The Flood

Genesis 6:6-8:22

Genesis 6:6-8

And the Lord God, having seen that the wicked actions of men were multiplied upon the earth, and that every one in his heart was intensely brooding over evil continually, then God laid it to heart [Hebrew: repented] that He had made man upon the earth, and He pondered it deeply. And God said, “I will blot out man whom I have made from the face of the earth, even man with cattle, and reptiles with flying creatures of the sky, for I am grieved that I have made them.”

Here the narrative emphasizes the universality of evil, affecting old and young alike (much as in our own days).

God, of course, does not “repent” that he made man—this is an adaptation to our earthly understanding.¹ He simply resolves to punish men and make a new beginning with his righteous man, Noah, who is to become like a new Adam.

Just as the whole of creation was made for man and is to be renewed with him at the end of this world, when there will be a new heaven and a new earth, so too the creation perishes together with the unrighteous men of Noah’s time.

Genesis 6:9-11

But Noah found grace before the Lord God. And these are the generations of Noah. Noah was a just man; being perfect in his generation, Noah was well-pleasing to God. And Noah begot three sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth.

The Fathers emphasize how great was the virtue of Noah to be so perfect in the midst of a corrupt generation, and therefore how possible it is for us to be virtuous even when living in such corrupt times as our own.

In noting that Noah had only three children (while Adam and others of the Patriarchs possibly had hundreds), the Fathers point to the chastity of Noah, who abstained even from the lawful marriage bed.

Genesis 6:12-14

The earth was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with iniquity. And the Lord God saw the earth, and it was corrupted; because all flesh had corrupted its way upon the earth. And the Lord God said to Noah, A period of all men is come before Me; because the earth has been filled with iniquity by them, and, behold, I destroy them and the earth.

Here St. John Chrysostom emphasizes how God speaks to Noah face to face about this plan for mankind. He as it were says to Noah: “Men have performed so much evil that their impiety has poured out and covered the whole earth. Therefore I will destroy both them and the earth. Since they themselves have already destroyed themselves beforehand by their iniquities, I will bring complete perdition and exterminate them and the earth, so that the earth might be cleansed and delivered from the defilement of so many sins.”²

Now God commands Noah to make an Ark:

Genesis 6:15-17

Make therefore for thyself an Ark of square timber. Thou shalt make the Ark in compartments, and thou shalt pitch it within and without with pitch. And thus shalt thou make the Ark; three hundred cubits the length of the Ark, and fifty cubits the breadth, and thirty cubits the height of it. Thou shalt narrow the Ark in making it, and in a cubit above thou shalt finish it, and the door of the Ark thou shalt make on the side; with lower, second, and third stories thou shalt make it.

A cubit is supposed to be the distance from the elbow to the end of the hand, roughly eighteen inches. Therefore the Ark, according to this, was approximately 450 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet high.

This shows that it was a very unusual type of structure, apparently like a big boat—a three-dimensional, rectangular boat—whose sole purpose was to keep Noah and his children and the animals floating through the course of the Flood. The idea is that there is going to be a flood which will obliterate everything, and only those who are left in the Ark will be delivered.

Of course, one can imagine how long it would take for Noah to build the Ark, living in the midst of a corrupt generation. All the people were settled in a fairly close area, so probably the whole world knew about it. One can imagine, too, their response when Noah started building a boat four hundred fifty feet long and saying, “Beware, there’s going to be a big flood.” They probably took their neighbors down, pointed out these “crazy” people, and laughed at them; and their children probably came and threw rocks. The righteous were obeying the will of God, and people were laughing.

So it must have been a very strange command for a righteous man to receive. It shows he was in close contact with God. Like Abraham who was later prepared even to kill his own son because he knew God had spoken to him, so Noah who was righteous, speaking directly to God, obeyed the command he was given. The very building of such an immense structure—which required a good part of that hundred and twenty years these people were given to repent—was to serve as a visible warning to mankind of impending disaster.

Genesis 6:18-19

And behold I bring a flood of water upon the earth, to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life under heaven, and whatsoever things are upon the earth shall die. And I will establish My covenant with thee, and thou shall enter into the Ark, and thy sons and thy wife, and thy sons’ wives with thee.

God reveals what He is to do with mankind, and establishes a covenant with Noah-a constantly recurring theme throughout sacred history: God makes an agreement with His chosen ones. God does His will on earth not by His fiat, not by simply saying that is the way it has to be, but by finding a righteous man who will obey Him. God arranges that men will do His work on earth.

The sons of Noah were included in the Ark, says St. John Chrysostom, not because they were as virtuous as Noah (although they did avoid the evils of their time) but for the sake of Noah, just as St. Paul’s companions were saved with him when he was shipwrecked (Acts 27:22-24).³

Genesis 6:20-23

And of all cattle and of all reptiles and of all wild beasts, even of all flesh, thou shalt bring by pairs of all, into the Ark, that thou mayest feed them with thyself, male and female they shall be. Of all winged birds after their kind and of all cattle after their kind, and of all reptiles creeping upon the earth after their kind, pairs of all shall come in to thee, male and female to be fed with thee. And thou shalt take to thyself of all kinds of food which ye eat, and thou shalt gather them to thyself, and it shall be for thee and them to eat. And Noah did all things whatever the Lord God commanded him, so did he.

Here Noah is to put food in the Ark: vegetable food, with which the animals also were to be fed. It was to be stored up in great compartments in the Ark.

Again, one can imagine the mockery to which his contemporaries must have subjected him for such a seemingly insane project—and yet Noah obeyed God without question: truly a righteous man for whom the things of God come first and the opinions of man last. This is an inspiring example for us in our own corrupt days.

Genesis 7:1-3

And the Lord God said to Noah, Enter thou and all thy family into the Ark, for thee have I seen righteous before Me in this generation. And of the clean cattle take in to thee sevens, male and female, and of the unclean cattle pairs, male and female. And of clean flying creatures of the skies sevens, male and female, and of all unclean flying creatures pairs, male and female, to maintain seed on all the earth.

St. John Chrysostom asks the question how Noah knew the difference between “clean” and “unclean” animals before the law of Moses, when this distinction was made; and he answers: from the wisdom of his own nature implanted by God.⁴

And why were there to be seven pairs of clean animals, and two pairs of everything else? St. John Chrysostom tells the obvious answer: so that Noah could offer sacrifice when the Flood was over, without destroying any of the pairs. This is indeed what he did (Gen. 8:20). He also had to have animals to eat because, right after the Flood, God gives the command to eat meat.

Perhaps one reason for eating meat was that, after the Flood, when the windows of heaven were opened, apparently a whole new atmospheric condition prevailed. Also, as the Fathers suggest, man had by this time become lower, more fallen.

Genesis 7:4-9

For yet seven days having passed, I bring rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights, and I will blot out every offspring which I have made from the face of all the earth. And Noah did all things whatever the Lord God commanded him. And Noah was six hundred years old when the Flood of water was upon the earth. And then went in Noah and his sons and his wife, and his sons’ wives with him into the Ark, because of the water of the Flood. And of clean flying creatures and of unclean flying creatures, and of clean cattle and of unclean cattle, and of all things that creep upon the earth, pairs went in to Noah into the Ark, male and female, as God commanded Noah.

Modern rationalist critics, of course, have great problems with the whole story of Noah and the Ark. Could there have really been a vessel large enough to hold two of each type of creature (of course, excluding fish, insects and other creatures that might be able to survive on their own), and how could they have been gathered together from all over the world?

Concerning the size of the Ark (which as we have said was roughly 450 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet high), one modern estimate has found that such a vessel, divided into several floors as the text states, could easily hold two of every kind of animal alive today, with room to spare.

Some rationalists object that the animals on other continents, for example America, could not have come to the Ark. However, if the Flood was really a worldwide catastrophe such as Genesis describes it in the verses that follow, we have no way of knowing what the earth looked like before it—the continents we know were formed by the Flood itself and geological processes that have operated since then. Perhaps there was only one continent then; we don’t know.

How did the animals come? Of course, God sent them. The text does not describe Noah capturing and forcing them on board the Ark; they simply “went in.”⁵ The Fathers understand this quite simply and realistically. St. Ephraim writes:

On this very day there begin to come from the east elephants, from the south apes and peacocks, other animals assemble from the west, and still others hastened to come from the north. The lions left their thickets, fierce beasts came out of their dens, the deer and wild asses came out of their wildernesses, the animals of the mountains assembled from the mountains. The contemporaries of Noah flocked together to such a new spectacle, but not for repentance, but to enjoy seeing how before their eyes there entered into the Ark lions, and right after them, without fear, the oxen hastened, seeking shelter together with them, how wolves and sheep entered together, falcons and sparrows, eagles and doves.⁶

In other words, it must have been quite a spectacular event. People looking at it would marvel: what’s going on? The thought did not occur to them that something supernatural was occurring, which might move them to repentance.

Rationalist scholars, of course, would reject this account as full of miracles; but why shouldn’t there be miracles here, as there are in all of God’s dealings with righteous men? Noah is like a second Adam, in whose presence the wild beasts become meek and obedient.

For the same reason, the animals did not attack each other. Just as Adam was a righteous man and therefore the animals were at peace with one another around him, so too with Noah. In Orthodoxy, there is the concept of a prepodobny: a saint who has become like unto the first-created Adam. In the presence of such a righteous person, animals which are natural enemies become in harmony. We see this in numerous Lives of Saints, right up to very recent times. St. Seraphim ofSarov and St. Paul of Obnora in Russia, and St. Herman in America, are a few examples. The Holy Fathers say that is exactly what happened with Noah. The lion would not eat the lamb because Noah was a righteous man. With a righteous man, the laws of nature change.

A big objection of rationalists is the universality of the Flood: Many people say, “There are accounts of Babylonian floods in about 3000B.c. It must have been a local flood in the Babylonian area. There couldn’t have been a flood over the whole earth!” But why not? God made the whole earth; God can destroy the whole earth. Why shouldn’t there be a flood over the whole earth? From the way it is described in the Scripture, it is quite clear that this is what is meant. The Flood described in the next verses, when “all the fountains of the abyss were broken up and the floodgates of heaven were opened” (we discussed this breaking of the firmament and the release ofwater above it in chapter 3), is a cosmic catastrophe of enormous proportions. At the same time, undoubtedly, there was volcanic activity, underground water was coming out, and all kinds of spectacular things were happening, which would account for the fact that there are high mountains now. The Flood was not necessarily over Mount Everest at thirty thousand feet; Mount Everest could have arisen after that. Before the Flood, it could have been that the mountains were fairly low, perhaps some few thousand feet high instead of thirty thousand feet high.

The Scripture describes the waters of the Flood as being twenty-two and a half feet above the highest mountain. If it was only a local flood, how could you have flood waters that high in the area of Babylnia, without having water covering the whole earth? And if it was only a local flood, why didn’t God simply tell Noah to leave the area ahead of time? Why did He have him build this Ark? Noah could have gone away from the Flood area, as Lot fled Sodom.

Furthermore, at the end of the Flood, God promises He will never again allow such a universal catastrophe (Gen. 9:11). Of course, after that there have been many severe local floods, but never a universal flood.

In Roman Catholic books, some modern scholars say, “There must have been other people left in other parts of the world. Noah was just a symbol of this stage of mankind.” But if the Flood was not universal, or at least if there were human survivors of it apart from Noah and his family, there is no point or meaning to this Biblical account of it. The whole point here is the totally new beginning of mankind that occurs with it.

In recent years creation scientists have made fruitful geological investigations that do indeed point to a universal Flood some five thousand or so years ago (see John C. Whitcomb and Henry M. Morris, The Genesis Flood).

Genesis 7:10

And it came to pass after the seven days that the water of the Flood came upon the earth

During the seven days they are all getting into the Ark, adjusting themselves, finding their quarters, getting the people in charge of feeding set up, and dealing with other practical problems.

St. John Chrysostom describes this as a terrible experience: the smell of all the animals, with no windows looking out. Noah was supposed to take the food which was suitable for himself and feed it to the animals during that time. Undoubtedly it was a time of fasting and prayer and labor. They probably did not eat full meals.

Then the Flood is described:

Genesis 7:11-17

In the six hundredth year of the life of Noah, in the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month,⁷ on this day all the fountains of the abyss were broken up, and the floodgates of heaven were opened. And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights. On that very day entered Noah, Shem, Ham, Japheth, the sons of Noah, and the wife of Noah, and the three wives of his sons with him into the Ark. And all the wild beasts after their kind, and all cattle after their kind, and every reptile moving itself on the earth after its kind, and every flying bird after its kind, went in to Noah into the Ark, pairs, male and female of all flesh in which is the breath of life. And they that entered went in male and female of all flesh, as God commanded Noah. And the Lord God shut the Ark outside of him. And the Flood was upon the earth forty days and forty nights.

As we have said, this was not just rain. Everything was coming down from the firmament, and everything was coming up from underneath, reducing the earth to the same state it was on the First Day of Creation—chaos.

Genesis 7:17-24

And the water abounded greatly and bore up the Ark, and it was lifted on high from off the earth. And the water prevailed and abounded exceedingly upon the earth, and the Ark was borne upon the water. And the water prevailed exceedingly upon the earth, and covered all the high mountains which were under heaven. Fifteen cubits upwards was the ⁸ and it covered all the high mountains. And there died all flesh that moved upon the earth, of flying creatures and cattle, and of wild beasts, and every reptile moving upon the earth, and every man. And all things which have the breath of life, and whatever was on the dry land, died. And God blotted out every offspring which was upon the face of the earth, both man and beast, and reptiles, and birds of the sky, and they were blotted out from the earth, and Noah was left alone, and those with him in the Ark. And the water was raised over the earth an hundred and fifty days.

Noah was six hundred years old at the time of the Flood; therefore God gave mankind only one hundred years and seven days, not one hundred and twenty years to repent as He had decreed. This is because, as St. John Chrysostom says, men had become unworthy of more time, being unmoved even when seeing the Ark and its animals miraculously assembled in it.⁹ It was clear enough by then that people were not repenting.

The Flood covered even the highest mountains with fifteen cubits (twenty-two and a half feet) of water. St. John Chrysostom says of this:

Fifteen cubits upwards was the water raised above the mountains. Not without reason does the Scripture reveal this to us, but so that we might know that those who drowned were not only men and cattle and four-footed beasts and reptiles, but also the birds of the heavens and all the beasts and other irrational creatures which dwelt in the mountains.¹⁰

Again he says:

Behold how the Scripture once and twice and many times informs us that there occurred a universal destruction, that not a single creature was saved, but all drowned in the water—both men and animals.¹¹

If people were so wicked then, did they all perish spiritually in the Flood? Were all of them condemned eternally for their sins or not?

In the Scriptures we are told specifically about those who were living at the time of Noah. In 1 Peter 3:18-20, the Apostle Peter describes how Christ descended to hades, and whom He saw there: “For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: by which also He went and preached unto the spirits in prison (that is, in hades), which sometime were disobedient, when once the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the Ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.” This “salvation by water,” says St. Peter, is an image of Baptism. The Ark is an image of the Church, of being saved from the wicked world.

This quote of St. Peter says distinctly that Christ went to preach to those who had perished in the time of Noah. Therefore, they had a chance to believe in Christ, although physically they had all died. After death, they had the excuse that Noah was not Christ or God Himself, and now they had the chance to accept Christ. That, however, was up to each individual soul. Undoubtedly, some who had died in the Flood accepted Christ’s preaching in hades, and some did not. Once one’s heart grows hard, one does not accept Christ even though one knows that one should, that this is one’s last chance. Pride gets in the way.

Genesis 8:1-3

And God remembered Noah, and all the wild beasts, and all the cattle, and all the birds, and all the reptiles that creep, as many as were with him in the Ark. And God brought a wind upon the earth, and the water stayed. And the fountains of the deep were closed up, and the floodgates of heaven, and the rain from heaven was withheld. And the water subsided and went off the earth, and after an hundred and fifty days the water was diminished.

“And God remembered Noah” does not mean that He had forgotten him in the meantime. It means that God kept him in mind to save him. Such expressions are anthropomorphic, so that we can understand.¹²

The Flood was a hundred and fifty days going up—almost half a year! All that time, Noah was in the Ark without any ventilation or sunshine. The whole sky was covered with darkness. Then the water went down for a hundred and fifty days. Altogether, the earth was covered with water for a year. At that time the land was rising up, tremendous underground reservoirs were being filled, and the whole geography that we now know was being formed.

Genesis 8:3

And the Ark rested in the seventh month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, on the mountains of Ararat.

It came finally to rest on the mountains of Ararat, that is, the region of Ararat. There are several peaks, but there are two main peaks of Ararat. It came to rest in the seventh month, the twenty-seventh day, exactly five months after it had begun to rain.

Genesis 8:4-5

And the water continued to decrease until the tenth month. And in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the heads of the mountains were seen.

That is, the Ark had already come to rest upon the high peak. Then the other peaks began to be seen.

Genesis 8:6-7

And it came to pass after forty days, Noah opened the window of the Ark which he had made. And he sent forth a raven; and it went forth and returned not until the water was dried from off the earth.

This does not mean that it returned; it means that it never did come back.

Genesis 8:8-14

And he sent a dove after it to see if the water had ceased from off the earth. And the dove, not having found rest for her feet, returned to him into the Ark, because the water was on all the face of the earth. And he stretched out his hand and took her, and brought her to himself into the Ark. And having waited yet seven other days, he again sent forth the dove from the Ark. And the dove returned to him in the evening, and had a leaf of olive, a sprig in her mouth; and Noah knew that the water had ceased from off the earth. And having waited yet seven other days, he again sent forth the dove, and she did not return to him again any more. And it came to pass in the six hundred and first year of the life of Noah, in the first month, on the first day of the month, the water subsided from off the earth. And Noah opened the covering of the Ark which he had made, and he saw that the water had subsided from the face of the earth. And in the second month the earth was dried, on the twenty-seventh day of the month.

Thus Noah was in the Ark for one year in all.
Noah sent out birds to scout around. First he sent the raven, which did not return because (according to St. John Chrysostom) it found the corpses of animals and people to eat.¹³ It was still not safe to go out: the highest elevations were spoiled with these corpses on them.

Then Noah sent the dove. The first time the dove went out, she found no trees or vegetables to eat. The mountains were still covered with slime. The second time the dove found a branch, meaning that the trees were now out of the water and were beginning to grow, but still not enough to support life. The third time the dove did not return because she now found suitable living conditions. Therefore, Noah knew it was now time to come out.

Genesis 8:15-19

And the Lord God spoke to Noah, saying, Come out from the Ark, thou and thy wife and thy sons, and thy sons’ wives with thee. And all the wild beasts as many as are with thee, and all flesh both of birds and beasts, and every reptile moving upon the earth, bring forth with thee: and increase ye and multiply upon the earth. And Noah came forth, and his wife and his sons, and his sons’ wives with him. And all the wild beasts and all the cattle and every bird, and every reptile creeping upon the earth after their kind, came forth out of the Ark.

Here we see in Noah the image ofAdam. He is the only one left, together with his family; he is to begin mankind over again. He is given the same command that Adam was given: “Increase and multiply.” He becomes the father ofall living after the Flood.

Notice how Noah—even though he knew it was probably safe to go out since the dove did not come back—waited until God spoke. The whole time he was patiently waiting on God.

Genesis 8:20-22

And Noah built an altar to the Lord, and took of all clean beasts, and of all clean birds, and offered a whole burnt-offering upon the altar. And the Lord God smelled a smell ofsweetness, and the Lord God having considered, said, I will not any more curse the earth, because of the works of men, because the imagination of man is intently bent upon evil things from his youth, I will not therefore any more smite all living flesh as I have done. All the days of the earth, seed and harvest, cold and heat, summer and spring, shall not cease by day or night.

So we see that, first of all, Noah offers sacrifice, knowing like Abel in his heart that this is fitting to do in thanksgiving, after having been delivered. He offers the clean animals-both birds and beasts, such as doves and sheep.

Also, we see how God’s mercy is shown. God sees that men will continue to be evil, and that is why He allows meat to be eaten, in accordance with the lower condition of post-Flood humanity. He promises, however, never again to curse the earth (as He did to Adam) or destroy mankind. The normal life of the fallen earth will continue to the end.

In the Flood, everything was killed; but at the end of the world, there will be a renewal of the earth. In fact, people living then will not even die. What we call the “end of the world,” therefore, will not be the same as destroying it. It will be a transfiguration of the whole world.

---

Footnotes

1. St. Ephraim the Syrian, Commentary on Genesis 6, Tvoreniya 6, pp. 354-55 [Fathers of the Church vol. 91, pp. 137-38 (6.7.1-2)]; St. John Chrysostom, Homilies on Genesis 22.5, Tvoreniya 4, pp. 208-9 [Fathers of the Church vol. 82, pp. 79-80 (22.15)]. [See also Blessed Augustine, City of God 15.25, A Select Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, P. Schaff et al., eds. Reprint, Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1952-1956; Reprint, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson, 1994, 12, p. 306.] ↩

2. St. John Chrysostom, Homilies on Genesis 24.3, Tvoreniya 4, pp. 229-30 [Fathers of the Church vol. 82, pp. 109-10 (24.7-8)]. ↩

3. Ibid. 24.4, pp. 232-33 [Fathers of the Church vol. 82, pp. 113-14 (24.13)]. ↩

4. Ibid. 24.5, pp. 234-35 [Fathers of the Church vol. 82, pp. 116-17 (24.16)]. ↩

5. The Greeks have the tradition of the semantron, the wooden board that is beaten when calling people to Matins, which is like Noah going out and calling all the animals to the Ark. — Bl. Seraphim ↩

6. St. Ephraim, Commentary on Genesis 7, Tvoreniya 6, pp. 357-58 [Fathers of the Church vol. 91, p. 139 (6.9.2-3)]. ↩

7. According to the Orthodox Christian Calendar, which begins on September 1, we calculate this as the twenty-seventh of October. — Bl. Seraphim ↩

8. I.e., fifteen cubits above the top of the mountains. — Bl. Seraphim ↩

9. St. John Chrysostom, Homilies on Genesis 25.2, Tvoreniya 4, p. 244 [Fathers of the Church vol. 82, pp. 129-31 (25.8-9)]. ↩

10. Ibid. 25.6, p. 251 [Fathers of the Church vol. 82, pp. 139-40 (25.19-20)]. ↩

11. Ibid. 25.6, p. 252 [Fathers of the Church vol. 82, pp. 140-41 (25.20)]. ↩

12. Ibid., 26.3, pp. 259-60 [Fathers of the Church vol. 82, pp. 149-51 (26.8-10)]. [See also Blessed Theodoret, Questions on Genesis 52, LEC 1, p. 111.] ↩

13. St. John Chrysostom, Homilies on Genesis 26.4, Tvoreniya 4, pp. 261-62 [Fathers of the Church vol. 82, pp. 153-54 (26.12)]. ↩