Genesis 7 and 8 · Subject · Featured Study
The Calendar of the Flood
The months of the flood in Genesis 7 and 8, worked through the dates, the counts of days and the readings of Rashi, Josephus and Jubilees.
Thomas Cole, The Subsiding of the Waters of the Deluge, 1829, Smithsonian American Art Museum. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons, File:Thomas_Cole_-_Subsiding_of_the_Waters_of_the_Deluge_-_Smithsonian.jpg.
THE ARTWORKCole painted the ark afloat on still water as the flood goes down, with a bird flying near it, in the waiting of Genesis 8:1 to 12 before the ground was dry.
Noah waited in the ark more than seven months after it came to rest.
Summary
Genesis 7 and 8 give five dates of the flood by month and day, two of them with Noah's year, and six counts of days between its events.
- All the fountains of the great deep burst forth on the seventeenth day of the second month of Noah's six hundredth year.
- The earth was fully dry on the twenty-seventh day of the second month of his six hundred and first year.
- The rain fell forty days, and the waters prevailed 150 days.
- Rabbi Eliezer and Rabbi Joshua, as Rashi reports them, disagreed over which month was the second.
The Dates in Genesis
Genesis 7:6 to 8:14, the verses that carry the flood's dates
Now Noah was 600 years old when the floodwaters came upon the earth.Noah's age is the year in which Genesis 7:11 and 8:13 set their dates.
In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, on the seventeenth day of the second month, all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened.Every later date of the flood is measured from this verse.
On the seventeenth day of the seventh month, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. And the waters continued to recede until the tenth month, and on the first day of the tenth month the tops of the mountains became visible.The second and third dates fall in the same year as the first, in the seventh and the tenth months.
In Noah’s six hundred and first year, on the first day of the first month, the waters had dried up from the earth. So Noah removed the covering from the ark and saw that the surface of the ground was dry. By the twenty-seventh day of the second month, the earth was fully dry.The last two dates fall in Noah's next year, the second of them in the same month in which the flood began.
The Year of the Flood, Date by Date
Thirteen events of Genesis 7 and 8, from the warning of Genesis 7:4 to the altar of Genesis 8:20.
| Event | Noah's year | Month and day | Interval the text gives | Verse |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The LORD says the rain will come in seven days | 600 | not given | none given | Genesis 7:4 |
| The fountains of the great deep burst forth, and Noah enters the ark | 600 | second month, day 17 | seven days (Genesis 7:10) | Genesis 7:11 to 13 |
| The floodgates of the heavens open, and the rain falls on the earth | 600 | second month, day 17 | forty days (Genesis 7:12 and 7:17) | Genesis 7:11 to 12 |
| The waters prevail upon the earth | 600 | not given | 150 days (Genesis 7:24 and 8:3) | Genesis 7:24 |
| The ark comes to rest on the mountains of Ararat | 600 | seventh month, day 17 | none given | Genesis 8:4 |
| The tops of the mountains become visible | 600 | tenth month, day 1 | none given | Genesis 8:5 |
| Noah opens the window and sends out a raven | 600 | not given | forty days (Genesis 8:6) | Genesis 8:6 to 7 |
| The dove finds no place to rest and returns | 600 | not given | none given | Genesis 8:8 to 9 |
| The dove returns in the evening with an olive leaf | 600 | not given | seven days (Genesis 8:10) | Genesis 8:10 to 11 |
| The dove does not return | 600 | not given | seven days (Genesis 8:12) | Genesis 8:12 |
| The waters have dried up, and Noah removes the covering | 601 | first month, day 1 | none given | Genesis 8:13 |
| The earth is fully dry | 601 | second month, day 27 | none given | Genesis 8:14 |
| God tells Noah to come out, and Noah builds an altar | 601 | not given | none given | Genesis 8:15 to 20 |
- Noah's year
- 600
- Month and day
- not given
- Interval the text gives
- none given
- Verse
- Genesis 7:4
- Noah's year
- 600
- Month and day
- second month, day 17
- Interval the text gives
- seven days (Genesis 7:10)
- Verse
- Genesis 7:11 to 13
- Noah's year
- 600
- Month and day
- second month, day 17
- Interval the text gives
- forty days (Genesis 7:12 and 7:17)
- Verse
- Genesis 7:11 to 12
- Noah's year
- 600
- Month and day
- not given
- Interval the text gives
- 150 days (Genesis 7:24 and 8:3)
- Verse
- Genesis 7:24
- Noah's year
- 600
- Month and day
- seventh month, day 17
- Interval the text gives
- none given
- Verse
- Genesis 8:4
- Noah's year
- 600
- Month and day
- tenth month, day 1
- Interval the text gives
- none given
- Verse
- Genesis 8:5
- Noah's year
- 600
- Month and day
- not given
- Interval the text gives
- forty days (Genesis 8:6)
- Verse
- Genesis 8:6 to 7
- Noah's year
- 600
- Month and day
- not given
- Interval the text gives
- none given
- Verse
- Genesis 8:8 to 9
- Noah's year
- 600
- Month and day
- not given
- Interval the text gives
- seven days (Genesis 8:10)
- Verse
- Genesis 8:10 to 11
- Noah's year
- 600
- Month and day
- not given
- Interval the text gives
- seven days (Genesis 8:12)
- Verse
- Genesis 8:12
- Noah's year
- 601
- Month and day
- first month, day 1
- Interval the text gives
- none given
- Verse
- Genesis 8:13
- Noah's year
- 601
- Month and day
- second month, day 27
- Interval the text gives
- none given
- Verse
- Genesis 8:14
- Noah's year
- 601
- Month and day
- not given
- Interval the text gives
- none given
- Verse
- Genesis 8:15 to 20
Counting the Days
The 150 days, the year and ten days, and Noah's years after the flood
And the waters prevailed upon the earth for 150 days.The verse gives the length of the waters' rise and leaves its first day to be worked out from Genesis 7:11.
The waters receded steadily from the earth, and after 150 days the waters had gone down.The same count closes as the waters recede, which ties the 150 days to the ark's rest on the date of Genesis 8:4.
If the 150 days began with the flood on the date of Genesis 7:11, they ended five months later to the day, and each of the five months held thirty days.
The whole stay, from Genesis 7:11 to Genesis 8:14, comes to one year and ten days by the dates.
After the flood, Noah lived 350 years. So Noah lived a total of 950 years, and then he died.The count of years that dates the flood also closes Noah's life at 950.
Matthew Henry asks why the old world's years are kept by the lives of the patriarchs.
“It was in the 600th year of Noah's life, which, by computation, appears to be 1656 years from the creation. The years of the old world are reckoned, not by the reigns of the giants, but the lives of the patriarchs; saints are of more account with God than princes. The righteous shall be had in everlasting remembrance.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible · on Genesis 7:11Puritan
The Numbered Months
Genesis numbers the months of the flood, and later Scripture names them.
“This month is the beginning of months for you; it shall be the first month of your year.The LORD sets Israel's first month at the Passover in Egypt, long after the flood.
In the twelfth year of King Xerxes, in the first month, the month of Nisan, the Pur (that is, the lot) was cast before Haman to determine a day and month. And the lot fell on the twelfth month, the month of Adar.Esther gives the first month its later name, Nisan.
1 Kings 6:38 names the eighth month of that count Bul.
The Hebrew of the Dates
Four words of Genesis 7 and 8: month, flood and two verbs for dry
Chodesh, the word for month, stands twice in Genesis 7:11, in the second month and in the seventeenth day of the month.
In Genesis 8:13 the word month is understood and not written, and the Hebrew reads in the first, on day one of the month.
Genesis 7:6 names the flood with the noun mabbul.
On the first day of the first month the waters charevu, they were dried up, and Noah saw the surface of the ground with the same verb. Genesis 8:14 uses a second verb, yaveshah, for the end of the drying.
What the Dates Leave Unsaid
Genesis leaves five matters of the flood's calendar unstated.
Genesis does not say which month began the year.
It gives no date for the end of the forty days of rain.
It gives no count of days before the dove's first flight, though the seven more days of Genesis 8:10 imply an earlier wait.
It does not state how many days a month or a year held.
It gives no date for the altar Noah built when he came out.
The Day Noah Entered the Ark
Jesus compares the days before His coming with the days before the flood.
As it was in the days of Noah, so will it be at the coming of the Son of Man. For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark. And they were oblivious, until the flood came and swept them all away. So will it be at the coming of the Son of Man.The likeness Jesus draws turns on a set day that the people did not see coming.
Genesis 7:11 to 13 puts that day at the very start of the flood.
Voices on the Days of the Flood
Ephrem, Bede, Matthew Henry and John Wesley on the days of the flood, from the fourth century to the eighteenth
Ephrem the Syrian explains why the promise of the seasons follows the flood year.
“And because there was neither planting nor harvest during that year and the seasonal cycles had been disturbed, God restored to the earth that which had been taken away in his anger.”
Ephrem the Syrian · Commentary on Genesis 6.13.3 · on Genesis 8:22Patristic
Bede, in his Commentary on Genesis, reads the seventh day of Genesis 7:10 as the Sabbath, the rest of the life to come.
Matthew Henry turns the weeks between the dry ground and the word to come out into counsel on patience.
“We would go out of the ark before the ground is dried: and perhaps, if the door be shut, are ready to remove the covering, and to climb up some other way; but we should be satisfied that God's time of showing mercy is certainly the best time, when the mercy is ripe for us and we are ready for it.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible · on Genesis 8:14Puritan
John Wesley reads the seven days of Genesis 7:4 as a last space for repentance.
“While Noah told them of the judgment at a distance, they were tempted to put off their repentance: but now he is ordered to tell them that it is at the door; that they have but one week more to turn them in, to see if that will now at last awaken them to consider the things that belong to their peace.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament · on Genesis 7:4Evangelical
Which Month, and How Many Days
Readers divide over the month the year began, the count of the 150 days and the length of the year.
The second month in the autumnRabbi Eliezer; Albert Barnes; John Lightfoot; Josephus
Rabbi Eliezer, in Rashi's commentary on Genesis 7:11 and 8:13, counts the year from Tishri, so the second month is Marcheshvan and the first month of Genesis 8:13 is Tishri. Rashi cites the Talmud's tractate Rosh Hashanah 11b for the dispute.
Albert Barnes, in his Notes on Genesis 7:11, holds that the primeval year began about the autumnal equinox. John Lightfoot, reported in Adam Clarke's Commentary on Genesis 7:12, has the rain begin on the eighteenth day of the second month, Marcheshvan. Josephus, in his Antiquities of the Jews 1.3.3, says the flood came in the second month, which the Macedonians call Dius and the Hebrews Marcheshvan, and that Moses made Nisan first for festivals alone.
The objection: the names Tishri and Marcheshvan belong to a later calendar than the one Genesis uses.
The second month in the springRabbi Joshua
Rabbi Joshua, in the same comments of Rashi, counts from Nisan, which makes the second month Iyar and puts the dry ground of Genesis 8:13 in Nisan.
The objection: Rashi on Genesis 8:5 calls Tishri the first month by the reckoning from creation.
From the first date, with the rain insideJohn Gill
John Gill, in his Exposition of the Old Testament on Genesis 7:10, counts the 150 days from the day the flood began, with the forty days of rain inside them.
The objection: Genesis 7:12 and 7:24 give the forty days and the 150 days in two verses, as two periods.
After the rain, as a second sumJohn Lightfoot; Rashi
John Lightfoot, quoted by Adam Clarke on Genesis 7:24, reckons the two sums apart, so that six months and ten days of the flood had passed when the 150 days ended.
Rashi counts the 150 days from the twenty-seventh of Kislev, when he says the rain stopped, to the first of Sivan. He reads the seventh month of Genesis 8:4 as Sivan, the seventh month from Kislev.
The objection: Rashi then counts the month of the ark's rest from the end of the rain and the month of Genesis 7:11 from the start of the year.
A lunar year and ten daysRashi
Rashi, on Genesis 8:14, says the ten days are those by which the solar year exceeds the lunar year, so the punishment of that generation lasted a full solar year. He cites Genesis Rabbah 33:17.
The objection: Genesis gives the twenty-seventh day as a date and does not call the year lunar.
A solar year of 365 daysAdam Clarke
Adam Clarke, in his Commentary on the Bible on Genesis 8:14, reads Noah's stay in the ark as a complete solar year of 365 days.
The objection: Genesis gives no count of 365 days.
A year of 364 daysThe Book of Jubilees
The Book of Jubilees shuts the ark on the seventeenth of the second month and dries the earth a year later to the day, in a year of 364 days (Jubilees 5:23, 5:31 and 6:32).
The objection: Genesis 8:14 puts the dry earth on the twenty-seventh day, ten days past the year Jubilees counts, and Jubilees is a retelling outside the canon.
Books on the Flood's Calendar
Three works that read the dates of Genesis 7 and 8 at length
Pentateuch with Rashi's Commentary
M. Rosenbaum and A. M. Silbermann, translators · 1929 to 1934
Rashi works out the flood's months one by one in his notes on Genesis 7 and 8.
In print: find it wherever books are sold.
The Book of Jubilees, or the Little Genesis
R. H. Charles, translator · 1902
Charles translates the whole book from his own Ethiopic text, with notes that set its flood dates beside those of Genesis.
The Coherence of the Flood Narrative, Vetus Testamentum 28
Gordon J. Wenham · 1978
Wenham reads the flood's counts of days as one ordered account.
In print: find it wherever books are sold.
Keep Watch
Two later passages carry the days of Noah to the reader, a command of Jesus and a teaching of Peter.
Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day on which your Lord will come. But understand this: If the homeowner had known in which watch of the night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. For this reason, you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour you do not expect.Noah was told his day seven days ahead, and the disciples are told to keep watch because their day is not given.
who disobeyed long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In the ark a few people, only eight souls, were saved through water. And this water symbolizes the baptism that now saves you also—not the removal of dirt from the body, but the pledge of a clear conscience toward God—through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,Peter carries the days of Noah forward to the believer and to the risen Lord.
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