Genesis 8 · The Lantern

The Ark Rests on Ararat

And God remembered Noah, and every animal and all the livestock that were with him in the ark. And God made a wind pass over the earth, and the waters subsided.

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.

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,…

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.

And the springs of the deep and the windows of the heavens were shut, and the rain from the heavens was held back.

And the waters kept turning back from the earth, going and returning; and at the end of a hundred and fifty days the waters had gone down.

And the ark came to rest in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on the mountains of Ararat.

And the waters went on going down until the tenth month; in the tenth month, on the first of the month, the tops of the mountains appeared.

Noah Sends a Raven and a Dove

And at the end of forty days, Noah opened the window of the ark that he had made,

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!

(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.

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…

and he sent out the raven; and it went out, going out and returning, until the waters were dried up from the earth.

For what it says that the raven sent out from the ark would no more return, this showed that the impure pleasures of men must be expelled from the Church and are to return no further. For the raven signified the pleasures of the deceitful and impure soul, and the infamy of its black color showed the unrighteous vice of sinners.

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.

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…

And he sent out the dove from him, to see whether the waters had lightened from the face of the ground.

But the dove that was sent, and, when it had not found rest in the world, returned again into the ark, revealed an image of the Holy Spirit, who, when he had been spread by the Lord in all the world and because of the iniquity of the world could not find peace in the home of all men, had to be called back into the ark of the Church, just as the Lord himself in the Gospel instru…

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…

But the dove found no resting place for the sole of her foot, and she returned to him, to the ark, for waters were on the face of all the earth. And he stretched out his hand and took her, and brought her to himself into the ark.

And he waited yet another seven days, and again he sent the dove out from the ark.

And the dove came to him at evening time — and look, a freshly plucked olive leaf in her mouth. And Noah knew that the waters had lightened from the earth.

And he waited yet another seven days, and sent out the dove — and she did not return to him again.

Exiting the Ark

And it happened in the six hundred and first year, in the first month, on the first of the month, the waters were dried from the earth. And Noah removed the covering of the ark and looked — and look, the face of the ground was dry.

And in the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was fully dry.

And God spoke to Noah:

“Go out of the ark — you, and your wife, and your sons, and your sons’ wives with you.

Every animal that is with you, of all flesh — the birds, the livestock, every creeping thing that creeps on the earth — bring out with you, and let them swarm on the earth and be fruitful and multiply on the earth.”

And Noah went out, and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives with him.

Every animal, every creeping thing, and every bird — everything that moves on the earth — went out of the ark by their families.

Noah Builds an Altar

And Noah built an altar to the LORD, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird, and offered up burnt offerings on the altar.

And the LORD smelled the soothing aroma, and the LORD said in his heart, “I will not again curse the ground any more because of man — for the shaping of man’s heart is evil from his youth — and I will not again strike down all living things, as I have done.

"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.

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.

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.