Texts in Conversation
In Genesis 7, Noah is told to bring seven pairs of each bird without distinction, but the Greek Septuagint specifies clean and unclean kinds. This change harmonizes the flood story with later requirements in Leviticus and Deuteronomy.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Genesis 7:3
Hebrew Bible
2 You must take with you seven pairs of every kind of clean animal, the male and its mate, two of every kind of unclean animal, the male and its mate, 3 and also seven pairs of every kind of bird in the sky, male and female, to preserve their offspring on the face of the entire earth. 4 For in seven days I will cause it to rain on the earth for 40 days and 40 nights, and I will wipe from the face of the ground every living thing that I have made.”
Date: 750–400 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
LXX Genesis 7:3
Septuagint
2 And of the clean cattle take in to you sevens, male and female, and of the unclean cattle pairs male and female. 3 And of clean flying creatures of the sky sevens, male and female, and of unclean flying creatures pairs, male and female, to maintain seed on all the earth. 4 For yet seven days having passed I bring rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights, and I will blot out every thing that rises up, which I have made, from the face of the earth.
Date: 300–201 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... Genesis 7:2–3 reports God’s command concerning how many animals Noah should take into the ark. In the Masoretic text, the distinction between unclean and clean animals concerns only land animals but not birds. Yet according to Leviticus 11:13–19 and Deuteronomy 20:25 some bird species are also unclean. Therefore, LXX Genesis 7:3 adds an appropriate distinction ..."
Martin Meiser, The Septuagint and Its Reception: Collected Essays (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2022), 35.
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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