Footnotes

1. Genesis 6:1 The entire biblical tradition presents the flood as an historical event (Wis 10:4; Sir 44:17-18; Mt 24:37-39; 1 Pet 3:20; etc.), but apart from popular texts no information was available for describing the material event.
   It is from these popular texts that the external elements of the story come: the structure of the ark, the duration and extent of the flood, and so on, which are not part of the historico-religious message of the writer but serve in the composition of a vivid story. As a result, the Yahwist and Elohist traditions could differ in marginal aspects that are more picturesque in the one and more detailed in the other.
   Humankind is renewed in the person of Noah. In the Christian tradition he is a figure of Christ, the one true righteous man, who remained untouched by the spread of sin and then, rising unharmed from death, became the source of resurrection for humankind.
2. Genesis 6:1 The passage is from the Yahwist tradition. The writer seems to be using two fragments of ancient popular traditions (vv. 1-2, 4). The striking element in this chapter is the fact that human beings have gone so far in personal disintegration that they are no longer capable of thinking anything but evil (v. 5), so that any hope of recovery is morally impossible.
   The tragic anthropomorphism seen in the divine regret highlights the power of evil, which is capable of destroying the work of the Creator; but the annihilation planned is the decision of the supreme Good, which is always the sole judge of its own plans (see Jer 18:1-12) and cannot allow the definitive victory of evil.
3. Genesis 6:9 The first part of the following passage (6:9-22) is from the Priestly tradition and links up with the end of chapter 5. First, in three verses (6:11-13), it uses the language of corruption and violence to summarize the entire history of sin and the decree of condemnation, both of which have been described in a more diffuse way in the Yahwist tradition. This is followed by the order to build the ark, which is found only in the Priestly version, and finally the announcement of the flood with the command to enter the ark. This passage from the Priestly tradition is followed by a repetition of the command to enter the ark and of the announcement of the flood from the Yahwist tradition (7:1-5). Note the difference of the two traditions when it comes to the number of animals brought into the ark: the Yahwist account, more popular in character, presupposes that in those very ancient times a distinction was already made between clean and unclean animals, whereas in fact the distinction was of later origin and codified in the Mosaic Law.
   The New Testament praises the faith of Noah (Heb 11:7) and speaks of the harm done his contemporaries by their unbelief, because they were unable to accept the impulse to conversion that came from him as he was building the ark (1 Pet 3:20).
4. Genesis 6:14 Ark, in Hebrew teba, is probably connected with the Egyptian, teb(t), basket, sarcophagus, and perhaps with the Akkadian, tabu, the processional boat of the gods, or with Akkadian, elippu tibitu, a kind of boat. The same word is used in Ex 2:3, 5 for the basket in which Moses was saved.
5. Genesis 6:16 A cubit was about 50 cm or one and a half feet. The ark was about 156 meters long, 26 meters wide, and 15 meters high (440 x 72 x 44 feet). It was a floating parallelepiped of about 55,000 or 60,000 cubic meters (82,000 or 90,000 cubic feet).