13b. Noah ventures to remove the covering of the ark, and sees that the earth is dry.
20-22. Noah's sacrifice.—J's account of the leaving of
the ark has been suppressed. Noah's first act is to offer a
sacrifice, not of thanksgiving but (as v.21 shows) of propitiation:
its effect is to move the Deity to gracious
thoughts towards the new humanity. The resemblance
to the Babylonian parallel is here particularly close and
instructive (see p. 177): the incident appears also in the
Greek and Indian legends.—20. an altar] Lit. 'slaughtering-place.'
The sacrificial institution is carried back by J to
the remotest antiquity (see on 43f. 72f.), but this is the first
mention of the altar, and also of sacrifice by fire: see p. 105
above.—(
Hebrew characters)] holocausts,—that form of sacrifice which was
wholly consumed on the altar, and which was naturally
resorted to on occasions of peculiar solemnity (e.g. 2 Sa. 2425).—21.
smelled the soothing odour] (Hebrew characters) ((Greek characters), nidor)[1]
becomes a technical term of the Levitical ritual, and is
never mentioned elsewhere except in P and Ezk. This,
Gu. points out, is the only place where Yahwe is actually
described as smelling the sacrifice; but cf. 1 Sa. 2619. It is
probably a refinement of the crude eudæmonism of the
Bab. story (see p. 177 below); and it is doubtful how far it
elucidates primitive Heb. ideas of the effect of sacrifice.
That "the pleasing odour is not the motive but merely
the occasion of this gracious purpose" (Knobel), may be
—13b. (Hebrew characters)] possibly described in J's account of the building of the ark.
Elsewhere only of the covering of the Tabernacle (P); but cf. (Hebrew characters),
Ezk. 277.—(Hebrew characters)] G ins. (Greek characters).
20. (Hebrew characters)] G (Greek characters).—21. (Hebrew characters)] G (Greek characters) (bis).—(Hebrew characters)] S (Syriac characters)—conflate?—(Hebrew characters)]
a different vb. from that used
in 317 411 529 ((Hebrew characters)). Ho. points out that Pi. of (Hebrew characters) is never used with God
as subj. (cf. Gn. 123); and for this and other reasons regards 21a as an
unskilful attempt to link the Noah of the Flood with the prophecy of
529. But 21a can only refer to the Flood, while the curse of 529 belongs
to the past: moreover, an interpolator would have been careful to use
the same verb. The sense given to (Hebrew characters) is fully justified by the usage
- ↑ Il. i. 317: (
Greek characters); cf. Ov. Met. xii. 153.
