Then all creation was cleansed as if of some blemish, removing all defilement caused in it by human wickedness. Its countenance was made resplendent; God then finally commanded the just man to disembark from the ark, freeing him from that awful prison with these words, "Then the Lord God said to Noah, 'Disembark, you and your sons, your wife and your sons' wives with you, as we…
16 Egredere de arca, tu et uxor tua, filii tui et uxores filiorum tuorum tecum.
Bede · AD 735 God said to Noah, "Go forth from the ark, you and your wife, your sons and your sons' wives with you; bring out with you all the living creatures that are with you of all flesh, both birds and animals, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, so that they may abound on the earth, be fruitful and multiply on the earth." So Noah went out, with his sons and his wife and…
John Damascene · AD 749 When Noah was ordered to enter the ark and was entrusted with the safeguarding of the seed of the earth, he was given this command, which reads, "Go forth from the ark, you and your wife, and your sons and your sons' wives with you." He had separated them from their wives, so that with the help of chastity they might escape the deep and that worldwide destruction.
17 Cuncta animantia, quæ sunt apud te, ex omni carne, tam in volatilibus quam in bestiis et universis reptilibus, quæ reptant super terram, educ tecum, et ingredimini super terram: crescite et multiplicamini super eam.
Ephrem the Syrian · AD 373 Those whom he had brought in "one by one" in order to maintain chastity on the ark, he now brought out "two by two" so that they might "be fruitful and multiply in creation." Even with respect to the animals that had preserved their chastity in the ark God said, "Bring forth with you every living thing that is with you of all flesh—birds and animals and every creeping thing tha…
18 Egressus est ergo Noë, et filii ejus: uxor illius, et uxores filiorum ejus cum eo.
Ambrose of Milan · AD 397 Now let us inquire by what order they entered into the ark, how long they remained there, and in what order they went out; how in the first instance Noah entered, and after him his sons; then his wife, and the wives of his sons; and when they went out, in what order they went forth.
19 Sed et omnia animantia, jumenta, et reptilia quæ reptant super terram, secundum genus suum, egressa sunt de arca.
20 Ædificavit autem Noë altare Domino: et tollens de cunctis pecoribus et volucribus mundis, obtulit holocausta super altare.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 [The clean and the unclean] were together in the ark, but they were not equally pleasing to the Lord as a savor of sacrifice, for after the deluge Noah offered sacrifice to God of the clean, not of the unclean.
Philoxenus of Mabbug · AD 523 Now although this meat is a burden unto the wise and prudent, yet was it given by promise unto Noah, and it was sent unto Elijah in a gift, and Abraham received God and His angels thereby, and Isaac was pleased to pour out blessings upon Jacob thereby, and Samuel offered this gift beforehand to Saul as to a king, and David and all the righteous kings made use of such meat, and…
Bede · AD 735 Noah built an altar to the Lord, and taking from all the clean animals and birds, he offered burnt offerings on the altar.
21 Odoratusque est Dominus odorem suavitatis, et ait: Nequaquam ultra maledicam terræ propter homines: sensus enim et cogitatio humani cordis in malum prona sunt ab adolescentia sua: non igitur ultra percutiam omnem animam viventem sicut feci.
Ephrem the Syrian · AD 373 "The Lord smelled" not the smell of the flesh or the smoke of wood, but rather he looked out and saw the simplicity of heart with which Noah offered the sacrifice from all and on behalf of all. And his Lord spoke to him, as he desired that Noah hear, "Because of your righteousness, a remnant was preserved and did not perish in that flood that took place.
John Chrysostom · AD 407 The Scripture says, "And the Lord smelled a sweet odor," that is, he accepted the offerings. But do not imagine that God has nostrils, since God is invisible spirit. Yet what is carried up from the altar is the odor and smoke from burning bodies, and nothing is more malodorous than such a savor.
Bonaventure · AD 1257 The manner in which sacrifice was introduced is seen in the fact that Abel offered a sacrifice by faith, and so did Noah, of whose offering it is said: The Lord smelled the sweet odor. And these sacrifices represented that which Christ offered on the cross. Hence it is said, the Lord smelled: God was appeased by the death of His only Son.
22 Cunctis diebus terræ, sementis et messis, frigus et æstus, æstas et hiems, nox et dies non requiescent.
Ephrem the Syrian · AD 373 And because there was neither planting nor harvest during that year and the seasonal cycles had been disturbed, God restored to the earth that which had been taken away in his anger.
Bede · AD 735 All the days of the earth, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, night and day, shall not cease. For when he had said all the days, he immediately added of the earth, so that you may understand that during all the days in which the earth will have its present state, men should be free from the threat of a universal flood; yet the time will not fail when, ceasi…