By these words it is signified that the door of the Ark was closed from outside by God: for this being closed, Noah was plainly shut into the Ark. For the door of the Ark had been designed and built in such a way that it could be opened and closed not by those who were inside the Ark, but from outside by others. This was done in order that the door might be the better closed, and, it being smeared on the outside with bitumen and all the chinks closed up, the Ark might be the more fortified and safe against the penetrating moisture of so great and so long-lasting an inundation of waters. And although the door was closed by the ministry and work of the Angels, it is nevertheless said to be closed by God, because by a certain singular command of God it was closed by the Angels, and in order that there might be indicated a certain special and exceptional care, full of benevolence, which God bore for protecting Noah himself and preserving him from that destruction of the flood. Wherefore in the Chaldaic, in place of what we have, “And the Lord shut him in from outside,” it is, word for word: “And the Lord protected him by his word.”¹

But in Hebrew in this place it is: “The Lord closed over him,” as Pagninus translates; or, as Cajetan reads, “The Lord closed for him.” For because Noah, placed within the Ark, could not close its door, therefore the Lord, for him — that is, supplying his place — closed the door. Others read: “He closed behind him.” And in all these versions the word “door” must be understood. The Greek renders this sense: “And the Lord closed the Ark from outside of it”; although some do not read that “of it,” but precisely only “from outside,” or, as Ambrose reads, “from outside (a foris).” “The Lord closed the Ark from outside,” says Ambrose. “For it had to be closed, and safely fenced with a defense, lest the wandering streams of the flood penetrate it. And of the higher sense too there is a not unfitting interpretation, if we say that the human body (which was figured by that Ark), fenced with skin, is defended from cold and heat — [the body] which God the craftsman clothed, for the protection of all the members, with natural coverings, and clad with a certain enveloping covering, so that it neither freezes with cold nor is dissolved by summer heat.” So Ambrose.²

But Chrysostom, on those very words: “Notice,” he says, “in this place too the accommodation of divine Scripture to our weakness. The Lord closed the Ark from outside,” he says, “to teach that he made Noah secure: whom on that account also he shut in from outside, lest he, seeing the general destruction of all, should be consumed with the greatest grief…”³

“For if he had seen that most atrocious tempest, and the destruction of the human race, and the perishing of the beasts, and the abolition of the earth itself, he would have been seized with incredible sadness and grief, and disturbed in mind. For the souls of good men are wont to have great compassion, whenever they see men punished, even if those who perish are wicked: wherefore they are wont also to supplicate God for them — as Abraham for the Sodomites, and the Prophet for the criminal and impious Jews. God therefore did not wish the mind of Noah to be more vehemently disturbed and tormented by the sight of so horrible a spectacle, and lest, beholding so great a flood, he should be seized with fear. For it is likely that, if he had seen so great an inundation of waters, he would have been anxious lest he too should perish by the waters. The merciful God, therefore, bearing care for him, did not permit him either to behold the savagery of the waters, or to see the destruction of men, and the common slaughter of the world.”⁴

Next, Chrysostom, considering with himself by how great inconveniences, troubles, and hardships, throughout that whole year in which he was in the Ark, Noah was beset and afflicted, vehemently admires the excellent faith of that man, joined with incredible patience and constancy. And he attributes it not to human powers, but to divine grace, by which, aided, he overcame so many and so great evils: for unless it had strengthened his mind, and made light the things that were very difficult, how could he have lived so long, shut up as in a prison and confinement, and withstood so great onsets of the waves? For those who are in a ship and use sails, and see the helmsman sitting at the tiller and by his skill struggling against the force of the winds, if ever they see the madness of the waves, fearing for their safety, are almost lifeless with dread. What, then, shall we say of Noah, who, as if thrust into a prison, was tossed this way and that, and could see neither heaven nor earth, nor anything that might bring consolation?⁵

But even if those men had had bodies of iron or adamant, they could scarcely have endured so long: inasmuch as they enjoyed neither air nor wind (which no less than air was made for the refreshing of our bodies), nor could they feed their eyes with any spectacle either of heaven or of earth. How were their eyes not blinded in that so foul a prison? How could they bear the company of the wild beasts and their stench? How did the very beasts not perish, which could neither draw air nor move themselves from their place? For it is established that this is the nature both of men and of animals: that, although one may enjoy open and free air and abound in many comforts, yet if he be perpetually in one and the same place, he cannot long remain without some harm and corruption. But if we, after so many thousands of years, hearing Scripture narrate the atrocity of that flood, are seized with fear and amazement and in a manner tremble: what is it fitting to believe Noah would have suffered, if with his own eyes he had seen that most profound aby[ss]…⁶

…the abyss belching forth waters on every side, and, as if the heavens were unbarred, an immense force of waters falling headlong continuously onto the earth for forty days?⁷

This too is worthy of great admiration: how Noah could for so long dwell harmlessly with the most savage wild beasts. Doubtless the dominion over the animals which Adam had lost on account of sin, Noah recovered, and again the animals recognized man as their lord, and were subject and obedient to him. And just as Daniel, surrounded by Lions, lived fearlessly as though he were surrounded by men — the virtue of the prophet bridling the natural savagery of the beasts — so Noah handled the animals not only harmlessly, but even with authority and command, as he wished. Therefore that so long-lasting prison was not grievous to Noah, but as pleasant and delightful as meadows and gardens are wont to be to us. For the command of the Lord rendered pleasant the things which in themselves were most hateful. For such is the custom of the just: that, when they endure something for God's sake, they do not regard the things themselves that happen, but, weighing the cause with themselves, easily bear all things.⁸