Genesis 7:6-8

New Catholic Bible

Footnotes

1. Genesis 7:6 In this section the entrance into the ark and the description of the flood are repeated, first in the Yahwist version with inserts from the Priestly tradition (vv. 1-12) and then in the Priestly version with inserts from the Yahwist tradition (vv. 13-20); finally, there is a description of the effects of the flood that draws on both traditions (vv. 21-24). In the Yahwist tradition the flood is simply a torrential rain that continues for forty days (vv. 4, 12; 8:2b), while in the Priestly account, in keeping with the cosmic vision in Genesis 1:1-10, the waters are loosed both from the subterranean ocean and from the heavenly ocean (7:11; 8:2a).
   According to the ideas of the ancients, in creating the world God separated the earth from the waters by creating the solid heavenly vault that divided the oceanic mass (the “abyss”) into an upper part beyond the heavens and a lower, earthly part, and by then commanding the lower waters to retreat, allowing the dry land to emerge. At this point, then, the lower, subterranean waters invade the earth anew through springs, while passages (“floodgates”) open in the heavenly vault and allow the upper waters to pour down. Thus God causes some effects of his creative work to cease. The waters that submerge the highest mountains on earth and destroy humankind and the animals effect a return of the universe to its primitive condition; the process is an image of the cosmic dimensions that sin, the rejection of God, has.
2. Genesis 7:8 This verse, which seems to be the work of the final editor, brings the Yahwist source, which distinguishes between clean and unclean animals, into harmony with the Priestly source, which has the animals in pairs.