Careful readers of Genesis 6-9 have long recognized certain
difficulties in interpreting the narrative as it now stands. Thus,
for example, in 6:20 Noah is commanded to take into the ark two of
every kind of beast and bird; but in 7:2, 3 he is commanded to take
in seven of all the clean beasts and birds. According to 7:4, 12
the flood came as the result of a forty days' rain; but according
to 7:11 it was because the fountains of the great deep were broken
up and the windows of heaven were opened. Again, according to
7:17, the flood continued on the earth forty days; while according
to 7:24 its duration was a hundred and fifty days.
These fundamental variations and the presence of duplicate versions
of the same incidents point, some writers think, to two originally
distinct accounts of the flood which have been closely woven
together by the final editor of the book of Genesis. When these
two accounts are disentangled, they are each practically complete
and apparently represent variant versions of the same flood story.
(See _Hist. Bible_, I, 53-56, for these two parallel accounts.) The
one, known as the prophetic version, was written, these writers
believe, about 650 B.C. It has the flowing, vivid, picturesque,
literary style and the point of view of the prophetic teacher. In
this account the number seven prevails. Seven of each clean beast
and bird are taken into the ark to provide food for Noah and his
family. Seven days the waters rose, and at intervals of seven days
he sent out a raven and a dove. The flood from its beginning to
the time when Noah disembarked continued sixty-eight days. At the
end, when he had determined by sending out birds that the waters
had subsided, he went forth from the ark and reared an altar and
offered sacrifice to Jehovah of every clean beast and bird.
The other and more detailed account is apparently the sequel of the
late priestly narratives found in Genesis 1 and 5. The style is
that of a legal writer--formal, exact and repetitious. In this
account only two of each kind of beast and bird are taken into the
ark. The flood lasts for over a year and is universal, covering
even the tops of the highest mountains. No animals are sacrificed,
for according to the priestly writer this custom was first
instituted by Moses. When the flood subsides, however, a covenant
is concluded and is sealed by the rainbow in accordance with which
man's commission to rule over all other living things is renewed
and divine permission is given to each to eat of the flesh of
animals, provided only that men carefully abstain from eating the
blood. This later account is dated by this group of modern
Biblical scholars about 400 B.C.