1 And the Lord said to him: Go in, thou and all thy house, into the ark: for thee I have seen just 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 take seven and seven, the male and the 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 But of the beasts that are unclean two and two, the male and the female. Of the fowls also of the air seven and seven, the male and the female: that seed may be saved upon the face of the whole earth.
4 For yet a while, and after seven days, I will rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights: and I will destroy every substance that I have made, from the face of the earth.
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 Noe did all things which the Lord had commanded him.
6 And he was six hundred years old, when the waters of the flood overflowed 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 Noe went in and his sons, his wife and the wives of his sons 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 And of beasts clean and unclean, and of fowls, and of every thing that moveth upon the earth,
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 Two and two went in to Noe into the ark, male and female, as the Lord had commanded Noe.
10 And after the seven days were passed, the waters of the flood overflowed 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 the life of Noe, in the second month, in the seventeenth day of the month, all the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the floodgates 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 rain fell upon 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 In the selfsame day Noe, and Sem, and Cham, and Japheth, his sons: his wife, and the three wives of his sons with them, went 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 according to its kind, and all the cattle in their kind, and every thing that moveth upon the earth, according to its kind, and every fowl according to its kind, all birds, and all that fly,
15 Went in to Noe into the ark, two and two of all flesh, wherein was the breath of life.
16 And they that went in, went in male and female of all flesh, as God had commanded him: and the Lord shut him in on the outside.
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 upon the earth: and the waters increased, and lifted up the ark on high from 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 For they overflowed exceedingly: and filled all on the face of the earth: and the ark was carried upon the waters.
19 And the waters prevailed beyond measure upon the earth: and all the high mountains under the whole heaven 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 The water was fifteen cubits higher than the mountains which it 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 was destroyed that moved upon the earth, both of fowl and of cattle, and of beasts, and of all creeping things that creep upon the earth: and all men.
22 And all things wherein there is the breath of life on the earth, 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 he destroyed all the substance that was upon the earth, from man even to beast, and the creeping things and fowls of the air: and they were destroyed from the earth: and Noe only remained, and they that were 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 upon 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…