H. P. Mansfield Bible notes — checked and arranged in verse-by-verse Expositor style

Source: HPB 01-Gen01-Gen41.PDF, principally photographed Bible page 49

CHAPTER OVERVIEW

Mansfield heads the chapter “THE DELUGE.” Psalm 29:10, Isaiah 54:9 and 2 Peter 2:5 are used to connect the Flood with Yahweh’s judgment, sovereign rule and Noah’s preservation. Verses 1–6 are headed “FURTHER INSTRUCTIONS FOR NOAH,” verses 7–10 describe Noah entering the ark, and verses 10–24 read like Noah’s chronological log of the Flood.

The published Expositor calls the event a cleansing of the earth. The waters come from two directions: the fountains of the great deep are broken up and the floodgates of heaven are opened. The same waters that destroy the old world lift the ark and preserve the remnant.

Genesis 7:1 — “Come thou and all thy house into the ark”

“Come thou ... into the ark” and “thee have I seen righteous before me” are strongly marked. Mansfield stresses that Noah entered by faith, leaving property, home and ordinary relationships behind because he believed God. Hebrews 11:7 is the governing reference; Matthew 24:38–39 and Luke 17:26 describe the material absorption of Noah’s contemporaries.

The earlier source note saying Hebrews 11:3 is connected with Noah’s entrance is corrected to Hebrews 11:7. Only eight were saved (1 Peter 3:20), despite many who may have considered themselves righteous in their own eyes.

Genesis 7:2 — “Of every clean beast thou shalt take to thee by sevens”

The distinction between clean and unclean animals is marked as evidence of divine law before Sinai. Mansfield’s published Expositor interprets “seven seven” literally as seven pairs of clean animals, contrasted with one pair of unclean animals.

The uncertain “other version” note is clarified by verse 3 rather than verse 2: some versions explicitly insert “clean” with the birds. More clean animals were required for sacrifice and, after the Flood, for food. Leviticus 11:1–22 and Deuteronomy 14:1–20 are Mansfield’s later-law parallels.

Genesis 7:3 — “to keep seed alive upon the face of all the earth”

The additional sevens of birds and the preservation purpose are marked. Mansfield notes that some versions include the word “clean” for the birds. The theological emphasis is that God’s purpose in the ark is preservation of life, consistent with Ezekiel 33:11.

Genesis 7:4 — “For yet seven days... forty days and forty nights”

The seven days are final preparation and probation before judgment. Forty is marked as the number of trial or probation: Moses on Sinai (Exodus 24:18), the spies in the land (Numbers 13:25), Israel in the wilderness (Numbers 14:33), Elijah’s journey (1 Kings 19:8), Christ’s temptation (Matthew 4:2), and the forty days after his resurrection (Acts 1:3).

Mansfield also distinguishes the verb for “destroy” here: machah, to blot out or wash off, rather than shachath used in Genesis 6:13, 17.

Genesis 7:5 — “Noah did according unto all that the LORD commanded him”

The sentence is marked as faith in action. Mansfield’s source reference “Rev. 19:18” is almost certainly an error in the copied/published material and is not retained as support for Noah’s obedience; Hebrews 11:7 is the clear controlling passage.

Genesis 7:6 — “Noah was six hundred years old”

Noah’s age is marked. Mansfield links six with man, citing Revelation 13:18, and draws analogies with the sixth seal, trumpet and vial as epochs of judgment. He also notes that Methuselah died in the Flood year, following the chronology of Genesis 5.

NOAH ENTERS THE ARK — vv. 7–10

Genesis 7:7 — “Noah went in... into the ark”

Noah, his sons, his wife and his sons’ wives enter before the Flood. Mansfield understands the seven days of verses 4 and 10 as the final period during which all that were to be saved were gathered and preparations completed.

Genesis 7:8–9 — “there went in two and two unto Noah into the ark”

The ordered arrival of beasts, birds and creeping things is attributed to divine power, perhaps through an instinct for preservation impressed upon them. The normal enmity of animal life is set aside in the face of the coming catastrophe.

The obscured typological note can be recovered from Mansfield’s Expositor: “Unto Noah” points forward to the future drawing of the nations to Christ in the Millennium.

Genesis 7:10 — “after seven days... the waters of the flood were upon the earth”

The appointed period expires exactly. Mansfield notes the literal alternatives “on the seventh day” and Rotherham’s “in the seven days.” The chronology is again connected with Methuselah’s death shortly before the Flood.

NOAH’S LOG OF THE FLOOD — vv. 11–24

Genesis 7:11 — “all the fountains of the great deep broken up”

The date is carefully marked: Noah’s six-hundredth year, second month, seventeenth day. Mansfield discusses the civil year beginning in autumn and therefore places the second month around October/November.

Tehom, “the deep,” is used of ocean and subterranean waters. Isaiah 51:10, Psalm 78:15, Psalm 33:7, Jeremiah 5:22 and Job 38:8–11 are used to describe waters held under divine restraint. Mansfield understands the breaking up of the fountains as violent seismic and volcanic upheaval, with raised seabeds, subsiding land and destructive tidal action. Second Peter 3:5–6 supplies the theological parallel: the same divine word that ordered the world could reverse that order in judgment.

The “windows of heaven” are clarified as arubboth/ha-arubboth, floodgates or sluices — literally lattice-openings. The rain from above therefore joins the waters released from below.

Genesis 7:12 — “the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights”

Mansfield distinguishes geshem, violent rain, from matar, the more ordinary word used in verse 4. The continuous downpour is part of a deluge, not an ordinary storm.

Genesis 7:13 — “In the selfsame day entered Noah...”

“In the selfsame day” is marked. Mansfield recovers etsem, “bone” or strength of the day, as suggesting the public, full-light part of the day. Noah’s entrance therefore constituted a visible witness against his generation (Hebrews 11:7).

The seven-day prior entrance is used typologically: the divine purpose is described as settled from the foundation of the world (Hebrews 4:3; Romans 8:29; Ephesians 1:4), and the saints are expected to be withdrawn before the national judgments associated with Christ’s return (Isaiah 26:20–21; 1 Peter 4:17).

Genesis 7:14–15 — “every beast after his kind... wherein is the breath of life”

The ordered categories and “after his kind” are marked. The creatures enter the ark as the only appointed refuge. Mansfield compares this with the necessity of submission to Christ for survival through future divine judgments, using Isaiah 60:12.

Genesis 7:16 — “the LORD shut him in”

“As God had commanded him” and “Yahweh shut him in” are strongly marked. Mansfield makes two points: the closed door protects those inside and excludes those outside; and the final selection is divine rather than left to Noah’s natural sympathy.

Psalm 29:10 is central: “Yahweh sat enthroned at the Deluge.” Mansfield connects this with Zechariah 14:9 and future universal kingship. He also sees covenant responsibility in the closed door: once a person enters the divinely appointed relationship, responsibility cannot simply be abandoned.

Genesis 7:17 — “the waters increased, and bare up the ark”

The paradox is strongly developed: the waters that destroy the wicked lift and preserve the ark. First Peter 3:20 says eight souls were “saved by water.” Mansfield therefore connects the Flood with baptism: death to the old order and emergence into new life (Romans 6:4–6; 2 Corinthians 2:15–16).

Genesis 7:18 — “the waters prevailed... and the ark went upon the face of the waters”

The increasing waters are marked as irresistible judgment, while the ark remains secure upon them. The refuge theme therefore continues.

Genesis 7:19 — “all the high hills... were covered”

“Waters prevailed exceedingly” and the covering of the high hills are strongly marked. Mansfield reads the language as stressing the completeness and irresistibility of the judgment rather than a local storm.

Genesis 7:20 — “Fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail”

“Fifteen cubits” is marked. Mansfield’s margin estimates roughly twenty-two feet using the common cubit. The practical point is that the waters rose sufficiently above submerged terrain for the ark, with its substantial draught, to float free of obstructions. The cramped arithmetic itself is not reconstructed beyond what can be supported.

Genesis 7:21 — “all flesh died that moved upon the earth”

“All flesh died” is strongly marked. The universality of death outside the ark is the point of Mansfield’s annotation.

Genesis 7:22 — “all in whose nostrils was the breath of life... died”

The previously uncertain Hebrew combination can be clarified from the verse itself: nishmath-ruach chayyim, literally the breath of the spirit of life. Mansfield’s shorter margin note had captured the nishamah / ruach terminology but not the full phrase.

“Only in the Ark was there salvation” is Mansfield’s explicit conclusion, with Acts 4:12 placed alongside as the Christ-centred counterpart: salvation is found only in the appointed name/refuge.

Genesis 7:23 — “Noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark”

The exclusiveness of the refuge is heavily marked. Preservation depends on being within the appointed ark before judgment falls.

Genesis 7:24 — “the waters prevailed upon the earth an hundred and fifty days”

The 150 days close the first major stage of the Flood chronology. Mansfield’s careful time-marking throughout the narrative treats the account as ordered history rather than vague legend.

MANSFIELD’S STORM DESCRIPTION

A large handwritten paragraph below the chapter describes the Flood dramatically: heaven and earth convulse; lightning and thunder sound like battle or trumpet calls; the earth heaves and trembles; volcanic and water activity intensify the terror; and the whole scene becomes a spectacle of divine judgment. Because several individual words are indistinct, the passage is preserved as a faithful summary rather than invented as a verbatim transcription.

PRINCIPAL THEMES

Faith leaves the old world. Noah abandons security because he believes God.

Final probation. Seven days remain, followed by forty days and nights of judgment.

Exact obedience. Noah repeatedly does what God commands.

A violent divine cataclysm. Waters break out from below and pour down from above.

Judgment and salvation in the same waters. The Flood destroys the old world but lifts the ark.

The closed door. Yahweh protects those within and excludes those outside.

Only one appointed refuge. Mansfield explicitly writes that only in the ark was salvation.

Chronology matters. Dates, ages, seven days, forty days and 150 days form a precise narrative framework.

EDITORIAL VERIFICATION AND RECOVERED READINGS

Location	Checked / corrected reading	Basis
Gen. 7:1	Hebrews 11:7, not Hebrews 11:3	Noah’s faith and preparation of the ark are in Heb. 11:7.
Gen. 7:2–3	“clean” birds supplied by some versions at v. 3	Clarifies the source note that had left the version/location uncertain.
Gen. 7:4	machah — blot out / wash off	Mansfield’s Expositor distinguishes it from shachath.
Gen. 7:5	Omit Rev. 19:18 as support for obedience	The reference is contextually unrelated; Hebrews 11:7 is the sound support.
Gen. 7:9	“Unto Noah” typifies nations drawn to Christ	Recovered from Mansfield’s published Expositor.
Gen. 7:11	tehom; arubboth/ha-arubboth — floodgates/sluices	Published Mansfield Expositor resolves the lexical details.
Gen. 7:12	geshem — violent rain; matar — ordinary rain	Published Mansfield Expositor.
Gen. 7:13	etsem — bone/strength of the day	Published Mansfield Expositor.
Gen. 7:22	nishmath-ruach chayyim	Clarifies the previously uncertain nishamah / ruach combination.
Gen. 7:22	Acts 4:12	Reference checked: exclusiveness of salvation in the appointed name.

RESIDUAL UNCERTAINTIES

• the exact identity of every textual version Mansfield had in mind beside the clean-bird note, beyond the fact that some versions insert “clean” in verse 3;

• several tiny typological references beside Genesis 7:8–9 beyond the recovered “Unto Noah” interpretation;

• the precise arithmetic in the cramped Genesis 7:20 depth/draught calculation;

• individual words in Mansfield’s dramatic storm paragraph.

The major lexical and reference problems in verses 1, 4, 5, 9, 11, 12, 13 and 22 have been corrected or recovered without altering the authority of the photographed HPB source.