Testimonia — Early Christian Bible Commentary
Genesis 7 · World English Bible
1The LORD said to Noah, “Come with all of your household into the ship, for I have seen your righteousness before me in this generation.
2You shall take seven pairs of every clean animal with you, the male and his female. Of the animals that are not clean, take two, the male and his female.
3Also of the birds of the sky, seven and seven, male and female, to keep seed alive on the surface of all the earth.
4In seven days, I will cause it to rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights. I will destroy every living thing that I have made from the surface of the ground.”
5Noah did everything that the LORD commanded him.
6Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters came on the earth.
7Noah went into the ship with his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives, because of the floodwaters.
8Clean animals, unclean animals, birds, and everything that creeps on the ground
9went by pairs to Noah into the ship, male and female, as God commanded Noah.
10After the seven days, the floodwaters came on the earth.
11In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst open, and the sky’s windows opened.
12It rained on the earth forty days and forty nights.
13In the same day Noah, and Shem, Ham, and Japheth—the sons of Noah—and Noah’s wife and the three wives of his sons with them, entered into the ship—
14they, and every animal after its kind, all the livestock after their kind, every creeping thing that creeps on the earth after its kind, and every bird after its kind, every bird of every sort.
15Pairs from all flesh with the breath of life in them went into the ship to Noah.
16Those who went in, went in male and female of all flesh, as God commanded him; then the LORD shut him in.
17The flood was forty days on the earth. The waters increased, and lifted up the ship, and it was lifted up above the earth.
18The waters rose, and increased greatly on the earth; and the ship floated on the surface of the waters.
19The waters rose very high on the earth. All the high mountains that were under the whole sky were covered.
20The waters rose fifteen cubits higher, and the mountains were covered.
21All flesh died that moved on the earth, including birds, livestock, animals, every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, and every man.
22All on the dry land, in whose nostrils was the breath of the spirit of life, died.
23Every living thing was destroyed that was on the surface of the ground, including man, livestock, creeping things, and birds of the sky. They were destroyed from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those who were with him in the ship.
24The waters flooded the earth one hundred fifty days.
World English Bible · World English Bible; source eBible.org.
Notes on Genesis 7
1871 (English edition) | Historical editor/translator (individual note author unspecified)
Gen. vii. 10, 11 (in our version the seventeenth day).
Editorial footnote · The City of God, THE CITY OF GOD. / BOOK FIFTEENTH. / ARGUMENT., editorial note Footnote_173_173 · Original source
1885 (historical English edition; transcription printing date uncertain) | Historical editor/translator (individual note author unspecified)
Gen. vii. 16.
Editorial footnote · Dialogue with Trypho, Chapter CXXVII.—These passages of Scripture do not apply to the Father, but to the Word., editorial note cite_note-508 · Original source
1887 (historical English edition; transcription printing date uncertain) | Historical editor/translator (individual note author unspecified)
Gen. vii. 22
Editorial footnote · On the Holy Trinity, Chapter 16.—How the Image of God is Formed Anew in Man.; original source section: Chapter 16, editorial note cite_note-8 · Original source
1888 (historical English edition; transcription printing date uncertain) | Historical editor/translator (individual note author unspecified)
Gen. vii. 4.
Editorial footnote · Sermon I, Chapter uncertain, editorial note cite_note-121 · Original source
1894 (historical English edition; transcription printing date uncertain) | Historical editor/translator (individual note author unspecified)
Gen. vii. 2.
Editorial footnote · Conferences of John Cassian, Part I, Chapter XXIII.; original source section: Chapter 23; original book/conference: VIII. The Second Conference of Abbot Serenus., editorial note cite_note-4 · Original source
Date uncertain | Augustine of Hippo
Let us now see how it can be plainly made out that in the enormously protracted lives of those men the years were not so short that ten of their years were equal to only one of ours, but were of as great length as our own, which are measured by the course of the sun. It is proved by this, that Scripture states that the flood occurred in the six hundredth year of Noah's life. But why in the same place is it also written, "The waters of the flood were upon the earth in the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, the twenty-seventh day of the month," if that very brief year (of which it took ten to make one of ours) consisted of thirty-six days? For so scant a year, if the ancient usage dignified it with the name of year, either has not months, or its month must be three days, so that it may have twelve of them. How then was it here said, "In the six hundredth year, the second month, the twenty-seventh day of the month," unless the months then were of the same length as the months now? For how else could it be said that the flood began on the twenty-seventh day of the second month? Then afterwards, at the end of the flood, it is thus written: "And the ark rested in the seventh month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, on the mountains of Ararat. And the waters decreased continually until the eleventh month: on the first day of the month were the tops of the mountains seen." But if the months were such as we have, then so were the years. And certainly months of three days each could not have a twenty-seventh day. Or if every measure of time was diminished in proportion, and a thirtieth part of three days was then called a day, then that great deluge, which is recorded to have lasted forty days and forty nights, was really over in less than four of our days. Who can away with such foolishness and absurdity? Far be this error from us,—an error which seeks to build up our faith in the divine Scriptures on false conjecture, only to demolish our faith at another point. It is plain that the day then was what it now is, a space of four-and-twenty hours, determined by the lapse of day and night; the month then equal to the month now, which is defined by the rise and completion of one moon; the year then equal to the year now, which is completed by twelve lunar months, with the addition of five days and a-fourth to adjust it with the course of the sun. It was a year of this length which was reckoned the six hundredth of Noah's life; and in the second month, the twenty-seventh day of the month, the flood began,—a flood which, as is recorded, was caused by heavy rains continuing for forty days, which days had not only two hours and a little more, but four-and-twenty hours, completing a night and a day. And consequently those antediluvians lived more than 900 years, which were years as long as those which afterwards Abraham lived 175 of, and after him his son Isaac 180, and his son Jacob nearly 150, and some time after, Moses 120, and men now seventy or eighty, or not much longer, of which years it is said, "their strength is labour and sorrow."
Source passage · edition’s verse reference · The City of God, THE CITY OF GOD. / BOOK FIFTEENTH. / ARGUMENT., source paragraph 129 · Original source
Date uncertain | John Chrysostom
But come, let us teach thee even from the example of servants, and (to make the lesson stronger) those in the Old (Testament), that thou mayest know that we have no ground of defense when we remember a wrong. Will you then that I tell you of Moses, or shall we go yet farther back? For the more ancient the instances that can be pointed out, the more are we surpassed. “Why so?” Because virtue was then more difficult. Those men had no written precepts, no patterns of living, but their nature fought, unarmed, by itself, and was forced to float in all directions unballasted. Wherefore also when praising Noah, God called him not simply perfect, but added, “in his generation” ( Gen. vii. 1 ); signifying, “at that time,” when there were many hindrances, since many others shone after him, yet will he have nothing less than they; for in his own time he was perfect. Who then before Moses was patient? The blessed and noble Joseph, who having shone by his chastity, shone no less by his long suffering. He was sold when he had done no wrong, but was waiting on others, and serving, and performing all the duties of domestics. They brought against him an evil accusation, and he did not defend himself, though he had his father on his side. Nay, he even went to carry food to them in the desert, and when he found them not, he did not despair or turn back, (yet he had an excuse for doing so had he chosen,) but remained near the wild beasts and those savage men, preserving the feeling of a true brother. Again, when he dwelt in the prison house, and was asked the cause, he spake no evil of them, but only, “I have done nothing,” and, “I was stolen out of the land of the Hebrews”; and after this again, when he was made lord, he nourished them, and delivered them from ten thousand dangers. If we be sober, the wickedness of our neighbor is not strong enough to cast us out of our own virtue. But those others were not like him; they both stripped him, and endeavored to kill him, and reproach him with his dream, though they had even received their meat from him, and planned to deprive him of life and of liberty. And they ate, and cared not for their brother lying naked in the pit. What could be worse than such brutality? Were they not worse than any number of murderers? And after this, having drawn him up, they gave him over to ten thousand deaths, selling him to barbarian and savage men, who were on their journey to barbarians. Yet he, when he became ruler, not only remitted them their punishment, but even acquitted them, as far at least as relating to himself, of their sin, calling what had been done a dispensation of God, not any wickedness of theirs; and the things which he did against them he did not as remembering evil, but in all these he dissembled, for his brother’s sake. After this, when he saw them clinging to him, he straightway threw away the mask, and wept aloud, and embraced them, as though he had received the greatest benefits, he, who formerly was made away with by them, and he brought them all down into Egypt, and repaid them with ten thousand benefits. What excuse then shall we have, if after the Law, and after grace, and after the addition of so much heavenly wisdom, we do not even strive to rival him who lived before grace and before the Law? Who shall deliver us from punishment? For there is nothing, there is nothing more grievous than the remembrance of injuries. And this the man hath showed that owed ten thousand talents; from whom payment was at one time not demanded, at another time again demanded; not demanded, because of the lovingkindness of God; but demanded, because of his own wickedness, and because of his malice toward his fellow-servant. Knowing all which things, let us forgive our neighbors their trespasses, and repay them by deeds of an opposite kind, that we too may obtain mercy from God, through the grace and lovingkindness of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.
Source passage · edition’s verse reference · Homilies on the Gospel of John, Homily 71, source paragraph 15 · Original source