And God remembered Noah, and every living thing, and all the cattle that were with him in the ark: and God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters subsided;
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Ambrose of Milan
AD 397
“And the Lord sent a breath over the earth and the water subsided.” I do not believe that this has been said because under the name of breath we may think of the wind. In fact the wind had no power to dry the deluge. Otherwise the sea, which is moved every day by the winds, would become empty. How would the sea become empty because of the strength of the winds alone? Isn’t it true that the strength that overcame the deluge spread all over the earth to the socalled Columns of Hercules and the vast sea boiling over the tops of the highest mountains? There is no doubt, therefore, that that deluge was subsided by the invisible power of the Spirit, not through the wind as such but through divine intervention.
Remembered; not as if God had ever forgotten Noe, but he now shows his remembrance of him by the effects. (Menochius)
A wind, literally a spirit, which St. Ambrose and Theodoret understood of the Holy Spirit, that as he moved over the waters at first, (Chap. i. 2.) to give them fecundity, and to exercise his power in establishing order, so he may show the same care and providence for this new world, emerging, like the former, from the waters. (Haydock)
Most interpreters, however, understand this of a violent wind; (Proverbs xxv. 23; Exodus xiv. 21.) a strong blast, such as was sent to divide the Red sea. (Menochius)
Hippolytus, the expositor of the Targum, and my master, Jacobus Rohaviensis, have said: On the twenty-seventh day of the month Jiar, which is the second Hebrew month, the ark rose from the base of the holy mount; and already the waters bore it, and it was carried upon them round about towards the four cardinal points of the world. The ark accordingly held off from the holy mount towards the east, then returned towards the west, then turned to the south, and finally, bearing off eastwards, neared Mount Kardu on the first day of the tenth month. And that is the second month Kanun.
And Noah came out of the ark on the twenty-seventh day of the month Jiar, in the second year: for the ark continued sailing live whole months, and moved to and fro upon the waters, and in a period of fifty-one days neared the land. Nor thereafter did it float about any longer. But it only moved successively toward the four cardinal points of the earth, and again finally stood toward the east. We say, moreover,...
See how God did everything out of his esteem for the human being. As in the case of the destruction of human beings in the flood he destroyed also along with them the whole range of brute beasts, so in this case too, when he intends to show his characteristic love for the good man out of his regard for him, he extends his goodness to the animal kingdom as well, the wild beasts, the birds and the reptiles. “God was mindful of Noah,” the text says, “and of all the wild beasts, all the cattle and all the reptiles that were with him in the ark. God sent a wind upon the earth, and the water subsided.” Being mindful of Noah, the text says, and of those with him in the ark, he directed the flood of water to halt so that little by little he might show his characteristic love and now give the good man a breath of fresh air, free him from the turmoil of his thoughts and restore him to a state of tranquility by granting him the enjoyment of daylight and a breath of fresh air. “God sent a wind upo...
