Hey, Noah … what happened to the Raven?

Like many of us I presume, I spent a good bit of my youth in Sunday School, pondering the mysteries of religion and spirit. Seems odd that there’s so much of the Noah and the Ark story I completely missed. Perhaps it’s because, as Jeffrey Jerome Cohen and Julian Yates say in their Emergence Magazine podcast, most of us only know the story we’ve been told or read in children’s books.
I’m not a biblical scholar, nor any type of scholar actually, so I had to go look up the Noah story which starts in Genesis 6… in the King James Version because I don’t know enough about all the newer versions to choose. The questions began almost immediately.

Gen 6: 4 - There were giants in the earth in those days … (who were those giants?)
Gen 6: 7 - And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them. (This part I remember.)

After God gives Noah the two of everything and the cubits instructions, comes the interesting part I don’t remember.

Gen 7:2 - Of every clean beast thou shalt take to thee by sevens, the male and his female: and of beasts that are not clean by two, the male and his female. (Clean beasts … seven?)

Gen 7:13 — This may be a minor point but the Bible mentions Noah and his three sons by name but not any of the wives.

After 40 days of rain, 150 days when the waters prevailed, 3 months while the ark rested on the mountain, and another 40 days (I think, it got a bit confusing there), Noah wanted to see if it was safe to exit the ark.

Gen 8:7 - And he sent forth a raven, which went forth to and fro, until the waters were dried up from off the earth. (I don’t remember the raven.)
Gen 8:8 - Also he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters were abated from off the face of the ground; (We all remember the dove … aka pigeon.)
Gen 8:10 - And he stayed yet other seven days; and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark; (this time the dove comes back with the olive leaf … but where’s that raven?

So after waiting a little while longer, Noah took his family off the ark and they built an altar. We finally find out what happened to those “clean beasts.”

Gen 8:20 And Noah builded an altar unto the Lord; and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar.
(However, it’s after the sacrifice that things get really strange.)
Gen 9:2 - And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air, upon all that moveth upon the earth, and upon all the fishes of the sea; into your hand are they delivered. (All animals should dread us?)
3 Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things. (We should eat everything?)
4 But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat. (No bloody steaks?)
5 And surely your blood of your lives will I require; at the hand of every beast will I require it, and at the hand of man; at the hand of every man’s brother will I require the life of man. (Not sure what this means but doesn’t sound good.)
6 Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man. (Are you listening, NRA?)

After all that, basically God says: eat, drink and make merry as he promises no more world ending floods and sends us a rainbow to remember his covenant.

But, nowhere to be heard from again is the Raven. So, what I want to know Noah, is what happened to the Raven?

All of the above was an exercise to verify the fascinating story told in the podcast. It’s well worth listening to as they relate the story to our present challenge of climate change, who will be saved and who will be left behind, and the significance of the raven.

Now we both know that they took “the rest of the story” straight from the Bible, King James Version.

Image: “Child of Wonder” by Joyce Wycoff. More art and writings at www.JoyceWycoff.com

* Emergence Magazine Podcast: “Ravens and Doves” by Jeffrey Jerome Cohen and Julian Yates https://emergencemagazine.org/essay/ravens-and-doves/

** All Bible versus in italics from Bible Gateway https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%209&version=KJV