effect of the Flood, which is evidently conceived as universal.
VIII. (1b?), 2b, 3a, (4?), 6-12, 13b. Subsidence of the waters.—The rain from heaven having ceased, the Flood gradually abates. [The ark settles on some high mountain; and] Noah, ignorant of his whereabouts and unable to see around, sends out first a raven and then a dove to ascertain the condition of the earth. The continuity of J's narrative has again been disturbed by the redaction. V.6a, which in its present position has no point of attachment in J, probably stood originally before 2b, where it refers to the 40 days' duration of the Flood (We. Comp.2 5). It was removed by R so as to make up part of the interval between the emergence of the mountain-tops and the drying of the ground.—There are two small points in which a modification of the generally accepted division of sources might be suggested. (1) 1b (the wind causing the abatement of the waters) is, on account of (
Hebrew characters), assigned to P. But the order 1b 2a is unnatural, and transpositions in P do not seem to have been admitted. The idea is more in accord with J's conception of the Flood than with P's; and but for the name (Hebrew characters) the half-verse might very well be assigned to J, and inserted between 2b and 3a. (2) V.4 is also almost universally regarded as P's (see Bu. 269 f.). But this leaves a lacuna in J between 3a and 6b, where a notice of the landing of the ark must have stood: on the other hand, 5b makes it extremely doubtful if P thought of the ark as stranded on a mountain at all. The only objection to assigning 4 to J is the chronology: if we may suppose the chronological scheme to have been added or retouched by a later hand (see p. 168), there is a great deal to be said for the view of Hupfeld and Reuss that the remainder of the v. belongs to J.[1]—The opening passage would then read as follows: 6a. At the end of 40 days, 2b. the rain from heaven was restrained; 1b. and Yahwe (?) caused a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters abated. 3a. And the waters went
to be redactional, and the three words following must disappear with
it. 23b might be assigned with almost equal propriety to J or to P.—(Hebrew characters)]
(apoc. impf. Qal) is a better attested Massor. reading than (Hebrew characters)
(Niph.). It is easier, however, to change the pointing (to Niph.) than
to supply (Hebrew characters) as subj., and the sense is at least as good.—Gu.'s rearrangement
(23a[Greek: a]. 22. 23b) is a distinct improvement: of the two homologous
sentences, that without (Hebrew characters) naturally stands second.
3a. (Hebrew characters)] G-K. § 113 u. G has misunderstood the idiom both
- ↑ It may be noted that in Jub. v. 28 no date is given for the landing of the ark.
