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.
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