The Floodwaters

The waters that cover the earth in the Genesis flood account — rain from the heavens above and "the fountains of the great deep" bursting forth from below (Genesis 7:11). For forty days the rain falls; for one hundred and fifty days the waters prevail, until even the highest mountains are submerged and every living thing outside the ark perishes.

The flood narrative reaches back to the language of creation — the Spirit hovering over the waters in Genesis 1, the deep that God restrained — and shows that same deep returning, then being beaten back again by a wind from God. The ark rides the open sea for months before the dove returns with an olive leaf and dry land reappears under the bow of Ararat.