The waters recede (Genesis 8)

The waters steadily recede.

Eventually, the mountaintops emerge from the waters, echoing Day Three of Creation Week (1:9).  Day Three also had the emergence of plants and we will soon see expedited plant growth in the Noah account.

Eventually, the ark comes to rest in the "mountains of Ararat".  This area is currently in Eastern Turkey.

Noah still cannot see any land, so he sends out a raven and then a dove looking for dry land.  They each return, but eventually the dove returns with an olive leaf and afterwards, it does not return at all.  Given the speed of the events, it suggests that there is miraculous plant growth in order to go from no dry land to an olive leaf within the span of a week.  (8: 9-11).  This is a more subtle reminder of Day Three of Creation Week.  (1:11-12).

I recently read the flood myth of the Pima people, a Native American tribe in Arizona.  This account has something similar to the Biblical one in that a woodpecker and a humming bird are dispatched to fly around the world looking for the "earth's navel", where the Pima people live.  It seems the gods are looking for the remnant of humans.

This is about the only similarity with the version about Noah.  Afterwards, one of the goods, Ee-ee-toy creates giant snakes that push away the waters.

Back to Genesis, the earth dries to the point that Noah can release the animals.  He does so and immediately builds an altar and sacrifices animals to God.  (8:20).  Here, we see that Noah conducts animal sacrifices, but still have no evidence that Noah eats the animals he was supposed to protect.  This falls in line with the idea that the seven pair of clean animals (7:3) were intended for sacrifice and not human consumption.

It is also the second recorded instant of animal sacrifice in the Bible.  The first one lead to the death of the sacrificer, Abel.  Here, no one is angered by it.  In both accounts, God is pleased and accepts the offering.  In fact, the smell of the offering is a fragrance to God.