(8:7) "He sent forth a raven."
The flood story in Genesis is confusing to read. The clean animals go into the ark by twos (6:19-20,
7:8-9)
and by sevens (7:2). The flood lasts for forty days (7:17)
and for 150 days (7:24, 8:3). Noah sends out a raven
(8:7) and a dove (8:8).
Why doesn't Genesis get its story straight? Because there were two separate accounts that were (somewhat clumsily)
interwoven.
(8:8-11) "He sent forth a dove."
Noah sends a dove out to see if there was any dry
land. But the dove returns without finding any. Then, just seven days later, the dove
goes out again and returns with an olive leaf. But how could an olive tree survive
the flood? And if any seeds happened to survive, they wouldn't germinate and grow leaves within a
seven day period.
(8:19) "Every beast, every creeping thing, and every fowl,
and whatsoever creepeth upon the earth, after their kinds, went forth out of the ark."
When the animals left the ark, what
would they have eaten? There would have been no plants after the ground had been submerged for nearly a year.
What would the carnivores have eaten? Whatever prey they ate would have gone extinct. And how did the New World monkeys or the
Australian marsupials find their way back after the flood subsided?
8:1And God remembered Noah, and every living thing, and all the cattle that
was with him in the ark: and God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the
waters asswaged;
8:2
The fountains also of the deep and the windows of heaven were stopped, and
the rain from heaven was restrained;
8:3
And the waters returned from off the earth continually: and after the end of the
hundred and fifty days the waters were abated.
8:4And the ark rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, upon the
mountains of Ararat.
8:5And the waters decreased continually until the tenth month: in the tenth month, on the first
day of the month, were the tops of the mountains seen.
8:6
And it came to pass at the end of forty days, that Noah opened the window of the ark which
he had made:
8:7
And he sent forth a raven, which went forth to and fro, until the waters
were dried up from off the earth.
8:8
Also he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters were abated from
off the face of the ground;
8:9But the dove found no rest for the sole of her foot, and she returned unto
him into the ark, for the waters were on the face of the whole earth: then
he put forth his hand, and took her, and pulled her in unto him into the ark.
8:10And he stayed yet other seven days; and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark;
8:11And the dove came in to him in the evening; and, lo, in her mouth was an
olive leaf pluckt off: so Noah knew that the waters were abated from off the earth.
8:12
And he stayed yet other seven days; and sent forth the dove; which
returned not again unto him any more.
8:13
And it came to pass in the six hundredth and first year, in the first month, the
first day of the month, the waters were dried up from off the earth:
and Noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked, and, behold, the face
of the ground was dry.
8:14And in the second month, on the seven and twentieth day of the month, was the earth dried.
8:16
Go forth of the ark, thou, and thy wife, and thy sons, and thy sons' wives
with thee.
8:17
Bring forth with thee every living thing that is with thee, of all flesh,
both of fowl, and of cattle, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon
the earth; that they may breed abundantly in the earth, and be fruitful, and
multiply upon the earth.
8:18
And Noah went forth, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons' wives with him:
8:19Every beast, every creeping thing, and every fowl, and whatsoever creepeth upon the earth,
after their kinds, went forth out of the ark.
8:20And Noah builded an altar unto the LORD; and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl,
and offered burnt offerings on the altar.
8:21And the LORD smelled a sweet savour;and the
LORD said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man's
sake; for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth ;
neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done.
8:22While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and
summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.
(8:20-21) "And the Lord smelled a sweet savor."
Noah kills the "clean beasts" and burns their dead bodies for God.
According to 7:8-9 this would have caused the extinction of all
"clean" animals since only two of each were taken onto the ark. Does God desire animal sacrifices?
(8:21) "I will not again curse the ground any more for man's
sake; for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth."
God killed all living
things (6:5) because humans are evil, and then promised not to do it again
(8:21) because humans are evil. The mind of God is a frightening thing. Will God curse the earth?
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The Sacrifice of Noah