Why the flood and why God's 'repentance'
Origen is beginning his commentary on Genesis, explaining the flood's purpose and defending God against the charge of acting from anger or regret.
Verse 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.
Greek
Στιχ. δ΄. Ἐγὼ ἐπάγω ὑετὸν (ἐπὶ) τὴν γῆν τεσσαράκοντα ἡμέρας, καὶ τεσσαράκοντα νύκτας. Καὶ ἐξαλείψω πᾶσαν τὴν ἐξανάστασιν, ἣν ἐποίησα, ἀπὸ προσώπου τῆς γῆς, ἀπὸ ἀνθρώπουἕως κτήνους.
Τί δήποτε τῷ κατακλυσμῷ τὰ τῶν ἀνθρώπων πλήθη διέφθειρεν; Ἐξαλεῖψαι τοῦ Κάῖν τὸ γένος ἠθέλησε· ἀνεμίγη δὲ αὐτῷ καὶ τῶν εὐσεβῶν ἡ φυλή· διὸ καὶ τῆς τιμωρίας μετέσχηκεν. Ἀρχὴν δέ τινα καιτοῦ βίου ποιήσασθαι βουληθεὶς, τὸν Νῶε καὶ τοὺς ἐκείνου παῖδας σὺν ταῖς γυναιξὶ διετήρησεν, εὐσεβῆ ὄντα καὶ δίκαιον, καὶ ἐκ τῆς τῶν συγγενῶν εὐσεβείας βλαστήσαντα, καὶ τὴν τῆς παρανομίας ἐπιμιξίαν μισήσαντα. Οὐ μὴν, ὥς τινές φασιν, ὀργῇ (4) τινι καὶ μεταμελείᾳ ταῦτα πεποίηκε. Ταῦτα γάρ τοι ἀνθρώπινα πάθη· ἡ δὲ θεία φύσις, ἐλευθέρα παθῶν. Ἄλλως τε ἡ μεταμέλεια τοῖς μετὰ τὴν πεῖραν μανθάνουσι τῶν πραγμάτων τὴν φύσιν κατάλληλος· εἶτα τῇ πείρᾳ μανθάνοντες ὡς οὐκ ὀρθῶς ἐβουλεύσαντο, μεταμέλονται. Ὁ δὲ Θεὸς οὕτως ὁρᾷ τὰ μετὰ πολλὰς ἐσόμενα γενεὰς, ὡς ἤδη γεγενημένα. Ὡς προορῶν τοίνυν καὶ προγινώσκων, οὕτως ἅπαντα πρυτανεύει. Τί δήποτε τοίνυν μεταμέλεται, ἅπαντα πρὸς τὴν πρόγνωσιν τὴν οἰκε ίαν οἰκονομῶν; Οὐκοῦν ἐπὶ Θεοῦ μεταμέλεια οἰκε νομίας μεταβολή· Μεταμέλομαι γὰρ, φησὶν, ὅτι κέ κρικα τὸν Σαοὺλ εἰς βασιλέα· ἀντὶ τοῦ· Εὐδοκίμασα μὲν παῦσαι τοῦτον, ἕτερον δὲ χειροτονῆσαι. Οὕτω κἀνταῦθα· Ἐνεθυμήθην, ὅτι ἐποίησα ἄνθρωπον· ἐδοκίμασα διολέσαι τῶν ἀνθρώπων τὸ γένος. Ἀλλὰ φιλάνθρωπος ὢν, σπέρμα τὸν Νῶε τῇ φύσει τετήρηκεν. Ἐπειδὴ δὲ καὶ τῶν ἀλόγων τὰ γένη τῆς τῶν ἀνθρώπων εἵνεκα δεδημιούργηκε χρείας· καὶ ταῦτα τοῖς ἀνθρώποις συνδιεφθάρη, πλὴν τῶν ἐν τῇ κιβωτῷ σὺν τῷ Νῶε διαφυλαχθέντων. Ἐκέλευσε γὰρ ὁ δεσπότης Θεὸς ἀνὰ δύο μὲν ἐξ ἑκάστου γένους τῶν δοκούντων ἀκαθάρτων διασωθῆναι, ἀνὰ ἑπτὰ δὲ τῶν καθαρῶν. Ἐπειδὴ γὰρ ἤμελλε συγχωρεῖν τοῖς ἀνθρώποις μεταλαμβάνειν κρεῶν, ἤμελλον δὲ καὶ θυσίας αὐτῷ προσφέρειν τῆς εὐσεβείας οἱ τρόφιμοι, πλείονα τὰ καθαρὰ φυλαχθῆναι προσέταξε· τὰς μὲν τρεῖς συζυγίας, εἰς τὴν αὔξησιν τοῦ γένους, τὸ δὲ ἓν τὸ περιττὸν εἰς θυσίαν. Εὐθὺς γὰρ ὁ Νῶε μετὰ τὴν καῦλαν τῆς τιμωρίας, θυσίαν τῷ Θεῷ εὐχαριστήριον προσενήνοχεν, ἀπὸ πάντων, φησὶ, κτηνῶν τῶν καθαρῶν, καὶ ἀπὸ πάντων τῶν πετεινῶν τῶν καθαρῶν. Ὡς εἶναι δῆλον ὅτι τούτου χάριν, ἀνὰ ἑπτὰ προσέταξεν ἐξ ἑκάστου γένους τῶν καθαρῶν εἰς τὴν τιβωτὸν εἰσαχθῆναι, ἵνα, τὸ ἓν ζῶον ἐξ ἑκάστου γένους ὁ Νῶε προσφέρων, μὴ διαφθείρῃ τὰς συζυγίας.
(4·) Στίχ. ις΄. Καὶ ἔκλεισε Κύριος ὁ Θεὸς ἔξωθεν αὐτοῦ τὴν κιβωτόν.
αὐτοῦ τὴν κιβωτόν.
Θειοτέρας τινὸς δυνάμεως ἔχρῃζεν ἡ ἀσφάλεια τῆς θύρας κλειομένης.