Where did Noah's dove get an olive leaf from?

Question

Noah sends a dove out to see if there was any dry land. But the dove returns without finding any. Then, just seven days later, the dove goes out again and returns with an olive leaf. But how could an olive tree survive the flood? And even if it did, how did an olive tree thrive on top of a mountain which has no plant life?

Do these small discrepencies show that the Bible was written by man rather than any deity?

bRad: so a seed floated upward several thousand feet onto 'shore', germinated, and produced a leaf. This is ludicrous. Seeds do not float. This tree would have needed more than a few weeks to grow into a leaf producing tree.

Answer 1

I think it had reservations at an Olive Garden.

Answer 2

One should not take hearsay and run with it.
Concerning the olive tree, The New Bible Dictionary states:
“If cut down, new shoots spring up from the root, so that as many as five new trunks could thus come into being. Moribund [near dead] olives usually sprout in this manner also.”
It is “as if its vitality were indestructible,” says The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge.
The Greek scientist Theophrastus and the Roman naturalist Pliny the Elder have stated that the olive has grown under water in the Red Sea, retaining its verdure there.
The book The Flood Reconsidered states:
“Noah could deduce from the freshly plucked leaf that the lower valleys were becoming free of water.”
When Noah released the dove a week later, it did not return, indicating a greater abundance of vegetation and potential resting places for the dove.

Answer 3

the text is not suggesting that all plant life continued to flourish under the water. Naturally, when water recedes, the highest point will be out 1st. Why do you think an olive tree cant live on a mountain? if there was a tree there before the flood, it would blossom again after the flood goes. Just like when you have flowers & trees that hybernate in the winter & blossom in the spring (April showers bring May flowers).

After the water goes back, the land dried & the plants began to grow again

Answer 4

Read Genesis chapter 8, and you will see that the waters had abated (verse 11) The dove could fly! so it retrieved the olive leaf not on top of the mountain but on ground level. Records show that great floods and even tornado's etc, trees survive howbeit not without some damage.

Answer 5

No one believes that God scratched out the Bible with a pencil and paper if that's what you mean. The Bible, I guess, is about suspending your disbelief...Hey, I'm an atheist, but I don't think it's right to criticize others for their views. People are entitled to think what they want to think, and if they have the faith enough to do it, that's great for them. Whatever makes people happy, really. Perhaps you should in the future extend an olive branch to those who think differently than you instead of being so combative...

Answer 6

okay Here it is again,the dove retrieved the branch outside of the flooded area, how was this you ask?, again the language of the Old Testament was written for and by the Israelites and was peculier to that way of speaking, the whole world was not flooded but only that area of the Black sea, and in the language of the times that area to them was the whole world.

Answer 7

Im sure a seed washed up on the shore and was planted. then the bird found it and took a leaf.

Answer 8

What was the dove going to do with that olive branch anyway?

Answer 9

In accordance with bible, which is written by man indicating by god. It is difficault to proof now. The bible is only a papers with words which is meaningless to compare now.