Genesis 7:17-23

7:17 The flood engulfed the earth for forty days. As the waters increased, they lifted the ark and raised it above the earth. 7:18 The waters completely overwhelmed ¹  the earth, and the ark floated ²  on the surface of the waters. 7:19 The waters completely inundated ³  the earth so that even ⁴  all the high mountains under the entire sky were covered. 7:20 The waters rose more than twenty feet ⁵  above the mountains. ⁶  7:21 And all living things ⁷  that moved on the earth died, including the birds, domestic animals, wild animals, all the creatures that swarm over the earth, and all humankind. 7:22 Everything on dry land that had the breath of life ⁸  in its nostrils died. 7:23 So the Lord ⁹  destroyed ¹⁰  every living thing that was on the surface of the ground, including people, animals, creatures that creep along the ground, and birds of the sky. ¹¹  They were wiped off the earth. Only Noah and those who were with him in the ark survived. ¹² 

Genesis 7:2

7:2 You must take with you seven ¹³  of every kind of clean animal, ¹⁴  the male and its mate, ¹⁵  two of every kind of unclean animal, the male and its mate,

Colossians 2:15-16

2:15 Disarming ¹⁶  the rulers and authorities, he has made a public disgrace of them, triumphing over them by the cross. ¹⁷ 

2:16 Therefore do not let anyone judge you with respect to food or drink, or in the matter of a feast, new moon, or Sabbath days –

Ephesians 5:26

5:26 to sanctify her by cleansing her ¹⁸  with the washing of the water by the word,

[7:18]  ¹ tn Heb “and the waters were great and multiplied exceedingly.” The first verb in the sequence is וַיִּגְבְּרוּ (vayyigbÿru, from גָּבַר, gavar), meaning “to become great, mighty.” The waters did not merely rise; they “prevailed” over the earth, overwhelming it.

[7:18]  ² tn Heb “went.”

[7:19]  ³ tn Heb “and the waters were great exceedingly, exceedingly.” The repetition emphasizes the depth of the waters.

[7:19]  ⁴ tn Heb “and.”

[7:20]  ⁵ tn Heb “rose fifteen cubits.” Since a cubit is considered by most authorities to be about eighteen inches, this would make the depth 22.5 feet. This figure might give the modern reader a false impression of exactness, however, so in the translation the phrase “fifteen cubits” has been rendered “more than twenty feet.”

[7:20]  ⁶ tn Heb “the waters prevailed fifteen cubits upward and they covered the mountains.” Obviously, a flood of twenty feet did not cover the mountains; the statement must mean the flood rose about twenty feet above the highest mountain.

[7:21]  ⁷ tn Heb “flesh.”

[7:22]  ⁸ tn Heb “everything which [has] the breath of the spirit of life in its nostrils from all which is in the dry land.”

[7:23]  ⁹ tn Heb “and he”; the referent (the Lord) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[7:23]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “wiped away” (cf. NRSV “blotted out”).

[7:23]  ¹¹ tn Heb “from man to animal to creeping thing and to the bird of the sky.”

[7:23]  ¹² tn The Hebrew verb שָׁאָר (sha’ar) means “to be left over; to survive” in the Niphal verb stem. It is the word used in later biblical texts for the remnant that escapes judgment. See G. F. Hasel, “Semantic Values of Derivatives of the Hebrew Root só’r,” AUSS 11 (1973): 152-69.

[7:2]  ¹³ tn Or “seven pairs” (cf. NRSV).

[7:2]  ¹⁴ sn For a study of the Levitical terminology of “clean” and “unclean,” see L. E. Toombs, IDB 1:643.

[7:2]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “a male and his female” (also a second time at the end of this verse). The terms used here for male and female animals (אִישׁ, ’ish) and אִשָּׁה, ’ishah) normally refer to humans.

[2:15]  ¹⁶ tn See BDAG 100 s.v. ἀπεκδύομαι 2.

[2:15]  ¹⁷ tn The antecedent of the Greek pronoun αὐτῷ (autw) could either be “Christ” or the “cross.” There are several reasons for choosing “the cross” as the antecedent for αὐτῷ in verse 15: (1) The nearest antecedent is τῷ σταυρῷ (tw staurw) in v. 14; (2) the idea of ἐδειγμάτισεν ἐν παρρησία (edeigmatisen en parrhsia, “made a public disgrace”) seems to be more in keeping with the idea of the cross; (3) a reference to Christ seems to miss the irony involved in the idea of triumph – the whole point is that where one would expect defeat, there came the victory; (4) if Christ is the subject of the participles in v. 15 then almost certainly the cross is the referent for αὐτῷ. Thus the best solution is to see αὐτῷ as a reference to the cross and the preposition ἐν (en) indicating “means” (i.e., by means of the cross) or possibly (though less likely) location (on the cross).

[5:26]  ¹⁸ tn The direct object “her” is implied, but not found in the Greek text. It has been supplied in the English translation to clarify the sense of the passage.