Genesis 07: The Un-Creation.
As we've seen, the Hebrew word used for the cataclysm of Noah's time does not actually mean "flood" but rather "confusion". In fact, the event is a systematic undoing of the original work of creation. Grumet on 7:23: "Notice what is being erased and the order in which it is happening: human, animal, crawling creatures, and birds."
It's also noteworthy that the text refers to the pairs of animals as "ish v'ishto" (7:3) - generally translated as "each with its mate", but it literally means "man and wife", echoing Adam and Eve. In no other place in the Bible is the phrase "ish v'ishto" used in reference to animals.
Here, also, we get the first usage of calendrical dates in the Bible (7:11, 8:4, 8:13-14) - and in fact, the ONLY calendar dates in the Book of Genesis. The more you think about this, the weirder it gets: because at this point there are only eight human beings alive on the planet, and they're shut up inside a wooden box, with the skies obscured by rain and clouds, so they can't observe the sun, moon, and stars. And didn't Genesis tell us back in 1:14 that G-d set the celestial bodies "for signs for the fixed times, for days and for years"?
"Ironically it is G-d, for Whom time is meaningless, Who keeps track of time in the absence of the functioning of the luminaries." (Grumet)
It's also noteworthy that the text refers to the pairs of animals as "ish v'ishto" (7:3) - generally translated as "each with its mate", but it literally means "man and wife", echoing Adam and Eve. In no other place in the Bible is the phrase "ish v'ishto" used in reference to animals.
Here, also, we get the first usage of calendrical dates in the Bible (7:11, 8:4, 8:13-14) - and in fact, the ONLY calendar dates in the Book of Genesis. The more you think about this, the weirder it gets: because at this point there are only eight human beings alive on the planet, and they're shut up inside a wooden box, with the skies obscured by rain and clouds, so they can't observe the sun, moon, and stars. And didn't Genesis tell us back in 1:14 that G-d set the celestial bodies "for signs for the fixed times, for days and for years"?
"Ironically it is G-d, for Whom time is meaningless, Who keeps track of time in the absence of the functioning of the luminaries." (Grumet)