Genesis 7:2
Of all clean beasts take seven and seven, the male and the female.
The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Ex omnibus animantibus mundis tolle septena et septena, masculum et feminam : de animantibus vero immundis duo et duo, masculum et feminam.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- ἀπὸ δὲ τῶν κτηνῶν τῶν καθαρῶν εἰσάγαγε πρὸς σὲ ἑπτὰ ἑπτὰ ἄρσεν καὶ θῆλυ, ἀπὸ δὲ τῶν κτηνῶν τῶν μὴ καθαρῶν δύο δύο ἄρσεν καὶ θῆλυ·
- Hebrew (WLC)
- מִכֹּ֣ל הַבְּהֵמָ֣ה הַטְּהוֹרָ֗ה תִּֽקַּח לְךָ֛ שִׁבְעָ֥ה שִׁבְעָ֖ה אִ֣ישׁ וְאִשְׁתּ֑וֹ וּמִן הַבְּהֵמָ֡ה אֲ֠שֶׁר לֹ֣א טְהֹרָ֥ה הִ֛וא שְׁנַ֖יִם אִ֥ישׁ וְאִשְׁתּֽוֹ
Haydock's commentary
Of all clean. The distinction of clean and unclean beasts, appears to have been made before the law of Moses, which was not promulgated till the year of the world 2514. (Challoner).
Clean: not according to the law of Moses, which was not yet given, but such as tradition had described
fit for sacrifice; (Menochius) though they might be of the same species as were deemed clean in the law, which ratified the ancient institution.
And seven: (Hebrew) simply seven, three couple and an odd male, for sacrifice after the deluge: one couple was to breed, the other two perhaps for food. (Haydock)
Some imagine, that there were fourteen unclean and four clean animals, of every species, in the ark, because the Samaritan, Septuagint, and Vulgate read, "seven and seven." (Origen, &c.)
But our Saviour, sending the Disciples to preach two and two, did not appoint a company of four to go together, but only of two, as is generally allowed, Mark vi. 7. (Calmet)
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.
The Fathers on this verse
St Victorinus of Pettau On the Creation of the World
Behold the seven horns of the Lamb, the seven eyes of God, the seven eyes are the seven spirits of the Lamb; seven torches burning before the throne of God seven golden candlesticks, seven young sheep, the seven women in Isaiah, the seven churches in Paul , seven deacons, seven angels, seven trumpets, seven seals to the book, seven periods of seven days with which Pentecost is completed, the seven weeks in Daniel , also the forty-three weeks in Daniel ; with Noah , seven of all clean things in the ark; seven revenges of Cain , seven years for a debt to be acquitted, the lamp with seven orifices, seven pillars of wisdom in the house of Solomon .
St Jerome The Letters of St. Jerome, To Eustochium
Some people may be eunuchs from necessity; I am one of free will. “There is a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing. There is a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together.” Now that out of the hard stones of the Gentiles God has raised up children unto Abraham, they begin to be “holy stones rolling upon the earth.” They pass through the whirlwinds of the world, and roll on in God’s chariot on rapid wheels. Let those stitch coats to themselves who have lost the coat woven from the top throughout; who delight in the cries of infants which, as soon as they see the light, lament that they are born. In paradise Eve was a virgin, and it was only after the coats of skins that she began her married life. Now paradise is your home too. …
St Jerome The Letters of St. Jerome, To Pammachius
19. I will come now to the passage in which I am accused of saying that, at least according to the true Hebrew text, the words “God saw that it was good” are not inserted after the second day of the creation, as they are after the first, third, and remaining ones, and of adding immediately the following comment: “We are meant to understand that there is something not good in the number two, separating us as it does from unity, and prefiguring the marriage-tie. …
St Jerome The Letters of St. Jerome, To Ageruchia
12. The creation of the first man should teach us to reject more marriages than one. There was but one Adam and but one Eve; in fact the woman was fashioned from a rib of Adam. Thus divided they were subsequently joined together in marriage; in the words of scripture “the twain shall be one flesh,” not two or three. “Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife.” Certainly it is not said “to his wives.” Paul in explaining the passage refers it to Christ and the church; making the first Adam a monogamist in the flesh and the second a monogamist in the spirit. As there is one Eve who is “the mother of all living,” so is there one church which is the parent of all Christians. …
St John Cassian The Conferences of John Cassian. Part I. Containing Conferences I-X, Chapter XXIII. The answer, that by the law of nature men were from the beginning liable to judgment and punishment
Serenus : God at man’s creation implanted in him naturally complete knowledge of the law, and if this had been kept by man, as at the beginning, according to the Lord’s purposes, there would not have been any need for another law to be given, which He afterwards proclaimed in writing: for it were superfluous for an external remedy to be offered, where an internal one was still implanted and vigorous. But since this had been, as we have said, utterly corrupted by freedom and the opportunity of sinning, the severe restrictions of the law of Moses were added as the executor and vindicator of this (earlier law) and to use the expressions of Scripture, as its helper, that through fear of immediate punishment men might be kept from altogether losing the good of natural knowledge, according to the word of the prophet who says “He gave the law to help them:” and it is also described by the Apost …