The Raven and the Dove

The Raven & The Dove. Gen. 8:1-14

Haftarah: Habakkuk 3:1-5 Apostolic: Rev 1:9-20

I – Starting Over

Gen. 6:18. The Empasis is upon the Covenant. He intends to honor the Covenantal obligations given to Chavah. Now, His promise is to establish that Covenant through Noach and his sons.

Read: Gen. 7:20-24. – God executes judgement upon all flesh.

• Vs. 23: “Thus He blotted out every living thing that was on the face of the land.”
• Note: “…and only Noach was left, together with those that were with him on the ark.” Had there been “giants”, wouldn’t they have perished in the flood?

II – Utnapishtim, The Raven & The Dove.

Gen. 8:6-12. Many stories of the flood exist all over the world – some of these are believed to predate the Torah’s account of the flood. In 1872, George Smith^[1] deciphered an Akkadian text translated from Ugarit, about a man named Utnapishtim. Some magnificent parallels exist:

• Utnapishtim survives a great flood by building a boat and taking animals with him.
• He takes his wife.
• The boat came to rest on top of Mount Nimush.
• Both contain a “three step” process of searching for dry ground.
• First, After Seven days, He released a dove (Summatu), and it went out, and “came back for no perching place was visible to it.” (Ref. Gen. 8:9,10)
• He releases a swallow (Sinuntu). The swallow goes out and returns, because there is no place to perch.
• He releases a Raven (Aribu). The Raven went, it saw the receding of the waters…eating, bobbing up and down, and it did not return.
• Utnapishtim only leaves the boat when ushered out by the deity. (Ref. Gen. 8:16)

Point: There is secular evidence of a shared origin of the Babylonian and Biblical Flood narratives.^[2]

Assyriologist Wilfred Lambert: “Even the most skeptical had to yield when confronted with the passage in the Babylonian text which describes how three birds were sent out of the ark as the waters were subsiding.” ^[3] Credit: Dr. Guy Darshan, Tel Aviv University.

What does the Raven do? (Gen. 8:6-7)

What does the fact that the Raven does not return prove?

• IOW: The raven fails to bring back the proof that Noach is searching for. (Vs. 8)

Are Doves Clean or Unclean? What happens with the Dove? Why does it return?

• Matt. 8:20. “The birds of the air have nests” Did this Dove have a place to dwell?
  • The Dove was “sent out” to find a place for His Master to dwell.
• After Seven Days, a second dove is released. What does it bring back as proof of dry land? A “freshly picked” Olive Leaf. What is this a symbol of?

III – An acceptable offering.

Lev. 1:14 tells us that a Dove is an acceptable offering.

Matt. 10:16. Our Lord says he is “…sending us out…” Our Torah uses these same words four times: First of the Raven: Gen. 8:7; Three times of the Dove: Vs. 8, 10, 12.

• Then He instructs us to be “…Innocent as doves…”
• “Innocent” – Gk: ἀκέραιος (Akeraios): Unmixed; Pure; without a mixture of evil.
• Used only twice more in the Apostolic Writings:
  • Romans 16:19 – Reiterates innocence of evil. Wasn’t that the very temptation of Lucifer? “Knowing” good and evil?…crushing Satan underfoot.
  • Phil 2:15. Prove yourself to be innocent – B’nei Elohim, above reproach.

Contrast: The Raven – an unclean, black Carrion Bird. Sent once. Dove, a clean, pure, white bird three times. The Raven does not return at all, and yet the Dove returns, twice.

Which are we? The Raven or The Dove?

We are sent out like Doves. Do we carry the Olive Branch of Shalom? Are we seeking for a place for Our Master to dwell? Only then will we find true rest.

1. George Smith, The Chaldean Account of Genesis (New York: Scribner, Armstrong & Co., 1876), 4.

   Translation from Stephanie Dalley, Myths from Mesopotamia (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989), 114, with some adjustments. ↑

2. See also: Berossus Babyloniaca a 3^rd Cent B.C.E Greek account of Babylonian Flood sources. This account also holds that the hero, Xisouthros freed birds on three occasions to find dry ground. ↑

3. Wilfred G. Lambert, “A New Look at the Babylonian Background of Genesis,” JTS 16 (1965): 287. ↑