Tag: dove

Split Animals

Posted on by jovial_cynic

So the Lord said to him, “Bring me a heifer, a goat and a ram, each three years old, along with a dove and a young pigeon.”
Abram brought all these to him, cut them in two and arranged the halves opposite each other; the birds, however, he did not cut in half.
Genesis 15:9-10 (NIV)

The rabbis say the significance here is twofold: first, these animals represent the sacrifices acceptable to God.

Second, the cleaved animals are the nations that will later exile Israel, and that God will exact avenge.

The birds (both doves) are Israel, remaining whole, but split between two kingdoms.

A Patient God

Posted on by jovial_cynic

He waited still another seven days and sent the dove forth; and it did not return to him any more.
Genesis 8:12 (The Contemporary Torah, JPS 2006)

There is a window into Heaven here in Genesis 8:12. Perhaps we can see a glimpse of God sending his Spirit out into the world to meet us, and God is willing to wait for all eternity for us.

It’s a whole story of God’s enduring patience.

ANY MORE. Od (anymore) means forever. Od in his uncleanness is yet (od) upon him (Num. 19:13) and While the earth remaineth (od kol yeme ha-aretz) (Gen. 8:22) is similar.
Ibn Ezra on Genesis 8:12:3

The Mount of Olives

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When the dove returned to him in the evening, there in its beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf! Then Noah knew that the water had receded from the earth.
Genesis 8:11 (NIV)

The rabbis wondered about this olive leaf the dove found, because in the already unlikely story of a global flood, it is unlikely that an olive tree should produce leaves so quickly.

They point to Ezekiel and suggest that perhaps the Mount of Olives and Israel (Eden) were never flooded.

Again the word of the Lord came to me: “Son of man, say to the land, ‘You are a land that has not been cleansed or rained on in the day of wrath.’
Ezekiel 22:23-24 (NIV)

Rejected one, Accepted the Other

Posted on by jovial_cynic

After forty days Noah opened a window he had made in the ark and sent out a raven, and it kept flying back and forth until the water had dried up from the earth.
Genesis 8:6-7 (NIV)

The rabbis note that the Raven is unlike the dove in Genesis 8. For starters, there are only two ravens, because it’s an unclean animal, but there are fourteen doves.

In the Jewish writings, the raven argues that Noah and God hate the raven, for if he dies, we have no ravens.

This is why the raven flies back and forth; it will not leave its mate. Or perhaps it had offspring while on the boat.

But Noah holds out his hand to meet the returning dove.

But the dove could find nowhere to perch because there was water over all the surface of the earth; so it returned to Noah in the ark. He reached out his hand and took the dove and brought it back to himself in the ark.
Genesis 8:9 (NIV)