Notes on Genesis

7Verse 4: “I will bring rain upon the earth for forty days and forty nights, and I will wipe out every creature that I have made from the face of the earth, from human to beast.”

Why did he destroy the multitudes of human beings in the flood? He wished to wipe out the line of Cain. But the tribe of the pious had been mixed in with it, and for that reason they also shared in the punishment. Wanting to make a fresh beginning of life, he preserved Noah and his sons together with their wives, since Noah was pious and righteous, had sprung from the piety of his relatives, and had hated the mixing in of lawlessness.

He did not do these things, as some say, out of anger or a change of plan. Those are human passions, but the divine nature is free from passions. Besides, a change of plan belongs to those who learn the nature of things only after experience; then, learning by experience that they did not plan rightly, they change their minds. But God sees what will happen after many generations as if it had already happened. So it is as one who foresees and foreknows that he governs all things. Why then would he change his plan, when he arranges everything according to his own foreknowledge?

Therefore, in God's case, a change of plan is a change in his providential plan. For he says, “I have changed my mind about having made Saul king” (1 Samuel 15:11), which means: I decided to put an end to him and to appoint another. So also here: “I have considered that I made man” (Genesis 6:7); I determined to destroy the human race. But being loving toward man, he preserved Noah as a seed for nature.

And since he had created the kinds of irrational animals for the sake of human need, these also were destroyed together with human beings, except for those preserved in the ark with Noah. For the Lord God commanded that two of each kind of the animals considered unclean should be saved, but seven of the clean animals. Since he was about to permit human beings to partake of meat, and those who were nourished were also going to offer sacrifices to him as acts of piety, he ordered that more of the clean animals be preserved: three pairs for the increase of the kind, and the one extra for sacrifice. For immediately after the cessation of the punishment, Noah offered a thanksgiving sacrifice to God, from all the clean animals, it says, and from all the clean birds (Genesis 8:20). So it is clear that for this reason he commanded seven of each kind of clean animals to be brought into the ark, so that when Noah offered one animal from each kind, he would not destroy the pairs.

Verse 16: “And the Lord God shut the ark from outside.”

The security of the door being shut required a more divine power.

19He destroyed these cities, the surrounding region, and all who dwelt in them, and the Lord destroys not only the impious but also their foods, which are Sodomitic and harmful. Among these is the vine, about which it is written: “For their vine is from the vine of Sodom, and their branch from Gomorrah” (Deuteronomy 32:32). At the same time he was rescued into the city, and the fire was brought upon the cities as a sign of the coming end of the age. She did not become just any pillar, but specifically a pillar of salt, because of the words: “You are the salt of the earth” (Matthew 5:13). And does not the saying “But if the salt becomes foolish” (Matthew 5:13) apply to the pillar of salt? He does not go up into the mountain all at once according to what was told him, but first goes to Zoar, even though he had no confidence in himself about going up into the mountain.

23“A land of four hundred didrachms” (Genesis 23:15). It must be noted that the price of the tomb is four hundred, because the tetrad and the hundred are harmful. And if you seek the similar things from the Scriptures, you will find them.

37“Is it indeed that I and your mother and your brothers will come and bow down to you upon the earth?” (Genesis 37:10). Joseph’s mother clearly died before the dreams. Perhaps, then, we can say that Mary and Joseph are prophesied as going to bow down to Christ?

43He said to them, “Mercy to you; do not be afraid” (Genesis 43:23). This man seems to have been benefited in piety by Joseph.

46“We are herdsmen” (Genesis 46:34). Every shepherd is an abomination to the Egyptians, but not to the Hebrews. So if he has been set over us as a shepherd, he is an abomination to the Egyptians; but if he is a hired man, he is perhaps even a friend to the Egyptians.