1 Benedixitque Deus Noë et filiis ejus. Et dixit ad eos: Crescite, et multiplicamini, et replete terram.
Cosmas Indicopleustes · AD 550 And the Lord blessed Noah and his sons and said to them: Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth; and the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air, upon all that moveth upon the earth, and upon all the fishes of the sea; into your hands are they delivered.
Bede · AD 735 And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them: Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth. And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon all animals of the earth, and upon all the birds of the air, with everything that moves upon the ground.
2 Et terror vester ac tremor sit super cuncta animalia terræ, et super omnes volucres cæli, cum universis quæ moventur super terram: omnes pisces maris manui vestræ traditi sunt.
3 Et omne, quod movetur et vivit, erit vobis in cibum: quasi olera virentia tradidi vobis omnia.
Justin Martyr · AD 165 Moreover, you were commanded to abstain from certain kinds of food, in order that you might keep God before your eyes while you ate and drank, seeing that you were prone and very ready to depart from His knowledge, as Moses also affirms: "The people ate and drank, and rose up to play." And again: "Jacob ate, and was satisfied, and waxed fat; and he who was beloved kicked: he wa…
Irenaeus · AD 202 And He changed the food of men, giving them leave to eat flesh: for from Adam the first-formed until the Flood men ate only of seeds and the fruit of trees, and to eat flesh was not permitted to them.
Cosmas Indicopleustes · AD 550 Lo! I have given you all things as the green herb to eat, but flesh in the blood thereof shall ye not eat; meaning this: Lately I interdicted you from eating many things, but now I permit you to eat of all things, and to eat even flesh.
4 Excepto, quod carnem cum sanguine non comedetis.
Ephrem the Syrian · AD 373 God also blessed Noah and his sons that they might be fruitful and multiply and that fear of them should fall upon all flesh both in the sea and on dry land. "Only you shall not eat flesh with its life." That means you shall eat no flesh that has not been slaughtered and whose blood, which is its life, has not been drained.
John Chrysostom · AD 407 From this the eating of meat takes its beginning, not for the purpose of prompting them to gluttony. But since some of the people were about to offer sacrifices and make thanksgiving to the Lord, he grants them authority over food and obviates any anxiety about foods lest they seem to be abstaining from foods because they were not properly consecrated.
Bede · AD 735 Except that you shall not eat flesh with its blood. For blood rightly denotes carnal desires and carnal sense. Blood is poured out when one renounces carnal temptations and thoughts, in which one lived poorly, so that such people can say with the Apostle: Yet I live, now not I; but Christ lives in me (Gal. II, 29).
5 Sanguinem enim animarum vestrarum requiram de manu cunctarum bestiarum: et de manu hominis, de manu viri, et fratris ejus requiram animam hominis.
Ephrem the Syrian · AD 373 God requires the blood now and in the future. He requires it now in the case of a death that he decreed for a murderer, and also a stoning with which a goring bull is to be stoned. At the end, at the time of the resurrection, God will require that animals return all they ate from the flesh of man.
John Chrysostom · AD 407 "Whoever sheds someone's blood, his own will be shed in payment for that person's blood, because I have made the human person in God's image." Consider, I ask you, how much fear he struck in them with that remark.
John Damascene · AD 749 Moreover, sacred Scripture, too, testifies to the fact that there will be a resurrection of the body. Indeed, God already had said to Noah after the flood, "Even as the green herbs have I delivered them all to you: saving that flesh with blood of its life you shall not eat. And I will require your blood of your lives, at the hand of every beast I will require it.
6 Quicumque effuderit humanum sanguinem, fundetur sanguis illius: ad imaginem quippe Dei factus est homo.
Cosmas Indicopleustes · AD 550 Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed, for in the image of God have I made man. Hence it is manifest that God, both before the transgression and long after its occurrence, gave to man the same honour and power and dominion.
Bede · AD 735 For man was made in the image of God. Therefore, it is a greater crime to kill an innocent man; because whoever does this not only destroys the work which God made but also corrupts His image.
7 Vos autem crescite et multiplicamini, et ingredimini super terram, et implete eam.
8 Hæc quoque dixit Deus ad Noë, et ad filios ejus cum eo:
Ephrem the Syrian · AD 373 And his Lord spoke to [Noah], as he desired that Noah hear, "Because of your righteousness, a remnant was preserved and did not perish in that flood that took place.
9 Ecce ego statuam pactum meum vobiscum, et cum semine vestro post vos:
John Chrysostom · AD 407 God's purpose, therefore, was to eliminate all apprehension from Noah's thinking and for him to be quite assured that this would not happen again.
10 et ad omnem animam viventem, quæ est vobiscum, tam in volucribus quam in jumentis et pecudibus terræ cunctis, quæ egressa sunt de arca, et universis bestiis terræ.
11 Statuam pactum meum vobiscum, et nequaquam ultra interficietur omnis caro aquis diluvii, neque erit deinceps diluvium dissipans terram.
Bede · AD 735 God also said to Noah and to his sons with him: Behold, I will establish my covenant with you, and with your offspring after you, and continuing until he says: Never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood; nor shall there ever again be a flood to destroy the earth.
12 Dixitque Deus: Hoc signum fœderis quod do inter me et vos, et ad omnem animam viventem, quæ est vobiscum in generationes sempiternas:
Ephrem the Syrian · AD 373 After these things God made a covenant with Noah and with all those who came out of the ark with him, saying, "All flesh shall never again perish in the waters of a flood. I will set my bow in the clouds, and it shall be a sign of the eternal covenant between God and all flesh that is on the earth."
13 arcum meum ponam in nubibus, et erit signum fœderis inter me et inter terram.
Bede · AD 735 I will place my bow in the clouds, and it will be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth; and when I cover the sky with clouds, my bow will appear, and I will remember my covenant with you and with every living soul that is alive in the flesh, and the waters will no longer become a flood to destroy all flesh.
Bonaventure · AD 1257 In the mystery of the cleansing of crimes, Christ is symbolized by the bow in the clouds, which is the sign of the covenant.
14 Cumque obduxero nubibus cælum, apparebit arcus meus in nubibus:
15 et recordabor fœderis mei vobiscum, et cum omni anima vivente quæ carnem vegetat: et non erunt ultra aquæ diluvii ad delendum universam carnem.
16 Eritque arcus in nubibus, et videbo illum, et recordabor fœderis sempiterni quod pactum est inter Deum et omnem animam viventem universæ carnis quæ est super terram.
Gregory of Nazianzus · AD 390 What are the storehouses of the winds? What are the treasuries of the snow? Who, as Scripture hath said, hath begotten the drops of dew? Out of Whose womb came the ice?
17 Dixitque Deus ad Noë: Hoc erit signum fœderis, quod constitui inter me et omnem carnem super terram.
18 Erant ergo filii Noë, qui egressi sunt de arca, Sem, Cham et Japheth: porro Cham ipse est pater Chanaan.
Irenaeus · AD 202 Now the three sons of Noah were Shem, Ham and Japheth, from whom again the race was multiplied: for these were the beginning of mankind after the flood. Now of these one fell under a curse, and the two (others) inherited a blessing by reason of their works.
Jerome · AD 420 (Chapter 9, Verse 18) The sons of Noah who came out of the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. The Septuagint translators often struggled to render the letter Heth (), which has a double aspiration sound, into Greek. They added the Greek letter chi (χ) to instruct us to aspirate in such words.
19 Tres isti filii sunt Noë: et ab his disseminatum est omne genus hominum super universam terram.
20 Cœpitque Noë vir agricola exercere terram, et plantavit vineam.
Cyprian · AD 258 When Christ says, "I am the true vine," the blood of Christ is assuredly not water but wine. We are redeemed and made alive by his blood. But in the cup it is not wine as such that redeems but his blood. This is declared by the sacrament and testimony of all the Scriptures. For we find this even in Genesis also, in respect of the sacrament prefigured in Noah.
John Chrysostom · AD 407 Perhaps, on the other hand, someone might say, "Why was vine dressing, source of such terrible wickedness, introduced into life?" Do not idly blurt out what comes into your head, O man: vine dressing is not wicked nor is wine evil—rather, it is use of them in excess.
Bede · AD 735 Noah, a man of the earth, began to cultivate the ground and planted a vineyard, etc. It is often pleasing to repeat the word of the Lord, which he said to the Jews: "If you believed Moses, you would perhaps believe me as well, for he wrote about me" (John 5:46).
21 Bibensque vinum inebriatus est, et nudatus in tabernaculo suo.
Clement of Alexandria · AD 215 That is why the drunkenness of Noah also has been described, so that we may guard against drunkenness as much as possible, with the picture of such a fall clearly described before our eyes in Scripture. That is why, too, the Lord blessed those who covered the shame of his drunkenness.
Leander of Seville · AD 601 "Woe to you that demand strong drink as soon as they rise in the morning, and linger into the night while wine inflames them!" Noah drank wine and fell into a drunken stupor and became naked in the more shameful part of his body so that you may know that the mind of man is so confounded by wine and the reason of the human mind is made so dull that it does not have concern even…
Bonaventure · AD 1257 In the mystery of the cleansing of crimes, Christ is symbolized by Noah who lay naked in his tent in a state of drunkenness: for Christ was drunk with love for His spouse and was naked on the cross — where the very wicked Cham derided Him.
22 Quod cum vidisset Cham, pater Chanaan, verenda scilicet patris sui esse nudata, nuntiavit duobus fratribus suis foras.
Justin Martyr · AD 165 For another mystery was accomplished and predicted in the days of Noah, of which you are not aware. It is this: in the blessings wherewith Noah blessed his two sons, and in the curse pronounced on his son's son. For the Spirit of prophecy would not curse the son that had been by God blessed along with [his brothers].
Ephrem the Syrian · AD 373 Noah cursed Canaan, saying, "Cursed be Canaan. A slave of slaves shall he be to his brothers." But what sin could Canaan have committed even if he had been right behind his father when Ham observed the nakedness of Noah?
Bede · AD 735 When Ham, the father of Canaan, saw that his father's nakedness was uncovered, he told his two brothers outside. But Shem and Japheth took a cloak, laid it upon their shoulders, and walking backward, covered their father's nakedness; their faces were turned away, and they did not see their father's private parts.
23 At vero Sem et Japheth pallium imposuerunt humeris suis, et incedentes retrorsum, operuerunt verenda patris sui: faciesque eorum aversæ erant, et patris virilia non viderunt.
Clement of Alexandria · AD 215 The chaste son could not endure looking upon the immodest nakedness of a good man; chastity covered over what drunkenness had exposed in a transgression committed in ignorance but manifest to all.
24 Evigilans autem Noë ex vino, cum didicisset quæ fecerat ei filius suus minor,
Bede · AD 735 But Noah, awakening from his wine, when he had learned what his younger son had done to him, said: Cursed be Canaan, a servant of servants shall he be to his brothers.
25 ait: Maledictus Chanaan, servus servorum erit fratribus suis.
Ambrose of Milan · AD 397 First of all, let us show great reverence to our parents, as we read in Genesis 9:25-27, that whoever was blessed by their father, was blessed, and whoever was cursed by their father, was cursed! Therefore, God has granted this grace to parents, so that the piety of their children may be provoked. Therefore, it is the duty of children to obey their parents.
John Chrysostom · AD 407 To be sure, some will say, this shows that the reason he did not curse Ham was that he had enjoyed blessing from God. Nevertheless, why is it that though Ham was the sinner, Canaan had to pay the penalty? This does not happen idly either. Ham did not endure less punishment than his son. He too felt its effects.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 Why did Ham sin and yet vengeance was declared against his son Canaan? Why was the son of Solomon punished by the breaking up of the kingdom? Why was the sin of Ahab, king of Israel, visited upon his posterity?
26 Dixitque: Benedictus Dominus Deus Sem, sit Chanaan servus ejus.
Ephrem the Syrian · AD 373 After Ham had been cursed through his one son, Noah blessed Shem and Japheth and said, "May God increase Japheth, and may he dwell in the tent of Shem, and let Canaan be their slave." Japheth increased and became powerful in his inheritance in the north and in the west.
Bede · AD 735 Blessed be the Lord God of Shem. For although He is the God of all nations, yet in a certain special way, even among the Gentiles, He is called the God of Israel; and how did this come to pass, if not from the blessing of Japheth? For in the people of the Gentiles, the Church has occupied the world. This is precisely foretold when it is subsequently said.
27 Dilatet Deus Japheth, et habitet in tabernaculis Sem, sitque Chanaan servus ejus.
Jerome · AD 420 (Verse 27) May God enlarge Japheth, and may he dwell in the tents of Shem. From Shem come the Hebrews, and from Japheth, the people of the nations are born. Therefore, because the multitude of believers has been enlarged from the breadth, which is called Japheth, it has received the name "breadth".
Bede · AD 735 God also expanded Japheth, so that he dwelt in the tents of Shem, and that Canaan was his servant, when the Greeks or Romans, certainly descended from the line of Japheth, possessed the kingdoms of Asia, in which the descendants of Shem lived, and among other things made the Canaanites tributary to themselves.
28 Vixit autem Noë post diluvium trecentis quinquaginta annis.
Bede · AD 735 But Noah lived three hundred and fifty years after the flood, and all the days of his life were nine hundred and fifty years, and he died. As we have taught above, the six hundred years of Noah's life, after which he entered the ark, signify the perfection of the faith and profession of those who undergo the sacraments of the Church of heavenly grace and everlasting reward.
29 Et impleti sunt omnes dies ejus nongentorum quinquaginta annorum: et mortuus est.
Jerome · AD 420 (Verse 29.) And all the days of Noah were nine hundred and fifty years. Behold, after the flood Noah lived three hundred and fifty years. From which it is clear that one hundred and twenty years were given to that generation, as we have said before, for repentance, and not for the establishment of mortal life.