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“The ark came to rest.”

This completes the prophecy of 5: 29, “Lamech called his name Noah, saying, ‘Out of the ground which the Lord has cursed this one shall bring us rest from our work and the toil of our hands.’”  Together, the prophecy and its fulfillment reveal the significance of the Sabbath that will be declared for mankind.  They also offer insight into the corruption of the earth (see here and here).

Failure to observe a Sabbath rest, to work endlessly, restlessly; to be constantly seeking for ways to improve efficiency, productivity and profit:  these corrupt the heart of man and do damage to the earth, too, as we know well in our own time.  The curse of the earth is there not to be overcome by man’s ingenuity, but as a spur to faith in the One ‘who gives the growth’ [1 Cor 3:6].

Lamech does not comprehend the essence of his prophecy.  As one who in his heart rebels against the curse and against the curative effect of work, he imagines that his offspring will carry through some kind of program that will undo the curse.  Instead, Noah’s birth portends God’s intervention and an imposed Sabbath over all the earth, that the damage done by man’s unbridled will might be undone, and that Noah might re-consecrate the earth to God by his sacrifice in the making of the Noachide covenant.

“The waters prevailed so mightily upon the earth that all the high mountains under the whole heaven were covered.”

This is a notice not merely respecting the great extent of the Flood, but the action of ‘covering’, much like that of ‘blotting out’ (cf. Psalm 51, the “Miserere”), carries with it sacrificial and expiatory connotations.  Mountain tops are places of communication with the divine, and these had been defiled by the corruption of flesh.  Perhaps they were even places where false gods had received sacrifice.  By covering them all, God wipes away the stain of this corruption.

“The waters…bore up the ark, and it rose high above the earth. ”

To be lifted “higher than the mountains” is to prefigure the eternal Mount Zion, which “shall be established as the highest mountain and raised above the hills.”  This place of communication with the one, true God is a place of holiness.  Only those with “clean hands and pure heart” can climb the Lord’s mountain.  Likewise, only Noah, who was just before God, was worthy to ascend above the waters in the sacred ark.

“Make yourself an ark…and cover it inside and out with pitch.”

(Here are the first and second parts of the scholion on this verse.)

God could easily have destroyed the entire cosmos and started over.  Creating from nothing poses no obstacle to God’s designs.  However, He spares those who find favor with him.  Even more, He desires that men and women participate in the reconstitution: Noah must save the animals and his family (and we are not told if they have found favor with God as Noah did).  God will not work to defeat evil, nor to recreate, without Noah.

“My spirit shall not abide (LXX: katameine) in man for ever, for he is flesh.”

This is a temporary state of affairs, ending with the Incarnation.  As John the Baptist testified, “I saw the Spirit descend as a dove from heaven, and it remained (emeinen) on him.” [John 1: 32]  Thus, the true ‘Son of God’ who looked from afar with longing at the lives of men, came down not for physical marriage, but to be the Bridegroom of the Church in the Spirit.  And since we have been made one flesh with Christ, the Spirit also remains in us.  This is the bread which came down from heaven.  He who eats this bread, and thus becomes one with Christ, will live forever.

“And all flesh died that moved upon the earth…everything on the dry land in whose nostrils was the breath of life died.”

So we see all living creatures in the air and on land are conceived of as having a bi-partite nature of ‘flesh’ and ‘breath’.  There is no distinction between human beings and animals in this way of thinking.  Animals would seem to partake of a soul that is not distinguished, at least in this context, from a human soul.  What does distinguish human beings is being made in the image and likeness of God.

“And God saw the earth, and behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth.”

When we read that “all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth,” and yet we read that Noah “was a righteous man,” who “walked with God,” [6: 9] we are to understand that Noah was not a man of the flesh but of the spirit.

“Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight, and the earth was filled with violence.”

The corruption of the earth is not tied to the concept of sin.  This is because where there is no covenant, there is no sin.  Yet even without the covenant, mankind is held accountable for corruption because “although they knew God they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him.” [Rom 1: 21]

“Make yourself an ark…and cover it inside and out with pitch.”

(Here is the first part of the scholion on this verse.)

God’s instructions to Noah indicate that the ark is a miniature cosmos.  God is the ‘Divine Geometer’:  just as He created the cosmos by ‘drawing a circle on the deep’ and ‘marking out the foundations of the earth’ [Prv. 8: 27, 29], so the ark is harmonious, measured, proportioned.  The same can be said of the Ark of the Covenant, the Temple, and even of Jerusalem as a whole:  “Walk through Zion, walk all round it; count the number of its towers.” [Ps. 48: 12]

All these holy spaces must be kept pure.  When the sin of Jerusalem grew too great, God withdrew His presence, and the city fell.  Let this not be said of the new temple of our bodies.

“Make yourself an ark…and cover (kaphartta) it inside and out with pitch.”

This act of covering signifies purification and propitiation.  In Exodus and Leviticus, the covering of the Ark of the Covenant is called the kipperot.  It is the fundamental place of expiation of sin.  The act of ‘covering’ purifies Noah’s ark, protecting it from the chaos that is about to be unleashed by sin.  The ark will be a miniature cosmos, preserving creation from un-creation.

This is the image by which those who are ‘baptized into Christ’ are saved from the wrath that is to come.  Christ, who became for us an ‘expiation’ (Romans 3: 25—the Greek hilasterion translates kipperot), covers our sins, purifying us in order that we may be preserved for the new creation.