Genesis 7:6-14

In this paragraph the dating assigns Genesis 7:6; Genesis 7:11; Genesis 7:24 to P; to the same document Genesis 7:13 a, Genesis 7:18 are assigned by stylistic considerations, Genesis 7:17 a is a link, but forty days has been borrowed from J by the editor. J's narrative has been dovetailed very skilfully into P's, and has been expanded by glosses. Its original order was probably Genesis 7:10; Genesis 7:7; Genesis 7:16 b, Genesis 7:12; Genesis 7:17 b, Genesis 7:22 f. But Genesis 7:7 and Genesis 7:23 have received editorial additions in the style of P. Genesis 7:8 f. is from P because his account of the entrance into the ark is found in Genesis 7:13, and because of the distinction between clean and unclean. But several features cannot come from J, accordingly the redactor's hand must be recognised. Since, however, he is not likely to have written a doublet to Genesis 7:13, he may be working on J's text. According to P all the animals went into the ark in one day, and that the day on which the Flood came. And whereas J finds a sufficient cause in a forty days-' rain, P traces it to a bursting up of the waters from the subterranean abyss and a simultaneous opening of the windows of heaven so that the waters of the heavenly ocean streamed through. Thus the work of dividing the waters effected on the second day (Genesis 1:6 *) was partially undone, not completely, for it is clear from Genesis 8:2 that neither source was exhausted.