1 And Jehovah said to Noah, Go into the ark, thou and all thy house; for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation.
Ambrose of Milan · AD 397 However, a higher understanding leads us to think that the strength of the mind is in the soul, and the soul is in the body, just as the head of the household is in his own home. For what the mind is in the soul, that is the soul in the body. If the mind is safe, the house is safe, the soul is safe; if the soul is unharmed, the flesh is unharmed.
Bede · AD 735 Noah did therefore all that God commanded him, and the Lord said to him: Enter you and all your household into the ark, etc. Noah did all that God commanded, that is, he built the ark, and, with chambers arranged, he brought provisions into it for all living creatures.
2 Of all clean beasts thou shalt take to thee by sevens, a male and its female; but of the beasts that are not clean two, a male and its female.
Philo of Alexandria · AD 50 (12) Why does he order seven of each of the clean animals, male and female, to be taken into the ark, but of the unclean animals only two, male and female, in order to preserve seed upon all the earth? (#Ge 7:2).
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 Let us recognize that the ark prefigured the church. Let us be the clean beasts in it. Yet let us not refuse to allow the unclean ones to be carried in it with us until the end of the deluge.
Bede · AD 735 Of all clean animals, take seven and seven, male and female; but of animals that are not clean, two and two, male and female; of the birds of the heaven also, seven and seven, male and female, so that seed might be saved upon the face of all the earth.
3 Also of the fowl of the heavens by sevens, male and female; to keep seed alive on the face of all the earth.
4 For in yet seven days I will cause it to rain on the earth forty days and forty nights; and every living being which I have made will I destroy from the ground.
Ephrem the Syrian · AD 373 God granted one hundred years while the ark was being made to that generation, and still they did not repent. God summoned beasts that they had never seen and still they showed no remorse. He established a state of peace between the predatory animals and those who are preyed upon, and still they had no awe.
5 And Noah did according to all that Jehovah had commanded him.
6 And Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters was on the earth.
Hippolytus of Rome · AD 235 Hippolytus, the Syrian expositor of the Targum, has said: We find in an ancient Hebrew copy that God commanded Noah to range the wild beasts in order in the lower floor or storey, and to separate the males from the females by putting wooden stakes between them. And thus, too, he did with all the cattle, and also with the birds in the middle storey.
Bede · AD 735 Noah did everything the Lord had commanded him, and he was six hundred years old when the waters of the flood overflowed the earth. And Noah entered the ark, and his sons, his wife, and his sons' wives with him, and so on. The age of Noah signifies the perfection of those who enter the Church and, through faith and actions worthy of faith, reach eternal joys.
7 And Noah went in, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons' wives with him, into the ark, because of the waters of the flood.
Cyril of Jerusalem · AD 386 During the actual exorcism, while waiting for the others, let men be with men and women with women. For now I need Noah's ark that I may have Noah and his sons together, separate from his wife and his sons' wives. For although the ark was one and the door was closed, yet decorum was observed.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 Was not Noah a holy man, who alone in the whole human race together with his whole house deserved to be delivered from the flood? And is not the church prefigured by Noah and his sons? They escape the flood, with wood (which symbolizes the cross) carrying them.
8 Of clean beasts, and of beasts that are not clean, and of fowl, and of everything that creeps on the ground,
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 Christ was also represented in Noah, and the world, in that ark. For why were all living creatures shut up in that ark except to signify all the nations? For God did not lack the capability of creating anew every species of living things. For when no creatures were in existence, did he not say, "Let the earth bring forth" and the earth brought forth?
9 there came two and two unto Noah into the ark, male and female, asGod had commanded Noah.
10 And it came to pass after seven days that the waters of the flood were on the earth.
Bede · AD 735 And when seven days had passed, the waters of the flood inundated the earth. The seventh day signifies the Sabbath, that is, the rest of future life. Therefore, since the flood signifies the water of baptism, aptly after seven days from when the ark was made it came, because we are baptized in the hope of perpetual rest.
11 In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that same day all the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 It is now time to examine the evidence that proves convincingly that the biblical years, so far from being only one-tenth as long as ours, were precisely as long as the present solar years. This is true of the years used in giving those extremely long life spans. It is said, for example, that the flood occurred in the six hundredth year of Noah's life.
Salvian the Presbyter · AD 500 And then what? "All the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the flood gates of heaven were opened. And the rain fell upon the earth forty days and forty nights." And a little later: "And all flesh was destroyed that moved upon the earth." And again, "And Noah only remained alive and they that were with him in the ark." Here and now I wish to ask them who call God in…
Bede · AD 735 In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, all the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened, and rain fell upon the earth for forty days and forty nights.
12 And the pour of rain was on the earth forty days and forty nights.
John Chrysostom · AD 407 The fact, too, that he brought on the deluge for forty days and nights is a further wonderful sign of his loving kindness. His purpose in his great goodness was that at least some of them might come to their senses and escape that utter ruin, having before their eyes the annihilation of their peers and the destruction about to overwhelm them.
13 On the same day went Noah, and Shem and Ham and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah's wife, and the three wives of his sons with them, into the ark;
Jerome · AD 420 [We see that] certain psalms are titled "for the octave." This is the day on which the synagogue comes to an end and the church is born. This is the day in the number of which eight souls were preserved in the ark of Noah, and "its counterpart, the church," says Peter, "now saves you."
Bede · AD 735 On that day, Noah and Shem and Ham and Japheth, his sons, and his wife, and the three wives of his sons with them entered the ark. They and every animal according to its kind, and so on until it says: and all the birds entered the ark with Noah.
14 they, and every beast after its kind, and all the cattle after their kind, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth after its kind, and all fowl after its kind — every bird of every wing.
15 And they went to Noah, into the ark, two and two of all flesh, in which was the breath of life.
16 And they that came, came male and female of all flesh, asGod had commanded him. And Jehovah shut him in.
Justin Martyr · AD 165 When 'God shut Noah into the ark,' you must not imagine that the unbegotten God Himself came down or went up from any place.
John Chrysostom · AD 407 The text goes on, "The Lord God shut the ark from the outside." Notice in this place too the considerateness in the expression "God shut the ark from the outside," to teach us that he had ensured the good man's complete safety.
Bede · AD 735 But the Lord sealed the ark from the outside, because He always protects His Church, which rejoices in the washing of sacred baptism, with heavenly defense, so that none of those whom He has predestined to life may perish in any way, and He protects it, struggling amid the waves of the world, so that it may not be overwhelmed or submerged by the pressures or delights of the wor…
17 And the flood was forty days on the earth. And the waters increased, and bore up the ark; and it was lifted up above the earth.
Maximus of Turin · AD 465 But let us see where this most sacred number of forty days had its beginning. We read first in the Old Testament that in the time of Noah, when criminal wickedness had seized the whole human race, torrents of water poured forth from the opened floodgates of heaven for just as many days.
Bede · AD 735 And the waters increased and lifted the ark high above the earth, the waters increased greatly and filled everything on the surface of the earth.
18 And the waters prevailed and increased greatly on the earth; and the ark went on the face of the waters.
19 And the waters prevailed exceedingly on the earth; and all the high mountains that are under all the heavens were covered.
Ephrem the Syrian · AD 373 With the eye of my mind I gazed upon paradise. The summit of every mountain is lower than its summit, the crest of the flood reached only its foothills, these it kissed with reverence before turning back to rise above and subdue the peak of every hill and mountain. The foothills of paradise it kisses, while every summit it buffets.
Bede · AD 735 Moreover, the ark was carried above the waters, and the waters prevailed exceedingly, and all the high mountains under the entire heaven were covered.
20 Fifteen cubits upward the waters prevailed; and the mountains were covered.
John Chrysostom · AD 407 It is not without purpose that Scripture describes all this to us. Instead, its purpose is for us to learn that not only people, cattle, four-footed beasts and reptiles were drowned but also the birds of heaven and whatever inhabited the mountains, namely, animals and other wild creatures.
Bede · AD 735 The water was fifteen cubits higher than the mountains which it covered. Indeed, seven and eight make fifteen; seven pertains to the rest of souls which is to be after death, since the Lord certainly rested in the tomb on the seventh Sabbath; but since He rose from the dead after the Sabbath, that is, on the eighth day, the number eight very rightly indicates the time of our re…
21 And all flesh that moved on the earth expired, fowl as well as cattle, and beasts, and all crawling things which crawl on the earth, and all mankind:
22 everything which had in its nostrils the breath of life, of all that was on the dry [land], died.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 Then, a little further on in the same book [Genesis], one could just as easily have noticed the verse "Everything on the dry land in whose nostrils was the breath of life died." This means that everything that lived on the earth perished in the flood.
23 And every living being was destroyed that was on the ground, both man, and cattle, and creeping things, and fowl of the heavens; and they were destroyed from the earth. And Noah alone remained, and what was with him in the ark.
Justin Martyr · AD 165 For when Moses had the rod in his hands, he led your nation through the sea. And you believe that this was spoken to your nation only, or to the land.
Bede · AD 735 We read in the story of holy Noah how he miraculously escaped the flood which destroyed the impious by being preserved with his household in the ark.
24 And the waters prevailed on the earth a hundred and fifty days.
Bede · AD 735 And the waters held sway over the earth for one hundred and fifty days. And this number pertains to the same mystery as the number fifteen because seventy is derived from seven, and eighty from eight; combining both numbers, the waters held sway over the earth for one hundred and fifty days, thus commending and confirming the sacrament of baptism in consecrating the new man tow…