Genesis 8:11 – Did the Dove Really Find an Olive Tree?
Publish date: March 22, 2002
Author: WAYNE JACKSON
Article description: Is the account of Noah’s flood accurate? How, the critic wants to know, could the dove have plucked a fresh olive leaf from a tree that, a week earlier (Gen. 8:10), had been totally submerged in water?
From the time the waters of the Flood commenced, until Noah and his family set foot on dry land, they were in the great ark for a period of one year and ten days (Gen. 7:11; 8:14). The entire earth had been covered with water (Gen. 7:19; cf. 2 Pet. 3:6).This cataclysm was not a local inundation—a mere Mesopotamian mud-puddle, as it were—in spite of the uncertainty of some Christian writers regarding this matter. (See: John Willis, Genesis, p. 174.) The Flood of Noah’s day was a global deluge.
As the waters of the Flood receded, Noah sent out birds to test the water-level. First he sent a raven, and then later a dove. The second time he dispatched the dove, it returned with an olive leaf in its beak. Note the precise reading of the text.
“[A]nd the dove came in to him at eventide: and lo, in her mouth an olive-leaf plucked off…” (8:11).But how, the critic wants to know, could the dove have plucked a fresh olive leaf from a tree that, a week earlier (8:10), had been totally submerged in water?
The answer is simple—the olive tree can flourish under water. One scholar observes: “It is a remarkable fact, as bearing indirect testimony to this narrative, that the olive has been ascertained to bear leaves under water” (Alfred Edersheim, Bible History, I, p. 47).
Several years ago, this writer personally observed a young olive tree, fully leafed and completely immersed, thriving in a northern California mountain stream.
And so, underline “olive-leaf” in Genesis 8:11, and marginally note: The Olive tree can leaf under water—the Bible is accurate!
Can an Olive Tree Leaf Under Water?
by VM44 8 Replies latest watchtower bible
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VM44
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VM44
However, many places on the internet state that over-watering is the olive tree's worst enemy! Olive trees can be killed by too much water.
So who is correct, the people who take care of olive trees, or the author of the above article who "saw" once an "olive tree fully leafed and completely immersed, thriving in a northern California mountain stream"?
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White Dove
Can an olive tree literally live under the water canopy? Can anything else that needs photosynthesis live under that canopy?
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nvrgnbk
In reality, it was most likely seaweed that the dove brought back. Noah was drunk and confused it with an olive leaf. What really matters is that this is just another proof of a worldwide deluge.- Watchtower 3/15/08
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whereami
This is some exellent info regarding the dillema of trying to prove the "global" flood written by a brother to bethel. Start by reading the first letter sent to bethel.
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inkling
This is some exellent info regarding the dillema of trying to prove the "global" flood written by a brother to bethel. Start by reading the first letter sent to bethel.
http://www.watchtowerletters.com/Home.htmlthank you so much, this is a great link. [inkling]
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ThomasCovenant
Yes thanks for the link. Very very informative.
I too wrote a letter many years ago to London Bethel with questions about Genesis and the Flood but nowhere near as good as the ones on this site.
Thank you whoever you are.
Thomas Covenant
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Jeffro
These kind of stories are amusing. They try to convince the naive reader that because there may be an element of truth in a story, that it somehow vindicates the entire tale, somehow 'proving' that the whole thing happened exactly as stated. The plausibility of minutia such as olive trees sprouting leaves under water is infintesimally negligible in establishing the veracity of the story of Noah's Ark.
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Shepherd Book
Glad to see you have all enjoyed the website I created (www.watchtowerletters.com).
Here's the Watchtower Society's take on the olive leaf conundrum:
From the July 1, 1966 Watchtower, page 415:
"While the waters of the Flood undoubtedly did adversely affect many plants and trees, it does not seem improbable that an olive tree might survive them. The olive tree is quite hardy. It has been said of it that 'an old stump will continue to send up new stems, as if its vitality were indestructible.'"
Here they are quoting from the New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge. Looking at this original source, however, reveals that the authors of the Encyclopedia article were not referring to the olive when submerged under water. They were, instead, referring to the hardiness of the tree in its old age. In fact, earlier in the same paragraph, the Encyclopedia states: "[the olive tree] requires calcareous soil and a mean temperature of 15 degrees Celcuis (60 degrees F), and must be protected against strong winds and excessive heat." ...So, its not exactly going to survive a year-long cataclysmic deluge.