Page:A critical and exegetical commentary on Genesis (1910).djvu/257

 effect of the Flood, which is evidently conceived as universal.

'''VIII. (1b?), 2b, 3a, (4?), 6-12, 13b. Subsidence of the waters.'''—The rain from heaven having ceased, the Flood gradually abates. [The ark settles on some high mountain; and] Noah, ignorant of his whereabouts and unable to see around, sends out first a raven and then a dove to ascertain the condition of the earth. The continuity of J's narrative has again been disturbed by the redaction. V.$6a$, which in its present position has no point of attachment in J, probably stood originally before $2b$, where it refers to the 40 days' duration of the Flood (We. Comp.$2$ 5). It was removed by R so as to make up part of the interval between the emergence of the mountain-tops and the drying of the ground.—There are two small points in which a modification of the generally accepted division of sources might be suggested. (1) $1b$ (the wind causing the abatement of the waters) is, on account of, assigned to P. But the order $1b 2a$ is unnatural, and transpositions in P do not seem to have been admitted. The idea is more in accord with J's conception of the Flood than with P's; and but for the name the half-verse might very well be assigned to J, and inserted between $2b$ and $3a$. (2) V.$4$ is also almost universally regarded as P's (see Bu. 269 f.). But this leaves a lacuna in J between $3a$ and $6b$, where a notice of the landing of the ark must have stood: on the other hand, $5b$ makes it extremely doubtful if P thought of the ark as stranded on a mountain at all. The only objection to assigning $4$ to J is the chronology: if we may suppose the chronological scheme to have been added or retouched by a later hand (see p. 168), there is a great deal to be said for the view of Hupfeld and Reuss that the remainder of the v. belongs to J. —The opening passage would then read as follows:  6a. At the end of 40 days, 2b. the rain from heaven was restrained; 1b. and Yahwe (?) caused a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters abated. 3a. And the waters went

to be redactional, and the three words following must disappear with it. $23b$ might be assigned with almost equal propriety to J or to P.—] (apoc. impf. Qal) is a better attested Massor. reading than (Niph.). It is easier, however, to change the pointing (to Niph.) than to supply as subj., and the sense is at least as good.—Gu.'s rearrangement ($23a[Greek: a]. 22. 23b$) is a distinct improvement: of the two homologous sentences, that without naturally stands second.

3a. ] G-K. § 113 u. G has misunderstood the idiom both